Eight Letters. Three Words.

Eight Letters. Three Words - Ch. 4

“It distracts me from my own. Either way…” Leela by now was full on with the story, which I tuned out; as I let my thoughts travel. I couldn’t understand how this story was probably already known by the entire school population. It would be nice to live in a world where; if you had gone out of your mind at a party, no one talked behind your back in the school halls, a world in which we could all mutually be equals. But again, this was reality.

"Crap I've got to go!" she said, "Mom's coming!" and with no more than those words, the line went dead.

"Bye to you too!" I called to no one.

"Chloe! Why is your bag laying on the floor? I could have tripped my self!" Or so I thought as my mother’s voice travelled up the stairs. Walking slowly, I tried to retrieve the bag without having her see me, but again, no such luck.

"We'll be having dinner in a while and young lady prepare yourself, we have some talking to do,"

I straightened, "By we, are you including Tom in this as well?"

Tom was my stepdad, or at least that's what mom wanted me to call him, only without the "step" part. He was a forty two year old doctor, blond hair with white streaks which he said were from the sun, but I knew his aging had something to do with it. He was a decent man who by an unbelievable reason had had the strength and will to marry my mom.

I remember when I was twelve and not chirpy about the idea of another man coming to live at my house, leaving alone the fact that he would share bed with my mother. I wasn't happy by this, and instead of going into let's-make-the-intruders-life-miserable mode, I decided to just lay back and act as if he weren't really going to be part of the family. From here that I began calling Tom, the lodger, as well the fact that he used up all the butter or left his dirty socks in the bathroom didn't earn him brownie points. But as years passed, I realized that he wasn't such a drag and actually became quite fond of him to the point that I even bought him his own butter sometimes, but liking him or not, he'd always be the lodger.

"No Chloe," exhaled mom heavily, "this time it's just you and me." Her voice was clipped, strained, but again she always sounded like that when talking to me.

I nodded, already turning away and slouched on the sofa tugging my bag towards me and opening my books in case she came by to check up on me.

Dinner, like any other meal at my house, was served on the table, of course this was only when my mom was present otherwise I'd be up in my room with take-away. I had the feeling that I already knew what she wanted to talk about, off course I could tell her any second but didn't feel like ruining her Chloe-what-am-I-going-to-do-with-you? speech.

"Principal Hedger called today,"

I snorted, so much for trusting the gray-haired man, "Really? Why so?"

Her mouth twitched, "Chloe we have been over this millions of times-"

"Don't exaggerate mom," I butted in earning myself later one of her glares, "Not millions, maybe thousands. Besides we both know I won’t change the way I act. I’m a lost cause, you say. So just tell me what Principal Hedger decided I should do for detention and I’ll proceed to clear the table,"

She stared at me, her eyes narrowing, she cleared her voice, "He said you had talked to him after school. So together we have decided what will be best for you, you will help some extra hours afterschool doing some activities."

I remain silent.

"You won’t work alone though, another of the students works doing this activity, and Principal Hedger thought it best if you wouldn’t work alone,” In case you don’t bother showing up, she forgot to add.