The Cherry Poppers

Chapter One: To Leave

        To leave my family and friends was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Going to California, had not been my idea, but my mother's. She has grown accustomed to getting rid of any problems that may occur, me being one of them. She tells me that she thinks it will be good for me to see the man that abandoned our family when I was five, but I laugh at that lie. The truth is, she just doesn't want to be a mother anymore. In fits of rage, she has told me this, and I honestly don't even care anymore. I am so sick of her, and maybe she shouldn't have had six children if she was just going to get rid of them all.

        So, as I was packing up to leave, my mother gave me some cash.

"It is for the trip there. Call me when you arrive at your father's place."

My father would be picking me up the next day. I had to leave my car here, because my mother refused to let me take it along.

"I am not letting that piece of trash drive something that I paid for with my hard earned money." Her money wasn't earned. She got with guys, and used them, and when they stopped giving her things, because she wouldn't give them anything more... she left. She was practically a whore.

"I don't want anything from you," I told her as I flung the twenty dollars back at her. I would never forgive her for doing this to me. I only had a year left of high school, and I had come to realize that maybe I should have cherished that more. My friends meant to world to me, and I'll be moving at least twelve hours away from them, I'd rarely get to see them. In fact, it was almost time for prom (just a week left to go), I'd already had my date, my dress, everything. But my mother just woke up one day and decided that she wanted to get rid of the last kid that she had left.

   

     I was the oldest of six, after me, came Jaye, who was only eight months younger (he was premature), then Jack, James, Jesse, and Julian. I was the only girl that my mother had, which is why I think she kept me for so long. I think that she hoped it would get better, but as we became older, and just grew to hate us even more than she did in the beginning. I don't know why she seemed to hate us so much, but she did.

   

     As I continued to pack, I got a text from my Aunt Lexa. She wasn't much older than me, so we were more like sisters. Then again, my mother wasn't much older than me either, which could be a possibility of why she hates me so much. I was born when she was only fourteen.

'Are we still on for tonight?' she asked.

'Of course," I replied back immediately.

        There was no way that I would ever miss seeing my brothers. I haven't seen them in months, and now that they came to say goodbye, I would not flake out on them. I was actually very close with all of my brothers, but even more so with Jaye. Growing up with our mother, we had to look out for each other, and that is exactly what Jaye and I did. The other kids hadn't had to live with our mother for as long as we had, she kept them for a few years, then sent them off to go and live with their fathers, or live with my grandparent's. My mother's parents. We all had different father's, besides the two youngest, since they were twins.

-

"I miss you so much Jen." Jaye told me with a sad smile on his face.

        He was living with his girlfriend's parents, who had just moved to Colorado. My brother had dropped out of school, as soon as he reached sixteen.