My Teacher's Daughter

Chapter 2: Meet Mitchie

I stared intensely at the school gate, waiting for my mom to come around the corner to rescue me with my spare car keys which were kept for emergencies like these. Not that this particular situation was really considered an emergency anymore; it was more like a weekly occurrence.

As I heard the sound of my mom's car turning the corner into the school parking lot I quickly threw my near-finished cigarette on the floor and put it out with my stiletto heel. Quickly, I grabbed the bottle of perfume from the bottom of my bag and sprayed it over my clothes and fingers several times until she got to around five meters away from me. If she knew I smoked she'd go mad, in fact, if she knew half of the things about me that I hid from her she'd go mad and probably disown me (slight exaggeration.)

She stopped the car next to me and opened the passenger door for me to climb in which confused me. I looked at her questioningly as I climbed in gradually, dreading her smelling the smoke on me as perfume wouldn't hide the smell for the entirety of the fifteen minute drive. "You need to learn not to lock your keys in the car and you won't learn if I keep bringing you the spare keys so I'll drive you home now and then in the morning you will get up and leave early to teach yourself a lesson about locking your keys in." She told me with a soft smile which turned to a frown soon after she'd finished talking. "Give me your hand." She instructed firmly. I knew she'd smelt the cigarette smoke on me; she'd never smoked on in her life so she'd always had a nose like a bloodhound for it.

I slowly put my innocent, smokeless left hand in her awaiting palm. She brought it up to her nose and sniffed, getting a confused look on her face then realising why she probably couldn't smell anything. "And the other one." I shakily placed my right hand into hers and silently prayed that the perfume had worked. The look of pure disgust and nausea crossing her face faster than the speed of light made it obvious that the perfume had not worked. She dropped my hand as quickly as she could and opened the window on the drivers' side. "I'm so disappointed in you right now, Mitchie." She whispered as she began to pull out of the school parking lot. Shit. Lie, Mitchie, lie.

"Mom... It wasn't me, I swear, some girl asked me to hold it for her and I wanted to make friends so I did!" I exclaimed, feigning innocence as well as I possibly could. After three years of being badass Mitchie I had perfected the arts of lying to my mother. She stopped at a red light and turned to face me.

"Breathe on me."

"What?" I almost yelled at her whilst we waited for the excruciatingly slow lights to change so I could buy myself some more time.

My mom sighed as she looked back at the lights quickly to make sure they hadn't changed yet then turned her attention back to me. "If you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to worry about. Do it now." She instructed strictly. I hated when she was like this, usually I could prove her wrong by destroying all evidence of anything bad but this time it was impossible. I groaned quietly then blew gently on her face. She scrunched her face up and I swear she got tears in her eyes. "I can't even look at you right now."

We continued to drive down the road, I hadn't even noticed the traffic lights changing but apparently they did. "Mom, please..." I trailed off, my voice almost breaking. I was nearly crying because of the purely heartbroken look on her face.

"I suggest you don't speak. We'll talk later when you don't smell like an ashtray anymore." She hissed at me bitterly through gritted teeth. She was angry, I could tell because the vein in her neck was sticking out slightly which only ever happened when she was angry or frustrated, both a genuine rarity.

The rest of the ride home was an unnaturally awkward silence. Seeing my mom so disappointed in me really broke my heart.

She let us in to the house wordlessly and walked straight in to the kitchen, grabbing my spare car keys from the 'messy drawer', I put my hands out expecting her to toss them to me but she didn't, she just pocketed them earning a 'what the hell' look from me.