Melody 5 - Rising Stars

5 (v) - Jadine

--- JADINE ---

Jadine had expected it to be bad when she walked through her mum’s door – but not this bad!

The kitchen looked like a bomb had hit it.  There was washing up piled high in the sink and on the worktops.  Jadine couldn’t even see the table as it was covered in so much junk, laundry and baby stuff.  And one of the high-chairs was lying on its side on the floor.

Jadine could hear crying from the lounge, but she couldn’t tell whether it was Bobby or Theo.  She quickly dumped her bag in the kitchen and headed to the noise.

If it was possible, the lounge was even more of a state and in the middle of all the mess was her mum Lorraine, bent over Theo on the floor, changing his nappy.

“Mum?  Why are you doing that?” asked Jadine.  “Where’s Alesha?”

“Take one guess,” replied Lorraine sternly as she picked up Theo and stood up.

“Give him to me,” said Jadine as she took Theo into her arms and gave him a cuddle.  She hadn’t realised just how much she’d missed her baby nephews until now.  Instantly Theo calmed down a little and started to play with her hair.

“When’s Alesha back?”

Lorraine shrugged.  “She been round at Sean’s since Wednesday.  I’ve rung her but…”

“How have you managed to look after the boys and go to work?” asked Jadine, as she sat next to her mum.

“I haven’t.  I’ve called in sick for the past three days.”

“Mum, it’s not good enough.  These are Alesha’s kids.  She needs to be here.”

“Jadine, even when she is here, she’s worse than useless.  I end up doing it all anyway.”

“What are you going to do about work?”

“When Alesha comes back I’m going to have a proper chat with her.  Tell to clean up her act or…”

“Or what…?” asked Jadine.

“Or the boys will have go into care.”

“No way, mum!” said Jadine, instinctively pulling Theo closer.

“I can’t keep missing work, Jadine.  If I don’t earn enough to pay the rent, then we’ll get kicked out.”

Jadine was beyond furious.  How could her selfish sister prefer to do drugs with her loser-boyfriend than help out her mum and look after her own kids?

“I’m going to Sean’s,” said Jadine, as she popped Theo on the sofa and headed to the door.

“No, love, I don’t want you involved,” said Lorraine, following her.

“But mum, I’ve only been gone a week and look at the state of everything.”

“Look, you’ve done enough for me and Alesha,” snapped Lorraine.  “I didn’t realise how much you did until you’d gone,” she added ruefully.  “Let me sort it out.  You’ve got your own life to concentrate on.  Now, I want to hear all about your first week.  What have you been up to?”

Every urge in Jadine’s body was yelling at her to run straight round to Sean’s place.  She wanted to drag Alesha back here – kicking and screaming if she had to.  But then she’d be back where she’d always been – sorting out her sister’s life, instead of her own.  For the first time in ages, her mum seemed genuinely interested in Jadine’s life, so she backed down.

“Fine,” she sighed.  “But I am going help you tidy up.”

“I should think so, young lady,” smiled Lorraine.  “Just because you’re a fancy pop star doesn’t mean you can’t do the dishes.”