Hot water is my native element: I was in it as a baby, and I have never seemed to get out of it ever since.
-Edith Sitwell
(POV: Zoe)
"But Mom!" I argue, face red with anger.
"No Zoe, your not weaseling out of this. We are leaving and that's final." She shouted back, tears falling down her cheeks.
God, Mom always was an emotionally one. She was always worrying about my grades, my behavior, and me in general. I mean, she was probably right to. I was pretty bad. I was 'special', and very closed off, very independent, and very unafraid to be myself (Well, the me I wanted to show anyways), which did get me in trouble quite a bit. I didn't play well with others which made classes with group projects difficult.
I was also very smart, like, gifted.
"She's so smart." My councilors would say. "It's to bad her actions and attitude don't reflect that."
It's true. I don't see the point in acting all nice. It wasn't me. I was rude, always calling others out on there wrongs. Even teachers. I almost got expelled once because I pissed off a teacher so much, kept calling him out on all of his incorrect knowledge of the Boston Tea Party and the Tea Act.
I couldn't help it, I couldn't have him shoving these "facts" down the throats of these goldfish. Then I'd have to live in a world where they had the wrong ideas, being stupider than they already were.
I even asked him about how his wife was, you know the one who was so blatantly cheating on him, just to get him rilled up. It was so obvious. He was more depressed and irritable than usual, his attempt at dressing was more of a horrific sight than usual.
Socks mismatching, missed buttons, tie all missed tied, and his eyes were red and puffy. Not to mention his breath was laced heavily with that of vodka and whisky, coupled with that of cigarettes; also, constantly taking head relief pills and was light sensitive, I'm sure even the slowest of my classmates could see he was obviously hungover.
He was obviously crying about it, more than usual, so she finally asked for a divorce. He then proceeded to send me to the office, where the secretary greeted me in with her usual plastic grin and falsely perky words.
"He's ready for you. You know the door."
My mother was there, and so was the principal. We discussed it for a while, and I was sent home for the day, that's it.
My mother cried. I just rolled my eyes, putting in my headphones. My father wasn't around after dying over seas, leaving my mother an emotional widow, and me alone to try to keep her together, always assuring her that she was not failing as a mother, that I was just an awful person.
"Fine." I shout, pulling at the roots of my blood red hair, something I had done to myself a while ago. I was actually really proud of how well I had done.
"I'll go. But you can't make me join anything, or try to get me friends like you've done before."
"I-"
"No Mom, you need to promise me, or I'll do something to make us stay." I threaten.
She sighed, wiping her eyes. "Yes, fine. Just, try to behave? I'm giving us the freshest start I can." She said shakily.
I sigh, nodding. "Yes. Fine."
"Good. Now, go start packing. We leave in the morning. I need you all ready by midnight." She sniffled.
I roll my eyes, trudging upstairs, dragging my feet. I walk up to my room, slamming the door behind me, and collapsing on the bed, groaning into my sheets.
I lay motionless for a while, thinking, something I did a lot. Deep thoughts. Things you wouldn't expect someone who looks and acts how I do to think about. Like world problems, classic literature, math, writing, and science. Mostly science and writing, two of my strong suits. Things I enjoy when I'm alone, and the only classes I acted half decent in. Not correcting the teacher, or constantly getting kicked out of.
I grab my phone, carefully plugging in my headphones, and putting on my intercut playlist. A generous mix of rock music like Guns and Roses, ACDC, Aerosmith, Queen, Elvis, classics. Then, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, classics. And finally, The Beatles. How can I not love them? They were perfect!
I sighed, looking about my room at all of my stuff. A closet with clothes, dark colors mostly, with tank tops, shorts, and warm clothing. New England was just that, dark and bitterly cold, except for our heat wave of a summer.
I had moved a few times, all over New England. From Connecticut, to Rhode Island, to New York, to Massachusetts, then back to good old Connecticut.
I stumbling over to my multiple bookshelves, piled high with a large assortment of books such as Gone With The Wind, Grapes Of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Harry Potter Books, The Lord of the Rings collection, and so many more.
I look in the other corner of the room, finding a pile of boxed already labeled in thick black sharpie, the words scrawled on in big, sloppy handwriting. Clearly my mothers.
I filled the boxes carefully, trying to hide some cigarettes at the bottom of one of them, but she caught me and gave me another long lecture at how bad they were for me. To which she confiscated them, and left. I huffed, and finished packing, not bothering to eat dinner, which wasn't unusual. I was thinking. I didn't eat while I was thinking, stopped my focus.
I finally just changed into some clothes to go on the plane on, a pair of dark, comfortable, skinny jeans, coal black converse, and a cloud grey t-shirt under an oversized Rhode Island sweatshirt I had grown fond of and wore at 'home'.
I sat on 'my' bed and grabbed my comfort book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. I had loved it since I was little. I sat, reading contently through the night, not sleeping a wink, like usual.
Morning came quickly and I had reread the book at least ten times.
"Zoe, sweetheart, grab your bags. Our flight leaves in a few hours, and we need to leave soon though." My mother said, pushing the door open, not surprised to find me wide awake.
I nod silently, putting the next four in my "on plane" bag and tie up my blood red locks into a messy bun, putting on my glasses, slipping my contacts case in my pocket just in case.
We finally got out the door. Driving to the airport, a new chapter in my life was about to begin. A fresh start. Little did I know the adventure that awaited me just across the pond.
!Authors Note!
Hey all! I hope you enjoyed this! I've got a good idea, and I hope you like it. I keep daydreaming and getting ideas during class so I've got a whole supply at the ready 😂 Now, I've got chapter three or four (depending how chapter two goes) done already and I love it! I got the idea during science today and I actually laughed while reviewing Newtons 1-3 law 😁 Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I do writing this!!!
Thanks for reading! Expect chapter two either late tonight, or tomorrow depending on how much I can get done tonight.
-Z
