Pucking Fantastic

Chapter 3: Things To Be Different

Song is for the start of the chapter!

"El, wake up!" mom said as she tapped on my bedroom door.

I shot up in bed in a cold sweat as I shivered, looking around my room in a daze. I looked at the time on my phone, I noticed I didn't set my alarm and had only minutes to get ready. I jumped out of bed and put on my black spandex skating pants without wasting a minute.

"El, are you ok?" mom said, peeking into my room.

I looked at her curly dark blonde bed head, then nodded. "I forgot to set my alarm," I explained as I put on my nylon socks.

She eyed me for a moment as she pulled out her phone. "You never do that."

"I know, don't remind me," I said, getting irritated.

"Jaimie is taking you to the rink today and he's downstairs waiting."

I nodded as I grabbed my skate bag. "Do you know when dad is getting home from his trip to China?" I looked at my reflection in the mirror, noticing the slight bags under my eyes and black smears of mascara that I forgot to take off the night before. It looked like I slept little last night, but I knew I slept about ten hours.

I pulled my dark blonde hair into a ponytail and smiled as Mom sent another text, probably to dad since she never liked my dad taking long work trips. But by now we were all used to it because it was his calling in life to work as an oil supplier CIO. "Next week. I have to showing for a house later on today so dinner is on your own."

I couldn't hold the disappointment from my face. Today was our normal family dinner day and with our busy schedules, we often only ate together once or twice a week. "Ok."

Mom looked up at me from her phone and smiled slightly, knowing it disappointed me. Nothing escaped her. She knew everything and heard everything. She was the best detective, that was for sure. "I'll bring a dessert home we can eat together."

I smiled, happy with some compromise. "Deal."

She cupped her hand on my cheek and smiled. "You have been staying up too late," she said with slight concern.

I shrugged, knowing it was the opposite since I fell asleep last night at about 8 pm. "I got to do what I have to in order to maintain that 4.0."

"I think sometimes, you work too hard."

I shook my head at her with a small chuckle. "Have you looked around yourself? This entire family works too hard. It's like it is hard-wired into our genes."

She nodded with a slight frown. "It's our curse."

"But that curse has gotten us here," I said as I walked down the grand wooden staircase of our house.

My parents worked so hard to get where they are today. Ever since my mother met my father, a newly immigrated Brazilian, they fought, climbed, and risked everything to get here and for that I was grateful to them.

"Sometimes I think we slave away too much. And for what? A nice house that we often aren't home in? Or a family that we don't see enough of?"

I let her words sink into my mind as I remained silent. She had a point. She always did.

She sighed as Jaimie walked up to us, bringing our moment of honesty crashing halt. Mom and I had a bond that she didn't have with her sons. It was like she and I were on the same wavelength. We just got each other on a level that no one else could and she would tell me things she never would tell my brothers. "Ok, well, you need to get going," mom said to us.