Tornado

Part 6

The next day, on a cozy Sunday afternoon, at one o'clock, Ms. Jenson was sitting at the kitchen island tiredly, a cup of coffee in front of her. Cara went into the kitchen to get some food to eat. Kailee bounced into the kitchen minutes later. "Omg, Hazel's dad is so cool," she said, poking her head in the fridge. "One of her acrylic nails broke and her mom doesn't wanna bring her to get it fixed, so her dad offered to bring her instead to get a whole different set of new nails."

Cara. "Today?"

Kailee's smile brightened. "Uh-huh."

Ms. Jenson shook her head. "That just sounds like a waste of money."

Kailee's smile slowly faded. She got more serious as she looked at her mother. "Um, speaking of fathers... Mom, do you have any pictures of Dad anywhere?"

Ms. Jenson frowned. "Um, I don't think so?"

"How did you guys meet again?"

Ms. Jenson sighed. "Kailee, I told you this when you were little."

"I just wanna hear it again."

Ms. Jenson seemed exasperated. "Kailee. I'm tired. And I have to go somewhere soon. Not now."

Kailee let out an annoyed sigh and went back to the fridge. Cara stayed quiet. After a couple seconds of awkward silence, the fridge door closed and Kailee said, "If you can't tell me about Dad, can you at least tell me if I can go to a Halloween party this week?"

Ms. Jenson frowned. "Halloween party?"

Kailee stepped forward. "Um, yeah. Noah snapchatted me, asking if I wanted to attend a Halloween party this week."Cara raised her eyebrow. Her sister used Snapchat?

"Who's this Noah boy?" Ms. Jenson asked.

Kailee scratched behind her ear. "Um, a boy from school. He's friends with Hazel."

"Mm-hm. And this party is when?"

"On Wednesday."

Ms. Jenson's eyes widened. "Wednesday?"

Kailee nodded. "Yeah."

"That's during the week."

"I know. But I'll have time to get homework done after school."

Ms. Jenson shook her head. "No. The answer is no."

"What? It's not like I'll be home super late or anything. I'll be fine to go to school the next morning."

"No Kailee." Ms. Jenson sipped her coffee.

"Why? Would you let me if it was on the weekend?"

"Probably not."

Kailee felt furious. "Why not?"

Ms. Jenson rubbed her forehead. "Kailee. Now is not the time for this." She sounded exhausted. "The answer remains no." Kailee let out an irritated sigh and left the kitchen. Her loud footsteps were heard on the stairs as she went up to her room. Cara quietly proceeded to prepare herself something to eat. *

Later, at around three o'clock, after coming home from running a few errands, Ms. Jenson went into the living room, where Cara was laying on the couch in front of the TV, a paper in her hand. "Hey honey." Ms. Jenson kissed her on the forehead.

"Oh, hey Mom." Cara looked up. "Everything okay?"

Ms. Jenson sighed. "Yeah. I just went to my job to get a new work schedule. I've been really tired and I thought maybe working a few less hours the next two weeks may help a little. Then I drove Trevor a couple places so he could run some errands. His car's in the shop."