The New American Dream

Part One: Before | Chapter Two

"Suspended..." mom mumbled to herself in disbelief when we were in the car on our way home. I decided to ignore it and focus on not bursting out into tears of anger and frustration, not throwing myself out of a moving car. To calm myself I counted the palm trees we passed, it took my mind of the matter at hand.

At home I went straight to my room in the hopes of being alone with my frustration and anger but I wasn't granted that luxury. In the end I hadn't thought I would be, I knew my mother well enough for that.

"Alissa! Enough is enough! Suspended! Your behavior is unacceptable," she monologued.

I groaned and sat myself down on my bed. "Okay, and?"

"We let you do a lot of things, let a lot of things pass. But that's it, you need to learn that your actions have more severe consequences. I'll be taking your painting supplies as punishment," she told me angrily, already moving towards my boxes that contained all my art supplies.

As though I had gotten struck by lightning I jumped up from my bed in shock. "What? No!" I yelled, jumping after her and throwing myself between her and my precious art supplies, "You can't take that, I paid for that with my own money! You can't just take what is my own!"

"Get out of the way Alissa," mom ordered but I kept my ground.

"No," I said as firmly as I could, "This is my stuff. I paid for it. You can't take it."

"Your own money? We gave you that money!"

"Exactly. Money you gave me. Alas, my money."

Mom sighed and turned around now stalking over to my dresser on which my jewelry box was stored. "That however," she said and snatched the box, "we paid for. Just like these," she added and started pulling band shirts and sweaters out of my closet.

With a panicked yell I hurried over. "No, what are you doing? You can't just take that away!" I protested, near tears.

"I can and I will!" she said firmly. "And now give me the necklaces and bracelets you're wearing, you're not going to go to church like that!"

I groaned. "I'm not going to go to church at all!"

I had been raised catholic and I had believed what I had been told. But in the past few years I had come to a conclusion. There was no one that helped me with anything. The only person that could help me was myself and I had been getting increasingly annoyed at my parents for dragging me to church time and time again. They didn't want to hear any of it though.

"Yes you are, now hand them over."

Reluctantly I pulled my jewelry off, it wasn't worth the fight. The only thing I kept on me was the necklace Mark had given me for my last birthday when we still had been dating, a golden coin on a golden chain around my neck. It was my most important piece of jewelry, mainly because I had gotten it from Mark who still meant the world to me, I wasn't going to give it away like that.

"I'm keeping this one, it was a present," I told her as I handed my last necklace over. I didn't add that half the jewelery she was carrying had actually been a present from my friends, I had a bigger chance of keeping this one if I just complied now.

Mom took a closer look at the necklace and then nodded. "Alright, I suppose that one isn't that bad. And now change into something acceptable, go look in Louisa's wardrobe if you have to. We go to church at noon."

Once again I wanted to protest but mom cut me off.

"Do what I tell you or I will also be taking your CD's and your electronics, do you understand me?"