A stand-in mom
Chapter 5
I’m alive. I. Am. Alive.
That’s all that goes through my head when we pull into the McLane driveway.
Soon all I can think is: Shoot. How do I get off this thing? And Jake was definitely planning this.
I manage to get off a bit more gracefully than this morning by making sure I wake my legs up with a good slap before pushing myself off. I stumble slightly but correct myself as the rest of the McLane’s pull up in their car that apparently isn’t able to sufficiently seat an extra person – me.
They rush out of the vehicle in a steady stream of teenaged boy and I immediately start heading towards my house before someone can stop me. Namely Jake.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Steady on short stuff! You’re coming back with us.” Wes says as he drags me back towards their front door, “Mom said she wanted to see you after school, so she can explain and everything.”
I sigh as we walk through the double doors and into a cool, tiled hallway and nostalgia immediately overwhelms me as I look around at the familiar setting.
“Mom! Where are you? I’m home!” Wes calls into the quiet house.
“We’re home too!” the rest of the gang pushes through the door, nearly trampling over me.
I follow them towards the kitchen where Claire stands at the stove stirring something in a pot.
Dylan makes a bee line for a bowl of chips Seth has just poured out and begins stuffing his face before anyone can get to it.
Claire’s face breaks out into a smile as she sees me and she comes over to give me a long hug.
I smile to myself; reveling in the mom-like embrace that I haven’t experienced in a while.
I’ve always considered Claire as my second mother. My real mom, Rosaline, passed away from breast cancer which had laid undetected for too long when I was four. Feeling that I needed a motherly figure, my father remarried after that, leaving me stuck with Jenny. She’s nice enough, but we could never get along as more than friends. We aren’t even good friends, just on good enough terms that we don’t rip each other’s hair out.
I miss my mom, a lot. Though I only knew her for four years, she was the best. I wasn’t able to spend a lot of time with her, but from what I can remember, she was truly amazing.
I sometimes lie in bed wishing she was still alive. When Lilly and the twins came around I started to feel more distanced from my so called ‘family’. Jenny just never really took to me or I to her.
Talking about hot guys, shopping, getting ready for school dances and all the other things normal girls do with their moms was left for me to do by myself.
I’ll admit Jenny tried, but I could see she felt pretty lost on what to do with me so I told her she didn’t have to pretend anymore. We never acted like a mother and daughter. I stayed out of her way, and she stayed out of mine – most of the time.
Dad even stepped in and tried to get me to call her mom. But for me, she was Jenny. She could never be mom. As Lily and the twins don’t know I’m their half-sister I’ve had to put up a fake front for a while though. In Lilly’s case, I’m actually her step-sister. Lilly’s father was actually from Jenny’s first marriage which fell out when she discovered that he was sleeping around. Despite not being close to Jenny, my relationship with Lilly, Jae and Grae has always been relatively good, annoying sibling rivalry and all.
I became closer with Claire after mom’s death. She was definitely more motherly than Jenny and she loved me like I was her own daughter. Before I went to Australia she was the mom I never had, taking me out for the day every now and then and pampering me like I was her own. When we moved I really missed her a lot. I called her every now and then to talk about problems or just to say hi, and she acted just like she always had. Like a mom.
*
I lean into Claire’s hug, inhaling her familiar citrusy perfume. I close my eyes, savoring the feeling of a mother’s embrace. “How’s my little girl been?” she says drawing back to look at me.
“Not too bad,” I say quietly.
Claire notices the croakiness of my voice as I hold in my tears and tells the guys to get out of the kitchen. I hear the shuffling of feet as they hurriedly make their way out of the room and I take a deep breath in as I try to stem the tears.
Claire holds me, stroking my hair, as I try to get my emotions under control, “You ok, hon?” She asks gently after a few seconds.
“I missed you a lot.” I mumble into her shoulder.
“I missed you too Sweetpea.” She says soothingly, “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to see you when you got here. I was visiting my sister because she just had a baby. He’s a dear little thing; I know you would’ve loved him.”
I listen to her comforting voice, wishing with all my heart that she had been there that one time I needed a mother most.
She pats my back as I mentally shake away the memories of Matt and that time, “Are we alright now?”
I pull away and nod brushing away stray tears.
She sits me down on a stool next to the kitchen bench and turns the kettle on. She goes back to the cupboards and takes out two mugs, sugar and some tea.
A soft smile comes to my lips at the familiarity of these movements.
“So how was school?” she says as she spoons just the right amount of sugar into my favorite butterfly mug.
“Not too bad I guess…” I reply, failing to mention her son’s behavior and my run-ins with Trent and Lucy. And that mysterious boy I saw in that fight.
I notice the radio is on her favorite station and she moves her feet to the beat of the music.
It starts playing a familiar song. A really familiar song. My feet start tapping and a grin spreads across my face as Claire slowly turns around and looks at me, her blue eyes twinkling. She picks up a silver ladle and tosses a wooden spoon to me. At the same time we raise our ‘microphones’ and belt out the words.
“He rocks in the tree tops all day long
Hoppin' and a-boppin' and singing his song
All the little birdies on Jaybird Street
Love to hear the robin go tweet tweet tweet”
We jump up onto the kitchen bench, singing at the top of our lungs as we start to pull off the most outrageous dance anyone could managed while standing on a piece of marble, only slightly bigger than a surfboard.
“Rockin' robin, tweet tweet tweet
Rockin' robin' tweet tweetly-tweet
Go rockin' robin
'Cause we're really gonna rock tonight!”
“Thank you! Thank you very much! C and H owww-ooooooot!” We howl together once the song finishes, waving to our imaginary audience.
We collapse down onto the bench, laughing as we catch our breaths.
“That,” gasps Claire “Was the best performance of Rockin’ Robin we’ve ever done!”
We high-five each other. “Talk about a work out,” I grin.
We crack up all over again for no entire reason. We lie on our backs looking up at the ceiling, our legs dangling off the bench.
“Wow.” A voice says.
We sit up suddenly to see the whole crowd standing there, their mouths hanging open. John – Claire’s husband – laughs out loud. “Well! It looks like we have a couple of rock stars here!”
We both blush and mumble as we try to get off the bench top as gracefully as possible.
I then catch sight of a video camera… being held by Dylan. Big surprise.
Claire catches sight of it too. “Young man, you better not have filmed that!” she snaps.
“Huh? Oh, uh Nope. Haven’t filmed anything! The battery’s dead anyways.” He hides it behind his back.
Before I can make sure John sweeps me up into a bear hug. “It’s nice to see you again Haileybear! Didn’t see much of you once you came back!” I smile up at my mom’s other child-hood friend.
“Yeah, I was kinda busy unpacking and all.” I reply lamely.
He lets go of me and squeezes my shoulders. “So how was your first day at Greensdale?”
I avoid Wes’ gaze, “It was… eventful, I guess.”
Jake snorts, making my insides twist. I glare in his direction as I stir the steaming mug Claire sets in front of me, turning on my telepathic abilities to tell him to shut the hell up.
Everyone looks questioningly at me. “Don’t worry” I mutter, not really wanting to divulge my weird first day to them, “It’s nothing…”
Jake cracks, “Nothing? You seriously want to call getting hit on by Tr –” Wes quickly covers his mouth in attempt to shut him up. It’s sweet that he’s thinking about me like that, but now everyone’s probably wondering that the hell that’s all about.
“Oh go eat your chips.” I say, making shooing motions at them, causing them to leave.
I turn back to Claire in an attempt to change the subject to something more important, “So I don’t get what’s happening. Wes told me at lunch that I’m staying here with you guys but Dad and Jenny told me that I could stay by myself. What exactly is going on?”
“Well…” Claire bites her lip, “Jenny called before she and your dad left to ask if it’s ok if you stayed with us while they were gone.” Claire sees my anger bubbling up inside me and quickly adds on, “She just wanted to make sure you were safe, she was thinking about your wellbeing.”
“She’s not my real mom.” I seethe, crossing my arms.
John gives me a one-armed hug, patting me on the back, “Oh don’t worry about her. What Claire said is right. You’ll have loads of fun over here, who wants to stay in a big old house by themselves anyway?”
“That’s right!” Claire adds, grabbing my hand. “I know you were probably looking forward to having the house to yourself but we’ll do all sorts of things together. I promise I’ll make it up to you! How about it?”
I smile a little at John and Claire’s hopeful faces as they wait for my answer. “Fine, I won’t make a fuss about it then.” I finally say, as they both grin at me, “But that doesn’t mean I’m not angry with Jenny or Dad, though.”
Claire kisses my forehead, “Well, as long as you’re not too angry about it.”
I roll my eyes. Angry, my ass. I’m furious, but that’s not really a reason to take out my feelings on these two sweet people. “I need to get my clothes and stuff then.” I announce, sipping the last bits of my tea, “I’ll be back in half an hour or something, I guess”
“Ok Sweetpea, just give a holler if you need any help and get one of the boys to go with you to carry some stuff.” Claire says, grabbing my mug from me and handing John his own cup of tea which he looks forlornly at.
“Can’t I have a cup of coffee?” I hear him say as I leave the room.
‘No.” Claire says sternly, ending all conversation on the topic.
Seth stops me as I open the door. “Where’re you going?”
“I’m just grabbing some stuff from the house and bringing it back.” I say, gesturing outside.
“I’ll come help then.” He says, following me outside. I start rooting through my bag looking for my wallet and I pull it out and look through the pockets for my keys. I unlock the door and we step through.
Ugh… still smells in here.
I hook my bag around the bottom banister and turn around.
“Well I–”
“What died in here?” Zach exclaims as he slouches in followed by Chace, Wes and Jake.
I glance over my shoulder, “What are you guys doing here?”
“Came to help out,” Wes says as he walks over to the kitchen doorway and surveys the mess from this morning, “Help out a lot.”
I sigh, “Ok then, if you insist on being in here you might as well clean up the kitchen… The detergent and cleaning stuff are under the sink, the bleach is in the laundry in the cupboard above the washing machine, scrubbers are in the cupboards to the right of the washing machine and – don’t touch the toaster. Just unplug it… and throw it out while you’re at it. I’ll be grabbing my things from my room if you need me.”
I turn around and start heading up the stairs.
At least the twins took that weird glowing thing, I think as I gingerly skirt around the weird stain on the steps.
I open my door to find some otherworldly force has got some serious problems with me and slip on the tomatoes waiting to ambush me. I let out a little scream as I go down, probably not necessary, but completely acceptable due to the situation. The next thing I know I’m staring up into Wes’s face as he asks me if I’m alright. I heave myself up, rubbing the sore spot at the back of my head.
“Whoa.” I hear him mutter as I try to get my bearings, “And I thought the kitchen was bad…” he stands in my doorway surveying the mess. I then realise that Jake and Seth are looking in too.
“ARGH! Get out! Get out!” I yell, absolutely mortified as I shove them out of my room and slam the door in their faces.
How embarrassing.
A blush starts to creep up my neck as I note the tons of underwear lying around like they were thrown out of my drawer, my pre-teen boy band posters still stuck up on my walls and the endless amount of mess I was able to generate since coming back here.
I also note the now smooshed tomatoes on the carpeted floor, red, mushy and looking completely stain-remover proof. That’s never going to come out.