Stepmother

Chapter 3

Okay so a few months into the school year, my father travels to Thailand. I had no idea what the hell he was doing there...at the time. I later found out from my mom that my dad was engaged! "To who?" I asked. "Is that why he went to Thailand? What's going to happen?" I was so confused, being only six years old and all.
I had no idea what was going to change but it was changing alright. Fast. I later found out that my dad had only met this witch once before they got engaged! Does that sound normal to you? Didn't think so.
The wedding was that summer. I can't remember the exact date but it was something in June. Early June. That I remember because my dad all of a sudden pulls me out of school for the last week to meet this mysterious woman before we travel to Minnesota for the wedding. So yeah I only met her about two days before they "tied the knot." This lady had the given name of Vivian. She also had a son named Ron.  Ron was about my age.  Maybe two months younger.  
    At first, Vivian seemed...nice.  Nice enough I guess.  I brought her some soaps as a "welcome to the family" gift.  (Even though I sure as hell do NOT consider her family).  The drive to Minnesota was approximately twelve hours, but me, my sister, and Ron watched movies the whole way there. 
     Before I knew it, it was the day of the wedding.  I was the flower girl.  The reception was held on my aunts farm so it was pretty casual.  I was in a cute little green dress with a butterfly hair clip.  Honestly, the wedding was a blast!  My whole family was there!  Cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.  The strange part however was that nobody from Vivian's side of the family was there which to this day, I have no idea why.  
    So yeah, Vivian seemed cool. Everything was great up until a couple days after the wedding.  We were staying at my grandparents house for a couple weeks just for fun.   I was irked by the fact that Vivian immediately called my grandparents, "mom and dad."  Anyways, that's when my sister and I started to fight with Ron.  In my opinion, that's perfectly normal!  Kids fight.  It's what we do.  On the other hand, my dad and Vivian were not going to let any disagreements slip by them so of course, we were punished.  Funny though, only my sister and I were in trouble.  Not Ron. 
     I had already noticed some changes.  My dad was much stricter than he was before, and Vivian was starting to become less "sweet."  After we left Minnesota, we headed straight for Michigan which I mentioned earlier, I spent every summer there with just my dad and sister for six weeks.  But, with my father being newly married and all, Vivian and Ron had to come with us.  Four words: pain in the ass. 
      She was starting to become a crazy, controlling bitch, and I don't know if my dad was oblivious to it or if he was just too scared to say anything.  Either way, it's shitty that he didn't stick up for us.  In fact, he did the opposite.  He went along with everything she said!  
     We had a cabin in the woods with two bedrooms so us kids had to share one.  That wasn't too bad.   None of us took up much room.  Moving on, one night, my dad was tucking me into bed.  Usually, he would read me a story then kiss me goodnight.  He picked up "Yurtle the Turtle" and read me a few pages.  Then, we said goodnight.  As he was walking out of the room, I realized he had forgotten something.
    "Daddy," I shouted "you forgot to kiss me goodnight!"
     He turned around and said, "Jenny, it's highly inappropriate to kiss your children if they are over the age of five."
     What a load of bullshit.  I'm pretty sure my dad did not just come up with that.  Obviously Vivian had told him that crap. 
      Devastated, I cried myself to sleep.   Things only got worse from there.
      When I woke up that next morning, I was still upset.  However, I decided that I should just let it go, for that's how things were going to be from now on. So after crawling out of bed, I decided I wanted some breakfast so I walked over to our tiny little kitchen. As I sat down, my dad handed me a plate of scrambled eggs.
"Daddy," I said out of the blue, "I love you."
After saying that, my stepmother immediately puts down the plates she was washing, and turns toward me.
"Jenny, do you even know what love is?"
I wasn't bothered by that statement at the time, but looking back on it, I am pissed as hell. Who says that shit to a six year old? I can't believe it. She has got to be the nastiest, most repulsive woman that I have ever met in my entire life. My father married the devil and I was just going to have to deal with it.
About three weeks into our six week vacation, my sister and Ron started to fight a lot. More than usual. It was mostly because my sister was territorial. She wasn't used to having to share my dad with anybody but me. And the fact that Ron called his stepfather, my dad, dad, just made her case of jealousy worse! However, according to Vivian, Elle's bad behavior was caused by a "mental disorder."  Therefore, Elle was given "therapy."  This meant that every time she misbehaved, she was locked inside of our bedroom.