Angel

Chapter 3

The sun's blinding light awoke me from my slumber. I grabbed my phone from my night stand. 10 am. I seriously need to get some curtains.

There was a note from my mom on the night stand. Apparently she's at a meeting for her new job. Under the note was a pamphlet for a summer art class. That grabbed my attention.

The pamphlet said that it was going to be held just down the road from the Walmart I had visited just last night. It started this coming Saturday. Two days until then. It cost $100. I guess my mom was fine with that considering she's the one that gave me the pamphlet. This would keep me busy for the summer. Maybe this could be my new escape. Let's not get our hopes up.

Since Mom is at the meeting, it looks like I'll be babysitting my brothers for a while. Hopefully they'll be asleep a majority of the time she's gone. I got up from my bed and realized I had slept in my clothes from yesterday. Black skinny jeans and a white, over-sized, long-sleeved shirt. I changed into a pair of comfortable shorts and kept the shirt on.

I headed downstairs to the kitchen. My stomach was growling like crazy. I remembered I hadn't eaten dinner the night before. No wonder I was starving. I opened the fridge. Nothing looked good. Next was the freezer. Even though we didn't have much, there were some Great Value butter-milked pancakes in there. Good enough. I grabbed the box and took out three pancakes. Just as I was putting them in the microwave to quickly cook, my brothers appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

They stood there, dressed as if they were ready to start the day. "Are you hungry?" I asked them, trying to be a reasonable sister. "No. We actually ate dinner last night, unlike you," Matt said. What was his problem? "No need to be snappy. I was just asking." They ignored me completely, as they started to run towards the front door. "We are going outside to play," Charlie told me matter-a-factly. With that, they opened the door and walked out, slamming the door behind them.

I had no clue what to do after I ate breakfast. I wasn't much of a TV person. I couldn't leave the house because of my brothers. And I was not about to go "play" with them. I went back up to my room and decided to blare some music and try to draw something interesting.

***

About three hours later, my mom barged into my room, angry as hell. "What do you think you're doing?" she screamed while turning my music off. I just stared at her with a confused look on my face. Finally I spoke up. "I'm drawing. Is that a problem?" "Vanessa, when I am not here your brothers are your responsibility. They were outside by themselves when I got home! That's not acceptable. Just forget it. Did you look at the pamphlet I gave you?"

I didn't respond for a minute. She was mad. Then two seconds later she wasn't. I just ignored it. "Yes. I saw it. Can I enroll?" I finally said. "If you apologize for your behavior today you can," she said. Apologize? I had nothing to apologize for! My brothers are nine years old. They were just playing. Nothing would've gone wrong. Anger swelled inside of me, but I pushed it away. I'll go along with it if it means I can do the class. "I'm sorry for my actions, Mom." She handed me the money. "Get yourself looking decent, then go register yourself," she said. She turned away, went through the door, then slammed it behind her.