A Land of Despair

She's not Jealous.

Now in my room after at being at school, I made sure to unpack my bag that Mike had Carried for me into the house. Everything had a place to be and so I set out to organize my room. Once I was done, I felt extremely drained and went to my bed.

As I lay in it, my thoughts kept drifting to him.

Adam.

Originally just my brother's friend. Now, he was way more than that to me. He was the strongest person I knew.
That drew me to him always, I wanted to be strong as well, I wanted him to see that I could be strong.

I wanted him to see me.

There was a light tapping on my door, I knew it was Mike so I didn't bother responding because he would come in anyway.
As if on que, he poked his head into the room and looked at me snuggled in my fleece, I looked back at him expectantly. "Let's go, it's time for dinner." He finally spoke, hesitating before adding, "Mum and Dad are waiting for us." Then he was gone.

I sighed heavily. Here we go again came a thought that had me rushing to the mirror to make sure I looked neat and presentable.

The six people dining table was set as perfectly as always, with all the cutlery in place and napkins ready for use for the four of us.
Everyone was already in there usual seats, dad at the head of the table, mum at his right and Mike at his left. An empty seat left for me next to Mike.

They all turned to me as I walked into the room, and I could practically feel the disdain that was coming from them.

"It's rude to have people waiting on you." Mum spoke.

We hadn't seen each other in months and those were the first words she saw fit to say to me. Non of them were home when we arrived and I really had no idea when they had gotten home.

"Sorry mum." I offered, trying to be as meek as possible.
She gestured to everyone else at the table.
"Sorry everyone." I tried again.

"Sit down so we can thank the controllers for this food." Dad spoke sternly, and I did so immediately.

Soon after, we began our meal, dad was served first, then mum took her food followed by Mike. As I was getting my food, I was happy to finally be having a home cooked meal as I never ate much at school, Edwina our maid was the best cook.

Mum cleared her throat, I payed no mind and kept dishing myself more food. It was delicious and I was ready to fill up on it.

"I see why you came out 3rd in your competition, the way you eat is most unladylike."
Mum's words stopped me in my tracks. I wasn't sure whether to continue eating or stop all together.

Mike came to the rescue as always, adding his two cents, "she came out first in the relay race, so maybe she deserves a treat."

"If she could win without the help of others maybe then we can call it an actual win." Dad spoke up.

My appetite was slowly dissipating, though not entirely because I had not eaten all day. But I risked more ridicule if I were to continue. This was only minutes into our first meeting and I had already been on a roller coaster of emotions with these people.

Mike tapped his glass of juice with his fork as if to get everyone's attention at a large gathering. "Come on guys, let's just eat." He said.

"Of course son." Dad smiled at Mike, "Congratulations on getting a perfect score in your last exams by the way." He exclaimed happily.

Mums smile grew as she joined the conversation, " yes dear, I can imagine you were top of your class."

"He wasn't, Adam was." I spat.

The table was silent, just as I had hoped. The conversation needed to end and I wished we could just eat in silence, that was always nicer for me.

"Jealousy is not very becoming  of you Tina, it's very cheap." Mum said.

"She's not jealous, it's true. Adam came out first. Besides, why would she be jealous when she's the talented one here. She plays sports and stuff."

We were silent once more and if I had a choice, I would have left the table in fact I would not even have come.

"Sports in this time and age don't take anyone anywhere. The controllers have brought with them different types of technology, so many good gifts for us to use and you need to be smart if you want to have a good life. All sports will get you is a medal. Once you can't perform anymore then you're done. I will not have a has been daughter just because she won't use her head. I want you to apply yourself to your academics!" Dad thundered, his voice echoing across the room.

"I don't care what you want." I said coldly, tossing my spoon onto my half eaten plate causing it to land with some clinking. I roughly pushed my chair back and decided that it was time for bed.

Before I could get to the door I felt a hand grab me by the shoulder, the nails dug into my skin so I knew it was mum. She spun me around so quickly and slapped me across the face. My cheek stung from the impact, I bit on my lower lip to stop myself from crying.

"You will not be sassy and rude! Do you understand me Augustina? Sit back down and wait till you are excused." She seethed.
I did as I was told, only wanting for the evening to be over.

There was no more conversation after that. We all quietly ate our dinner. I made sure to finish all the food on my plate as an act of defiance against mum, if I was going to gain weight then so be it.

Immediately we were exuded I walked out of the kitchen door to the back yard, where I had planted my branch bud.
It was going to grow into a tree. Just like the one at school.

The wind blew roughly and the little branch in the ground swayed and the coolness it brought felt soothing to my now tender cheek as I sat down on the grass.

"I have an idea of why you choose this particular branch, tell me if I'm right." Mike said as he sat down next to me.

"What's your idea?" I asked.

"This is a branch from the tree we sat under, the three of us, when we decided to be part of the team that's going to set humanity free. The two of you were the most happy I've ever seen you that day."

I laughed humourlesly at the thought, it was really a fond memory I had of us. "That's true, the tree became our tree that day, and I wanted a part of it to grow here too."

Mike smiled at me and rubbed my shoulders in a comforting way. I smiled at him and he took the chance to ruffle my hair into a mess and run away into the house.
The moment was bittersweet for me, I was glad to have him but also felt sad that my twin brother was my closest friend.