Hate Is A Strong Word

29.

"Where are we going?" I grab my phone and switch to a different song, because I'm not really into my mom's favorite today Eminem. My mom's driving in the car with no shame listening to the dirtiest rap songs from many rappers.

"Hey." Some eighties American burner starts playing and I look out the window. "To the store."

"At nine in the morning, just when the old people are there." Mom rolls her eyes and we find ourselves in a notoriously familiar city for me. Sebastian is leaving again today, he hasn't been home much. I don't think his dad would let him, but he's still so excited about the medal that he'll let him do anything. Yesterday he sent me a picture of what he's taking. Clothes, skis, hockey stick, skates and alcohol, of course.

There were no poles or skis anywhere in the photo, mainly he had five bottles of some alcohol. As if Canada wasn't enough. Classic high school ski training. Also, I don't know if he expects there to be an ice rink somewhere, he's also pulling skates and a hockey stick. I'm so lucky that they're about to head to the mountains now and I'll be brawling amongst the pensioners in Lidl.

But that's not the way to the store. If we were going shopping, Mum would turn the other way, but we're going somewhere else. I don't know what she's doing or why she's lying to me, but I don't like it. But this road also leads to her work, maybe she has some papers there that she needs to take home and finish.

If she was going to get her papers, though, we wouldn't be stopping outside the school a short distance from the bus pulling up. No! No! No! No! She's bullshitting me! Isn't my mom serious?! I'm not going skiing. No way. Great, so she signed me up for skiing trip with my class without me knowing and told me we were going shopping.

Relax, Justine, relax. It's never what it looks like. Maybe we're just going to say goodbye to the teachers and Sebastian, then head back home and continue sleeping. I'm a very smart girl, that's a simple fact, but not noticing that the back seats are thrown out and there's a blanket draped over something is bad enough.

"Mom." I say in dismay and look at my smiling mom with an even more horrified expression. I get hit with a shock. This has all been done behind my back and I strongly suspect that someone else is involved and I may know who. That's why Mom was at school to see Hamilton. Yeah, she doesn't go to school otherwise.

"Let's go. Bastian's waiting for you." Even him? So they've got Mom and Hamilton conspiring against me, and as a bonus, Sebastian's going along. If I don't get out of here, he can wait on the slope. He can also be happy that I'm not so vindictive and throw him off the chairlift, for example.

"Mom, don't do this to me."

"In a week, you'll be glad you went." I highly doubt that, because I am who I am. Great, after this, I'm 100% going to be crazy.

"More like no." Mom gets out of the car, slams the door, and if Dad saw that, he'd be in a shitty mood because he hates it when anyone slams a door, whether it's the house door or the car door. He opens the piece of sheet metal that separates me and her. He grabs my hands and pulls me out of the car. In black sweatpants, a sweatshirt that says, I love hockey players, with a heart instead of love. And a jacket, of course.

I stand on the pavement outside the school, annoyed. There's no snow here, so we have to hope there's snow somewhere where we'll be skiing for a week. Sebastian is standing next to the bus, followed by Adam and his other hockey and non-hockey buddies. There might be five of them, including Sebastian, who is wearing a jacket with the Czech hockey logo on it. I may seem ungrateful, but my parents could have saved a few thousand.

Two metres away Hamilton is standing with a speaker in his hand and Victor is standing nearby, holding a mobile phone. What the fuck is going on here!? By the way, Sebastian is holding a hockey stick and the guys behind him are holding sticks. I'm living under the assumption that this whole shenanigans is just a dream, because they're standing like they're about to put on the biggest performance of their lives, and it doesn't seem realistic that I should just go.