Seeking Hope

Seeking Hope: Chapter 7

Chapter 7

It was quite late in the evening, around 10:30 pm to be exact, and my mom walked through the halls upstairs and quietly knocked on my door as she opened it slowly, peeking through. “Yahoo.” She gestures. I look up from the book I was reading and turn around with my spinning rolling chair I got 2 years ago, to match the desk I also received for studying to, “Hey mom.”

Mom walks over and fixes up her dressing gown while she was at it, sitting at the end of my bed. I twirled my chair around to face her properly. “What are you reading their Mike?” She quietly asks, looking tired. “Um, just you know. Nicholas Sparks stuff, no biggy.” I shrugged, placing the bookmark in the current page I was on and closing the book. I heard her quietly giggle. “You really do want to be a writer, huh?” I gave her a small smile. “More then anything.” Mom nods me another small smile and looks around the room, taping her fingers over and over softly on her lap. “So, how was your first day at school?” She starts off. We normally have small conversations with each other just before we both go to sleep.

“It was alright,” I started. “Nothing big happen. The principal there was nice, so were the teachers, and I also made a couple of friends.” A small laugh came out of her. “I can tell, just by the way that girl I met earlier today looked at you. She seems very nice, and quite beautiful as well.” I felt my cheeks boil up again, but I covered it up by coughing and acting all cool. “Pfft, I mean. Yeah. She’s alright, I guess.” Mom rolled her eyes. “Boys these days… well if I were you I hold on to her, she seems like a keeper and might be interested in you if she’s kissing your cheek.” She jokes. This time I rolled my eyes, still having a small smile on my face. “Come on Mike! Lighten up. Besides what ever happen to that girl back in New York anyway, hmm?”

Uh Oh. I hate it when she always brings up memories I try to forget. “Who? I knew a lot of girls in New York.” I covered up. She shifted her shoulders and twisted her lips. “Yeah I know, but what ever happened to that girl you dated? The one who always bought you homemade cookies, call you every day and weekly anniversary gifts-“

I really wasn’t in the mood to hear all of this, especially about her. “Mom.” I interrupted; she stopped looking a little confused. “Let’s just say she’s out of the picture and won’t be in it for a long time.” She stared at me for a few seconds and sighed. “Your right, sorry. Um, I should get going to bed now. Night honey.” Mom said, standing up and reaching down to give me a quick kiss on the cheek. “Night.” Mom walked over to the door and reminded me to shut off my computer soon and go to sleep. As she shuts the door I twirl around and scroll down the page I was currently on. I was on Facebook, and a lot of people added me on there considering I was the ‘new kid’ and all. I then see a facebook post from Therese.

‘Crap day at school. Boring teachers telling me what to do. Cheer practice was alright with our cheer off with each other. Spending time with the family was good… Oh, and a cute boy I met today.’ Me being a total creeper, I read through some of the comments and lots of people were asking who it was. She just left smiley faces and wink emoticons. Maybe she meant me? I shook my head and quietly laughed at loud. “No, that’s stupid.” I said to myself. I scrolled back up to the top of the page, ready to sign out until I saw a new recent post from Chase, the guy I met earlier on today and ended up being good friends with him.  A lot of people liked his status. ‘LOL! The girl from school was working tonight at Jacklyn’s Café! HAHA! She was actually smiling and speaking to customers and Rob threw the water bottle on the floor and made her trip over, causing her to spill someone’s milkshake all over her! BAHAH!!’ I sighed with annoyance. Not at the fact that his friend Rob did that – the other guy who hangs with Chase. Nice, but a total idiot. I was annoyed at the fact that its going to be a lot more harder for me to help her make friends with people doing this things to her.  I scrolled down through the comments, some guy who I don’t know asked if there was a video. Of course, there was. I clicked on the link and it let straight to Youtube, showing the blurred clip of her tripping over the water bottle Rob threw, landing on her butt and spilling a customer’s drink all over her. Poor Claire. The expression on her face was quite mad and annoyed, but the look in her brown-lighted eyes could show what she was truly showing. She was hurt, sad and embarrassed.

 I couldn’t watch it any longer. I paused the video and sat at my desk for a few seconds. Wondering how in the world am I suppose to help her make friends and become sociable when she’s getting laughed at. “This should be fun.” I said with sarcasm, staring at my screen and logging off, then heading straight to bed.

After a dream of nothing but blackness, I shifted lazily to my right, peeking my eyes open to stare at my digital clock, only to see that I was late. If I didn’t pack my bag pack last night for school, I’d be screwed. I immediately rushed outside, trying to get my sneaker into my foot while hopping fast to the car as I see mom-applying lipstick on her.  I open the car door quickly and slam it shut, taking a deep breath filled with stress. Mom looks at her clock on her wrist. “Hmm, 10 minutes. Must be a new record.” She jokes. I lean back into my seat and stare at her in annoyance and tiredness, not even moving my body or head at all. “You know, there is a thing called an alarm clock, you might want to try and use that sometime.” Mom yet jokes again. “Yes but it didn’t go off this morning, now did it?” I hissed, this time I did look at her. All mum did for a few seconds was glance at me and the road back and fourth, I hate mornings. “Look, mom. I’m sorry.” She sighed, still showing that small but yet warming smile. “It’s ok, we all been through that. Anyway, notice anything different?” Mom hints cheerfully. I look to my left and saw what she meant, a uniform. She was all business like. It must have been mom’s first and official workday today. “You look nice, is it for work?” She then let’s out a small laugh and gently nudges me. “You know it son, and in all honesty it’s nerve racking. Lucky I’m dressing to impressing, aye?” She winks. I nodded my head and eyebrows up and down for a second with an awkward smile on my face to show I have no comment to say.

Today started off cold and a grey sky, but as soon as I arrived to school the clouds disappeared, showing the clear blue sky with a little bit of wind. “Alright, behave yourself Mike. And don’t do anything reckless.” I quickly fixed up my hair by brushing my fingers through it and got out of my car. As I was walking down the path to the front of the school, I see Chase and Rob come up to me, ready to give me a bro hug. I heard my mom shout out “You forgot your kiss!” I turned around, still walking backwards, and crossed my arms as an ‘X’ and mouthing her ‘no.’ I turn around and greeted the guys with a smile as we did our bro hug. “What up boys?” I shout to them enthusiastically “Hey man! How’s it going?” Rob starts. “Not too bad, just got up, you guys?” I replied as we lined up against each other, walking to get inside of school before the bell goes off. “Not much man, hey! Do you have any money I can borrow for some lunch?” Chase started. “Nah, sorry man.” We reached up the top of the stairs and we were just about to walk in until I stopped. The guys were talking to each other as they went inside, I shifted my body to the left to see mom still in the car, fixing her hair up and taking a deep breath, holding firmly on the wheel. She really did look nervous. I bit my lip, looking down for a quick second then glancing back up again. I dropped my bag and ran back down the pathway to give her some support, she saw me coming and winded down the window, she looked shock. “Mike, what are you doing? You’re going to be late.” I heard her say to me, I walked the rest of the way and leaned my arms down on the door. “I know, I just wanted to say good luck today. I know you’ll kill it.” She smiled. “Thanks honey… Oh! You didn’t have break feast this morning, didn’t you?” I just shook my head, placing a small smile on my face. She reached over and grabbed her wallet from her handbag and gave me around $20. “Here, have this. I know it’s not a lot but-“ I interrupted her. “Mom, it’s fine. Now go before you’re late, wouldn’t it be funny being late on the first day of the job?” Mom rolled her eyes. “Don’t jinx me!” She laughed; I couldn’t help but let out a laugh to. “Hey Mike!” I hear Chase shout, I turn my head around as soon as mom was staring at him. I see him and Rob standing at the door, looking confused yet impatient. “Let’s go already!” I bite my lip again and looked at her. “Go, you don’t want to be late on your second day now do you?” she jokes.  “No mam. Bye mom, have a good day.” She says. I give her one last smile and rushed back up with the guys. “Dude, what was that all about?” Rob asks. “Erm, I got you lunch money. Chase.” I lied. I gave Chase the $20 that mom gave me for my lunch for his lunch. His eyes popped open and screamed as he snatched it off me, pulling me in for another bro hug. “Man that’s awesome! Thank you! Lunch is on me! Come on fella’s!” Chase belted out on the top of his lungs and heading inside with Rob. I pick up my bag and throw it on one side of my shoulder, watching mom drive down the street for her first day. As I bit my lip one last time before a serious lip burn, I put my other hand in my pocket and went inside, starting my second day just as the bell rung.