The Suite Adult Life

July (11.2)

Bailey sat out on the little balcony of her apartment. The humidity was making her shirt cling to her with sweat. She could hear poppers going off around her, even though the holiday weekend had come and passed, the celebrations hadn't yet left the city. Evening was falling slowly as the sounds of traffic made their way up to her. She was a little too high to not feel the full effect of the heat but not high enough for the wind of the upper atmosphere. She sipped on a lemon shandy hoping it would help her beat the heat and dull her senses a little. A night like this reminded her of home, sitting in the hay of barnloft and nicking her father's beers. Moose had given her her first kiss in that hayloft. Her sisters and her would take turns swinging on the rope that their father had installed from the center beam for them to play on.

She was seven when her little sister, Hailee, had her accident. She let go of the rope too soon and broke her arm. This was before Ellasyn was before so she was now Hailee was considered

'the baby'. Bailey doesn't remember being treated as the baby because Zoey had been born two years later. She remembers being the one to rush to Hailee's side, directing her sisters to go get their father. Somehow she was blamed for the accident even though she wasn't near her sister when it happened. They never got in trouble for the beer drinking.

When Ellasyn was born, her three oldest sisters had moved out and the next oldest three were in high school. That left Bailey to take care of Hailee and Zoey after school. Her parents had been too busy with the farm to take care of the children and instead focused their attention on Ellasyn. It was Bailey's job to make sure they were fed and did their homework; that they got a bath, and got ready for bed before dinner.

The worst part was that she was expected to keep her grades up and do all of her chores. If one of her younger sister's didn't do theirs she got in trouble for it. Because 'she was supposed to be watching them'. No one knew the word 'Parentification' at that time. She had always been taught that you help family because family will help you. But no one seemed to help Bailey. She was isolated by age once she hit middle school.

She still did everything she could to be top of her class hoping that just once her accomplishments would be recognized. They never were. The only thing that mattered was making sure the family farm kept running no matter what. Until she almost failed gym. Gym of all things! It wasn't for lack of performance. It was because she had skipped so many times so she could catch a nap from all of the tireless nights of raising her sisters. Her parents had given her an earful about how disappointed they were in her. They tried to argue about 'all' they did for her but when she argued back, contradicting them, she was punished severely with her father's belt. That was the night she planned on getting out.

Every free moment she had, Bailey escaped into internet forums and chat rooms. It started as a way for her to find just a moment of peace. But she found a community, like minded kids her age who were going through similar problems. That was how she discovered Seven Seas High School. At first she tried applying for an accelerated program and was denied. The next year she was accepted but her scholarship application had also been denied so she had to refuse the admission. Bailey felt like she was never going to escape. Zoey had broken something of hers, her parents refused to punish her, and Bailey feared she wouldn't be able to take one more slight. She was desperate. Being the resourceful girl she was, she looked for someone, anyone, to talk to. That was how she began emailing a man named Marion Mosby who said that he would defer her admission for a year so she could earn the scholarship she needed for her Sophomore year. Bailey literally wept in relief when the assistance came through.

Though when she told her parents her plan and showed that everything had been taken care of, even how she had saved for three years for her own plane ticket they told her she couldn't go. They needed her there. They needed her to take care of her little sisters. She told him she refused to do their job anymore. For the first time in her young life she stuck to her guns and stood her ground. They grounded her severely when she refused to lift a finger to help her spoiled younger sisters. What she didn't know was that they contacted the floating school and told them she wasn't going. Mosby was the one to break the news to her. She begged him not to unenroll her but his hands were tied. He subtly reminded her that the scholarship wasn't cancelled as they were separate entities.