The Adventure of Journal Gal and The Heartwreckers

Chapter Two:

Chapter Two

Jade's P.O.V.

After the incident at school, I take my short cut down a few alley ways to my little rundown home. I live in the Windy City with my mother and little sister, in a small two bedroom apartment. It is far from luxurious, but it's all I can afford on my two jobs.

You heard me right, all I can afford. I am the only one who provides for the family. I have to act like the grownup in the house because my mom is too hooked on drugs to care about my sister and I. I somehow make it work, but I don't know how much longer I can last. My mom is really messed up, but that does not give her the excuse to ignore my sister and I or to leave us alone for days on end, doing who knows what. I may be 15, but I am still too young for this sh*t to happen to me. The only reason I go to that rich school is because of the scholarship I got last spring when I asked the scout that came to our rundown middle school what I can do to get in. And when I say asked, I mean begged. I was one of five kids to get a full ride scholarship, out of the whole state, for the rest of high school, and let me say Ridgeway Music Academy is expensive.

When I turn down the final alley, I find myself looking at a rundown, three story apartment building that has the yellowing paint chipping off the cinderblocks and a once glass door with wood over the windows. As I walk up to the building, I pass a bum who is passed out drunk and two dogs with chains around their neck trying to fight each other. I just keep my head down and tighten my old coat around me as a gust of chilly wind blows through the alley. Chicago isn't called the windy city for nothing.

When I finally reach the door and yank it open, I feel a blast of heat that attacks my numb face and hands. Its late fall and the weather has been getting colder and colder by the day. Halloween has passed and thanksgiving is coming up in a few weeks, which is good news for me. Whenever the holiday season comes around, I go to one of the malls and play some Christmas songs for tips. Last year I made $730 in a week and was able to get May, my sister a, few gifts, it was the best Christmas she has had and I hope I can do better this year. Last year I only had one job at a crap fast food place, but this year I have two jobs, one at a record store and another at a diner down the street from where I live. Both pay a little over minimum wage so I am able to pay the bills, get food, and save up for a rainy day.

I finally reach my apartment and open the door and step inside. I hear a squeal and a little blond girl running up to me and wrapping her tiny arms around my legs.

"Sissy, yowr home," I laugh a little at my sister and pick her up, putting her on my hip.

"Yes I'm home, and look at what I have," I put my backpack down and grab a notebook and some colored pencils that I found near my locker today. May squeals and wraps her tiny arms around my neck.

"Thwank you, thwank you," I laugh as she runs down the short hall and into our room. I have to get ready for work so I follow her into the room and turn to the little closet that sits on the wall opposite to our bed. We have to share a bed because 1) the room is too small for two beds and 2) we don't have the money for another mattress.

I pull on a pair of dark wash jeans that have holes in them from so much use and my record store shirt. I then go to the kitchen and grab an apple from the fruit bowl on the counter, and begin munching on its juicy goodness. Fruit is my weakness, which a lot of people might think is weird, but I don't care. I've never been a big fan of sweets or junky food, but I also think that may be because I do all the shopping and I know how much crap that junky food has in it. I became health conscious when my mom became addicted to drugs and alcohol, because I was responsible for feeding May.

Taking another bite of my apple, I turn into the little living room/dining room to see mom sprawled out on the couch, empty bottles littering the ground around her. I sigh and go over to pick the bottles up and throw them into the recycle. I know a lot of people think I give my mom money, but I don't. I don't know and don't want to know where she gets the money for her stash. I know she doesn't steal from me, because the money I earn is not in the house because she has gone into fits of rage trying to find the money I earned to keep this, dare I say it, family alive. I know this family is broken beyond repair, but I cannot let it fall apart. There is only one thing in this whole world that is keeping me here. May. I cannot take May, because her legal guardian is my mother, and it would be considered kidnapping. I cannot become May's legal guardian until I am 18, which means three more years of hell.

I look over my moms' frail figure and try to find the things we have in common. May and mom look almost exactly alike, they even have the same little birth make on their shoulders. The one thing May gets from our Father is her eyes, a deep brown that warms you up like a mug of hot chocolate. I am the exact opposite of May though. I have my mom's bright blue eyes, but I have all of my dad's fetchers like his black hair and sharp nose. I also have his temper at times, which I hate.

I grab my mom and flip her onto her side so she doesn't fall off the couch. As I turn to leave she grabs onto my arm.

"Rider?" my mom slurs out.

"No mom, it's me, Jade." I tell her. Why is she still thinking dad will come back, he made it clear he was never coming back for us.

"Jade, I know a Jade. Jade is my daughter. Jade is mean. Why are you mean Jade?" I try to ignore her comments, and brush them off, but they sting like a slap to the face.

"Mom, go back to sleep, your drunk and I don't want May to see you like this." I say getting annoyed.

"My mom's name was May, she had a flower patch with Daisies that she loved. That's why she named me Daisy." Mom says, giggling at the end.

"Mom, are you high?"

"No" she says, but the disconnected look in his eye tells me otherwise.

"Mom, go to your room." I say getting mad at her for doing this while I was at school. What if May got hurt? Or we got robbed and May didn't know what to do? Then I would come home to a shattered family. I wouldn't have a reason to live anymore.

Getting the gruesome images of my little sister's still body, I pull my mother up by the arm and partially drag her to her room. Once I finally get my mom into bed, I walked over to her closet to look for her stash. Cloths are everywhere, on the floor, on hangers, on the shelf above her other cloths. I search for a few minutes before I find it, a little shoe box that that has a little baggie sticking out of it. I grab the box and walk over to the bathroom, spilling its spoils into the toilet bowl. I flush the toilet and leave without a second thought. It has become routine to do this, I have the hope that my mother will wake up one day and stop going out and getting them, but I know that will not happen. I don't do this for me, but for May, everything I do is for her and her alone.

"Sissy," I hear my little angle call.

"What is it May?" I walk out of the bathroom and go to the living room where I heard May running around doing something.

"Wook what I did!" May holds up a picture of a field of flowers and a girl dancing through them. It does not look like a 5 year old drew it, but May has a gift with drawing. She got it from our father, not that she would know. Our father walked out on us when I was 10, right after May was born, leaving the three of us to fend for ourselves. When May turned 3, my mom got hooked on drugs form one of her druggie boyfriends. Life went downhill from there.

"That looks great May!" I say very enthusiastically, bending down to her level to get a better look. The girl is wearing a light blue dress and has black hair that reaches her hips.

"It's youw" I look closer and notice the girls blue eyes.

"So it is," I say with a smile, "but I don't have long hair anymore May."

"I know, buwt youw wooked pwety wifh it long."

"Are you saying I don't look pretty now?" I ask teasingly.

"No no no, you wook pwetty bofh ways." She says flustered. I laugh and rub her head.

"I have to go to work; if mom wakes up don't let her out of the house. Call me if anything happens. Got it soldier?" I say the last part in a deep voice, trying to act like a drill Sargent.

"Yes sir!" May says, saluting me and marching to the side to let me past.

"Bye May," I yell out before I close the door.

---

This is one of my longest chapters ever, and I changed it A LOT.  I also changed the whole plot of the story by accident, so I might make another book soon. It will be a while till I do another update, but I hope you enjoy this one. I am actually really happy how it turned out.

tata for now,

 Morgan