Don't You Just Love High School! (Sarcasm)

**Chapter 12** Family Problems

My feet hit the pavement of the road. The doors of the bus shut themselves. I walked around the front of the bus and onto my drive way. The gravel and rocks made crunchy noises under me. I looked at my house, trying to block the sun from my eyes at the same time. No good. The sun was the sun. It didn't dim just for me.

I wished for the sound of the bus to rear up and drive off, and leave me alone. No, it wasn't my time of the month either. It had just been a bad day... a really bad day. Well, I figured I would just focus on the positives. There was only two, meeting Dytrick and meeting F.D.. One was cool, and one was nice. If only I could combine them, they'd be the perfect guy for me. Add a little sweetness and romance to the mix and it would be perfect! Just perfect!

I got my key out my pocket when I reached my front door. It was a challenge to get out, considering how tight skinny jeans were. Nevertheless, I succeeded. I walked in and yelled that I was home to anyone that was listening.

"Hi, honey! How was school!" my mother asked chipperishly.

"Breath-taking!" I sarcastically replied.

"Tell me about it!" she annoyingly insisted.

She asked for it! I was only going to tell her the horrible, crazy parts so she would feel my pain.

"Well, I heard people talk about having bets about having sex, helped a friend to go fix her bra that was undone, listened to a girl trash-talk my friend, almost got into a fight, got sent to the prinicipal's office, and I pretended to be a lesbian! How was your day?" I said with a smile.

She was in a panic. You see, my mom isn't the typical mom. She has to have things, as she would say, 'proper' or as the rest of the world and I would call it, 'neat-freaky'. Let me just go ahead and explain how 'neat-freaky' my mom really is. One time, I invited Tori, a friend, over to spend the night, and right before we started to dig into our wonderful, juicy meal of pork roast, I found my mom telling Tori how to 'properly' hold a fork. Oh don't get me wrong, this wasn't the kind of meal that had salads and appetizers and desserts or anything like that. This was just some good ol' country cooking! It wasn't like we were three or four years old. We were in fourth grade! We were nine year-olds for goodness sake!

Sadly, I remember her exact words, "No, no Honey. Let me help. You see this is a rare creation." I could tell she was about to get into a long story by the way she started to glance into nowhere.

"It was used all the way back to 1370, but it didn't really grasp everyone's usage until 1533. It was such a great invention, only to be taken for granted. Without this marvelous tool, we would act like savages, lost and forgotten in the wild! We would eat with our hands like small children who were without caring parents." There was a pause.

"Oh I apologize, Tori. For a second there, I was just about to go on and on rambling about a silly fork! Anyway, you put your middle, ring, and pinky finger under the fork, as so," I couldn't believe that this was really happening, even though, I was glad she stopped rambling! She was demonstrating how to hold a fork, "to support the fork correctly. Then, place your index finger and thumb gently over the top of the fork, just enough to slightly grasp it rather than clenching it like you're starved! Isn't that much easier, dear?" I couldn't have got any redder in my whole life, even if you left me in a desert with an 104-degree fever! I apologized more that night than any other time in my life!

"Oh...uh...yeah, thanks, Mrs. Godwin."

I could tell she was only being polite to my overbearing mom by the way she tried not to roll her eyes and keep a smile. Sadly, I wish we could've just ignored that moment in Tori's and my life. That wasn't the case.

"You can call me Ms. Laclor, Tori, or you can call me Fellisha." my mother said, making me even more embarrassed. With my friend not knowing what to say, she nervously said, "Ok." I knew she just wanted the conversation to be over as quickly as possible. Let me go ahead and explain that too. My mom and dad are divorced. My last name is Godwin so Tori automatically assumed that was my mom's last name. Her maiden name is Laclor though. My parents got divorced when I was two years old so I really didn't understand. I never really knew why they got divorced anyway! I just never really bothered to ask. So now you know! Oh yeah, back to what I was saying!

She wobbled around and was pail-faced, and it sort of sounded like she was starting to breathe heavy.

"Are you ok?" I asked, not really that concerned. I went into my sister's, Jen, bedroom, not realizing she wasn't home from school yet. I was going to get her to tell me why Mama was acting so strange and unusual.

P.S. Don't think I'm weird because I called her Mama instead of Mom because you know you really call your mom Mama too! The next thing I heard was THUD! I ran into the kitchen as fast as my feet would let me.

There on the floor was my mom.

"Uh...Ohhh...Oh my Gosh! Ar-are you all right? Mama this isn't funny! Stop it! Stop it right now! You're freaking me out!" I yelled. She didn't move.

"Oh my Gosh! Oh my Gosh! Oh my Gosh!" I said shaking. I got out my phone and called Jen. "I'm on my way! But I swear if this is a joke, Michelle I will kil-"

"It's not! Hurry!" I said cutting her off. I sat by her until Jen arrived. I made sure she was still breathing about every three seconds. It was scary being right beside your mother that layed on the floor, body spread. She looked helpless, and the color of her face was pale. I breathed deep breaths of fear, sitting next to her, my knees to my chest. What would I do without her? She was my mom, and even though we didn't get along all the time, it didn't mean I could get along well without her. Nothing would happen though. I would make sure. God wouldn't let it be that way. Would he?

I heard Jen's keys in the door. I breathed a sigh of relief. I rushed to the door. She immediately ran to Mama as soon as she could squeeze through the door. She looked at me and said,

"You've been here with her this whole time, and you didn't call 911!" I started to cry as I rushed to the house phone not realizing I had my cell phone in my pocket.

I was so nervous and shaky that I dialed the wrong number a couple of times. I finally got it right and told them all the information they needed. The ambulance came rather quickly. Soon, we were at the hospital, listening to what the doctors had to say.

"She's fine. Don't worry about her. She passed out because of shock or weakness. Do you know anything about a sudden shock to her or if she hadn't eaten for a couple of days? Any sugar or health problems perhaps?" Doctor Smith reassured us.

"No, no health problems. I have no idea why on earth she would have any shock though, because she's been eating. I wasn't at the house when this happened." said Jen. I felt as if everyone automatically thought I was the perpetrator at that sudden moment.

"Well..." I took a big swallow because my throat was dry, "she... um...was kind of getting light headed when I walked through the door. I had told her about my day. It was kind of crazy. She's not used to me or my sister and everything not being very... proper. With the story I told her, it seems like that could have been a shock to her."

"Maybe so," said the doctor trying to make the moment less awkward, "Anyways she's up and awake now. You're free to go back and see her. She'll be fine and she's ready to go home when y'all are."

"Thanks so much Dr. Smith!" replied Jen.

"Hey now, Jennifer, I told you, call me Ryan."

"When you start calling me Jen!" she said with a laugh. I always hated how Jen was such a big flirt around everyone! She had a low cut top on with a jacket over but it was unzipped of course. I wasn't fond of being her sister.

"Where's Michelle? Where is she? Where am I? Why won't someone tell-"

My mom stopped as she saw us coming near her. She layed her head back on her pillow and let out a deep breath showing her relief. We took her home, and I hoped the conversation of that day would never come. I wanted to use those reasons though to talk Mama into letting me stay home forever, but that qualified as talking about it. The ride home was embarrassing. We didn't speak the whole twenty-minute ride. It was dark, and I was hopeless so I cried most of the way home, knowing I had done nothing wrong to hear Jen snap at me the way she had. I knew she wouldn't think of it much, and I certainly knew she wouldn't lose any sleep over the incident. We never did have the perfect sister-sister relationship, and I knew this wouldn't help improve it. I tried not to think about it when I went to bed. I tried not to think of my mascara and eyeliner running down my face, since I hadn't had any time to remove it. I would just do it in the morning before I took a shower. Hopefully, morning wouldn't come to soon....