Do Mind Maps Ever End?

Chapter 4

I woke again...I had not been out of bed for ten days now. Light flood into the room as Joanna pulled open the curtains. She then pulled the covers off me and sang, "Wake uuuupp" I curled up into a ball and groaned. 

"Get showered and dressed Elle, we are going out." she sang.

The light hurt my eyes and I felt weak. Joanna had fruit and yoghurt in a bowl and placed it on my locker. It was rasberry yoghurt, my favourite and Joanna had added a dollop of cream.

"Be down in ten." She closed the door softly. 

I tried to sit up and a sharp pain went through my head but I was up. One after the otherI swung my legs over the side of the bed and properly looked around me. The room had a stench of body odour and unfresh air. A fresh towel was neatly folded on the floor. A warm, much needed shower awaited me. I stood in the shower and let the warm water soak into my skin. Bliss. 

Joanna had really thought of everything, some fresh, cotton smelling clothes lay folded on the toilet lid. Not my style at all. A tight pair of skinny jeans and a top saying, "Girls Rule." Tshirts with logos annoyed me immensely, espeically stupid ones like "Girls Rule," Oh well it was better than the stuff in the small suitcase I had brought. 

I took my time walking down the stairs. The wall was filled with photos, photos of kids groups and sad looking kids and dirty looking kids and loads of Joanna and Officer Taylor looking so extremely happy I was jealous. I noticed no family photos, Joanna and Officer Taylor must have no kids. I found this weird as they seemed to love kids.

I followed the sweet noise of Joanna's singing and found her baking something in the kitchen. She smiled widely at me.

"Wow you look great! We have to go shopping and you can pick out clothes more suitable to your taste." 

"Whatcha baking?"

"Oh just some cookies, Richard loves them. He will be home tonight, he cant wait to see you again!"

Well I wasnt looking too forward to seeing him again. He didnt do anything for me. I hate him. Hate. Strong word. I felt like running, running home to mum and dad, home to normality. Normality but not reality. Mums gone. Dads gone. Peters gone. Why ament I gone. 

"You all right?" Joanna asked.

"No" I said bluntly and stared her up and down. Joanna gave me a sorry look. She was coming near me, her arm open, eyes closed and I shoved her. I shoved the woman really hard and I dont know what made me do it. Stupidity I suppose. She fell to the floor and the sound of her body thumping on the floor gave me a pang of guilt. 

"Omigosh!" I ran to her, "I am SO sorry." I was so sorry I started crying.

"No, no Im sorry I shouldnt just have hugged you, I should have known better." 

Joanna amazed me by just jumping up and dusting off her apron.

"Im sorry." I whispered.

Joanna smiled. "Its ok, alls forgiven now lets go!" Joanna left the cookies out to put in the oven when we came back and we got into her little Renault Clio. 

"Haha what about this?" Joanna held up a really short skirt with a low neckline and holes at each side of the bodice. We were in Penneys picking our some clothes for me to wear.

I laughed. 

"Oh yes, definitely my style. Oh what about this?"

I held up a top with a hole in the stomach. Joanna looked at it strangely, trying to figure it out.

"I never used to do this with Mom.." I said sadly.

Joanna gave me a sad look.

"She was always busy, busy with work, busy with Peter, busy trying to keep our family together too busy for me."

"Elle, you know thats not true, she loved you so much."

"Yea she loved me after she loved everyone else."

"Elle" she looked sympathetic, I didnt need her sympathy! "Thanks for talking to me about it, you know you always can right."

"I dont need you to feel sorry for me, ok, I'm fine." I stated coldly.

"Ok..." She looked down at her feet. "Ever been to DYI?" 

"Em no, what is it?"

"Aww you'll love it, come on!" her face brightened, she took my arm and our conversation that had just happened seemed forgotten.

DYI was a restaurant. It was not just a restaurant though it was a Do It Yourself restaurant. You went up and picked WHATEVER you want, put it on your plate and well, ate it! I picked lasagne and maccaroni with a few meatballs, all my favourite foods. I had never tasted food as good in my life. The lasagne was dripping with cheese and the meatballs bursting with flavour. Well to be honest I was kinda used to Mums crap cooking so anything was good compared to Tesco ready meals and the occasional pizza. I looked over at Joanna eating her salad as she chatted away about all these kids clubs and kids she went to visit over in Africa and China and I couldnt help but wonder...Why didnt she have any kids of her own?

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