The Chase

Shaun

"What?! You're kidding right?! Right?!" I say as I take a long look at my new game set. It's my sixteenth birthday today and my dad bought me the gaming set I was nagging about for forever (two or three months).

"Thank you so much! Mom must've flipped when she saw you bought this for me" I say as I look at the settings.

"No, actually she's the one who said we should get it for you." My dad says and go sit on the couch opposite me.

"Wow" I say with big eyes. My mother doesn't like spending money on things like video games. You know, the non educational stuff, which means she had to have a good reason.

"Is it because the test is tomorrow?" I ask my dad. He goes quiet but answers anyway. "Yeah, but don't tell her I told you. She's really scared that you will get in, you know." He says and leans back into the couch.

"Yeah I know." I answer. My mom has been going crazy lately. She is the silent crazy type. You know that people who will tell you that they are fine but then they clean the whole house three times that day? Yeah, she does that.

She is really, really afraid that I will get into the Chase. I doubt that I will though. Out of plus minus five thousand sixteen year olds, who or what will choose me? I'm nothing but a gamer nerd. Literally all I do is play games all day.

"You know dad, I won't get in" I tell him.

"I think so too, but you're mother ..... " he trails of.

"Yeah dad I know. She going mad. I think she will clean my room next" I say. My dad laughs at that "she's not so paranoid."
"Yet. The night's long" I say.

"OK, enough talk. Let's test this sucker." He says and helps me plug the system into the TV. After three hours of awesome nerd gaming my mother walks through the front door. As soon as she steps foot into the house its as if there is rainbows everywhere. She is over cheerful. Yep, definitely going mad.

"OK" me and dad say together as sons as she starts packing out three types of soda. All three on my favourite list.

"Mom, what is all this?" I ask and gesture to four million bags of chips she is also unpacking on the kitchen counter.

"It's you're birthday, silly" she says.

I give her a long look before returning to my game. My dad does the same. We play for a few more minutes before my mom calls us with cake. Who says no to cake?

She has started to clean the kitchen floor.

"Mom. You need to sit down and relax" I say to her.

"Yeah. Yeah, no I'm going to eat some cake with you and then clean up the kitchen" she says really fast, which means she's anxious.

"Mom." She bites a large piece of cake and looks at her plate. "I'm not going to get chosen, okay? Don't worry. I want you to go take a nice long bath with a glass of wine. Okay? Will you do that?" She looks at me with big eyes.
"But the kitchen floo-" she starts before I cut her off.
"Is clean. Just like it was before you came home and just like it will be when you go take a bath." I say.

She takes another bite of cake. "Okay, I'll go take bath. But I'm still cleaning the floor" she says and leaves, after taking a whole bottle of whine with her.

I sigh and finish my cake. My dad puts a hand on my shoulder. "She'll be fine." He tells me. "I know dad" I answer.

I hope he's right though, because I have a feeling that after I leave this house tomorrow morning, I'll never come back.