CABIN GIRL. → jb.

one

Arden had certainly adjusted to the environment back in Japan. She was used to their culture, their music, their language and now she was back in the same place she vowed never to return to. However, she had no influence in the decision, her mother decided that she should reclaim her position back in Toronto despite her daughter's adamant wishes. Even Arden's stepfather, Christian, did not want to move from Japan but her mother was certain about moving back and of course, as her husband, he could not argue.

Arden's pencil was trapped in between her teeth as she conjured up many ideas and many ways to begin her journal entry. She refused to call it a diary because that's exactly what is wasn't. She used her journal to track her adventures and new things she'd learned — not to reminisce on boys that had played her emotions or whether her mother had pissed her off because she didn't buy her any Balenciagas this month. She was unorthodox but she liked herself that way and there was no way she was going to change. She eventually put pencil to paper and began her entry.

Dear whoever finds this and reads it—

No, don't make it sound cliché, she thought.

Dear whoever decided to be a nosy fucker and go through my stuff,

Yeah, much better. She smiled to herself and her mother glanced at her daughter in the wind-shield mirror then at her husband of two years in content. "Arden, what are you so cheerful about?" Kathleen, Arden's mother, asked as she released pressure on the gas pedal as the car reached a red light.

"Can't I be cheerful just for the sake of it?" her daughter shrugged in reply. She was beginning to become irritated with her mother's incessant worrying. Her mother had been interviewing her about her emotions since the flight and she was sick of it now.

"Well, since we left Japan you've been rather down." her mother added reluctantly. Kathleen didn't want to bring that up once again but she had to. She was her mother and she was concerned for her child's well being. In the last year, she's felt herself drift from Arden and it seems as though with each conversation she has with her, her little girl seems to be distancing herself further and further.

She understood that Arden was on the cusp of adulthood with her birthday only a month away but that didn't mean their bond had to wither. "Well, what do you expect? I'm not going to scream for joy. You know I can't stand the assholes—"

Her stepfather cleared his throat, his gaze averting from his iPad, "Language, young lady."

Arden didn't even bother to dignify that with a response. She was done arguing about this stupid situation, she was done even trying to reason with her mother. What was the point? They were currently on the road about to reach their old home so what was the point in trying to persuade her mother to move back? The whole reason they moved to Japan was to get away from the people here anyway. The inhabitants of Toronto are so engulfed in the ideology of there being a social hierarchy and they loved nothing more than to indulge themselves in a bit of gossip just to ruin someone's day. 

For the rest of the car journey, the Haynes remained in silence; only country music blasting from the speakers of the car — music that Arden could not fucking stand. "Mom, turn off the stereo." she demanded and her mother did nothing but sigh and oblige, internally hoping her relationship with her daughter would mend.