Trapped

chapter one

"Mom!" I shouted up the stairs, "Mom, we are going to be really late! Hurry up." It was parents evening; I hated parents evening- it was just another excuse for all of my teachers to complain at me for well... almost everything. I did try at school but since dad died last year I just couldn't concentrate half the time.  

"Yeah, I'm coming sweety," my mom called back down. I sighed and walked into the kitchen, after my dad's death mum had completely changed, spending nights out with strange men without telling anybody, buying more and more expensive designer clothes that there was no way we could afford because she decided to pack her job in and suddenly caring what everybody thought about her.

Jessica was perched on one of the kitchen stools doing her homework and she looked up as I walked in. Smiling at my little sister I sat down beside her, tilting her maths book slightly in my hand so that I could read what she had been writing. I placed the book back down again, none of it made any sense to me anymore.  

"You'll be alright with Will won't you, Jessie?" I asked, "God knows what time we'll get home tonight, I can image my teachers might have a lot to say about me." My brother Will always tried to be the good guy but he was completely hopeless at actually doing anything I asked him to do. As of tonight he'd promised me that he would take care of Jessie, if I was lucky he might actually manage to stay inside the house the entire time.

"I'll be fine," Jessica gave me a small smile "Go on have fun." I rolled my eyes.

"Like that would ever happen." I muttered under my breath before pushing myself up off the stool and walking back to the stair case.

"Mom!" I called again just as my mother came sauntering down the stairs. She was dressed in a black dress which was way too short and tight for a parents evening and heels. "Fucking hell mom, its parents evening, not a bloody night club. If you try and chat up and of my teachers then I swear I will kill you."

"Language Janie," my mother said in a stern voice before laughing and ruffling my hair, I dodged to the side and attempted to flatten my hair back down. "Don't worry sweety, tonight is about you not me."

"Highly doubt that." Mom seemed to have a way to make everything about her, no matter what. 

Walking off ahead, I could hear the clack of mum's shoes on the drive as I stalked out to the car. "Can you even drive in those things?" I shot her heels a disapproving glance.

"Yes Janie, stop being such a spoil sport, isn't a woman allowed to get dressed up for a special occasion?" 

"Mom, parents evening isn't a bloody special occasion!"  

"Janie please!" She glared at me before adverting her eyes back to the road, sighing. I could practically see the thoughts forming in her mind: why couldn't Janie just be a normal child? Why did she have to mess up all the time?  

We drove to school in silence, me staring out the window and mother gripping the wheel tightly with two hands. Eventually she loosened her grip and glanced across at me.

"Look, sweetie, I know you've been worried about today but it's about me finding out how to help you, not about me finding out if you've messed up at school." 

"Mom, I appreciate the support and all but you haven't seemed bothered until now and I've been doing just fine so how about we keep it like that?"  

"Of course I'm bothered Janie." I could barely force back a laugh at that, my mother was bothered about me, ha, good one.

The silence stretched out between us, I could almost hear an imaginary clock ticking inside my head, tick tock, tick tock, 

"I had a call from your form teacher yesterday," Mom said eventually, glancing back over to me and drumming her fingertips on the steering wheel. I could tell she was nervous bringing it up.

"Oh goodie," I muttered under my breath. Mother shot me a stern look and I knew that that was the point where I was supposed to be quiet.

"He said you'd got into a fight with one of your class mates. Do you want to explain to me what happened before we go in and I find out from somebody else?"  

"Not really, no." I turned away from mom, taking several deep breaths as we pulled up outside the school.

"Janie!" She shouted as I slammed the car door and set off, weaving in between cars, towards the school building. I could hear the sound of mother's heels clicking on the concrete as she attempted to chase after me, I much preferred pumps, they were a lot easier to get away in. "Janie," my mother called again, but there was no chance that I was going to wait for her to catch up, it was her own fault if she couldn't walk in those shoes. "Janie, would you please just stop and talk to me?" I halted and turned to face the woman I called my mother. She barely looked anything like me, her hair was short and brown, in contrast to my long blonde style, cut off at her shoulder and curled perfectly so it bounced slightly as she walked and framed her face. She was beautiful I couldn't deny her that. Me, well I was more of the tall gangly yet slightly mousy type.   

"What do you want me to say mom? That I got into a fight because a girl told me that my dad deserved to die? That I'm failing classes because I can't seem to pass any more and not even my own mother cares enough to find that out? That despite what she says, all my mother is doing here is seeing which of my teachers are available so that she can have a one night fling with some fancy man?" I watched mom stand still and hang her head, she looked defeated. I wanted more than anything for her to tell me that none of that was true and that she loved me more than anything in the world and she did care but I knew she never would; I knew my own mother better than that. "That's what I thought." I said before turning and fleeing the car park. Mom could go to the stupid parents evening on her own if she still wanted to, I couldn't even look at her.