Rise Above ✓

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

 

Alicia Hawthorne was tired. She was so tired of life and of everything. First off, she was absolutely certain that her husband was cheating on her. Secondly, she was heavily pregnant with what felt like a million pups that were due any day now and was about ready to collapse. Thirdly and probably not lastly, her oldest son was failing in school and his younger brother decided that he didn’t even want to go to school because he didn’t see the point.

“I’ll just work as a waiter or something – as long as I pay my bills, I don’t really care about school and all that stuff.”

For a ten year old, Jared was too fucking smart for his own good. Sam on the other hand had been stuck in the same year for almost four years now. Crock – her used-to-be-darling husband – was always complaining about the boy being so stupid and just wasting all his goddamn money – never mind the fact that it was Alicia that paid their school fees with her own money.

She still paid Jared’s fees as well but that was only because Crock didn’t know that his son wasn’t going to school anymore. It took Alicia a while to notice and when she did, it was already too late. Sam had missed nearly an entire semester. Apparently, he’d gotten Crock to distractedly sign some papers releasing him from the school so he wasn’t even on the register when Alicia went to inquire about his performance.

She didn’t know where he went during the school hours, but he didn’t stay home just in case Crock showed up and decided to be irrational. Sam still went to school despite all his faults, but Alicia knew that even if she ground a book and injected it into the beta’s brain, he would still repeat the same class. Goodness, they’d had to switch schools for him for more times than she could bear to count.

Alicia was currently trying to make dinner for her family. She was sweating profusely and she was extremely tired. Her back and her hips hurt because of the pregnancy and she had to keep resting against the counter at random intervals just to catch her breath before she resumed bending and pounding and stirring until she felt ready to collapse.

At around four thirty, Sam came home. The beta walked into the kitchen without a care, asking, “Is food ready yet?”

Alicia sighed. “Obviously not, Sam. Why don’t you help me here so we can get it done faster?”

“Sorry mum,” he replied apologetically, “but I’ve got some assignments I really need to tackle right now.”

“Right.”

He opened the fridge and took out two slices of bread, buttered them up like that and then he was disappearing out of the kitchen and Alicia knew without a doubt that he was about to go and watch some cartoons on his laptop or play video games until the food was ready. Assignments her ass.

She sighed again and was just making the special casserole her mum had taught her how to cook when she was a teenager, when Jared returned from wherever he disappeared to during school hours as well.

She managed a small smile at him. “Hey, Jared, do you want to help me with dinner?”

“Can’t mum! Isiah has come over and we’re going to my room to hang out! You know I can’t leave him hanging like that, right? I’ll see you for dinner.” He made his way out of the kitchen and then popped his head back in a second later, “Oh by the way, can Isiah stay over and have dinner with us too?”

“Jared, you know I’ve told you that if you’re inviting your friends over, you should always tell me long before hand so I can make enough for all of us.”