The Hot List

Home (Ch 6)

A/N: Picture of Kasey on the sidebar, and some rambly author's notes at the bottom! Hope you guys like it!

I burst through the door to my house angrily, yanking the key out of the door and tossing all my stuff onto the couch unceremoniously. I plopped down next to it, letting out a long sigh. I wasn’t used to fielding this much attention from people, most people were just on a “hello” basis with me. I yanked out my stacks of homework and got started. I quickly burned through my English, history, physics, and Spanish homework, until all I had left was math. I cracked open my trig book and took one look at the page, then decided to take a break. Trig’s awful, okay? I figured I’d just get back to it later. The front door opened and closed, and I looked up to see my mom, Amelia, dressed in her work clothes. She smiled at me, but her green eyes, identical to mine, seemed tired.

“Hey, how was your day at school?” she asked me cheerfully.

“Good, thanks. How was work?” I replied.

“Boring, tons of meetings,” she said, frowning.

“That sucks,” I commented, offering her a compassionate smile.

My mom used to be a writer, until she gave that up because it was too heavily associated with my dad, Trent.  You see, he works in publishing as an editor, and he and my mom used to collaborate on books. Once he left,  my mom just couldn’t find the inspiration to write anymore, so she went back into marketing; the very business she had quit to become a writer. She wasn’t unhappy, but she didn’t like her job in particular. Still, we lived comfortably and she never complained, although I worried about her being happy.

“I’m going to make a snack, do you want anything?” I asked her.

“Sure, I’ll have some of whatever you’re making,” she said, sitting down in a slightly worn armchair.

I pulled two pieces of bread out of a bag and put some cheese on them, cheddar for me and Swiss for my mom. I knew her well enough to guess what she would ask for; we were really close, especially after my dad left. I stuck our snack in the microwave and set it for a minute, then stood around waiting for it to melt.

“Kasey, don’t stand so close to the microwave. It has radiation,” my mom called, frowning.

I rolled my eyes, but I stepped away from the microwave. Hey, I didn’t want cancer any more than the next 16 year old girl. My mom wasn’t super protective or anything, she was just being a parent. I kind of liked it, not that I’d ever tell her or anything. She was in pieces for months after she found out my dad had cheated on her. She knew she couldn’t take him back, so she promptly kicked him out, but she was completely broken up about it. The parent-child roles had kind of reversed, and I had to do most of the caretaking. However, after about 3 months, she picked herself back up, quit writing, and got a new job in marketing, which she’d kept for the past 4 years.

The microwave finished cooking, and I pulled out the plate, waltzing over to the couch to give my mom her bread.

“Thanks, hun,” she said, smiling at me.

“No problem,” I replied.

“So, how’s homework going?” she asked.

“Fine, I just have trig left.” My mood crashed as soon as I mentioned it. My mom knew how I felt about trig, and she looked sympathetic.

“Maybe we should think about getting you a tutor,” she offered. I shook my head firmly.

“I hate relying on other people. We relied on Dad, and look where that got us.”

I saw pain flash across her face, and I immediately regretted mentioning my dad. Four years later, she still wasn’t over him.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” she muttered, a bit downcast. I felt a pang of guilt in my stomach for making her feel bad.