Life As We Know It

Chapter 1- Jolie

"I don't care what you want! You're under my roof, you listen to my rules!"

What great way to be woken up. I lift my blanket over my face and tuck it under my head. The curtains in my room barely block out the light. It's bright outside, even though the clouds are covering the sky. This morning was just my everyday wake up call, who needs an alarm clock when you've got two people yelling at each other first thing in the morning to wake you up? I roll out of bed a few minutes later and take a look at myself in the mirror. You could tell I barely slept last night, with the bags under my eyes and my hair tangled into thousands of little knots. I start to get myself together, picking up some jeans and a T-Shirt to throw on.

I walked past my step brother and my foster mom, they're arguing with each other -as usual- something about him sneaking out last night. I quickly slip out of the house, unnoticed, and walk down the driveway to get to my car.

I had gotten it a few months after I got my license. I was just about 17. It's a light blue, "rustic," worn down 1987 Jeep Cherokee, handed down through my family, until currently given to me. I reached into my pocket then I realized I forgot my keys in my room. That's what I get for forgetting to put them on the hook yesterday. Great, now I have to go back inside.

I looked up to our small beige house, sitting on top of a grassy hill, with the sun just grazing the top of the ground. It looked like it was in good condition from the outside, but inside, it was a dump. We didn't buy it like this, it was somewhat nice when we first moved in, except for the outdated floral wallpaper. My foster mom never took care of it, and I hadn't learned to put that much effort into cleaning and fixing it up until I was a little older. I had never lived in a house with a family. It was much different than the orphanage, where I was just ordered around, and the rest of the staff would clean up after the sloppy kids.

I had left my car unlocked thoughtlessly, which was probably a bad idea. The community we live in has had a lot of robberies.  I opened the door to my car and threw my bag in the passenger seat and walked back up the driveway. I don't want to go back in there, but it's not like I have a choice.

I opened the door to have 2 sets of eyes on me, Amber's, and Allison's. I guess Noah had finally let Amber win the argument. Amber is my foster mom, I've lived with her since I was 14. Amber had two kids, Allison, who is 7, and Noah who is about to be 15.  Noah and Amber get into it for everything little thing. He's been fed up with her for awhile now-let's just say she's not the best parent. As soon as Allison saw it was me, she went back to what she was doing, unaffected by my re-appearance into the house. I tried to avoid doing anything that would make Amber upset, since she's already on edge after her argument with Noah. She looked aggravated, she gave me a side-glance and rolled her eyes. "What are you doing back in the house, Jolie? Get to school already!" When Amber raised her voice, Allison grabbed her shoes anxiously and dashed to the laundry room to put them on. Before I said anything, I watched as Amber put a cigarette between her lips and started rummaging through her junk drawer to find a lighter.

"I forgot my keys," I mumbled loud enough for her to hear, looking down at my feet.

"Well then get them already, and while you're at it, drive Allison to school." Amber found a lighter, and lit her cigarette, then took a long drag.

"Okay." I replied without hesitance. I don't complain, following orders is all I'm used to. If I don't, I'll get a mouthful while being misted with spit in the face, or worse. I quickly made my way to my room, it was on the far right side of the house. Next to Allison's and down the hall from Noah's. I checked my bureau, and sure enough, my keys were sitting in a glass dish, where I usually keep my smaller jewelry. I grabbed them and peeked my head into Allison's room. We painted her walls pink a couple of months ago. She was so excited, and I was happy she was happy. I had picked up some cool butterfly decals at Walmart, and they were placed around her window.

"Allison, are you ready?" I asked her.

"Uh-huh." She nodded her head and gave me a quick sympathy smile.

"Okay, grab your backpack, and let's go." I pulled into Creekside Elementary, the school I had gone to when I was younger. I loved all my teachers, and the had a great academic program. The problem was, I had to work an extra job to pay for Allison's school fees, uniforms, and textbooks. Amber uses the money she gets from the state for fostering me, to pay her bills.

Noah is 14 turning 15, so a while back he had got a job to pay for his academics, so I could quit my second job. I hope that the kids don't grow up to be like their mother. They're good kids. I cared for Allison as my own, and well, Noah wanted to start doing things on his own. Allison hopped out of the back of my Jeep and then turned around to grab her backpack when she stopped.

I turned around in my seat to face her, "What's wrong?" I asked.

She waited for a little before she started, "Why does she yell at you?" she asked. I could see the worry in her expression. I don't want to deal with this right now, she's going to be late for school, and meanwhile, I was supposed to be in homeroom 20 minutes ago. How am I even supposed to answer a question like that, and explain that to a 7-year-old? Of course, I couldn't tell her, she's too young to even understand, and I don't want to show her the harsh reality of things.

"You're going to be late for school, Allison, hurry on now and go join your friends." I nodded towards a group of girls that I usually see her hanging out with and were patiently waiting for her to come and join them, so they could all walk to class.

She nodded and began to turn around, but looked back at me once more, "Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm okay." I lied, and I felt bad for lying to her. But there was no way I could sit here and tell her everything wrong with her mother. Thinking back to it, this isn't the first time Allison has asked me about her mother yelling at me. Although Allison has never seen Amber put her hands on me, or hit me, she knows that her mother isn't caring or affectionate towards me. Allison is a good kid, she gets good grades as her mother wanted, she cleans her room and does whatever her mom asks of her. And because of that, she never gets yelled at or scolded.

I do what I'm told, with the occasional mistake, but I get yelled at because I'm the oldest. I'm supposed to be the perfect one. The role model. Even though I did set a good example, for some reason I just wasn't good enough. And well, I'm also the foster kid. She reminds me plenty of times that I'm not her "real" kid. It did hurt every once in a while.

I snapped back to reality when she asked one final question, a question that made my heartthrob. "You promise?" the way she looked at me and said that, made my heart sink for lying to her.

"I promise." She smiled, nodded her head to tell me she was going.

"Have a good day at school!" I said before she closed the door and ran over to her friends.

"I'm okay," I said to myself, for reassurance. But I was only lying to myself even more.