60 Days With Ben

Chapter 4

2nd Day

Today my mother woke up hysterical, slept late last night after correcting some tests, forgot to turn on the alarm, thus being late, which made her visibly moody (moodier). I heard her mutter something in her bedroom, something I could not understand. I could never understand what she said when she was like this.

I woke up a little lazy. I pulled my legs out from under the warm blanket, my bare feet felt them crash against the icy white tile floor, I shivered a bit. The night was cold, and today the day was cloudy.

After taking a quick shower, I put on my school uniform, ran toward the kitchen to prepare coffee, a function that my mother followed to the letter, except today, since she lost her time, so she asked me to do it.

She grunted at the amount of sugar I put in the coffee, I always got it wrong, so she always made the coffee. With my backpack on my back, I grabbed a loaf of bread from the basket and headed out, spilling some coffee on the floor. I left the glass with the rest left on the old wooden table, which was on the small balcony that leads to the entrance of the room. I turned the key in the lock and tucked it in the pocket of my jeans. I swallowed the last loaf of bread and hurried out with my mother.

I felt bad for the class she was taking today. I hope they do not contradict you, because of the state of nerves Mom is in, it is best not to risk doing or trying to do something funny, unless you want to take the risk of reading a text out loud, and will only be released from punishment when you pronounce each word correctly. My mother is considered one of the best English teachers in the state, but her difficult temper leaves something to be desired.

I slide into the front passenger seat while Mom hits the rearview mirror. She yells at me to put on the belt. I always forget it. With narrowed eyes, I watch her serious, frowning expression. Thick lips curved downward; her sloppy eyebrows arched. She straightened her brown hair in the rearview mirror, her charcoal-black eyes now turned to the driveway.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" She asked me for the thousandth time as we waited in the chaotic traffic of the city. For twenty minutes, we were waiting for the traffic to be cleared, making my mother's bad mood increase. But after all, who was in a good mood waiting for the traffic to be cleared?

"You always wake up first, I thought you were already awake," I could not take this question anymore, but I could not risk saying it out sound and clear. I crossed my arms and sank into the seat, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible.

Late was a word that did not belong to her vocabulary. That, to my mother, was a total lack of respect and commitment. As for me, I did not care at all about finding today the school gates closed, but as I would be accompanied by Mrs. Elizabeth, that possibility could not happen.

I arrived on time for the second period, although it had started exactly fifteen minutes ago. Lucky for me, it was a math class. To put it better, teacher Carlos' class. I think he has a little crush on my mom. Lucky to finally use this fact to my advantage.

Teacher Carlos has always found a way to approach my desk and ask some questions about my mother. Discreet questions, in fact, but ones which let a little interest spillover. What I wonder is why was he attracted to her. My mother is not an ugly woman, but this is by far the most important thing to me.

Carlos is the opposite of my mother. Patience is a word that defines him well, but sometimes it makes students taking advantage of it. I have never seen Mr. Carlos shout in class since my mother does it very often.

I knock lightly on the door; it does not take long for Mr. Carlos to open it. Today, I would be the one to take advantage of his patience.

"I'm sorry, traffic was in chaos, and my mother and I ended up being late," I hurried to defend myself, made the word mother stand out, and of course hiding the fact that she turned off the alarm. One of my mother's downsides is that she does not get along very well with technology. Somehow she turned off her cell phone alarm.