The Crackhead Chronicles Of The Six Strange Swans

Don't let me Down

Katherine

"Sugar, Butter, Flour..." I start to sing as the Waitress soundtrack blasts through my headphones, causing a smile on my face.

We have a lot of ways to deal with grief in life; Christina's is taking control of the house as well as Michael, Lisa's is doing jigsaw puzzles and game nights with the family, Amy paints and takes long walks, Alex is rarely home, always out traveling, Lauren spends a lot of time by herself journaling or skateboarding, Dani... well I don't know about Dani she's also rarely home, always out with her boyfriend which I'm glad about he's helped her deal with the pain. The younger boys have engrossed themselves into every sport going. And me... I love to cook and bake

And have a lot of responsibility piled on my shoulders.

Ever since mum died Christina and Mike have become the parental figures to the house, they're rarely home, always out working. So that leaves me in charge of everything.

And when I say everything. I mean everything

Christina leaves the cooking down to me, the cleaning down to me. The others, they don't have to do much at all because they cry and complain when it's their turn, so I just end up doing it. They help me occasionally but it's mostly me by myself. No one seems to notice that it's getting too much because I don't say anything. They haven't seen the mental breakdowns from stress I receive daily because Christina's yelled for the chores not done.

I go to grab the sugar from the cupboard when Joey runs into the room, crashing into me and taking me down with him. The Sugar falls in a radical state onto the floor. In fact, most of that shelf comes tumbling down with it

"JOEY!" I yell, causing him to flinch, clutching his ears. Urg, I forgot his ears are like Dani's, sensitive to my voice. I didn't mean to yell, it's just that everyone wants these cookies baked by this afternoon.

"I....I'm sorry Kath I didn't mean to...." He starts to get upset.

"What's happening?" Mike comes strolling into the room and see's the mess. Joey runs straight to him crying.

"Katherine... what did you do?" Great, don't ask him why he's crying, just assume automatically I had something to do with it. Well... I mean I did but that's beside the point

"Nothing! Joey crashed into me as I was getting the sugar down from the shelf for the cookies that you want." Yeah, I'm getting sassy with him. I'm sick of being treated they way I am

"Don't talk to me like that Kathrine!" he snaps
"Mike, what's with all the yelling?" Christina places her bag down on the chair, Dani following behind her

"Just Katherine getting rude with me that's all." Christina gives me a look, and rolls her eyes

"Look, I haven't got time to deal with this just, Katherine clean up the mess and continue cooking." Is she being serious?

"What! But Joey made the mess!"

"Can't you see that he's upset? I'm going to take him to his room to calm down." I roll my eyes at Mike's question. They always let Joey get away with everything because he's the youngest

"DON'T ROLL YOUR EYES AT ME!" I flinch at the sound of Mike's raised voice. Slightly scarred but not going to show him that

"Mike just, calm down, take Joey upstairs okay." He nods to the sound of Christina's voice. But before he leaves he glares at me

"When I come back down I expect the kitchen to be cleaned and food to be cooking or even done got it?" I nod, looking at Christina

"Chris, why is he being like this? What have I done?" I ask, getting the stained dust-pan and brush from the cupboard.