The following morning when my mom barges in to wake me up, I try making up excuses. Saying I'm feeling sick, or I have a cough, anything so I can just stay here in my room.
"Y/N..." She sighs as she walks over and sits at the end of my bed. I shift a little as I watch her. "I know you're not sick... What is it this time? Is it school again? Are you getting anxiety because of school?" She asks softly with a clearly conflicted expression. I look away from her for a minute, staying silent. "Y/N, I can't help you if you don't talk to me. We've been over this many times." She points out with a long tired sigh. "You're 18, you need to start getting on top of these feelings. I get that it's easier said than done, but really, You did this throughout secondary school and even during college." She reminds me as I stay silent. "You're back in highschool now, and I know that's probably not fun but really, this is a little ridiculous."
"It's not school." I blurt out, "I just don't feel well." I explain, bluntly. She stays quiet as she stares at me for a minute before letting out another tired sigh as she stands up. "I'll call the school and let them know you won't be in today...." She trails off as she heads towards my door, "I'll also ring the doctor's during my lunch. See about getting you back on the meds, I can't handle going through all of that again." She comments as she leaves, closing my door behind her.
For the rest of the day, I avoid socialising with everyone. I don't even look at my phone, let alone touch it. And when my mom and brother get home I can hear B/N complaining about being told he has to cook tonight.
"What?! No, why can't she just cook?! She got to stay home from school today!" B/N complains loudly. "B/N just cook please. I'm not in the mood right now to deal with this, and leave your sister alone please." My mother says as she walks past my bedroom door and down the hall to her room. Out of spite that night, B/N only makes food for him and our mom, saying that if I'm awake then I can just go make myself some food.
The following morning my mom pokes her head into my room, I just roll over in bed to face away from her. She lets out an audible sigh before leaving the room and closing the door behind her. The day goes by almost exactly the same as the day before, and so does the next day.
Friday morning rolls around and my mom barges into my room with an annoyed expression. "I've had it! This is ridiculous! You are going to have a shower and then you're going to eat and go to school. End of! And if you're not ready by the time I am ready to leave then I'm dragging you out the house and leaving you locked outside the house, whether you're dressed or not!" She yells before swiftly walking back out my room and leaving my door wide open.
After a minute of just laying there I decide to get up, knowing she's serious about what she said. So I rush to have a shower and get ready. I'm just finishing getting ready when she comes back into my room. "We're leaving now so hurry up and grab a snack then head off to school. I already called and let them know you'd be in all day today, so don't even think about trying that little trick you used to use where you'd call and pretend to be me. You also won't be able to leave early since I let them know that you don't have any doctor or dentist appointments." She says before leaving.
I shouldn't have bragged about all the ways I used to skip school. Then again, I didn't really think I'd be needing those tricks ever again.
The day passes very slowly, it almost feels like it's all going in slow motion, but finally lunch arrives and I sit down at a random table and go on my phone. Lisa is in school today but she seems to be actively avoiding me. I also haven't seen Michael anywhere so I can just relax. I message the gc and wait for responses. Thankfully I don't have to wait long, and we end up on a call.
"Girl! Where have you been?!" Mia shouts into the phone. "Been having a bad week." I explain very briefly. "Aw, are you okay?" Liz asks. "Yeah I'm fine." I sigh as I go quiet. "Are you sure? You know you can talk to us." Kate tries to comfort me and I can hear some movement through the phone. "I'm fine, seriously. It's just-" I go to start explaining but am cut off, "Y/N! Hey." Michael greets loudly with a smile as he sits down, Lisa eyeing me wearily as she sits down beside him. "Oh, uh- Hey Michael....Lisa..." I greet them slowly, before putting the call on speaker and placing my phone in the middle. "How are you? You haven't been in school this week." Michael asks curiously with a smile, and I can't help but feel bad. "Uh- just some personal stuff. Honestly, it's nothing really." I brush it off.
"Oh- well would you be up to helping me with my english work? I need some help and remembered that you're actually pretty good at english." Michael asks with a smile and Lisa eyes me carefully. "Uh- I don't know..." I trail off, if I go round to his then I'd probably see William and that is just too awkward to handle at the moment. "Oh! Y/N, you should totally help! You're literally the only reason I passed english, first year of college! You're literally the smartest person I know!" Mia shouts into the phone, and I can't help but grimace a little. "Uh! Rude! Also, didn't you only do English for the first year of college?" Liz points out with a laugh and I can hear Kate also laugh a little. "Exactly my point. I only had to do it one out of the two years, thanks to Y/N." Mia laughs. I stay quiet for a second as Michael looks at me expectantly, "Uh- well, I don't know. English- there's a lot of explaining and such, your siblings will probably want to play the whole time." I try to make up an excuse. Honestly it isn't even an excuse, Elizabeth and Chris will definitely want to play the whole time. There's also the fact that William is their dad so I'd definitely run into him now that he knows, that I know, that he's their dad.
"We don't have to worry about them, they're actually with my mom this weekend and my dad said he's working late tonight so the house will be perfectly quiet and I can listen to you explaining hyperboles and shakespeare." Michael explains with a smile. My entire argument getting thrown out the fucking window. It's great that we'd actually get work done but William could totally still come home early, but now I have no valid excuse. "Oh- um, well, okay then. I guess I'll meet you at yours after school..." I agree with a forced smile."
