Infection- Skits

Disowned

All my life I’ve wanted to help people. I was the one to break up fights at school. I was the one who put an ungodly amount of hours into community service in my freetime. I was the one who saved a girl from drowning because she couldn’t swim. But they never approved.

I twirled my pencil between my fingers and groaned. In front of me on the desk was my Criminology homework, half complete. “Jade?” Mom called. With a grumble, I tossed the pencil on top of my desk and hurried down the stairs to the kitchen. Mom was in the middle of unloading groceries into the kitchen cabinets before sliding an envelope towards me. My term report card. Shit. I tore open the envelope and read through my almost perfect grades, scoffing at the B+ printed in the Chemistry column. So much for going to the movies with Doggy this weekend.. “Chemistry?”

“B+,” I mumbled, fighting the urge to rip the paper to shreds. I heard her sigh before she impatiently tapped her fingers against the table. “What? It’s better than an F, is it not?”

“Watch your tone,” she snapped, snatching the card from my hand. “What’s going on with you lately? First you nearly fail Biology, and now you have a B in Chemistry. You know this won’t slide once you’re in college.” My teeth ground together at the mention of college.

“I’m not going to college for anything science-related and you know that. Why does it matter?!” Mom cleared her throat and stood up straighter. “I want to help people, Mom, not sit in a lab all day.” She rolled her eyes and opened the fridge to put away a bag of apples.

“We’ve been over this. You’re not throwing your life away with that. If you want to be successful, you need a real career. So stop with all this ‘helping people’ nonsense.” I took a step back from the kitchen counter and crossed my arms. “You’re graduating in two weeks and I haven’t seen you fill out a single application. I have a few printed off for you to check out before you make any decisions…” Her words slowly became background noise as I cut my attention away from her. With her back turned, I snuck back up the stairs and closed the door of my room as quietly as I could, fuming. My face burned; this woman knew how to piss me off. I grabbed a pillow from my bed and took a deep breath, screaming as loud as I could into it.

My throat burned. I hugged the pillow to my chest as I flopped down on my bed, sighing. She just doesn’t understand, I thought. All my life, I’d been forced into science extracurriculars. Scolded if my grades weren’t perfect. It was exhausting.

I slowly pulled myself out of bed and slid into my chair, resuming my homework. A couple questions were easy to answer, but my mind went completely blank at the last few. My mom had ticked me off so much that I couldn’t even think straight, but I couldn’t just half-ass my Criminology work. Finals were next week.

Fuck it, I’ll do it tomorrow. I fell back on my bed and wrapped myself in a blanket like a burrito before glancing up at the corner of my desk. Propped against the wall was an unfolded piece of paper with my name printed across the top in bold letters, and a red stamp in the corner. Little did my mom know, I had already been accepted into the Lucella Police Academy, and based on what I’ve heard, so had Doggy.

I smiled tiredly and buried my face in the blanket before drifting off to sleep.
 

I adjusted the cap on my head and moved the string to the side of my head before someone poked me in the back. They wrapped their arms around my waist from behind and lifted me in the air, laughing. I didn’t even have to turn to know who it was.

“I can’t believe we’re actually graduating,” Doggy chuckled. My shoulders slightly slumped when he set me back down. “What’s wrong? Aren’t you excited?”