Troubles at Home - Chasing Normal, Arc 7

Scene 37: Grounded Again

Travis finished her breakfast and ran back into her room to grab her tablet off the charger. She snagged her bag off the couch as she came back in, and was reaching out for her lunch box when she heard a sleepy voice. "What is all this racket?"

"I'm trying to not be late," Travis shouldered her bag and claimed her lunch box.

"For what? We don't have anywhere to be today." Shiri waved away the coffee mug Lydia offered her.

"I have work!" I know she didn't go out last night. Is this what withdrawal looks like?

"No, you don't. We're suspended, remember?"

Her mother's calm voice, as if she thought her logic was solid, infuriated Travis. "You are suspended. I'm going to work."

"What?" Shiri wailed. "You're going back to that place after how they treated me?"

"You went to work when I was suspended," Travis started for the door.

Shiri was quick to cut her off. "That was different. I'm the star. They can't function without me."

"I'm an animator. People are depending on me to get work done, or your movie doesn't come out." Maybe if I make this about her, she'll be more reasonable.

"My movie isn't coming out anyway. I'm not there to finish it." Shiri folded her arms and smiled with a smugness that made her look years younger.

"You can't expect me to stay here all day doing nothing."

"I can, and I do. We stand together as a family."

"Right."

The battle over, Shiri shuffled back to her room. Travis looked over at Lydia, who was busy prepping in the kitchen. "I know you heard every word of that."

"I did," the housekeeper looked up, knife on the counter. "You know your mother. This will blow over."

"My grounding only blew over because Dad intervened," Travis set the lunch box back on the counter. "Tell me you don't agree with her. This will hinder my apprenticeship."

"I don't agree with her," Lydia swept piles of cut veggies into small bags and sealed them. "But I've seen enough of her temper to think you can call in sick today. You'll figure something out."

Travis stomped into her room, and sent an email to Brice explaining she had to stay home and take care of her mother. It's close enough to the truth, I guess. She dropped her bag onto her desk and kicked off her shoes.

Now what do I do?

The first thing that came to mind was her design notebook. But as she flipped through, she remembered she'd missed her date to craft some of them with her grandfather and she felt more guilty than inspired. She closed the notebook.

She sifted through the books on her tablet, hoping for something interesting. But she hadn't acquired many new books in a while. Why is that? I used to read all the time. I wanted to be one of the girls in those stories. Just a normal girl, going to school and having friends. She flicked back through the list. Real life wasn't anything like those books.

She closed her reader and looked at the desktop. Salvation came in the form of a small shield logo. That's right. I can play the virtual world on here. It won't be as fun, but I do have some quests I need to finish. She hummed along with the loading music as the virtual world came into view.

==

"Think Mom will mind if I meet a friend from work?" Travis leaned on the counter.

"If I'm not going out, you're not going out," came a firm voice from her parents' side of the common room. "Your father thinks it will cause problems if I continue to do the things that got me suspended." Shiri was slumped in the most ungraceful pose Travis had ever seen.

Dad can control Mom? Who knew? "I should still be able to go hang out with Will, Mom. I'm not the one who got suspended, and I've already done my time from when I was grounded."

"You want to go hang out with that loser from the crew?" Shiri snorted. "I'm doing you a favor."

"Will isn't a loser, and I've been promising ever since I stopped being grounded that I would hang out. I've been cooped up in here all day."

"Oh, come on. It's not that bad." Shiri rolled into an even more awkward position on the couch. "And we can always order in."

She has got to be kidding. I can't just sit around here for the next month. I didn't like it the first time around!