The parent project - Chenry

Chapter three: Do or die

  | C H A R L O T T E |

The sun was warming half of my face when I opened my eyes with the realization that today would officially the beginning of the end of my life.

"Char, wake up, you have to be at school soon! Let's get moving!"

Mom's chipper knocking on my bedroom door was a steady reminder that the house was going to be empty for 12 months. One entire year of solitude for her, no friends, no missing food and scuffed up floors. Turning my head up to the ceiling, I groaned and spilled out of bed onto the floor like silly putty. How could God welcome her to heaven and me to hell? I stood under the hot water of the shower in my bathroom with my eyes closed nearly 15 minutes later, quietly contemplating this day for half an hour before stepping out, and wrapping a towel around my dripping body. When I glanced at my phone, the time had somehow rolled itself into over an hour. Dragging my suitcases downstairs, I settled for a cold breakfast of eggs and toast with my mother.

"I'll miss you for sure, but this is a big project Charlotte."

Mom said, with a wide don't-fuck-it-up smile that sent goosebumps raising over the surface of my skin. I poked at the eggs on my plate and took a nibble of the bland toasted bread beside them.

"I know."

"I told your granny all about it."

"You did?"

Looking up at her, I tried to drown the croak that hit my throat in orange juice and gulped it down.

"Of course I did, she wanted to know all about it. And when you make it through to the end she's gonna frame that honors certificate and tell everyone down at the bakery her grand baby is on her way to Harvard."

Harvard. I had almost forgotten about Harvard, even though it was the main goal. The reason I had chosen this project instead of an all expense paid trip to Universal Studios. Mom's smile stretched over her lips farther. The glow in her eyes as she sliced open pieces of watermelon and grapefruit burned itself into the back of my mind. Granny owned a small bakery on the other side of town in an upscale rural area of the suburbs. If she knew how badly I wanted to flunk out of this project, I was sure I'd give her a stroke. Swallowing a cold bite of eggs, I let it sit in my stomach like a lump of lead. After breakfast, Mom drove most of the way to Swell View high school with a twangy country music song playing on the radio, filling the desperate bubble of silence that swayed back and forth between us. My lips twitched at an attempt to smile. I couldn't let my mom or granny down, by any means necessary.

"I know you'll do excellent in this project, just like you always do with everything else."

Mom glanced over at me, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel along with the beat. I reached up to my neck and found a stray piece of hair hanging out of the sloppy top knot I balled my hair into. Oh yes, good old reliable Charlotte, with her good grades and her good manners, her polite way of speaking with no want or need for anything but to please others.

"Yes ma'am, I'll try my hardest."

I replied.

"Try?"

Mom repeated with one of her eyebrows raised as if she didn't know the meaning of the word.

"You're gonna do whatever you have to do to get an A, do you understand me? Harvard don't pay for itself baby."

She said.

"Yes, ma'am."

I swallowed several times, turning my gaze to the window. I felt the bile of my breakfast rising up in my throat but pinched the skin on my wrist to keep it down.