Victoria Aspen's life just turned inside out.
She has been forced to move into the house she used to spend every summer in. It's been so long since she was welcomed back into the family and this time... they didn't really have a choice.
But thi...
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I never planned for this day to be like it is. If you asked me six months ago what I'd be doing today, I probably would have laughed and pretended not to care all that much. I'd mention something about a party that I didn't intend on throwing, which would probably result in some sort of semi-celebratory store bought cupcake with a candle poking out of the frosting.
I definitely didn't intend to be going back to school without kissing my mother goodbye on her birthday.
I didn't realise. Not until I opened my notebook this morning in Literature to copy down the date. And now I'm frozen in a seat too warm for this carcass resting on my shoulders.
She would have been forty two today. Should have been.
Haunt me.
"Do you have a pencil I can borrow?" A familiar voice pipes beside me. I don't move. "I've told Dylan again and again that they're my property, but – Hey. Are you okay?"
I nod numbly and flick a chewed pencil her way. That's a bad habit of mine. That and forgetting birthdays that mark deathdays.
For another sixty four minutes, a peppy teacher drones on about commas and dialogue and I'm not breathing in whatever vapour she's trying to embed inside of our brains. I think she says that full stops are to end something completely. There's no going back after a full stop. The sentence is over and you move on.
I think I left a full stop for my mother to choke on after I left that day.
My. Mother. Won't. Be. Aging. Another. Year. Because. Of. Me.
"Tori?" Something tugs on my arm and I flinch. My gaze slowly shifts back into reality where Katherine Anderson wants to go to lunch. I feel sick. "Let's go?"
I realise that the bell must have rung a long time ago, because we're the last students remaining in the classroom and Mrs Pace is tapping her foot impatiently. She drinks too much coffee.
I swear people begin morphing into each other as we float down the halls, sounds crashing into each other like a train wreck in slow motion. I only register final clips of sentences that Katherine is babbling on about.
"... and he gets to go home in lunch! I'm so jealous."
"What?"
She sends me a concerned look before backtracking slowly. "Dylan. Dylan gets to skip the rest of the day to train."
Oh, yes. The footballers have a game tonight. The first day back at school and apparently they all have to play against some other finalist from around Annandale. Or Virginia. I don't know, but it's something worth Alex's bragging time, so it must be important.
Their coach has requested for all of them to be excused from classes early to prepare and be ready to play by school's end. But I think most of them are just thankful for being able to skip the better half of a school day.
