The bad girl and the dork

I woke up to the smell of cookies. Urgh, that was not a good sign.

Usually people would be thrilled to wake up like this, right? Well, not if you live in this household. You see, my mom bakes when she's stressed. Cookie smell equals misery.

A few years ago I woke up to the same smell and went downstairs to check on my mom. She looked horrible. She obviously had been baking the entire night and the kitchen was filled with cookies and cake. I could even see a pie in the oven.

When she spotted me she gestured for me to sit down. By this time my heart was about to explode. The more cookies, the worse she feels. Since the entire kitchen looked like a bakery, I knew something was very very wrong.

That morning she told me my grandpa had died. He was my mom's dad, so she took it hard. I had to take a lot of cookies to school because we couldn't finish them by ourselves.

Yep, this smell definitely means trouble.

I really just wanted to pull the blanket over my head and fall asleep in my cocoon of awesomeness but curiosity won. Plus I needed to know if my mom was having a mental breakdown.

I looked at my alarm and noticed I could've been sleeping for another half hour. Damn you, cookie smell!

I scratched the back of my head and noticed my hair probably resembled a rat's nest. At least I'd have some extra time to get it sorted out. Yay positivity! Sigh.

Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes I went down the stairs towards the kitchen.

"Ow hot hot hot!" Ah, the sound of another batch of cookies.

My mom didn't see me when I entered the kitchen. I sighed in relief as I watched the state the kitchen was in. Only two trays of cookies.

That wasn't too bad. Mom looked dishevelled and stressed but not sad or anything. This wasn't a Britney Spears meltdown.

"Morning mom." My mom shrieked. Oops, guess I scared her.

"Jill! How long have you been standing there you creep!" She exclaimed. Yes, my own mom just called me a creep. No, this wasn't the first time that had happened.

My mom and I are very close. I'm an only child and when my parents got a divorce I stayed with her, so it was just my mom and me. It worked fine for both of us.

Sometimes she acted more like a friend than a parent but hey, I definitely wasn't complaining.

"I know I just woke up but creep is a little harsh isn't it?" I said while grabbing a cookie. She'd baked chocolate chip cookies, my favorite. They were still a little warm so the chocolate melted a little.

Give me a moment while I devour this little piece of heaven. Sweet baby jesus.

"I don't know Jill, the rat that's been living in your hair might agree with me." She said. We laughed. I inherited my honesty from that woman. Yes, I call it honesty, but most people call it sarcasm. Our humor is very dry. Unlike these cookies. The cookies were perfect.

She looked a little tired and her dirty blonde hair was in a messy bun. "So... are you opening a bakery of is there a reason why I'm eating cookies?" I asked when I noticed she'd gone back to stressing.

"Eh... well." Oh she's so articulate. "Uhuh, interesting, what else?" I asked impatiently. She sighed and grabbed a cookie. I started to get worried.

"Mom...?" I grabbed another cookie. Oh have I mentioned I'm a stress eater? Yeah, my mom and I are very complementary. She likes to bake when she's stressed and I like to eat when I'm stressed.