Twerk or Dare

TD [27] Good Luck

Are you a parking ticket? Because you've got fine written all over you.

Chapter Twenty Seven

Elaine let out a huff as she walked along the aisle, shopping basket leisurely hanging from her arm. The quality spending time with her son Pearce yesterday had been a bust. He was glued to his computer for most of the day, denying his mother permission to enter. When Elaine attempted to intrude, she discovered he'd barricade the door with a chair.

The only time he had stepped out of his bedroom was to ask Elaine for aspirin. It worried her. She had been thrilled to come home the other day to see Pearce had made a friend other than Jessie but she didn't feel at ease. She felt like something was amiss and her parenting guide website had taught her not to ignore such a thing.

Keys to Parenting rule number. 3: If you sense something is wrong in a peaceful family environment, SOMETHING is wrong.

A Mirror Screen was what the site had dubbed it. When one or more members of the family were hiding something so they conceal it in a screen which makes everything seem fine and transparent with nothing going on when truly, it was backwards.

One needed to destroy the screen in order to see the true picture. Before taking action, Elaine had to verify if her intuition was right by asking Pearce if anything was bothering him. Her son replied by saying, "Yes, you."

Which meant he was dodging the question because something was there. The next step was now removing the screen but Elaine could only do that by getting a confession.

Rule number. 7: When gaining an answer from your child, one must pull NEVER push.

Elaine had to pull Pearce into feeling a sense of safeness and calmness in order to get a confession. Thus, she had gone to the supermarket to buy cheese for making his favourite sandwich which always made him less on guard. Also, there was a sale on fruit today.

Rule number. 23: ALWAYS feed your children the vitamins of today so they can fight the diseases of tomorrow.

Elaine honestly wasn't sure how well the sandwich strategy would work. It was all she could think of. Unlike Peyton or Paris, Pearce was very closed off towards everybody. Elaine suspected it had gotten worse from the stress of having to change schools and homes. Elaine had wanted Pearce to enroll in a private school this time because she was sure he'd fit in better and it'd be easier to settle into but Allen still refused. He'd use that same argument of saying "A private school didn't do any good for Peyton."

Well, at least at a private school they would properly investigate before suspending a student with insufficient evidence. Elaine thought to herself.
She was still quite peeved by that. The suspension would be on Pearce's permanent record, making him look like some kind of scoundrel, a delinquent- it was outrageous!

Elaine hadn't realised how hard she'd been clenching the orange in her hand until an employee spoke up. "Um, ma'am you're gonna have to pay for that."

Elaine peered down at the round fruit that was now slightly squished, its juice on the verge of gushing out. "Oh right. Sorry." She flashed the employee a friendly smile which he warily nodded in return to, frightened.

"Elaine?" called a voice.

She turned to see two women hauling trolleys approaching her with smiles.
"Nancy, Mel hey." Elaine greeted.

She'd become acquainted with the pair at a parents teachers meeting she'd attended at Paris' school. Their paths would cross at other family functions or local stores.

"Heard about the sale huh?" guessed Nancy.

"Yeah." Elaine nodded.

"My youngest kid Bree is all about apples these days." Mel stated.