“So, girls, how was the first day back at school?”
Bob was just as cheery as Mia’s mom. She wondered if that’s why they married each other. Just so they could be sickeningly optimistic as each other.
Mia gave much the same response as she had earlier, while pushing the spaghetti on her plate to separate each strand from its twisted counterpart. Bob shot a look to his own daughter, who he then realised wasn’t even listening.
“Honey? What about you? Come on put the phone away and tell daddy how it went.”
Savannah rolled her eyes and pocketed the device before looping some of her dinner around her fork.
“It was great thanks, Daddy. We had our first practice today. We’re planning on tackling a new routine.”
Bob grinned at his daughter. “That’s wonderful!” Turning to Mia he added, “did we tell you Savannah is head cheerleader?”
“Only a bajillion times,” Mia mumbled under her breath. The comment earned a swift kick from her mother.
“Yes!” Said Carla brightly. “I’d love to come and see you at a game soon, Savannah.”
Savannah shot her new step-mom a fake smile.
Oblivious, Bob addressed Mia again. “Were you into anything like that at your old school Mia?”
“Mia looks more like a band kid,” Savannah smiled.
“Oh Savannah,” Bob chortled. “You are cheeky sometimes.”
Mia thought Savannah was less cheeky and more down right bitchy, but she kept her mouth shut.
Guessing her daughter wasn’t going to respond, Carla answered for her. “No not really. Mia is more focused on her studies.”
“Oh, but Savannah is too, aren’t you honey? She get’s great grades. There’s nothing my Savvy can’t do.”
Savannah giggled in a way that made Mia want to vomit. What was it with these two?
The rest of the dinner involved the two newly weds chatting about their days. Mia’s mom had recently started a new job at a local law firm as a paralegal. That’s how Bob and her had met, some boring seminar on contract law.
Mia zoned out, forcing just enough food down her neck to allow her to leave the table.
“May I be excused?” She announced, cutting over the conversation.
Carla’s eyes glanced at her daughter’s plate. “Don’t you want desert? It’s apple pie.”
Mia shook her head. “No thanks. I filled up on cookies. And I need to take Hamlet out for a walk.”
Mia didn’t really have to take Hamlet out for a walk. He was the laziest dog known to man and getting on a bit. She just wanted an excuse to leave.
Not wanting to cause an argument during what had otherwise been a pleasant-ish family dinner, Mia’s mom allowed her to go.
Picking up Hamlet’s lead, she coaxed the dog from his bed in the hallway. “Come on boy. Do me a solid. I need to get out of here for a bit.”
The old dog stretched before padding out of his nest of fleece and followed her to the front door. Mia still didn’t really know where everything was, so she decided just to do a few circles of the block. This place was a far cry from their apartment in the centre of Philadelphia. This was suburban life in all it’s mundane glory. The streets were filled with wooden panelled houses in a variety of pastel shades, each shrouded by the same shingled roof.
When she looped back round to the house she stopped quite suddenly in her tracks. The red convertible was back, although it was parked a little way away from the house this time. The blonde jock was sat in the driver’s seat, checking his phone. Mia debated about what to do. She really didn’t want to run into him, but she also felt like she shouldn’t have to double back either.
The decision was taken away when Savannah appeared. She halted on sight of Mia, and the girls eyed each other for a second.
Wondering what had caught her attention, the jock turned his head. His expression darkened when he caught sight of Mia.
“What’s up Sav? Is the freak bothering you?”
Savannah placed her hand on her hip. “This freak is the one who lives with me now.”
The jock’s mouth parted, and he studied Mia with a new curiosity. “Bummer for you. Are you getting in?”
Savannah’s eyes hadn’t left Mia yet. “Are you going to tell my dad I’m not in my room?”
Mia shook her head. “What you do is none of my business.”
Savannah sniffed, and went to open the car door. “Good. Let’s keep it that way.”
The jock cast another glance towards Mia. “See you in school freak!”
Mia sighed as she watched the back end of the car pull away and disappear down the road. She’d only been in this dreadful place for a week or so, yet it felt like a lifetime. She had to get back to Philly.
When she got back home, she walked past her mom and Bob cuddled up on the sofa watching a film.
“Nice walk honey?” Her mom called out as she heard her walk up the stairs.
“Yep. Going to work on my college applications then go to bed.”
She heard the faint sound of her mom and Bob saying good night as she closed her bedroom door, Hamlet flopping onto the bed after his unwanted excursion.
Mia went straight to the desk and opened up her laptop, pulling up her applications. All of the ones she was applying to were in Philadelphia. She wasn’t even sure she cared which one accepted her, as long as one of them did. The important part was making sure she went back home this time next year. She gave each one a scan through, checking for any errors or grammatical mistakes. Tomorrow she had her first meeting with the college application advisor in school. It was the first step towards her survival plan.
Her hands fell to the top draw, where she pulled out the paper sanctuary. Her diary was covered in navy blue velvet, the sensation under her fingers always giving her a warm feeling inside. Mia used her diary in the conventional sense, i.e. writing out her thoughts and feelings, but she also used it to make lists. She loved lists.
September 8th
As predicted Valley High is full of uncultured and unintelligent boneheads that are more concerned with football and prom rather than getting a decent education. New sister is a pom-pom princess who hates me. Her boyfriend is a dumb jock bully who thinks he’s god’s gift. Plan to get out:
Mia looked at the five steps she had written. It seemed simple enough. Now she just had to get through the next year.
Mia tapped her foot against the thin carpet, noticing how plumes of dust emitted everytime. Gross. The woman sitting opposite her was still reading the print outs Mia had handed her. She scrutinized them through thick-rimmed glasses that made her look more like a mole than a woman. The floral pattern of her blouse was giving Mia a headache, but she couldn’t leave yet.Finally, the woman who’d introduced herself as ‘Mrs Parkinson’, looked up and gave Mia a faint smile. “Well Miss Fernwood. You appear to have good grades in all your subjects, although you should work on mathematics to level it up more.”Mia nodded. She’d expected that anyway.“However, I am concerned that aside from your academic accomplishments, your extra-curricular activities are rather lacking. Remember you should be writing about those too.”Mia frowned. “What do you mean?”“Well, colleges want to see well-r
The diner was all mustard yellow walls and red shabby booths. A couple of women with pony tails and petticoat aprons walked around taking orders and pouring out coffee from a glass jug with a plastic top. It was a pretty standard American diner.“How did the meeting with the college application person go today?”Mia’s mom had insisted on picking her up after school that day and taking her for ice cream. It had been something they’d done back in Philly. Mia could tell her mom was trying to mimic some of those memories. But how could it ever be the same?“Bad.”She’d responded without even thinking, and now she wanted to punch herself in the face. She should have lied and said it went fine, because any other response would insight the upcoming barrage of questions.Carla left the long silver spoon suspended in her strawberry split, and looked at her daughter with concern. Mia hated that look.“Wh
When they pulled up to their destination, it soon became clear why the kids that hung out here might not want their parents to know. This was the spot for the ‘cool kids’. A few cars and trucks were parked up already, and down by the water a handful of teenagers were sitting on battered deck chairs, cheap brown bottles and cigarettes swinging from their fingers. A few girls were perched on the edges of boys laps, throwing their heads back in an exaggerated motion as if the boy had said the funniest thing ever.Mia realised that without the invasion of high-schoolers, the place was actually beautiful. Clear water babbled over the rocks of the river bed, bordered by foliage and trees on either side. Hamlet would love it here. She decided she would have to find somewhere similar that hadn’t been taken over by jocks and cheerleaders.She reluctantly followed Ryan and Savannah to where the group were sitting, making sure to keep her head held high.
“What on earth happened to you?!”Mia’s mom rushed towards her daughter as she entered the house. Mia was now shivering from having to sit in the back of Tyler’s open backed truck. It had been yet another humiliating instalment in the evening’s events.“Fell into a pound,” Mia muttered. Savannah had already told Mia to lie, and Mia was happy to oblige. She couldn’t cope with the fuss her mom might make if she knew the truth. She also wanted to stop being the object of Ryan’s torment. If she ratted out Savannah, he might up the ante.“Oh dear. You always were a bit clumsy.”Mia gritted her teeth so hard she thought they might crack. “I’m going to have a shower and go to bed.”After she was washed and in fresh clothes Mia sat down on the edge of her bed with her head in her hands. Why her? Why was it that nothing ever went her way? She felt Hamlet nudge her arm with h
It took a second for him to register her presence, but when he did, he almost tripped over himself. “Hello F…Mia.”Mia resisted to urge the scowl at him in front of now what appeared to be his mother. Out of all the places she could have looked for work in…“You kids know each other?”Ryan seemed to recover from his small shock, because he managed to smile at Mia in that way of his. Now she knew why Angela had seemed familiar. They looked very alike.“Yeah, Mia is the girl whose Mom married Bob Miller.”Angela looked at her perspective employee with renewed interest. “Oh right! I should have known when you said you were new in town.”Mia did her best to smile back, but the rising panic she was feeling turned it into more of a grimace.“So, what did you come in for Mia?” Ryan’s voice was layered with false geniality.“Mia came into ask about th
When it got to lunch time, Mia took what was now becoming her usual seat right at the back of the hall. It seemed that most of the kids who didn’t have anyone to sit with chose these tables. Unlike the rest of her peers though, Mia was happy with this.She was so engrossed in her book, half a cheese sandwich held aloft, she didn’t hear her voice the first time.“Mia?”Tilly was standing in front of her, a crowded lunch tray within her grasp.“Oh sorry, I didn’t hear you. Are you okay?”Tilly flushed a little. “Er yeah, I just wanted to know if it was okay for me to sit with you.”“Sure, go ahead.” Mia tried to disguise the surprise in her voice.Tilly sat down, slinging off her backpack to the floor. “Thanks. I just wanted to check you were alright. After the run in with Brook.”“Yeah, I’m fine. That was weird though.”Tilly t
“Okay so today I’ll just ask you to put out some new stock and package some stuff up for me. I’ll teach you how to use the register next weekend if you pass the trial today.”Mia nodded her head and wrung out her sweaty hands on her jeans. She hadn’t felt this nervous about something in a long time. But she had no choice, she had to see it through. Part of her also wanted to show Ryan that she was going to do whatever she wanted too.“Okay yeah, that sounds great. What would you like me to do first?”Angela tapped the boxes that were stacked on the counter. “So, these are washers.”Mia bit her lip. She had no idea what washers were.Guessing her thoughts, Angela chuckled. “They are small metal discs that go in between nuts and bolts in order to keep the fixture secure.”“Oh…okay.”“It’s alright. You’ll soon pick everything up.
Mia was shocked when Angela told her she’d passed her trial shift. She’d done okay, but she was sure someone else would have been able to do better. It was great of course, but now it definitely meant that she would probably be bumping into Ryan more than expected.When she got home, she decided to enter the house as quietly as she could. She was tired and couldn’t be bothered to go through all the questions her mom would have.Just as she was about to go upstairs, she heard Bob say her name. She wondered if he’d heard her come in, but as she got closer, she realised he was actually talking about her. Not to her.“Is she even trying? It seems like she’s not trying?” His voice echoed against the metal framed cabinets of the kitchen.“I don’t know…she’s never been right since…well. You know.”Mia’s heart faltered. Couldn’t her mom even say his name? Couldn&rsq