“Luna, your dad is picking you up tomorrow morning. Is that enough time to pack?”
“Yeah, I am almost done.”
“Oh, I can see if he can get you today so then you can start having fun with him?” Luna couldn’t tell if her mom was trying to stall time for Luna or if she wanted to get rid of her faster.
“Tomorrow morning is better for me to make sure everything is there.”
“Okay, I will let him know. Do you want to talk with him or are you focused on packing?”
“I’m focused on packing and I want to start some of my break homework so when I come back it isn’t a lot for me to do.”
“Okay, good thinking.” Luna knew what to say to get her mother to leave her alone, which was always about school. Luckily for her, only two teachers gave her homework, math and language arts. She took her homework out of her bag and went to her bed that was covered with clothes that she knew she’d have to fold or hang up but she was focused on her homework. She finished her math homework within an episode of Hannah Montana, it felt like a personal best but it was an easy worksheet. She wanted to talk to Oliver about the homework in case he needed help with it, but she didn’t have his number or even knew if he had a phone. She missed him, she questioned if he would know what to do when she was going crazy in the bathroom, would he know how to calm her down, would he know what was happening to her? All the questions she wanted him to answer immediately but she knew he couldn’t.
Luna stared at her language arts homework and she kept staring at it as if it was going to complete itself. She didn’t like language arts, she felt like she couldn’t understand what the purpose was for a semicolon or a colon. She went to her mom for help on her homework because she knew her mom would be in complete control of the homework and Luna knew that if she did the homework wrong, it wouldn’t be her fault, but her mother’s.
“Mom, can you help me with my homework? I am having issues with it, I can’t tell when to use a semicolon or a colon, but also I am looking at the sentences, I feel like nothing is wrong with them, but I know that I am wrong about that.” She handed her homework to her mom who was only allowed to help Luna with English homework.
“Okay, so let’s see what I can do to help.” For the next 45 minutes, Luna and her mom were working on Luna’s homework. She wanted to make sure that her homework was all done before going to her dad’s. She has the motivation to do it all now instead of later. She didn’t want to think about homework when she was with her dad.
After we finished her homework, her mom decided to ask Luna a question, “How are you enjoying middle school?” That question could be answered in so many different ways but she knew that answering that in any way that wasn’t the correct one for her would lead to a whole other issue.
“It is fun but hard, I do have a couple of friends and two are from Mrs. Lewis’ class, which is nice to have old friends.” That should be good.
“Is one of them the boy that you stayed close to during orientation?” Luna could hear her heart stop, no wonder no one brought it up, her mom was going for the kill shots alone.
“Oh, Oliver. He is a friend but he is like a brother to me.” She could feel all the knives twisting into his back right now. A brother? Why not a cousin, a brother? She wants to kiss someone she called a brother, that sounds bad.
“Oliver is like a brother to you, I don’t think he sees it that way.”
“What do you mean?” Smart thinking Luna, play dumb! Very Dumb!
“I think Oliver likes you, and I think you like him too. I just wanted to ask, but since you see him as a brother, you might want to let him know.” The amount of internal screaming that is happening right now was high but she wanted to get her mother off the trail of her love life, if that’s what she would call it.
“Okay, I will let him know. Thanks for helping me with my homework, I am going to check if I am fully packed and I will clean my room before I leave.” Luna needed to leave before the lecture of school should be her first priority and that boys can come later. She picked up her homework and notes, and started walking away.
“Okay, if you ever want to talk about anything I am here for you.” She wanted to believe her mom, she did but she knows that’s not true.
The rest of the day went smoothly, she focused on packing and cleaning her room. She put all her clothes away, vacuumed her floor, and dusted everywhere including on the giant tv. She did it all and finished 2 hours later. She didn’t know what to do with herself so she was focused on listening to Music Choice for Today’s Hits to learn some songs. She wanted to learn every song to be ahead of herself for a talent show. As she watched time pass by, she questioned if she should have gone early because her mom had nothing for her to do and she did all her homework.
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