Chapter 2

Once home, Katherine stripped and took a shower. The water washing over her felt so great, and while she was also angry about the school system, it also felt almost good to have her secret out so she wouldn’t have to be afraid that someone would catch her with a stray textbook. She had no reason to want to stay hidden now, and maybe she would have some direction to her studies. There had to be some way to get into high school, since that was where she belonged, but Katherine had no clue how. She still had all of the seventh and eighth grade to finish, and with her reputation, it would be hard put for her to not take them each twice. God, I’ll be 18 by the time I’m a freshman! she thought. The water was turning cold, and she was shriveling up, so Katherine decided to get out of the shower and go looking for the note that her mother always left for her and Alex. She read;

Katherine-- I’ve taken Alex to his father’s house, he found a new wife and it was agreed that if he did this then Alex would go stay with him. Sorry we didn’t tell you sooner. I’ll be back after work. Be good. --Mom

Katherine was enraged that she hadn’t been told, but more importantly, that she and Alex would be apart. It wasn’t fair in her mind to just mix things up like that. And who was this new woman? Somebody more complacent, who didn’t mind not seeing her husband often and would do anything. Probably some old biddy of a woman, she thought. The thing that irked her the most was that her mother didn’t even seem to care, and that she didn’t even leave a number to call her at. She hadn’t even told Katherine where she was working.
Katherine’s mother hadn’t been as active in Katherine’s daily life and school work for a few months now. Usually she’d try to coax better grades out of her and do fun stuff if it worked. Lately though, she had been staying out later and later and would just sign the report card of the notes from school and not even read it. She had even started smoking, only outside of course, but it still made Katherine hate her mother more than ever. She could see that drugs and alcohol were integrating themselves into her mother’s daily lives, and suddenly it struck Katherine that it might not be outrageous to suggest that her mother’s new job could be prostitution. Katherine felt no pity for her mother, loathing if anything. For to her, someone who would do that to themselves was just sad and sick and ought to be avoided.
With more anger than ever, Katherine left the house and walked to a park with a book or two. She stayed there ‘till it got dark then took the bus home. It didn’t scare her to be out like that, there might be undesirables, but then, so was her mother. She got home and there was her mother, waiting at the kitchen table.
“You didn’t leave a note,” she said accusingly.
“You didn’t leave a number,” said Katherine, just as accusingly.
“Go to your room and leave me alone. Either that or make dinner,” said her mother.
“You make dinner. I’ve already eaten,” she said back. It was a lie, but she wasn’t hungry anyway. It didn’t matter, she could sneak out and get something if she got hungry.
The school had called, her mother yelled at her from the kitchen. It appeared that she was going to be having a meeting with the principal and her mother wasn’t happy that she would have to miss work. Ha, thought Katherine, you deserve to miss work. Her mother did get up the next morning though, and drove Katherine to school. The principal grumbled something about a promotion policy and that if she was going to be a bother in the classroom, and if she thought that she was so smart that she should take a few tests and show them. The principal thought that Katherine was just being another smart-ass flunky and refused to believe that Katherine would even pass the tests. Skeptics all, thought Katherine. She was a bit nervous, since she hadn’t really studied the correct or the same curriculum. Oh well, it couldn’t get any worse, she thought. So Katherine agreed to take the test that would get her out of 6th into 7th and if she passed that, any other tests that she would need.
Katherine passed with flying colors, and proceeded to take the next test, that would get her from 7th into 8th. All day long she was passing tests, some were harder than others just to remember back, but almost all she passed. She was officially in 9th grade because she had only come close to passing the other high school ones, but it was still impressive. She didn’t go to class all day and had lunch in the office. At the end of the school day they told her to come back the next day but report to her regular classes.
Katherine got home to find no note but a backpack and a few items of her mother’s clothing gone. She didn’t exactly care, it wasn’t like she was going to miss the bitch. When she came home the next day and her mother still wasn’t there, she called the police because she was tired of waiting for her mother to come back. The police came and asked a few questions like “do you have other family,” to which she answered yes, thinking of Alex, and “do you have any idea of where she might be,” to which she answered no. They took her to the station and she sat for a while, doing self-assigned homework and answering more questions. The chief was appalled to hear that she hadn’t called the police for a whole day. In the end, her father and The Mother (the name she gave her step-mom) came and picked her up. The Mother clucked over the state of her clothes and her father just looked agitated, as if to say “I don’t care if you come live with us, I did give you life, but don’t make me come away from my work again.” It was a tiring affair but the good thing was that she got to see a shrink named Yoshi the next day at school who had been filled in on her case and promised to bring her books and get her out of the school. He was her savior.
The great Katherine hated home and she hated everything about the arrangement except being able to be with Alex again. She got the back bedroom, a small place, but good enough for her. As long as it had a door and four walls, she’d be happy with it. The Mother was always taking her to schools to see if they would be good for her and getting in her business. How true was her assumption that the new woman would be an old biddy and not leave anything alone. Alex liked her though, so Katherine resolved to just try to keep out of sight.

To be continued...


Next_Chapter_(3)
Back_To_Chapter_1
Back_To_Main_Page 1