Jaded: Chapter 3

Jade looks blankly at her mother in a state of disbelief about the happenings of the day. She never imagined that she would get caught. Or did she?1

In a sudden burst of perception, Jade screams out "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to say what I did to Mr. Messer!"2

"Yes you did!" her mother answers back. "You just didn't mean to get in trouble! You didn't mean anything, because you didn't think! Damn you! Why can't you be more like your sister? She never lies to her teachers!"3

Jade sits silently, analyzing her mother's words. Why couldn't she be more like her sister? "I hate my life" is the mumble she closes the conversation with.4

Her mom's small car stops at her house. "Get in your room. You're grounded until the end of the school semester."5

Not wishing further punishment, Jade abides by her mother's demands. After the small flight of stairs. Jade turns right and enters her room. "Stupid. Mom doesn't know the semester ends on Friday," she remarks as she closes the door to her room. She sits on her bottom bunk and looks at the pictures hanging framed around her room, each one a picture of her no-less-than-perfect sister.6

Jade's father races into the room. "What the hell were you thinking?! If even one more of your dense ideas decides to leave your head, you will be on your way to the city orphanage!"7

"Leave me alone!" Jade shouts at the top of her lungs. She runs for the bathroom and locks both doors. She sits on the floor crying. Her father finally exits the room possibly more enraged than when he entered.8

Jade falls asleep on the bathroom rug after hours of sobbing. When her sister comes into their room to call Jade for dinner, Jade screams that she'll kill her sister, Laura, if she doesn't leave. Laura shrugs it off and hops down the stairs and across the foyer to the kitchen. Jade cries herself to sleep once more after a look at her stained red face.9

Jade looks down at her old purple watch. It reads 9:42. She is no longer capable of sleeping, so she looks for something to do. "I'm never going back to my family; I'm never leaving this room," she thinks repeatedly. She looks through the medicine cabinet but all she sees is a razor.10