She didn’t care. So far as she could tell, scaring people was good. That meant that she was powerful, intimidating, and able to take care of herself.
She even told her parents this when they asked her how the job hunt was going. They had a few suggestions for her, and she had a few suggestions for them. She didn’t take their suggestions well. They took hers even worse.
True, she would have liked to have gone to Europe—she had always dreamed of seeing Stonehenge, not that she’d ever tell anyone that—but she assumed that with a big thing like a trip to Europe, that they were bluffing. She and David had always gone on their big trips. They couldn’t possibly leave their kids home for something so stupid.
They were not bluffing.
People—even her parents—are idiots.
That’s why she was making her survival kits. Stupid people doing stupid things. One of her favourite movies—War Games—dealt with that very concern: stupid people overreacting to things they didn’t understand.
That, and she actually was toying with the idea of running away, though she thought of it more as “striking out on her own.” This idea was more appealing to her, as she viewed running away as a ridiculous overreaction. The irony was not lost on her.
People didn’t understand her, and they always overreacted. Calling her things like Dracula, or corpse lady, or freak, or worse. They were afraid of her. She was fine with that. She was better than fine with that. If she “struck out on her own,” she wouldn’t have to deal with any of that. She could be a poet, or a scientist, or whatever she wanted. People would respect her, not be afraid of her.
“Did you pack all the Zoodles, too?”
She really wished David was more afraid of her. She knew it was there a little, but not nearly as much as she wanted.
“Aunt Carol doesn’t have Zoodles, spaz,” she replied, not bothering to look up at him. She knew that he hated being ignored.
“But,” he started, an edge of concern creeping in, “yesterday I had—”
“Yesterday, you finished the Zoodles that Mom and Dad gave Aunt Carol,” she said, finally glancing at him. “Because they know you are ridiculously picky and like to eat garbage.”
David stared back, chewing on his lip. She knew he had something to say, but questioned how far he had pushed her already that day. She glanced back with a slight smile that clearly read ‘is what you have to say worth what I’ll do to you?’
Evidently, he thought it was.
“You know you’re storing boxed cereal in jars, right? And when that is gone—which will be really soon—you’ll just have literal garbage to eat when you run away, right?”
“Ugh!” she exclaimed, more to make him jump than out of actual frustration. She was a little frustrated, but he did jump so that made her feel a bit better. “I’m not running away, spaz!”
“Well, then what are you—”
She slammed her hand down on the table before he got a chance to finish the question. He stopped himself short and simply walked away.
As she got back to checking items off her survival kit list, she thought about what would happen if someone with enough power did do something stupid. How society itself would crumble, and she would be on her own.
Finally, blissfully, on her own.
It was all she ever wanted.
KAITLYN
“Oh my God, Kaitlyn! That’s gross!”
“Shut up, Brittany!”
The group of girls giggled as they strolled down the street, bundles of papers in their hands. They had spent much of the day the same way they spent most of their free time when they were together: talking about boys they liked, how much they hated Mr. Leblanc’s homeroom class, and pretty much any other topic that flitted into their minds at any given moment.
Part of Kaitlyn disliked how simple the time they spent together was. She was maturing and, frankly she felt that she had, in many ways, surpassed the other three of the group that had been together ever since Grade Primary. On the other hand, she loved living vicariously through them—they did a lot of things that even she wasn’t ready for. Sarah had a boyfriend, an idea that both scared and excited Kaitlyn.
But, though those topics popped up with predictable frequency, they had moved on. Now was all about business. Each of the girls had decided to make money, and the best way for any fourteen-year-old girl to make money was babysitting. Brittany swore that selling homemade smokes in the girl’s bathroom at school was easier, but everyone else agreed that babysitting was safer. The best way to get babysitting jobs was with flyers, and Jennifer’s dad had brought his printer home from work, so they had a technological leg-up on their competition. Within the group there was no competition, other than bragging rights over who got the most cash or the cushiest job. They all swore to recommend one another if they were double-booked or the job was nearer to any of their houses.
Kaitlyn really hoped it would work. She desperately needed the money. She was sick of the little black and white TV in her bedroom, and her mother had told her if she could raise half, she’d give her the rest to buy a new one. Her father had offered to pay for the whole thing, which led to an argument, which led to a slammed down phone and Kaitlyn not hearing from her dad for two weeks. Usually she could play the two off one another much better, in which case she would have had a free colour TV by that point, but now the best offer was half a free TV. She would have to take it. Her TV barely even got channel 8 anymore, and if she had to miss much more Growing
