AllFreeNovel
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“Mom is stressed because we have to move house,” Hannah says, her eyes never leaving the page she’s coloring. For eight, she’s as sharp as a tack. “It’s not a bad thing. I don’t like this house. The back yard is too small. I can’t even play soccer out there. Can we have a big back yard in our new house?”
“I’ll add it to the list, honey.” I take a crayon and begin coloring the other page. “Where do you think we should go?” I ask.
She puts her crayon down. Scrunching her nose, she looks up at the ceiling. She’s thinking. I know because that’s how I look when I’m thinking.
“We should move in with Kim and Damon.”
Kim puffs out her cheeks and we both shake our heads.
That’s definitely not the answer.
Handing me a cup of coffee, Kim crouches and takes Hannah’s hand. “You are more than welcome to stay with me any time. You know that. But me and your mom can’t live together.”
“Why?”
My sweet, innocent baby.
“Because we’d end up killing each other, sweetie,” Kim answers honestly.
She’s not wrong.
I love my sister with every fiber of my body, but there are times when those same fibers want to strangle her.
“But can’t we live closer to you?”
Kim turns to me. “It’s not a bad idea.”
“You live in the middle of nowhere. We need civilization. And Hannah, Kim lives two hours away. If we move closer to her, it means you will need to move to a different school.”
“Good. I hate my school.”
My mouth falls open in shock. “Since when?”
She lifts her shoulders. “Since forever.”
I pull her from her chair and into my lap, guilt making my stomach churn. She never said a word. “Why do you hate your school?”
I want her to give the obvious answer. The simple one. I want her to say she hates school for no reason like so many other children, but she doesn’t.
“When we lived with all the other moms, their kids were like me.”
Like me.
She sees herself differently and it breaks my heart.
“You still have all those friends. We meet with them every week.”
“I know. School is just different, I guess.”
I kiss the top of her head. “I’m sorry, baby girl.”
“It’s okay, Mom.”
It’s not okay.
None of this is okay.
“Private schools,” Kim says into her coffee. “You pay a small mortgage for an education and that’s how she’s treated.”
