Pick-me-up by Cecilia La France Read Free Book Online Page A

not about them. It’s about you. You want to end up
living off welfare? You want to be stuck working dead end jobs?
Look at me. I didn’t like school. Hell, I barely made it. But, I
tell you what, I took what I needed from it. I own my own business,
Katelyn. I hire people to work for me. I make more money than
teachers.”
    Katelyn started to bite her nails. She was
too mad to listen to her dad’s message, but she let him continue
until he brought the topic back to her. She wondered if he would be
delivering the punishment, whatever her mom had decided. Or, was
she in for another speech when she walked inside?
    “You’re not going to like or get along with
everything or everyone in your life, Katelyn. You’re just going to
have to get through it. It may seem hard, but that’s what makes you
stronger.” He measured the logic of his own words for a moment,
satisfied with his thesis.
    Katelyn was tiring of the sermon. She knew
what he needed. “Alright, dad,” she muttered. “You’re right.”
    “That’s my girl,” he said as the blonde,
short frame of her mom stepped behind the window frame of the
screen door. Katelyn’s insides sank as she read the stern
expression on her mom’s face. Her dad turned around to register the
new presence and he seemed to shrink inside himself, too. He turned
from the door and stepped off the steps, heading to his truck for a
cigarette.
    The door pushed open just enough for her mom
to deliver one line. “Get in here.” Somehow, Katelyn guessed, the
no-yelling contract would be broken tonight.
     

Chapter 8:
Grounded
    Grounded. Katelyn lay on her bed with her stereo
blaring heavy rock music. Brianna had already been the messenger
once. “Mom says to turn that crap down.” Katelyn had turned it down
a few notches, only after slamming the door in Brianna’s face. She
wanted it loud. It was her protest against her punishment, a month
grounded—no friends over and no staying at friends’ houses. Katelyn
had to be home at 5 p.m. everyday, allowing for after school study
hour, which she never attended anyways. There was no loss in not
having friends stay. She never brought them home anyway.
    Now she truly was imprisoned.
    The song pounded through the room. The singer
ripped into the scream of the chorus. She was tempted to scream
along. She knew it was late, past 10 p.m. She was told to do her
homework and clean her room. This, of course, was demanded after
her mom ripped into her about her behavior with Gorman.
    I can’t believe Gorman made an issue about
getting cussed at , she thought. What a baby. She could
understand his reporting her walking out and the office referral
from Teacher Woman, but to make a big deal about being told to
F-off was wimpy, not to mention called attention to his action of
grabbing her arm. Katelyn smiled wickedly when she remembered her
dad saying he’d call him. Katelyn wished she could see Gorman’s
face when her dad let loose on him.
    She wasn’t quite sure which part her mom was
most upset about. “Disrespect” had been a high frequency word in
her mom’s sermon. She did, however, throw in guilt about all the
problems Katelyn was creating for herself and everyone else. Her
mom had almost started crying after she said, “What’s happened to
you? Why are you acting this way?”
    Katelyn laid on her bed and wondered about
that question herself. Something was burning inside her, like there
was an animal clawing its way out. So many things seemed to be
going wrong.
    Katelyn didn’t get the things the teachers
were talking about. They were so boring. Katelyn couldn’t care less
about the periodical table, and when she tried to memorize any of
the symbols, her mind just couldn’t hold on to them. Her tests were
a disaster; she would spend most of the exam chewing on her nails
as her she stared at the words in front of her. Science was the
worst, but she was also failing PE and English. PE was the first
class of her day and being late all the