A WEEK AGO

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SAMSON

Samson woke up from his deep sleep thanks to the persistent ringing of his alarm clock. He rolled around on his bed, not wanting to respond to the call so he pushed the clock off his nightstand and it fell to the floor.

Samson covered himself up with his blanket and went back to sleep only to be suddenly forced awake by his little brother Jamie, who jumped on top of him in an attempt to wake him up.

"Wake up, Sam. Wake up! It's time for school. Mom's already made breakfast and I need you to drop me off at my school." Jamie said in his innocent, adorable little voice.

"Get off me, Jamie. It's the last day of school before the holidays. We don't need to go early so leave me be." Samson said and tried to sleep again.

"Let's go, Sam." Jamie cried out and gave Samson a smackdown, landing hard on his belly.

"Oh, that hurts!" Samson said in playful anger. "You want to wrestle, little man? Let's do it then, come on." Samson said and picked up his little brother and threw him over the bed and began tickling him.

"Stop it Sam!" Jamie said while laughing.

"If you want me to stop, you have to tap out and admit defeat," Samson said playfully.

"Fine, I give up," Jamie said and tapped the bed with his hand.

Suddenly, their mother walked into the room, looking very serious.

"Enough of that Sam. Get downstairs the two of you and get ready for school." Their mom said, sounding a bit angry.

"You better get going little man," Samson told his brother who hurried off and went downstairs.

"And what about you?" She asked him.

"I'll be down in a second Ma. Jeez!" He said with sarcasm and a little disrespect.

"Hurry up. You have to take your brother to school and I have an early shift at the clinic." She said and left the room.

Samson rolled over to the side of his bed and unplugged his phone from the charging port and began texting his friends on their group chat.

"Morning guys, 🥱" He wrote in a text, "Crazy morning here at home. Wouldn't be coming to school today if it wasn't the last time I'll be seeing your ugly faces this year."

"Very funny." Another person with the name tag 'Nelly' typed.

"How's your morning going?" Samson asked.

"Not so great either."

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NELLY

Nelly was the youngest of his group of friends at just sixteen years old while Samson was the oldest at eighteen. Just like Samson, he lived with his single mom and his sick, old grandfather. His dad abandoned them when he was still very little and he had no siblings.

Nelly was at the breakfast table, texting his friends on his phone while having his meal while his mother was scrambling all over the place looking for something.

Nelly put down the phone to enquire what she was so worked up about.

"What are you looking for, Mom?"

"Your Pop's medication. I left them on the kitchen counter but I can't seem to find them anymore."

Nelly looked at the table where he was eating from and pointed at some medicine containers.

"This medication right here on the table?" He asked his mother with a little arrogance.

"How did I not see that?" She asked and put her palm on her head. She walked over to the table and grabbed the medication and took it to her dad who seemed to be in a vegetative-like state but not entirely.

"Here Dad! Time to take your medicine." She said and gave him his drugs to take and some water to swallow with.

"You need to take a break Mom. You're working way too hard and you need to just relax a little." Nelly said to her. He had the best of intentions but was a little unrealistic.

"Oh sure. I'll take a nice long break, maybe go to the salon to get a haircut and do my nails and all our bills will just magically pay themselves." She said sarcastically.

"You don't have to yell at me Mom, I'm just trying to help," Nelly said defensively.

"If you really want to help, then as soon as school closes, come straight home and look after your Pops while I work at the restaurant." She said.

"When did you start working at the restaurant?" Nelly asked, recalling the last conversation they had about her working in a restaurant in the evenings and how she decided not to do it.

"I start today."

"You decided to take the job?"

"Yes Nelly, I did. My job at the DMV doesn't earn me enough and we need the extra money so I took the job."

Nelly was upset that she didn't tell him about her decision earlier and was now trying to spoil the plans he had already made with his friends.

"Why do I need to come back early and watch over Pops? What about Brenda?" He asked.

"I had to let her go. We cannot afford a private nurse at this moment so you're going to have to chip in a lot more around here." His mom said to him.

Nelly groaned in frustration and rolled his eyes at his mother.

"Can I count on you to come home and take care of your Pops?" She was more serious now.

"Fine, I'll be back as soon as I can," Nelly said angrily.

"Thank you. I have to go to work now so make sure you go to school so you don't miss any of the important last day announcements. I'll ask Mrs Johnson to check up on Pops while we're out."

"Ok"

As she got to the door, she said to her son. "See you later Nelly. I love you."

"Yeah Yeah, you too Mom," he replied without even looking at her and she left.

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PEACE

"You boys think your morning sucks, count yourselves lucky that you don't live in my house." Peace wrote in a text on the group chat.

"Why? What's going on at your house?" Nelly asked on the chat.

"Oh, nothing! Just woke up to the blissful sound of my parents arguing." She wrote.

"Again?" Samson asked.

"Just like always. Gotta get ready for school. See you in a few."

And she went offline to prepare for her day at school today. Peace had twin younger sisters and they both looked up to her and always ran to her for comfort whenever their parents were having a fight.

"Peace, Mommy and Daddy are fighting again." Jasmine, one of the twins said as they entered Peace's room.

"It's okay. They're just talking. Come here!" She said to them and gestured to them to climb into her bed. They got in the bed and she held both of them with both hands.

"And what do we do when Mommy and Daddy are talking?" She asked them.

"Stay far away from them!" The two girls said in unison.

"Exactly. And even more important, we leave the house so let's all go have our baths and get ready for school." Peace said.

"We already had our bath." Lilly, the other twin said.

"Really?" Peace asked and sniffed both of them, "Then how come you both smell disgusting?" She teased.

"No, we don't. That smell is probably all you." Jasmine replied.

Peace sniffed herself and grimaced in disgust, "Eww, you're right, I stink. Alright, let me fix you up some breakfast and I'll go take a shower. Sound good?"

"Yes!" The twins said in unison again and they all went downstairs.

Peace made them some toast and eggs and poured them some orange juice. The twins ate their meal and as soon as they were done, their school bus honked at the driveway.

"That's the bus. Here are your lunches. And have fun, okay?" Peace said and saw them off. She watched them board the school bus and drive off.

She went back inside and ate the little food that was left in the kitchen. She went back into her room and went to take her bath. She got dressed for school, wearing a short, tight skirt and a sleeveless blouse with a lot of goth make-up. As she was about to leave for school, her father came out of his bedroom and spotted her at the door.

"And where do you think you're going dressed like that?" He scolded.

"Dressed like what, Dad?"

"Dressed like a little slut, with that short skirt and that top that's showing off all that skin." He said without curbing his tongue.

"This is the way I always dress Dad." She said in defiance.

"No, it isn't." He denied, oblivious to how his own daughter dressed.

"Yes, it is. You're just always so busy arguing with Mom that you never notice."

"You better watch the way you talk to me. I may have problems with your mother but that doesn't give you the right to disrespect me. I'm still your father." He warned her.

"If you want me to respect you, then start acting like a real father. Your little girls already left for school and you didn't even see them and now, you're giving me all this BS about my clothes."

"Peace! Mind your mouth." Her mother said suddenly after also coming out of the bedroom.

Peace scoffed and picked up her phone from the parlor table.

"You two are perfect for each other." And she left the house, slamming the door shut in anger.