Etching Our Way (Broken Tracks 1)

All of those thoughts run through my head on a daily basis, never giving me a break.

“Maybe your dad can go in to your school and talk to the teachers?” Mom interrupts. I turn to her as she smiles softly, silently encouraging me but I don’t see it like that. She’s involving herself in things that she doesn’t need to; judging me and my parenting skills.

“Can you?” Clay asks, his face full of hope.

I narrow my eyes at Mom before she walks out of the room and turn my gaze back to Clay. “Sure,” I tell him. “Is school work the only thing that’s bothering you?”

“Yeah.” He sits up straighter in his seat, a grin taking over his entire face as Mom brings bowls of vegetables in and places them in the middle of the table.

“Izzie? Choose where you want to sit, munchkin,” she says.

I watch Izzie as she skips around the table, lifting up onto the chair at the head. Mom chuckles and turns toward Edward. “Looks like you’re stuck sitting next to me.” She winks. My eyes widen in shock, she winked! I think I’ve stepped into a parallel universe.

I choke on the mouthful of water I try to swallow and cough to cover it up, my eyes looking anywhere but at either of them.

“Do you need help?” I ask, trying to break the awkwardness that I’m feeling.

“No, I’ve got it,” she answers, flitting back out of the room.

Once she places the last plate down, she sits next to Edward, smirking at him and whispering something.

I don’t know where to look while eating dinner, Mom is blatantly flirting with Edward while talking to Izzie and Clay simultaneously. It doesn’t matter how old you get, that’s something that you don’t want to see your parent do.

I cringe constantly a

s she makes remarks about his life and how they should “go out for drinks sometime.”

Once we’ve all eaten, we move to the living room, Mom refusing to let me help clear the table and saying that it’s her job to do that.

Izzie cuddles up next to Mom as Clay sits with me on the love seat, his book resting on his lap but left closed.

“Miss J is so pretty,” Izzie says out of the blue. “Her eyes are so… so…” she looks up at the ceiling, her hand on her chin in thought. “Bright!”

I chuckle at the choice of words and turn to Mom as she calls my name.

“Have you met Miss J?”

“No, but I’ve met Tilly, one of the other women who work there,” I tell her. “They have to be in class for six weeks before we get to sit in on a class for watching week.”

“Ahhh,” she says, lifting the glass of white wine to her lips. “She sounds like a fantastic teacher.”

“She is,” Clay agrees. “On the first day, she told me that books are art too, did you know that, Nana?”

“I did.” She nods.

“I told you that too,” I say, pulling back and making a face at him.

“Yeah.” He shrugs. “But she knows what she’s talking about, she’s an art teacher.” We all chuckle but he doesn’t crack a smile before he says, “I can’t wait for class this week, Miss J said that she has a special surprise for me.”

I place my hand on his back and frown. I can’t say that it doesn’t bother me that I haven’t met her yet, the only thing stopping me from barging in there and demanding to meet her is the fact that neither Clay nor Izzie will shut up about her. It’s all they’ve talked about since they started the classes, and the huge smiles that adorn their faces when they come out of the studio is enough to tell me that sending them there was the right thing to do.

“I’m tired,” Izzie moans, yawning and resting her head on the arm of the sofa. I look down at my watch and realize that it’s later than I thought.

“I think it’s time to make tracks,” I announce, standing up and stretching my arms above my head.

“Let me wrap some food up,” Mom says.

“No,” I tell her, my voice coming out rougher than I meant it to, but I don’t need her to send food home with us, I’m capable enough to make our own.