HURRICANE , mona

[PEARL BETH LANDRY]

BROKEN DREAMS & SILENT SCREAMS

Once upon a time, way back when she'd been a carefree teenager with nothing on her mind except for how she was going to get enough money to fund her drinking through the weekend ahead, Saturdays had been her favorite day of the week. There was no school on a Saturday, no having to be told what to do, no rules to follow, no run ins with her younger siblings in the corridors. Saturdays had been her day, the day she could do whatever the hell she wanted and not give a shit about the consequences. She hung with her friends, got wasted at gigs thrown in trashy bars and got high and hooked up with cute guys at parties that lasted from night to the early hours of the morning. It had been great and she had loved it. But then her mom had died.

For a long time, all of the free time she'd once had, had been consumed by school and having to take care of her siblings. She had gotten work straight away at the weekends to support her family and had scraped her way through her last year of high school with lower than average grades. And when she graduated, she went to work full time, seven days a week. The freedom that she'd once had, to do whatever she pleased whenever she wanted and to care for herself and only herself, had been torn from her fingers. And although Pearl told herself that she was fine with that, that she had to be fine with that, because who the hell else was going to help her family? There was a part of her that resented being in the position she was in now. She had been pushed into the position of Mom and she hated it.

She hated being the responsible one, hated that she was the only one her younger siblings had to rely on because there were so many ways she could screw up, and if her family went to shit then that was on her. She hated that she didn't have a fucking clue what she was doing. What did she know about raising kids, teenagers? Most days she butted heads with Mona and Max, who were running rampant, angry and hateful, with their middle fingers up at the world. If it wasn't for Jeremy and her two youngest siblings, she was sure she would have snapped by now, ended up in an asylum maybe.

Pearl liked to think she kept up a strong front but Jeremy must have noticed that she was cracking under the pressure, because one saturday night, after she'd had a particularly nasty argument with Max, he told Pearl that she needed a day off, that he'd look after Sibill and Brian for the day tomorrow. And it had been then that she knew that she couldn't do it alone, that maybe admitting that she needed help wasn't such a bad thing. So they arranged that she'd take Sundays off work, because working seven days a week was driving her insane, and that Jeremy would look after the two youngest for the entire day. Pearl had been reluctant at first, because although she hated that she was having to play mom to a broken family, she didn't want Jeremy to be in her position, to feel how she did. But he'd insisted and she'd been wound so tight from work and her constant fights with Mona and Max that she'd eventually relented.

So now Sundays were her favorite day. Sure the majority of the time she stayed home because she didn't have money to go out to a bar or anything. But it didn't matter because she didn't have to think about anything or anyone but herself. Sometimes she went to see Altair, one of the only few friends she had left, or she'd take Harlow for a walk, since it was pretty rare these days that she ever did. But since Summer had arrived, she'd spent most of her Sundays in their back garden, sprawled out across an old rusted sun lounger, sun-glasses on, headphones plugged in and a cold glass of lemonade on the table at her side. She was there now, basking under the suns rays, enjoying what was left of Summer.

Pulling out her cigarette, Pearl pursed her lips and the smoke that had circled her lungs, billowed out into the warm air in small hoops that grew bigger and wider the further away they drifted. She watched with bored, hooded eyes, sheltered by her shades, as the smoke twisted and dispersed into nothing. Jeremy had taken Brian and Sibill to the park. Max had stayed out last night, without calling home, so she was going to rip him a new one for that. And Mona was off somewhere doing crap she wasn't sure she wanted to know about. But Pearl didn't let it bother her, because Sundays were her day and hers alone, she could deal with Mona and Max tomorrow.

(I have no idea what this even is. I hope it's okay!)

[MONA FAITH LANDRY]

I'M THE QUEEN OF THE DARK SIDE,

Mona never told her siblings anywhere she went. She didn't call Pearl, didn't call anyone, just disappeared sometimes and went about her own business. This business was a bag dangling before her face, held between the finger and thumb of a friend of hers. Friend being the loose word to use, but the only way to describe the relationship she had with the girl whose perfectly straight hair and yoga pants made her roll her eyes. Everyone looked better than her, didn't they?

"Twenty bucks," the girl, Lyra, said.

They sat on the bleachers of a baseball diamond used for pure recreation. Maple Hollow didn't have a team for they had no one to compete against. Mona watched the heat rise from the yellowish dirt of the diamond before turning her head back and squinting at the other girl. "That's expensive as shit."

Her friend rolled her eyes, tucking the bag into purse. "It's a bargain."

A real friend would have handed it over for free, and Mona supposed that was one benefit of actually having friends. The only real one she had anymore was Adam, and that was for shit since she rarely talked to him anymore. She felt that she should, but guilt stopped her in her tracks. What if he was pissed at her? What if he heard about what she was up to nowadays and didn't want to talk to her? That scared her more than she wanted to admit, and she carried that thought with her as she walked home. She didn't take the car when she didn't have to, one of the vestiges of responsibility she had left.

Mona used to be very responsible, she liked helping her mother and Pearl help out. Of course, she always used to be jealous of how close the two were but that came with every relationship. All she had ever wanted to do was help, and make sure shit got done around the house, make sure her brothers and sisters were doing good. It made her bossy most of the time, and they had never appreciated that, but she had to wonder if they preferred her behavior then to how she acted now.

Kicking a can down the street, she guaranteed they thought it was their mother's death that made her like this. In a way, that was the truth, but not all of it. It started with her death, but it spiraled into something else that she couldn't control. Something that made her feel tired every day. Wasted -- not the kind of wasted that made her happy, the kind of wasted that made her feel like the seaweed that got washed up on shore after the ocean got tired of dealing with it.

She headed around back, knowing where Pearl usually like to hang around these days. It was astounding, though, given how little attention Mona actually paid to her siblings. She pulled the hose from where it wrapped around itself in the backyard and turned it on, spraying it over her head to try and cool her off before going over to pearl laid out, smoking a cigarette. "Yo," she greeted, arms crossed over her chest. "I need money." No friendliness, nothing that really encouraged a conversation. She just wanted the money, even though Pearl already gave her some not four days ago. Even though in her head, Mona thought that she would get a job when she turned sixteen, it seemed unlikely.

[shut up, yours was perfect!!!]

[PEARL BETH LANDRY]

BROKEN DREAMS & SILENT SCREAMS

I need money.

And just like that, Sunday, the day that was supposed to be a day where she didn't have to deal with her siblings on the same level she did every other day, was ruined. Pearl could see where this was going even as she exhaled the last of the smoke from her lungs and stubbed out her cigarette in the ash tray. After all, she'd been in this situation too many times to count and it usually always ended the same way - with the two girls arguing, at each others throats.

She considered ignoring Mona, playing dumb, she could pretend that she hadn't heard her question over the music playing through her headphones. But she knew as soon as she considered it that wouldn't work, Mona would probably end up ripping her headphones from her ears, and that was just another way to start an argument. Releasing a long breath, she took a sip from her warm lemonade and then leaned back against her sun lounger, ignoring her sister for the moment as she went over her options; yes or no.

There was a part of her that was pissed that Mona had already blown through the money she'd gotten just the other day. And that part of her wanted to tell her sister no, that she'd had enough this week. They were already tight on money as it was, she wasn't about to give any more to her sister just so she could piss it away on booze and fags. But saying no would no doubt start an argument and the other half of Pearl was feeling much too lazy to get into one right now, on today of all days.

After a long moment she spoke, her face still turned towards the sky. "Go clean the house and I'll give you some money." That was fair right? Pearl thought so. If she wanted money then she could earn it like every other poor sap out there. Hell, Mona was lucky she felt in a generous enough mood to offer her a way to earn some money. It wasn't like she had much to spare. Whether her sister would agree to the terms was up in the air however.