"If Jon gets to sleep through dinner, then can I just take this up to my room?" Zoe asked hopefully as she sat down at the table.
"No, honey," her mother answered as she tried to hide a sigh. "I feel like I don't spend any time with you as it is. How's school?"
"Wretched," Zoe replied quickly, getting a laugh from her younger brother Mikey.
"Oh, come on Zoe. It's probably not as bad as all that."
Zoe considered not answering, then decided to tell her mom the truth. "I try to be an individual because the 'normal' and 'popular' kids have no substance or personality of their own and it gets me called names, shunned, and picked on." Zoe tried not to think about all the little injustices of daily school life, but now it bubbled out of her and her speech built into a tirade. "Even the teachers treat get down on me the best they can because I don't fit the damn cookie-cutter mold of all the losers. Basically I'm different so I'm treated like shit."
Mikey gasped at the swear, and her mother narrowed her eyes. "I understand you're upset, but you will apologize for using that language in front of your brother."
Zoe took a deep breath. "I'm sorry for swearing, Mikey," she muttered. "Should I go to my room or something?" she asked.
"No, you will stay at the table until we have all finished eating and then you will help me with the dishes."
Zoe rolled her eyes, realizing she was in for a long night.
After an eternity of forced dinner conversation and loading dishes into the washer Zoe stomped up the stairs.
"Remember to keep it down!" her mother called from the table where she was playing a card game with Mikey.
Zoe snarled and took the next two steps with exaggerated stomps.
"Zoe!"
Zoe stopped stomping and shook her head. "She's such a fucking slave driver."
Downstairs her mother, Linda, crossed her legs, causing the leather of her tight catsuit creak. She breathed in, enjoying the feel of her bust rising in her tight corset. Linda looked at the cards in her left hand, then slapped the end of the riding crop in her right down on the table. "Tell me if you have any 4's." she demanded of her youngest son.
Mikey looked from his hand toward his mother, careful not to make eye contact since she had not given him permission. "Yes, Mother."
Linda's blood red lips cracked in a smile. "Give them to me...Now!"
Upstairs Zoe bemoaned her life, unaware of how interesting it was about to become.
