I woke up with a yawn and a good long stretch, making sure every muscle in my body was working as well as it could on a Sunday morning, err… afternoon should I say. I looked at the clock on the wooden nightstand next to my bed, reading that it was 12:10 PM. I shook myself awake and slide out of my sheets, letting my mind find my body as I got my clothes ready for my shower.

It was the 20^th and my birthday. There would be no school tomorrow due to Martin Luther King Day, something I was very happy about. The mood was ruined when I shut the bathroom door on my tail, sending a surge of pain where the door met the flesh, fur, and the very tip of the bone, along with a sharp yelp. I grumbled and opened the door, brought my tail inside the bathroom, and shut it. It wouldn’t be the only thing to go wrong that day.

A shower, lunch, and down to my computer in the rec room where I checked my email. Five messages from friends saying “Happy Birthday” and that they wished the best. I smiled softly to myself, the letters being a pleasant change of pace from studying for midterms under the watchful eye of my parents. They had become much stricter with studying since the mid marking period where my grades fell. Everyday since I’ve heard of nothing but school. I was beginning to resent it very much, talking and thinking of nothing but school. I was also starting to not care about anything pertaining to it either.

A shadow loomed over me, my mother judging by the angry footsteps I had heard coming down the stairs. My mother was much angrier about my grades than my father, who was trying to keep some peace in the house. Yesterday there had been no quiet, only yelling from my mother to me about studying. I had given up trying to talk; only bringing arguments in doing so. Today should have been different; it wasn’t.

In my room again, after some yelling about not being allowed to do anything on my desktop that didn’t have to do with school. The door was closed, but soon flew open as my mom burst through it and yelled at me. The doors were to stay open during the day, closed only when changing or sleeping at night. I waited until after she had left and my blood had stopped boiling. I was reaching the point where one can no longer take much more.

I shut the door again, not completely but enough so that I had some privacy to study. It was of no use; my mother shoved the door open again and gave me that look that only an angry mother can give. I waited another five minutes before closing it again, disliking the idea of having to give up any privacy. I worked better when I didn’t have someone watching me like she did. It showed that I had some trust; obviously I didn’t anymore and that was made very clear throughout the year with various lectures.

“What did I say, Ellie!” my mother yelled, damn near kicking down the door this time. “NO CLOSED DOORS IN THIS HOUSE!”

She stalked off, very angry over my unwillingness. I may have seemed disrespectful but it was more than what I had been given, which was none. My birthday and on a three-day holiday, and I was forced to study throughout it all. Yesterday I had spent a good eight hours of the time I was awake going over notes and reading through the textbook. Today was going to be no different.

The phone rang, I didn’t bother with it. My mother answered and called for me. My aunt was calling me and wishing me a happy birthday. If that wish could come true… Fifteen minutes the phone rang again. My grandmother called and wished me a happy birthday as well in Armenian. She knew little English and tried what she could but failed. I understood what she was trying to say and thanked her for her effort. She was happy that I could still understand her and after a few goodbyes we hung up. The phone rang again; it was one of my better female friends.

“How’s my favorite lupine?” Tala said.

“Burnt out.” I replied, skimming over a chapter in biology.

“Your parents making you study even today, huh?”

“Yeah, it really fuckin’ sucks.”

“It does. Guess that means I can’t drop by or anything later tonight.”

“If it interferes with me studying no. My mom will have a fit.”

“GET BACK TO WORK!” my mother yelled from downstairs.

“Gotta go.” I told Tala.

“See you Tuesday, sexy.” She said to me before hanging up.

I smiled, if only for a second. She always managed to make me smile even when I was feeling the worst. That was one of the reasons I liked her so much, she could make me feel good about myself. Another hour passed, another hour of studying, yelling, and stress. My father was in the bedroom next to mine with my mother talking about my grades when I went downstairs to warm myself up a cup of jasmine tea. It was soothing for me, the scent relaxing and taste wonderful. Much better than the alcohol I had been drinking to relieve stress before, something I had sworn off since it was doing me no good.

I finished the tea and went back upstairs to my room where my father waiting. He sat me down and had a long lecture about the events that happened between my mother and me last night. I was trying to send an email to Tala when my mother yelled at me to get off my computer. When she tried to turn it off I swept her hand aside, which she yelled at me for and tried again. We got into an argument where I punched the wall, leaving a dent in it, and turned off the computer myself. I went to the one upstairs and sent the email through there before my mother could come up. I could never stand it when I was interrupted from talking to a friend.

With the time that it took for me to make the tea, drink it, and listen to my father’s lecture, another hour had passed by. It was now 4:00 and I was still studying. Over two hours of studying and still more to do. Another hour of studying and my mother stormed into my room again. This would be the final one I would have with her for at least another 24 hours.

“Show me your notebook.” My mother demanded.

I opened the notebook. “What do you want to see?”

“Your tests, quizzes, papers, and notes.”

I flipped through the various papers. “Anything else?”

“It’s not in order.”

“Not in the order you’d like it to be.”

“It’s not in order.”

“It is, just not how you like it.”

“Don’t you show me any disrespect, young man!”

“Don’t you dare burst into MY room and start questioning ME on MY birthday about how I organize MY PAPERS!” I yelled back.

“Is this the respect I deserve?!”

“It’s more than you show me!”

“I’ll show you more respect when you start bringing in better grades!”

“Is that all I am?! A damned grade?! Do you know how much it hurts me to know that you care more about school than me?!”

“YOU ARE SCHOOL NOW! THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS! SCHOOL!” my mother roared.

“WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DO YOU KNOW ABOUT WHAT MATTERS!”

“Then what else is there that I should know?”

“Why don’t you try to find out?!”

“Because there is nothing else to find out!”

“How about me trying to keep my sanity! Do you think these books are going to help?!” I bellowed out and threw my French book across the room.

“If you want to go then the door is open! Just leave!”

It was exactly what I did. I dumped out my backpack and threw in my sketchpad, my folder of drawings, camera, CD’s, and a MagLite. I went down to the rec room put my black BDU jacket on, a pair of wicked looking leather gloves, and my boots. I put my CD player in my jacket pocket and put on a pair of headphones before heading out and sprinting as far away from my home as possible.

I was in the local Barnes and Noble when my dad found me. He told me to buy dinner and call him when I was finished. He’d give me a ride home after that so I could go relax in my room. I nodded and went next door to Chiles. After paying for my steak I left and looked at the payphone. I decided I’d walk back home.

Inside and down to the rec room to my desktop. It was 10:00; I had been out for over four hours, but I was still angrier than the gods during their Great War. I wrote an email to Tala telling her the recent events and got a reply soon after saying I had to wait only a little longer before I could legally move out. She sent a drawing of her surprising me from behind with a noisemaker. It was something she’d do, I knew it. It made me chuckle despite the mood I was in. My father came back about twenty minutes later and asked where I had been. I told him I walked back and he nodded, then went up to his room to talk with my mother.

An hour of playing Quake 3 and over 500 kills later I went upstairs to my room. Much to my horror my laptop was gone, the doing of my mother no doubt. This would only be the beginning, I knew it. The only thought in my mind was all the work I had done on it that had been taken away without a backup copy. I was extremely angry about that.

“What’d you get for your birthday?” I could hear a friend ask.

“I got my laptop taken away.” Would be my reply.

I was beginning to hate everything around me. At that moment I felt like taking a gun and putting it to the head of every person I had a grudge against. First to see their reaction, second to pull the trigger. It was a dark mood that not even the thought of Tala in her blue corset could pull me out of. For those of you that don’t know by know, Tala is in my mind, very attractive.

Picture, if you will, a very attractive female Bengal tiger. Very nice personality, one that I get along with very well. A wonderful figure, soft silken coat, and a very talented tongue that can calm a person with a few licks behind the ears and on the muzzle. She’s got excellent skills with backrubs and is very caring to her friends. I’m going to stop now before I go into the other regions of my mind that should be kept private.

The next thirty minutes were spent on cleaning out the desktop where the laptop and its accessories had been. There was no point in keeping the gear on the desktop, only taking space if not being used. I could hear my mother writing something down in her room as I passed it to put all the wires and various things in the office for my father to pack up. I’m not sure but I think I could hear the faint sound of a sob as I went back to my room. Or maybe that was from me as I felt a tear fall down my cheek.

Maybe tomorrow would be a better day. That was my final thought as I drifted off to sleep with thoughts of Tala and other various females going through my mind. My dreams would be a mix of good and bad. Hopefully mostly good. I wanted to have something good turn up from this day. Maybe tomorrow…