Page 3 of Sparks of Insanity
My head shot up, and I met his dark brown eyes with surprise.
“What? I was sure I fucked it up!”
He tutted at me, shaking his head.
“Language, Em. I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll remember your new name, if you’ll curb the cursing when we’re in class?”
Sometimes reasonable people could be so annoying. I liked swearing. It expressed how I was feeling, so much better than the more acceptable words.
“I’ll try,” I finally offered, reaching for the paper. He let me take it.
“You didn’t pass by much, but it was still a pass, so well done. I’d suggest you revisit some areas of the research material, but you’d probably stab me, so let’s move on.”
I giggled at his words, and shoved the paper aside.
“Move on to?”
He rolled his eyes, releasing a heavy sigh.
“Fine. Draw me something. Be creative though, and surprise me. You have,” he glanced at his watch, “twenty minutes. Do me proud, Em.”
It wasn’t really part of my schooling, but he liked to do this now and then to split up the academic stuff, and give me a break. He was pretty cool really, for a teacher.
As long as we still met the academic milestones, and I took the required tests at the required time, he was able to set his own curriculum, and that suited me just fine. Sometimes we’d go an hour or more over normal school hours, but that was because of breaks like this.
“Five minutes gone, Em.” I smiled as my pen started to fly across the page. I knew just what to draw, and I knew it’d make him laugh.
I was smirking to myself as I finished the drawing, just as he checked his watch again and called time.
“Okay, done.”
“Show me?”
I passed the page to him, feeling gratified when he chuckled, and then started to laugh. I’d drawn myself setting fire to a whole stack of history books, with my middle finger extended at the burning pile.
3
Ember
Family therapy was theworst day of the week, and not just because it was therapy, but because what did they really think it’d achieve? All we do is go and sit in a room with a therapist who tells us to talk about our feelings, and then it descends into anarchy. Except when it gets to the point where they expect me to speak up, and then I go silent and glare at everyone until they move on.
It was insanity, and tonight the doc, good old brown trousers man, had declared that he wanted to see just me and Ash with our parents. Blaze and Anneka were coming over to sit with Cole and Phoenix, not that they felt like they needed sitters, but we missed Blaze since he’d been so focused on Anneka, and the baby.
It was only when we were sitting in that horrible ‘cosy brown office’ that my anger reached a point where words actually came out for once.
“Ember, how about you? Last week you weren’t feeling particularly talkative, and I thought that having your younger siblings stay away this week would open up the floor for you to express yourself.” Pretentious asshole.
“You want me to express myself, doc?” He smiled, looking surprised that I’d even spoken to him, but whatever. I’d been seeing a therapist alone for several years now, but this family shit was insane, and pointless.
“Please do, Ember. This is your forum too.”
“Is it really… wow… thank you for making that clear for me. Aren’t doctors supposed to be smart, though?”
He frowned lightly, glancing down at the tablet screen he had on his lap. Probably playing Candy Crush or something to stop him from getting bored. Or watching porn. Would a doc watch porn with kids in the room? I was pretty sure every man was a sexual deviant, so probably.
“The only thing I’ve said in these ‘sessions’ is that I would prefer to be referred to as Em now.”
He nodded, lifting a hand up as he apologised.
