Member-only story
It Starts With a Spark
Get ready and ignite.
The crowded auditorium makes you wish you’d brought your headphones to tune out all the noise. Your hands fidget with the straps of your backpack, and you’re trying to hold it together as every voice’s lilt makes you feel like you’re one moment away from snapping.
Be good, you tell yourself. Just be good for once in your damn life.
The voice is not your own; instead, it’s an echo from all the things your mother has lobbed at you over the years. Everything little misstep was your fault, no question, even if it was just a matter of forgetting to put milk on the grocery list.
You’d never say it to her face, but you could understand why Dad left and hightailed it to Florida a few years back.
Now it was just you and her in a volatile combination.
She’d already threatened to send you away. Her tearful expression in front of the social worker failed to fool you, but you nodded along with the charade. As long as you didn’t cause trouble, you would be able to stay.
Staying was the only way you might be able to stay alive.
Your fingers continue to tremble with all your excess energy, and it’s enough to make a nearby student complain about static electricity. If you’re not careful, you’ll make all the…
