The bad girl and the dork

I woke up to the smell of cookies. Urgh, that was not a good sign.

Usually people would be thrilled to wake up like this, right? Well, not if you live in this household. You see, my mom bakes when she's stressed. Cookie smell equals misery.

A few years ago I woke up to the same smell and went downstairs to check on my mom. She looked horrible. She obviously had been baking the entire night and the kitchen was filled with cookies and cake. I could even see a pie in the oven.

When she spotted me she gestured for me to sit down. By this time my heart was about to explode. The more cookies, the worse she feels. Since the entire kitchen looked like a bakery, I knew something was very very wrong.

That morning she told me my grandpa had died. He was my mom's dad, so she took it hard. I had to take a lot of cookies to school because we couldn't finish them by ourselves.

Yep, this smell definitely means trouble.

I really just wanted to pull the blanket over my head and fall asleep in my cocoon of awesomeness but curiosity won. Plus I needed to know if my mom was having a mental breakdown.

I looked at my alarm and noticed I could've been sleeping for another half hour. Damn you, cookie smell!

I scratched the back of my head and noticed my hair probably resembled a rat's nest. At least I'd have some extra time to get it sorted out. Yay positivity! Sigh.

Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes I went down the stairs towards the kitchen.

"Ow hot hot hot!" Ah, the sound of another batch of cookies.

My mom didn't see me when I entered the kitchen. I sighed in relief as I watched the state the kitchen was in. Only two trays of cookies.

That wasn't too bad. Mom looked dishevelled and stressed but not sad or anything. This wasn't a Britney Spears meltdown.

"Morning mom." My mom shrieked. Oops, guess I scared her.

"Jill! How long have you been standing there you creep!" She exclaimed. Yes, my own mom just called me a creep. No, this wasn't the first time that had happened.

My mom and I are very close. I'm an only child and when my parents got a divorce I stayed with her, so it was just my mom and me. It worked fine for both of us.

Sometimes she acted more like a friend than a parent but hey, I definitely wasn't complaining.

"I know I just woke up but creep is a little harsh isn't it?" I said while grabbing a cookie. She'd baked chocolate chip cookies, my favorite. They were still a little warm so the chocolate melted a little.

Give me a moment while I devour this little piece of heaven. Sweet baby jesus.

"I don't know Jill, the rat that's been living in your hair might agree with me." She said. We laughed. I inherited my honesty from that woman. Yes, I call it honesty, but most people call it sarcasm. Our humor is very dry. Unlike these cookies. The cookies were perfect.

She looked a little tired and her dirty blonde hair was in a messy bun. "So... are you opening a bakery of is there a reason why I'm eating cookies?" I asked when I noticed she'd gone back to stressing.

"Eh... well." Oh she's so articulate. "Uhuh, interesting, what else?" I asked impatiently. She sighed and grabbed a cookie. I started to get worried.

"Mom...?" I grabbed another cookie. Oh have I mentioned I'm a stress eater? Yeah, my mom and I are very complementary. She likes to bake when she's stressed and I like to eat when I'm stressed.

Well... not just when I"m stressed but you know what I mean.

Sometimes we end up in a vicious cycle because of this. When I have exams I get stressed out and because I'm stressed my mom gets stressed because she wants the best for me and doesn't want to see her daughter like this.

So then she starts baking and I start eating and this goes on and on. Thank god I can eat whatever I want without gaining weight. I think they'd have to roll me down the stairs if that were the case.

"Hmm? Oh sorry. No it's not that bad, it's just work." She replied. I sighed in relief. She couldn't have said that five minutes ago?

My mom is a lab rat. I don't even know the right term for it but she does a lot of research about HIV in a lab, so it's easier for me to call her a lab rat.

Anyway she'd been doing this research for a couple of years and her presentation was coming up soon. She had to go to this fancy congress to give a presentation about her research and she'd been stressing about it.

I guess the date was near, since the baking had begun.

"Mom, you'll do great, stop stressing." I reassured her. She sat down beside me, grabbing the cookie I was about to devour. I hated when she took my food! Nobody touches my food and lives to tell the tale. Well, except for my mom of course, since she provides the food.

"Hey!" I slapped her hand but she pulled away just in time. Whatever, I was still half asleep so I was allowed to be a little slower than usual.

"I don't know, the presentation is in a few weeks and there's still so much stuff to do and yesterday my assistant got sick. Sick! Can you believe that? There's no time to get sick right now."

And this is just the beginning of her rant. I usually zone out when I feel a rant coming up. I mean, sometimes she needs to vent because I can imagine her work is very stressful but urgh. I could be sleeping right now. It's not like she would notice if I were listening or not.

"...so yeah you can treat your friends to some cookies." Cookies? Did she say something about cookies? Oh right. I was bringing cookies to school.

"Yeah okay. I'm going to get ready for school."  I said. Why is nothing happening? Oh, I was supposed to move my legs now right? Man, living could be so exhausting.

"I'm going to miss your rat's nest honey." She snickered. Laughing at my expense makes her happy. She really is just an older version of me. Well, I guess I was the younger version of her?

"You know I have feelings right?" I said overdramatically.

"So does your rat!" I grabbed a towel and aimed at her head. She caught it and laughed.

I went upstairs fighting back a smile. Her teasing usually brought me in a good mood and today was no different.

After a quick shower I started detangling my hair and drying it. My hair was mahogany brown. In the sun you could see a reddish tint. No this beautiful hair color wasn't natural.

My natural hair color is a very boring brown. I got tired of it by the time I was fourteen and that's when I first decided to dye it. I'd had a lot of colors.

Once I dyed it black. Big mistake, it looked too harsh for me. Mostly I went with warm tints. When I was younger I dyed my hair unnatural colors but I guess those rebellious hair years were over. Now I just went for mahogany brown. It made the green in my hazel eyes pop.

It looked quite natural, but it was a little edgy. Just the way I liked it. My hair wasn't long but it wasn't short either. It came just beneath my collarbones and was a little wavy.

When I was satisfied with my hair I started on my makeup. Black eyeliner is the love of my life. I don't use a lot, just a little subtle line that makes my eyes more interesting. I finished it off with some mascara.

I took one last look at my hair and makeup. Eh, close enough.

Proof that I was tired? I almost went to school wearing a towel. Well, almost was an exaggeration. I almost left my room wearing a towel was more accurate.

What to wear? I usually didn't spend a lot of time on my clothes. I grabbed my black jeggings. I loved those. They looked like jeans but they felt as comfortable as leggings. And it's all about comfort, am I right? Of course I am.

I grabbed the first shirt I could find. A wine red t-shirt. Not bad.

I finished my look with some black ankle boots and leather jacket and tada. Jill was ready to face high school.

I couldn't believe people would think I looked scary. I mean, not scary but sometimes they'd label me as a bad girl. I didn't really know why but I didn't mind either.

Grabbing my schoolbag I went downstairs. "Well, you look better." My mom said.

I nudged my mom "Gee, thanks mom, wish I could say the same." I grabbed the containers with the cookies. No, not to eat! To bring them to school.

"It's impossible to look better when you're already gorgeous" She replied. It looked like the baking had helped because she was definitely not that cocky when she was stressed.

I was relieved. I didn't like seeing her stressed, in spite the cookie heaven.

"Alright if you say so, Miss Delusional. Gotta go, see you tonight." I grabbed my keys and headed outside.

"Go and bribe your teachers with the cookies. Bye." My mom said.

Psh, yeah right. No teacher was gonna touch these cookies. I would eat as much of them as I could and then maybe, just maybe, my friends could get some. I know, I'm very nice. I blame being an only child. I'd never learned how to share.

I got inside of my car. I called it the rust bucket. Even though it was a nice car, but I liked being a little overdramatic. I'd always wanted a motorcycle but my parents said no. At least something they agreed on.

I pulled out of the driveway. Too bad it was only Monday. This was gonna be a long week.