Emily slowly walked along the ugly gray cement sidewalk of the street avoiding gum and other unmentionables. Report cards had been mailed two days before, so Emily knew she was in trouble. The large Oak tree in her front yard was green and the leaves were healthy but Emily wasn't in the mood to enjoy it. Her mother had planted Snapdragons and Hibiscuses along the patio but Emily didn't pick any to put in a vase for the table, nor did she pick a Snapdragon for the joy of watching it slowly open and close, she just walked inside hoping the mail hadn't been delivered.

To her advantage when she walked inside her mother, Joyce, was upstairs taking a shower and her father was still at work. Her older sister was talking on the phone with her boyfriend. "Yea! Totally, lets do it-----of course! Oh wait one second." She put her hand over the phone and yelled at Emily "Mom wants to talk to you!" Then started chatting mindlessly with her boyfriend again.

Emily walked slowly to her room, knowing it was a mess. How upset would her Mom be that she got two D's? She got two A's too. And come on, big deal if she got a couple of detentions for throwing things at the teacher and not turning in homework. She walked to her door and peered inside the doorway. If her mom saw the mess In here she would go crazy, and since she was already upset, Emily decided she would clean it.

As she walked in, the squishy blue carpet was almost impossible to spot, dirty clothes, old magazines, assigned reading that had never been opened were lying there scattered on the floor. The high bed with dark wood frames was covered in numerous black, blue and gray blankets. Baby blue walls with sponge on gray texture seemed too bright for her mood. The purple PC sitting on a Black desk in the corner of her room had on an annoying screensaver that had ongoing stars blazed the screen.

Sitting on the nightstand, there was a small alarm clock that went off every morning at 7:00 in which Emily would press the snooze button every morning, then knowing she would have to get up soon, lay in bed for 15 minutes and think about the day following. A few minutes after, her Mother would walk in a yell at her for not getting up earlier, give a suggestion on what she should wear today, even though there was no chance on the face of the earth she would wear what her mother picked out for her, and leave the room smelling like hairspray and too much perfume. Thus, Emily would get up and wear what ever was in her drawers and seemed acceptable for the day. Then she would walk downstairs and decide whether she should sneak through the kitchen and escape to school or walk down noticed and eat the breakfast that she hoped one day wouldn't kill her. And once she arrived at school, she would hope she had eaten that breakfast or that it had killed her when she realized she had a test, pop quiz or a new record of missing homework assignments.

But for now she walked into the hallway and grabbed the hamper, she found a drawer on the tall shelf that had enough room to cram most of the magazines into it, and none of her sisters items were in the hamper so she would possibly have enough space to put all the clothes so she started picking things up. Once most of the carpet was visible again, she found her missing library card, and decided she would escape from the house by going to the library and return the truck load of over due assigned reading books. When she returned her, mother had gone to the grocery store and her dad was reading the paper and didn't want to be interrupted. So she walked up stairs and went on AIM to instant message Sam.

The conversation was a short one because Emily's mother had arrived home and was in desperate need of talking to her and her sister. So a "Family meeting" was in stock.. Although Emily knew this was coming, the closer she got to the living room, the more nervous she began. What if she really screwed up this time, her grades were down and she hadn't been exactly "mommy's perfect little angel" lately. More like "Bat out of hell." What if her parents were fed up with her bad grades, rude attitude, and unappealing appearance? So Emily made a promise to herself that she would try a lot harder to appeal to her family. However, her parents interrupted her thoughts. Therefore, the family meeting began.