Hey guys, I know it's a little late but here's an update. I'm trying to show some discipline in this chapter along with some of the pain of Mackenzie's past. Hope you enjoy it.
Waking up my throat felt raw, my eyes burned and my head was killing me. It was probably like that because of all my crying from last night. Thinking of last night brought a stinging pain to my chest. The words of my father burn in the back of mind, they stung still. How could he say such a thing to me? I'm his daughter, I thought he loved me. I just can't think of why he would do that.
I roll over and notice Heather isn't laying with me anymore, and I wonder where she is. I look at my alarm clock and it reads 9:12, I'm late for school. I slowly make my way out of bed and go down the stairs, trying to piece things together. When I got down stairs I saw my favorite blonde sitting at the island on her Iphone. She looked displeased and I slowly made my way over to her. Hearing my footsteps she looked up and gave me a small smile.
"Good morning honey. I know you're probably confused so lets just have some breakfast and we'll talk about it okay?" I nodded my head and climbed up on a bar stool while she put a bowl of cereal in from of me.
"Thank you." I murmer out, my throat still sore from last night.
She took a seat next to me letting me eat some before talking, "We need to talk about last night."
"I kind of figured we'd have to. Is that why I'm not in school?" I asked her softly.
"Partly. I thought maybe you'd need a day to recover emotionally. I know what your dad did was wrong, and I'll make sure he apologizes to you, but you need to do the same. The way you behaved last night was unexcusable. You do not yell at your father nor will you curse at him, no matter how mad you are at him. Do you understand me?" She asked, raising and eyebrow.
"Yes, I understand you." I said, looking deep into my bowl of fruit loops.
"You will also write an apology letter to your father and you're grounded for a week. That means you'll hand over your cell phone after breakfast, along with your laptop. If you need to it for school you'll use mine. You're coming with me to work but let me make it clear Mackenzie it will not be a fun day. You will follow me any where I go without complaints. No wondering, no hanging out with naya or anyone else from the cast." She finished, looking at me waiting for my objections.
"I wont complain, I got myself into this mess…" I mumbled looking down. "I have a question though."
Surprised at how well she's taking to this grounding, Heather's voice got a little softer, "What is it Kenzie?"
"Can I bring my zebra along with me?"
XXXXXXXXXX
Heather wasn't joking around, this is the most boring day of my life. I'm literally sitting on the ground watching the cast trying to learn a new dance number. Of course I had my zebra to keep my company but still its so boring. It's not even noon yet and I just want to stab my eyes out. I don't want to complain though and get Heather mad at me. I did this to myself. My blonde even gave me a notepad and a pen for me to write my letter to my father, which may I say is LAME. Who writes letters anymore? The Elderly? I don't even know what to say to him, I'm so mad at him.
Currently I'm just drawing some pictures on a page that I ripped out. Some of unicorns, or rainbows, but my favorite one is narwhal I'm currently drawing. I didn't notice Heather walking over until I saw her shadow standing over me.
"What are you doing?" She said, raising her eyebrow at me. Busted.
"Not drawing mythical creatures on the paper you gave me to write my father an apology letter for being a rude brat to him last night?" I asked/stated, innocently; shrugging my shoulders.
"Mackenzie," she warned, "You better get writing on that letter before we leave here. It doesn't have to be finished but if I come back over here and you're at the same place you're going to be in so much trouble." She said sternly.
"Hemo?" I called to her as she was going back to the group.
She turned back to me, "Yeah?"
"I'm sorry for scaring you last night." I said looking down. We didn't talk about it this morning but I know that I scared her last night. Getting worked up like that isn't good for me. Anytime I get like that I sometimes black out or have asthma attacks. It's happened before in front of her, actually it happens a lot in front of her. I know it scares her and I just didn't think about her first I only thought about me.
She silently came back over to me and gave me a gentle kiss to the forehead before walking back over to the cast.
Flash back, Mackenzie is 9 years old. It's Mother's Day. Heather is still a huge part of her life.
It's the one day she hates most of all. Mother's Day. Everyone else had a mom but her. It wasn't fair, it was never fair that on this day everyone got to experience something she didn't get to. Today in school her teacher had instructed them to make Mother's Day cards for their moms. She even was going to take a picture of each student and then paste it on the card for them. It would be the best present ever, the teacher told them. Mackenzie had thought otherwise because she would have no one to give it too. She was silent the whole time but made the card otherwise, she would throw it out when she got home.
After school she made her way out of the building and saw a familiar looking blonde. She couldn't believe it, she didn't think she'd be here. She headed back to LA a month ago. She smiled at me reassuringly, letting me know she's really here. I ran over to her and hugged jumped her, she caught me in the air and held me.
"I missed you." I said into her shoulder, wrapping my arms around her neck. "I didn't think you'd show up today." I said softly.
"I know how hard today is for you sweetheart, I'd never forget you." She said, kissing the side of my hair. "How was school?" she brushed some of my hair out of my face.
"Stupid." I deadpanned. She set me on the ground and gave me a look.
"Mackenzie you know I don't like that word."
"well it was! We had to make stupid cards…" I muttered out, crossing my arms over my small body.
She looked at me sadly and took my hand, "Let's talk about it at home okay?"
Getting home was a quick trip for the girls, and once they got home Heather made Kenzie a quick snack. They wouldn't get anywhere if the girl was cranky because she didn't get her after school snack.
"Tell me how you felt during school." Heather prompted softly, taking a seat next to the girl.
"I don't know." Z mumbled, grapping one of Hemo's fingers.
"I bet you weren't happy that you had to make that card right?" She coaxed.
"No." the little girl sighed, "Everyone else gets to share a card with their mommy but me. I don't have one and everyone was sharing stories about what they do and I don't have any stories." The small girl rambled, getting worked up. "And when the teacher asked me what I did with my mommy on Mother's day I didn't have an answer and I looked stupid and everyone laughed." The 9 year old had big hot tears running down her face after telling her best friend what had happened.
"Hey," she cooed, "You're not stupid okay. They shouldn't have laughed at you, none of this is your fault okay baby?" the little girl just shrugged her shoulders. "What else happened?"
Mackenzie sniffled, "The teacher made me make a mommy's day card so I did. She even made me take a picture of myself to put in the card. I had to do it but I didn't want to so now I have this dumb card and no one to give it to and…" Mackenzie's breath became labored and she was crying more.
Seeing the signs of one of Mackenzie's asthma attacks she stopped the girls ramble. "Hey calm down baby." She placed one of the nine year old hands on her chest and her hand on Kenzie's chest. "Follow my breathing okay baby? Calm down."
"It's not fair Hemo! I had to make a card an now no one gets it. I have to keep it and…and…why doesn't my mommy want the card? I just want to give the card away.." she continued to breath hard.
"Mackenzie you got to stop talking and follow my breathing okay baby?" When the girl still ignored her she continued. "How about I take the card okay? On Mommy's day for you it will be Heather's day okay? Would that be okay?" she questioned, hoping it would or else the girl would black out..again.
"Okay." The nine year old nodded in agreement and finally followed Heather's directions on how to remain calm and breathe again.
Present time.
Writing Dad's letter was harder then I had thought it would be, but I just had to do it. I started and ended and ripped a lot of pages out of the notepad Heather gave me but I needed to get this right. I finished an hour later, I hope it would be up to Heather's standards.
Dad,
The way I acted last night wasn't right. I was a brat and had an attitude with you. It wasn't the way you raised me and I'm sorry for acting that way. It was the only way I could express how I felt at the time. Even though that's no excuse it's how I felt.
You forgetting about me didn't make me feel like you cared, everything has been really hard right now and I feel like you don't care about me. Like your just dropping me off with Heather, like she's your cop out. I just want my dad back in my life you know?
I'm sorry for how disrespectful I was towards you last night but you also hurt my feelings about what you said about my mom. It hurt me really deep, I never thought you would say something like that to me. I always thought you were better then her and to hear you say that to me really hurt dad. I just want things to go back to the way they used to be you know?
I hope we can get there soon.
~Mackenzie
When Heather walked over to me again I stood up, with my zebra, and walked with her to her trailer. She had asked If I finished my note and I showed it to her. She was proud of me for being the bigger person and telling him how I felt. She let me stay with Naya while she went to go get her hair and make up done, but she had told me that as soon as she came back I was to follow her to set.
We said in Naya's trailer as she was on her blackberry tweeting away as I just sat down on her couch, with my zebra.
"Why aren't you in school?" Naya asked, looking up from her phone.
"I did something stupid and now I'm grounded."
"So by being grounded you don't have to go to school?" Naya asked, clearly confused on how that's punishment.
"I'm going to school tomorrow, today just is emotional recovery of what happened last night." I explained to her, she was about to ask what I meant when I cut her off, "I don't really want to talk about it, but when or if I ever do need to talk about it I'll come find you." I promised, giving her a small smile.
"Okay, just know I'm always here for you bear." She said sincerely.
After a few minutes of silence she spoke up once again, "Why is a stuffed zebra so important to you?"
Flashback Mackenzie's 5
It was my birthday today, and my daddy is letting me come to work with him as my present. I'm so excited. I loved going to the hospital with him, it was the best part of my day. When we got there he sent me down to play with some kids, I took a seat on the ground and played with some toys when someone snatched the bear I was playing with away from me.
"Hey." I whined, "I was playing with that."
"To bad, now I am, stupid." The kid sneered back.
I started to cry when someone came over to us, "What's going on?" the unfamiliar person questioned. When no one answered she continued, "Is someone going to answer me?"
I looked up at the girl, she was a big kid. She had blonde hair and really blue eyes, like the sky or the ocean! She was really pretty. "Nofing." I said softly. Wiping away my tears.
"It doesn't look like nothing if your crying. Did he take your toy?" she asked, sitting on the ground next to me. Holding a stuffed zebra. I nodded my head slowly, afraid of being next to a big kid.
"That's not very nice little dude. Can she have it back?" she asked the small boy standing across from me. He shook his head and ran away. "I'm sorry we couldn't get the bear back to you." She said softly, swiping the tears away with the pad of her thumb. "I'm Heather, what's your name?" she asked softly.
"Mackenzie." I said just as soft.
"That's a pretty name, how old are you? I'm 14." She explained.
"I just turned five today, its my birthday."
"wow" she said excitedly, "That's awesome, you know what. As your birthday present I want you to have this." She handed over the zebra, "But I got to go, I have to visit my dad, I'll see you around okay Z? Happy birthday."
Present day
"Wow, so it really meant that much to you." She said amazed about the story I had just told her.
"Yeah, it did mean a lot to me."
Before we could continue our conversation Heather popped her head in. "Come on Z I have to get to set." She told me and I got up with no complaints and followed her out, zebra in hand.
Hey guys, I hope you liked the update. It's a little long I think. Let me know what you think.
Questions:
Kenzie moments with….?
How should everything go with her dad?
Anything you'd like to see happen?
Let me know, drop me a review!