"Sierra, it's time to get up!"
In a groggy slumber, the lioness slowly opened her eyes, reading the time on her clock. "6:00 am..." she muttered. With what little strength she had, she tried calling back, "Just a few more minutes, mom!". As she slowly closed her eyes again, her mother retorted back from downstairs, "No more minutes, young lady! You were supposed to get up 30 minutes ago...maybe if you didn't stay up all night talking to your boyfriend, you wouldn't be so tired!". Angered, she tossed her blanket aside, halfway falling out of bed as she rubbed her eyes, muttering out softly, "I was only up until midnight, you bitch".
Slowly stumbling downstairs, barely awake, she peered over to her mother in the kitchen, who returned the stare back at her, "Well, look who decided to get up this morning" she said sarcastically. Sierra said nothing, still trying to wake up as she fell into a chair at the table, with her mother setting a hot bowl of cereal in front of her. "Now, I know you aren't a fan of quinoa, but I figured that you need the protein on a Monday" the elder lioness explained softly. Sierra just stared blankly at the food, letting the steam raise into her face and condense. "Not to mention, the alternative is eggs and sausage, and we all know how you feel about that" her mother continued, lifting an eyebrow with a hint of concern in her expression, "What's wrong?" she asked in a sharp yet caring tone. Holding her head up with one paw, Sierra muttered back, "I'm not hungry...". "Well, you better eat something. I spent the last 30 minutes making it!" her mother spoke back a bit frustrated. "And if you wont have it, your father will. So you better make up your mind on what you want to do". With a heavy sigh through her nose, Sierra pushed the bowl aside, "I'm sorry, mom...". Her mother sighed softly, her face softening up fully into concern as she finished washing out some dishes, "Sweetheart, what's wrong?". "It's nothing, just...I don't want to go to-" Sierra answered, before being cut off by a deeper voice coming from upstairs. "Kate, can you help me find my razor?" it echoed. The mother sighed, "Coming, dear", before returning her gaze back to Sierra. "We'll talk about this later, but for now..." she spoke, reaching over to gently hug her daughter. Sierra limply fell into her grasp, resting her on against Kate's chest before her being let go. "You have a good day at school, ok? It's almost the end of the semester" Kate wished her while walking upstairs. With that, Sierra grabbed her bag, and walked out into the cold desert air, the desert sun still not hinting at rising anytime soon.
At school, Sierra glanced over at the clock, propping her head up with her arm. "7:50 am...what bullshit is this?" she thought to herself. Her teacher was mere background noise, not being able to focus or pay attention from her drowsiness. Her attention turned to the window, a grey sky, light barely filtering the air. "I just want out of here..." she begged in her head, before being abruptly interrupted with a paper slammed down onto her desk. Looking over, it was littered in red marks, topped off with the message "34% - SEE ME AFTER CLASS". Sierra tucked her ears against her head, looking up to her teacher who returned a disappointing glare. "3:00 ...I'll make special time for you, Sierra" she spoke quietly, trying to keep it down to avoid any eavesdropping. Staring back down at the paper, her eyes gently watered up, cheeks burning slightly as she covered her mouth looking down, "God...dammit!" she thought to herself.
During class intermission, Sierra sorted through her locker, exchanging textbooks and papers before stumbling across a picture of her with a black male cougar. She smiled softly at it, slipping it into her backpack, thinking to herself "I'm going to need you today...". As she closed it, she gasped and jolted back, seeing the same cougar from the photograph appear right behind the door. "Oh, god..you scared me!" she said softly, playfully slapping him on the shoulder. "Heh...sorry babe. Guess I'm still a silent type" he shrugged off. Sierra leaned in to softly kiss his cheek, smiling back pretty with a soft blush, "Oh, Chris...you said we were meeting up tonight, right?". The cougar nodded, "Yea, behind the old textile factory. No one's gonna see us there. Just remember about the nip" he winked. The lioness giggled, holding her cheek in delight, "I wont..but you owe me! I almost got caught with it by my mom" she added. Chris only gave out a soft chuckle, before nodding and walking away, hand buried in his jacket's pockets.
Later on in the afternoon, Sierra was in the office after school, watching the clock hands tick by. She held the paper she was given back earlier in the day. "Mom is gonna kill me..." she thought to herself, obsessing over the 34% score. The door behind her open, with the lioness teacher entering, "Good afternoon, Sierra" she greeted, though in a disappointing tone. "H-Hi Ms. Robbins" she stuttered out, covering her cheeks and face with her paws. Taking a seat, the relatively young teacher sighed, pulling out a few other papers, each with their own scoring; '67%...54%...41%...'. Sierra only stared blankly, doing her best not to tear up at the sight. "Sierra..." her teacher started off, "I get calculus isn't exactly your strong suit, but-". Sierra had cut her off, "No, b-but, I-" she stuttered, choking up on the tears she tried to hide. "Listen..." Ms. Robbins retorted. "I like you, Sierra...you were one of my best students last year. And I have tried time after time to help curve these tests, give you extra resources, volunteering my own time to you." she continued. "But...this...I just can't keep doing this for you". Removing her glasses, she stared back up to the younger feline, with a soft shake of her head, "Is there something going on at home?" she softly asked. Sierra's ears tucked back to her head, looking down in dismay, "No...er..w-well". "Well what?" Ms. Robbins inquired, raising an eyebrow. "It's nothing...sorry..." the lioness replied. "Very well, then..." her teacher responded. "It's okay if you aren't able to tell me. I really shouldn't be offering you this, however..." Ms. Robbins added, putting the graded papers away. "If, on the final exam this semester, you receive a 90% or higher, i'll forgive all your grades to a C...if not, then...well, there's nothing left I can do". The two both stood up, Sierra, giving a somber half focused on her teacher. "You're a charming young girl. I know you're better than this" Ms. Robbins added, opening the door for Sierra, "Don't make me change my mind on that".
Sierra dejectedly walked back into her home an hour later, taking off her backpack and lazily tossing it on the couch. Before even taking on step on the stairs, her mother walked to in front of the top stair landing in the midst of putting in an earring, "Oh, Sierra! I'm glad you're home so soon" she said, beginning to slowly walk downstairs. "I forgot to mention, honey; you're coming to dinner with us hosted by Siegfried and Roy tonight". Sierra audibly groaned, with an eye roll. "Really, mom?" she asked in frustration, "I'm hanging out with Chris tonight!". Kate quickly retorted, "Excuse you, that's no way to talk to your mother! You're coming with us, no 'if', 'and', or 'but' about it" with her hands firmly gripping her own hips. "Do I make myself clear? It's important to your father that we all go". Sierra sighed again, "Fine...", acting in compliance, walking past her mother upstairs and straight into her room.
She opened the upper drawer to her dresser, reaching into a sock to pull out a decent size bag of catnip. "Dinner my ass" she whispered under her breath, "You can't tie my down to dad's job forever" as she tossed on the bed. In her closet, she pulled out a black hoodie, with a bong wrapped inside it, and a lighter buried within the same shelf. Her mind raced with all the times in the past year she was dragged into her parents' lives, how argumentative she became, how bottled-up she tried being. Grabbing a canvas satchel from under the bed, she neatly packed the drugs and paraphernalia inside, being sure to wrap the nip in a scent-filled cloth and spraying the inside with lavender aerosol, before fastening the straps shut and leaving it on her bed.
As Sierra made her way downstairs to grab her backpack, she was caught by an old, raspy voice. "Not looking forward to tonight, are you?" an elderly lion asked. Sierra only shook her head, "No, Grandpa" she answered softly. "Hey, don't sweat it kid. I hated those god-forsaken dinners too. I rather have stayed home with my friends Buddy Weiser and Miller" he chuckled, gently elbowing her with a wink. His granddaughter only huffed with a gentle eye-roll, "I'm not really a kid anymore, Grandpa" she softly responded, continuing to fish in her backpack. "I just want out of this house, I know I could make it on my own". Her grandfather only laughed, bending over and gripping his knees, "Hey, I'd be impressed if you made it 2 weeks in the real world! You have no idea what it's like out there!". Sierra snuck the photo she had earlier into her pocket, though accidentally pulling the failed test halfway out of her backpack earlier before walking briskly upstairs, "Yea, thanks Grandpa". The elderly lion's laughter slowly subsided, "Hey, I'm just being real with ya! All you 16 year old kids think you know so much about how to handle yourself". He walked into the kitchen bar, opening a bottle of Jim Bean and pouring himself a small glass. "Oh, Sarmoti..." he said to himself, "she's a lot like you, innit?".
"Sierra?" Kate called out, walking over to her daughter's room, formally dressed. She softly knocked on the closed door, "You in there? Come on, it's almost time to go". After a few moments of silence, she gripped the knob, turning it slowly and pushed the door in to a dark room, "We're gonna be late-" she cut herself off, seeing an empty room. Her face quickly changed to anger, clenching her fist tightly, "Oh, I can't believe her..." she muttered under her breath. A heftier male walked to the door frame, fastening a tie around his neck, "What's going on, babe?" he asked confused. "Larry, your daughter just ran off to see that damn boyfriend of hers!" she growled, slamming the door shut behind her. "What is it about him that she's so obsessive about?" Kate asked in frustration. "Well, weren't you like that when we dated?" Larry asked with a raised eyebrow. "Oh, don't take her side of it!" she snapped back, walking back downstairs. "I'm not!" Larry defended, "It's just girls her age are-" before being cut off by the sight of his wife pulling out a loosely held paper poking out of Sierra's backpack. Her frustration turned into rage, gritting her teeth with her claws piercing through the sheet. "What's wrong?" Larry inquired. Kate said nothing, simply turning the paper around to see a large red "34%". "Ohhh..." the lion trailed off, gripping his chin with a wide-eyed expression. "Let's just go, Larry. We'll deal with her later".
Sierra shivered in the could, leaning back against the factory brick wall, her bag beside her and tightly curling herself into a ball the best the could, her black jacket doing little against the autumn cold. She looked down at her text messages;
"Hey, I'm here" 9:10 pm (seen)
"Where are you?" 9:25 pm (seen)
"You there?" 9:53 pm (seen)
"I'm freezing out here! wtf are you!?" 10:22 pm (seen)
She pulled out the bong, filling it with some water that she had brought. With a sigh, she packed in the catnip into the metal bowl, before opening the lighter, "You better have not blown me off..." she thought to herself. After a hit, she shivered, coughing a bit from the potency, and sniffling from the cold. Her shivering increased, the fumes and heat doing little to warm her as her body loosened up, "maybe he got caught up in something..." she tried justifying, putting in some ear pieces to listen to some slow grunge. Humming softly to the music, getting looser with each hit, she turned to see the time again. "11:05 pm...you have got to be kidding me" she muttered in a chilled voice, her breath now visible from the cold air. She eventually picked up her phone, dialing her boyfriend's number.
Three rings, no answer.
"Come on...why are you not answering?" she thought to herself. She tried again, again with no answer. After taking another hit, she tried dialing the number one more time.
Finally, an answer.
"H-hello?" a weak voice answered. "H-heeeEEeey" Sierra replied in a mildly delirious state. "Where..w-where are you-" she tried to continued, before being caught off by the sound of giggling in the background of the phone. Suddenly, the high had flushed out of her. "Uh...whose that in the-" she tried to continue, only to be cut off by her boyfriend again. "Haha, nah don't worry babe...I'm trying to talk to some weirdo on the phone..." he replied. Sierra had dropped the bong, breaking it on the pavement, fowl smelling water spilling out of the mouthpiece with some still smoldering bits of nip falling out the bowl. "Chris...who the hell is in the background? I thought I was your girlfriend?" she angrily growled. There was a pause for a minute, with slight shuffling being heard through the call. "Wait..wh-..o-OH, S-Sierra! H-heyyy! I, uh-" Chris tried to recover, but was caught off by the rage on the other end of the line, "I'VE SAT MY ASS OUT HERE FOR 2 HOURS WAITING FOR YOU, AND YOU WERE CHEATING ON ME WITH SOME OTHER WHORE?". Tears welled up in her eyes, trying to grip what she had just realized. Her breath began to stutter, trying to hold the phone away from her mouth and hide it. "Wait, Sierra, l-listen, I-" Chris tried to explained, only to be met with raging fury, "SAVE IT, JACKASS", with Sierra hanging up, and quickly blocking the number. She threw her phone to the ground, crossing her arms across her knees, and buried her face inside, sobbing in lament in the cold desert night.
"1:30 am..." she thought to herself, looking down at her near-dead phone, gingerly walking up to the front door of her home, and opening it to a pitch dark room. She slowly closed the door, being careful not to wake anyone, only to paralyze from the flick of the living room lights. Slowly turning her head, her face turned a flustered red to see her mom, cross-armed and cross-legged with an angered face. "And where have you been all night?" she asked with an upset tone. Sierra's breath picked up, becoming heavy and erratic, crossing her arms in an X before extending them out, "Mom, I can NOT handle this right now" she retorted, still upset from earlier. Her mother took a sniff, widening her eyes from the burnt smell of nip, and standing straight up in fury, "YOU ARE A NIP-HEAD!" she accused, pointing at her, "That wasn't just your grandfather's stash that we found a couple months ago, wasn't it!?". "I TOLD YOU, I CAN'T DEAL WITH THIS RIGHT NOW" Sierra screamed back, fists clenched and teeth gritted. "Oh yea? I suppose you cant deal with this either, huh?" Kate shot back, holding up the failed test she found from earlier. "You've been doing drugs with that deadbeat boyfriend you've been obsessing over, and now you have the audacity to yell at me?" Kate continued. "MOM, I-" Sierra tried to respond, only to be cut off again. "What else have you been failing? Don't try to turn this around, you CAN NOT wiggle your way out of this one!" Kate continued to fire. "I have it under control-" Sierra tried to defend, again only to be cut off. "Bullshit! If you had it under control, you wouldn't have needed that nip to cope. You SHOULD have come to US because WE have your best inter-" Kate tried to lecture.
"Oh FUCK OFF with that 'Best Interest' crap. Last time I came to you for advice with my grades, all you did was berate me and continued to bolster that it was my fault instead of-".
"DON'T use that language with me, young lady!" Kate intruded, marching right up to her daughter. Only to be met with her arms being grappled. Sierra loaded her arms up, and with the full weight of her body, violently shoved Kate backwards. "HEY-" she cried out, stumbling into the coffee table, falling over it and on the other side, propped up by on the couch. "YOU WANT YOUR FATHER INVOLVED IN THIS?" she yelled, seething at what just happened.
"Go and get him then. See if I give a damn!" Sierra yelled, running up the stairs into her room. "FUCK THIS FAMILY!" she yelled out, slamming the door shut and locking.
Aroused and irate out of bed, Larry stumbled into the hall. "Hey, what's going on down there?" he said, rubbing an eye. "Sierra!" he called, knocking on the door. Instead of a response, he was met with something heavy smashing against the other side of the door, causing the lion to stumble back in surprise. Shaking his head, he carefully made his way downstairs, gripping the rail tightly to see his wife on the floor, struggling to get up. "Ah, Christ..." he muttered softly, hurrying his pace and kneeling down beside Kate, gripping her arm and shoulder to help lift her up. "Easy there..." he said softly, "Are you okay, dear?". "I'm fine..." Kate sharply responded, dusting off her arm and shoulder. "Your daughter decided it was a good idea to push me over the table and into the couch" she tried to calmly explained, still seething inside. "And she thinks that these drugs don't do anything extreme to you" she piled on. Larry sighed and held his wife, head over her own as Kate leaned into him with closed eyes, sighing gently holding her own head in anguish. "Come on" he said softly, holding her still and guiding her upstairs. "We'll talk about it tomorrow".
"Well what kind of kerfuffle did you all just had?" Sarmoti interjected at the sight of the couple. Larry just gave a stern look and a gently head-shake, "Not now, Sarmoti". The elderly lion sighed in a low growl, walking back inside his room without a word.
The next morning, Larry stretched his arms, looking over to see his wife still on her side. He looked over to the clock, then gently gripped Kate's shoulder. "Babe...it's 6:00 am...what are you still doing in bed?". Kate lazily turned up at Larry, gently moving to sit herself up. "Ugh...it's last night...". Larry hugged her gently, with Kate returning the favor as they enjoyed each other's embrace for the precious few seconds. "I...maybe...no...I was definitely too harsh on her" Kate whispered, burying her face in both her hands before they glided off. "Well, go talk to her. Knowing her, she's still probably in bed" he advised. "But...you think she'd want to see my face so soon?" she asked, gently swinging her legs over the bed's edge, and calmly standing up.
"Well, if you won't...who will? What am I gonna do to fix it?".
"Larry, I don't know, okay!?" Kate sighed. "Alright...I will" she eventually relented.
She slowly walked over to see, as expected, a closed door to Sierra's room. "Honey...?" she asked, wiping her own face again with her paws. "Sweetheart, I'm...I'm so sorry about last night...I know it's hard, but..." she tried to explain, wiggling the locked knob. "...We need to discuss what happened". Reaching up, she glided her hand on the door frame, gripping a lock-pick from above to slide in the door's slot. Wiggling it open, she stepped in slowly. "Sweetie?" she called out, staring at the occupied bed.
Walking over carefully, she gently pressed her hand on Sierra. "Come on, we need to-" before cutting herself off, feeling her hand just sink into the bed. Puzzled, she pulled back the covers, revealing only a pile of pillows that laid under them. Kate gently sighed, turning around to walk out, but caught the eye of a note. She picked it up in curiosity, reading the hastily scribbled penmanship.
Her face slowly changed to confusion, morphing into horror as she covered her mouth with her hand, squeaking out a cry silently as her eyes welled up once more, falling back into the bed behind her. Tears flowed uncontrollably from her eyes, weeping inconsolably.
Larry walked rushed into the room, kneeling quickly to his wife's aid. "What's wrong?" he asked in concern, seeing the paper in her hand. Kate buried her face into her husband's shoulder, holding him tightly in grief as he mulled over the letter.
It was a goodbye note.