Could this get any worse? Joyce thinks to herself. It's not long before the kids have to go back to school, and she thought it would be good for Jane to practice math before going back. God was she wrong.
She knew Jane hated math with a burning passion and couldn't get her head round it, but she needed it. Joyce didn't think that doing this would be so much trouble, but thirty minutes in, and Jane was sobbing her eyes out.
"Jane calm down please!" Joyce says, feeling a headache coming on, "It's important that you learn this."
Jane looks down at the paper that had the questions that Joyce had set her on it, picks it up, rips it in half, scrunches up the two pieces of paper into a ball, and throws it at the wall.
"Well what was the point of that?!" Joyce asks. Jane looks at her angrily. She gets out of her seat at the dining table, moves over to Joyce and starts smacking her, hard.
Joyce grabs her wrists, "Jane! What have we talked about! No hitting!"
Jane pulls her wrists from her mother's grip and storms off to her room.
Joyce doesn't follow. Instead, she sits at the table and sobs. She loves her daughter, but it's so hard sometimes.
…
A little while later, Jane steps out of her room to see that Joyce is still crying. She steps out and goes to her.
Joyce looks up when she hears the footsteps. When Jane reaches her, she puts her hands on either side of her mother's face. She places her thumbs on the ends of her lips, and pushes the skin so that her mother's frown becomes a smile, which makes her smile for real.
Jane wraps her arms around Joyce, hums and taps her shoulder, her ways of saying I love you and I'm sorry.
"I love you too," Joyce says reciprocating the hug, "And I accept your apology," she then smirks, knowing what will cheer them both up. She tickles Jane's sides, making her daughter giggle. Jane squirms in Joyce's arms, trying to get free, but her mother has her trapped.
Jane slowly sinks to the floor from laughing too much, Joyce coming down with her as she continues to tickle her daughter, who is still trying to get free.
Eventually, they both get worn out and stop, but still their huge grins on their faces, "Do you wanna do this math work another time?"
Jane nods, still out of breath.
Joyce smiles, "Okay," she leans down and kisses her daughter's forehead, "I love you baby."
Jane once again hums and flashes a smile back to her mother.