10. Pumpkin

She stopped at a little market on the way home to buy those pineapples her mother wanted. It's not like she could've gone home and said "I forgot" with her mother texting her every five minutes to remind her. So she walked down the street, pineapples in hand. As soon as she got home, she would have to run around like a maniac to clean the house to then leave once again to babysit an 8 year old. If only she could just go home and sleep. Something she wasn't getting a whole lot these past days.

She arrived at her apartment and slowly walked up the steps, biding her time. Her mother could wait. She hummed 21 guns as she walked down the hallway and opened the door to her apartment. Her mother was sitting on the couch eating a bowl of popcorn and watching Jersey Shore. Thalia rolled her eyes.

As soon as her mother heard the door open and close, she was off the couch and bounding toward Thalia.

"Did you get them?" she asked hungrily.

"Yeah," Thalia said, handing her the grocery bag. Her mother ripped the bag out of her hand, walked into the kitchen and started cutting the pineapple. She cut it into a lot of pieces and just started eating them. Just like that. No seasoning or cooking. She just bit into the yellow inside, juice running down her chin. Thalia scrunched up her nose in disgust as she watched her mother eat like a barbarian. Thalia didn't hate pineapples, but she wasn't crazy about them either.

"You could say thanks," Thalia said. Her mother just nodded absent-mindedly, plopped the knife in the sink and went back to the couch to finish her episode of Jersey Shore. Thalia sighed. She left her things on her bed and started her daily labor of cleaning the house. If she never took that initiative, this place would look like a pigsty because her mother never lifted a finger and Thalia gave up on arguing with her to do so. She started by grabbing a trash bag and started throwing things out. Pizza box – check. Expired milk – check. Empty cereal boxes – check.

After she threw out everything she could at least see, she made her way to the pile of dirty dishes and started washing them. Every once and a while, over the running of the faucet water, she'd hear her mother arguing at the TV. As if Snooki could hear her.

Thalia was washing the last plate, when her mother walks in and dumps the plate she'd used for the pineapples into the sink.

"God! Mom!" Thalia said exasperated.

"Oh please, one more dish isn't going to kill you!" her mother said, before she spun and re-accompanied her television show. Thalia sighed. After washing another dish, she grabbed a broom and started sweeping. Usually she'd mop too, but when she looked at her watch, she didn't have much time before she had to leave to babysit.

As she changed into a different set of clothes, she could feel her muscles wound up. She tried stretching a little, but her body was like a coil. She looked in the mirror. A pair of capris, converse and a black V-neck. She reached down for her bag and felt a soft pain in her abdomen.

"Ugh, stupid, stupid wound," Thalia mumbled under her breath. She checked her wound to make sure she hadn't ripped anything when a loud sound echoed into her room. She immediately fell to the ground and curled up into a ball. Then, the sound came again, but a little softer and voices started to mingle into it. Thalia stood up and looked out her window to see a garbage truck collecting trash. Thalia exhaled deeply.

"Just a truck, of course," Thalia whispered. She stood up and took another breath. "I'm good." But as hard as she tried to convince herself, she knew she was on the edge. She was like a rubber band. At some point, she'll snap and she knew it. But she ignored it.

She grabbed her things and left without saying a word to her mother. It's not like she would notice anyways. Thalia walked through New York, making her way to her eight year old in need of babysitting. This is only the second time she's ever needed babysitting. She lived alone with her mother, since her dad had died in a car crash only months after she was born. It was a heartbreaking story, but somehow she had grown beyond that. She was a good student and a good daughter and her and her mother made an undeniable team.

Thalia walked into a small urbanization of small houses. These houses looked peaceful, with their yellow walls and shrubs and neatly cut bushes. At one of the houses, there was a woman on her knees in her front yard, plucking weeds from her roses. In another house, you could hear the blaring sound of a football game. It all seemed strangely normal here. Like these people didn't live surrounded by a bustling city. Thalia looked at the houses longingly. She had heard her parents talking about a house every once and a while, and she'd spin in her room, pretending she was standing in one these backyards, sitting under a tree and jumping into piles of leaves during autumn. But alas, those dreams were crushed when her father left.

She passed by a street where a huge and tall house was on sale. She stopped and looked at it, thoughts pouring into her mind. What if this had been the house they had bought? Thalia bit her lip and then rolled her eyes. She tried her best to kick out any sliver of fantasy, because that would only fill her head with false hope. And she didn't need that in a world that gave you a harsh lesson in reality around every corner.

She finally made it to the little girl's house and knocked on their door. It was so weird to knock on their door instead of pressing a buzzer. Thalia was tempted to knock again wondering if they had heard her the first time when a woman opened the door, Ms. Whirly.

"Hey Thalia, thanks for coming," she said as she opened the door wider.

"No problem," Thalia said as she walked in.

"Thalia?" a small voice came from the kitchen. Thalia couldn't help but smile.

"It's me, pumpkin!" Thalia said and she heard feet pounding out of the kitchen and straight towards her. Thalia held her arms open and the little girl jumped and fitted herself into her arms. It wasn't hard, since she was small for her age.

She had blonde pigtails and she was wearing pink shorts with a white T-shirt.

"Hey pumpkin, how are you?" Thalia said, tapping her nose with her finger. Pumpkin smiled.

"Well, we're reading this book in English class that's really hard and the teacher is being completely unfair. Oh, and this boy threw spit wads at me! But guess what? He got detention for it," she laughed.

"Yes, because what happens to people who do bad things?" Ms. Whirly said.

"Karma's gonna bite them in the butt!" Pumpkin answered proudly. Ms. Whirly nodded and walked into the kitchen.

"That's right," Thalia said to Pumpkin as she followed Ms. Whirly into the kitchen.

"Well, I have to go in about five minutes. Thanks for coming," Ms. Whirly said as she picked up two towels from the floor, still leaving a white puddle.

"No problem," Thalia said. "What happened here?" Ms. Whirly gave Pumpkin the eye as she spoke.

"My little trouble maker here spilled the carton of milk all over the floor," Ms. Whirly said, raising an eye brow at Pumpkin. She grabbed some paper towels and finished cleaning the mess.

"I said sorry…" Pumpkin said and then gave a smile. Ms. Whirly smiled, kissed Pumpkin on the forehead and left to finish getting dressed. Thalia set Pumpkin down.

"You cause so much trouble," Thalia said as Pumpkin just smiled such a big smile where her eyes were shut tight and her head was tilted back. Thalia rolled her eyes playfully.

"You have any homework, squirt?" Thalia asked, as she sat at the table.

"Well, my history teacher gave us some questions and I have some problems for math," she said, as she moved the papers on the kitchen table around to show her the work. "I need help with math," she said.

"Sure, let me see."

Sorry it took me so long to bring this chapter out. Review and let me know what you guys think! Now, just in case, 21 guns is a Green Day song. And... I know this chapter is a little bit slow, but every story has their slow chapters, so I guess this one is mine :P Thank you all for the reviews and the favorites! Until next chapter! (and if I made any mistakes, please point them out so I can fix them :P) Thanks.