Chapter Three: Are You Using Sarcasm

Cordelia walked into the kitchen to get a snack before going to bed. She was amazed at how tired she had gotten from just walking for a few hours. As she bent down to get an orange from the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, her mother came barging in the kitchen door with the phone in her hand. Cordy looked up to see what she was going to do, but she didn't find out because her mom took one look at her, then walked right back out with a look of pure disgust on her face.

Cordelia knew that the teachers would have called to tell her parents about how she was mocked in school and that they wanted to know how she was. In her last period she even cried, because Harmony had been telling everyone that she was crazy and going to therapy. She hated it when teachers tried to help you out, but instead make it worse.

"Mom, I didn't want to tell you because I thought that you'd get worried and call the school or something and I know how much that would take time out of your busy life." Cordelia said calmly as she followed her mother out to the living room. She was trying to explain what was going on at school, without saying it was all her parents' fault.

"Are you using sarcasm with me young lady? You know it never ends well, when you try to be a smart-ass." Her mother said to her. He voice was low, almost a whisper, but Cordelia knew she had said the wrong thing once she looked her mother in the eye.

Diana Chase, Cordelia's mother, hated the thought that her daughter was, well Cordy believed, alive. Her mother gave Cordy what she deserved when she needed it. Like, for instants, right know. She started with simple timeouts when she was younger, but as the years progressed so did the punishments. Whenever her mother was made Cordy knew that there was going to be hell to pay. So she used a new tactic when talking to her mother, sadly it was almost begging, no pleading with her to calm down and listen to what Cordy had to say.

"Mom listen, I wasn't using sarcasm. I know better than that, and I know you have important things to do in the day. I never want to get in the way of that. Please, I promise I'll take care of it if you just give me the chance. Tomorrow there will be no phone calls and the teachers will think I was just having a bad cramping day, I swear."

"You'll take care of it?" Diana laughed a to herself. "I don't think so. I'm calling your teachers back right now and fixing it myself. You have to think about others when you have a bad day Cordelia, like how it looks on you family. We are looked up to in this town, your father and I worked hard to make it that way, and I don't want our spoiled daughter ruining it."

"Mom…" Cordy said softly, she was hurt by her mother's words, and she felt tears brim around her eyes, but Diana took no notice.

"I'll be up in your room in a little bit, and you better be there too, young lady. I can't believe you let them think you were having a bad life here, we give you everything you ask for. You just think you're so special and that you have this horrible life. You don't get starved do you, you have all the latest fashions styles don't you? Go to your room, and wait for me to get you." The tone of her voice was what scared Cordy the most, because she knew what was coming.

Cordy did as she was told and headed up the flight of stairs to her bedroom. She sat on her bed waiting for her mother, she thought it was so stupid of her to wait and do nothing to stop her mother's wrath, but then if she got caught it would only get worse. A part of her did want to leave, to run away to anywhere but here, but where could she go that her mother couldn't find her?

"Cordelia, dear. You know I love you and I only punish you to teach you to be a better person." Her mother said sweetly. She came quietly in to Cordelia's room. Cordy remembered how she always gave this 'love you, but I have to punish you' speech before she finally just hit her. Cordy knew this would need a lot of make up the next day to find her knew bruises from where her mother hit. Hopefully her mom would have some compassion and hit her where it was easy to cover with a little foundation. But it was unlikely, Cordy told herself, her mother never had any compassion towards her.