Disclaimer: Alas, still not mine.
Jennifer Cohen-Chang calls her daughter from the kitchen of their two storey home. "Tina!"
The teen walks into the kitchen, pulling one of her iPod headphones out of her ear. "Yes?"
"Sorry to do this to you sweetie, but Maggie is coming over for dinner, and I need to be here when she arrives. Would you mind going to pick up your brother from practice?"
Tina groans. "Maggie? From your office? That Maggie?"
"Yes, that Maggie. I know you're particularly fond of her but—"
"I'm not fond of her? That woman hates me! The last time she was here she actually asked me if I was in a Satanic cult!" she exclaims indignantly.
Her mother sighs. "I know, Tina, but could you please try to be nice to her? I have to work with the woman every day."
"Yeah, yeah," she grumbles. "Fine. I'll go get Adam."
"Thank you," says Jennifer, walking over to give her daughter a hug.
Tina smiles and picked up the car keys from the kitchen counter. There really isn't very much that she wouldn't do if her mother only asked, so she fully intends to play nice with her mom's coworker even if it kills her.
A few hours later, after dinner, Maggie is lamenting the fact that her son Marcus, who goes to McKinley with Tina, had gone out and gotten a tattoo. "A tattoo," she moans. "Can you believe it? And this was only a week after we caught him smoking pot with his friends!"
"Oh, dear," says Jennifer, making sympathetic noises. "How awful."
"I know. But then, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about," Maggie says, glancing over at Tina, who bites her lip to keep her mouth shut.
"I'm sure I don't," responds Jennifer calmly, though her eyes narrow a little.
"Oh, of course not personally," she simpers, not making any effort to hide her disdainful once-over of Tina's appearance. "I was just referring to teenagers in general."
"Oh, well, kids these days," Jennifer says noncommittally. She groans internally as Maggie continues to drone on about kids acting out, and ignores the pointed comment she makes about how happy she is that her children at least look well-behaved.
The thing is, Jennifer has never understood this obsession with how your kids look. As far as she's concerned, the way her children behave is much more important. Take Maggie's son Marcus. Yes, he dresses like an Abercrombie model and drives a nice car. But everyone knows he is something of a druggie and on the verge of flunking out of high school. Not to mention the DUI he had gotten earlier in the year. Tina, on the other hand, never touches drugs, and she and her mother talk about everything. She maintains a solid A- average at school, and has promised to call her mother if she ever does have too much to drink and needs to be picked up.
So as far as Jennifer is concerned, if her daughter's way of acting out is to wear a lot of black and dye her hair bright colours? That's just fine.