Electra 1 How It Begin - 1 Chapter 1

I’m Electra and it’s almost my birthday. I am going to be 13 on the 10th of February. However this year my birthday is on a Thursday. It’s an okay day because I’ve got maths, art, German, dance and geography. I don’t like my last two lessons as they are before lunch and the end of the day. My dance teacher tries to be nice to me, but she doesn’t like the fact that I hate dancing. My geography teacher is really strict and hates when someone spells a word wrong. If you do spell a word wrong, you have to stay behind at the end of the day and write it 100 times. Anyway that’s all next week, and I can’t wait for Wednesday to go to town to pick my new phone. At the moment it’s Monday and I’m at school still. It’s 3:45 and the computer suit is closing up. People think because I like going to the computer suit after school it means I’m a geek. I only go because my parents work until 6 o’clock most days. After my school club, I have to go to my brother’s school to pick him up. If my mum and dad know they’re going to be late and don’t tell me, they give my brother’s school the key to give to me. That was what happened today. When I went to pick up my brother, I asked the reception if they had the key. “Yes, your parents came in at lunch and asked us to give it to you. They gave me this note as well.” Carole replied. She had been passing me notes and keys since my brother stated school. The note was so predictable.

Electra can’t make it home for dinner, moneys on the table in the kitchen for takeout. We will be back at 7. Mum.

It’s been the same note for 2 years. They were out at 6 in the morning and back at 7 in the evening. Sometimes one of them would work the morning and the other at night. On the weekends they would work until 10 and go back at 8 for the night run. They used to hire a babysitter to look after us, but when I got to year 6 they decided I was grown up enough to look after me and my brother. Of course year 6 is when you take SATs and looking after my brother meant I couldn’t do a lot of revision. In my SATs papers I got a 5c in maths, a 4c in English and a 4b in science. My parents blamed me for not getting at least a 5a in everything. This year I’ve been working hard to get at least a 5a in everything. However, I managed to get a 6a in maths so far. When I told my parents they didn’t seemed bothered. Anyway, when we got home I ordered our favourites from Pizza Hut. After, I helped my brother with his homework. Blades is going to be 11 on the 10th of April. He was born two month after me. All he needed to do was create a poster on the African tiger. The tiger is my favourite animal and some of the other girls find it weird. My best friends Amy and Bethan don’t. They understand why I do things. I haven’t told them about my parents yet as when I told someone last year they told the teacher. I then had to go through with the teacher that I didn’t need her help. My exact words were “Why don’t you but out of my life you stupid excuse of a human being.” That’s why I haven’t told anyone yet. My brother went to bed at 7:30 like normal and my parents still weren’t back. They got back at 8:30 and I couldn’t control my anger. “Mum, dad I need to talk to you.” I said.

“Not now. We’ve had a busy day and need some rest.” My mum replied. “You need rest? I go to school late every day and I get threatened to be put in isolation. Then I have to do all my homework and help Blades do his at the same time. That’s after I pick him up from school and get dinner. I act more like a mum to him then you!” With that I stormed upstairs to make sure Blades heard nothing. The fact that my parents think I bunk of school in the morning when I actually drop Blades of is bad enough. Now they can’t even listen to me. Tomorrow was Tuesday and I planned to talk to them properly, with Blades there too. I was late getting up by a few minutes as my mum normally wakes me up. It was 5:45 and I went to get things ready downstairs. My dad was in the kitchen making himself some toast. When I went into the room, he looked as if I had done something wrong. Maybe I was a bit mean last night, but what would you expect? “Dad, have you still got tomorrow and next Thursday off?” I asked. I was also preparing for disappointment. “I have next Thursday, off. That’s all, why?”

“So we can get my new phone for my birthday.”

“Moneys short at the moment so we can’t afford to get you a new phone.” With that my dad walked out. Sometimes I swear he doesn’t want to know me. By 6 o’clock, everything was ready for when Blades got up. I went upstairs and put on my favourite bracelet on. It was what my parents got me on my 10th birthday before they started their new job. It’s black and has a red ruby in the middle. It’s not much but it’s worth the world to me. Blades and I were ready by 7 today so I could drop him off earlier at school, maybe than I won’t get in trouble.