Chapter Text
Uranium was by far the worst town Ocean had ever seen. Ever. The school was small and unknown, the people didn’t provide any meaningful connection to her. She wanted nothing more than to be able to leave and never look back.
”I’m home, dear birthgivers.” She sarcastically yelled into her now-empty home. “Not gonna ask me how my day at school was?” Rolling her eyes, she headed to the kitchen. She was pretty sure they went to a drum circle or something similar. “Did you at least leave me money, oh so caring…” Her jaw dropped when she saw the kitchen was a complete mess. And not a single cent to be found to buy food. “…fuckers.” She groaned and grabbed her keys. Might as well head to Constance’s place if she was broke.
She was sorry she went to Constance for food or money so much. But come on, what else could she do? She never ate at school because she never had time, and she would rather not starve.
Constance never minded, thankfully. Her house, which was only a few blocks away, was packed with too many baked goods and dishes for them to eat at all times. Despite Ocean feeling endlessly bad for always taking so much, it was better for it to be eaten, in her opinion.
”Constance? Are you home?” She knocked on her door, but no response came. Strange. Usually it’d open in mere seconds. She was about to just go somewhere else when the door finally creaked open after a couple minutes.
“Ocean! Are your parents gone again?”
”Yeah… mind if I come in?”
She was taken in with open arms.
”Thanks, Connie, seriously!” She slapped her back affectionately, although Constance did flinch a little, which was strange. Ocean thought nothing of it.
Oddly enough, Constance’s house also seemed weirdly quiet.
”Are your parents not home either, or something?”
Constance cringed. “Well… yeah, they are. Don’t worry about it, though.”
”Oh… Well, if you need to talk, I’m always open.” Constance pursed her lips and just took Ocean to the kitchen.
”There’s some weird-looking cookies. You might need to leave pretty fast, though.”
Ocean raised an eyebrow at how on edge Constance was being. If her parents were home the opposite effect would generally take place. “Alright then… Do you know what the English homework for tomorrow is? I forgot to grab the assignment sheet.”
She also had to take a moment to think about it. Constance wasn’t one to keep up with English class very much. “I think it was the Romeo and Juliet analysis. The act one final essay analysis is due in two days.”
”I can’t even begin to thank you.” Ocean smiled nervously. She usually wasn’t one to forget to grab an assignment sheet like that. In fact, the majority of the time she stayed behind just to collect everything and confirm she really had done the most. “I think I’ll get going then, thank you for the cookies.” She turned around to head out, and Constance seemed to want that, too.
”Ocean! Nice seeing you again!” her father jogged downstairs and greeted her happily. He was a big, jolly-looking man that was extremely fond of Ocean, apparently. Constance practically deflated when she saw him. “How was school?”
”It was good, Mr. Blackwood, thank you! I was just about to head out.”
”Alright, you stay safe then.” He smiled and let her through so she could leave.
It was always the best to go to Constance’s house. Her parents were always so sweet, and she…
Shit. She needed to grocery shop for when her parents came home. And she didn’t have any money. “Cookies for dinner, then.” She grumbled quietly. Sure, she wasn’t mad, but her health was very important to her! It was the least she could do after inhaling all that smoke as a kid.
She did wonder why Constance looked so upset at her father. Did he yell at her? She couldn’t think of anything else, they were a very happy family. Maybe it was the assignments Constance had missed beforehand. That was something Ocean expected everyone to be strict about! She munched a cookie and went to thinking about her essay, instead.
All she actually remembered from that act was Romeo and Juliet having a first kiss way too early, and Capulet possibly being the most reasonable person there.
It was infuriating that she would have to write an essay for it.
She went back to her house. She forgot to lock the door. Like she cared, anyways. While setting the cookies down, she noticed a sticky note on the counter.
”Will be gone for few days. Eat school food, no cash on us.”
The grammar was hardly satisfactory, in her opinion. How typical of them. “Screw you guys, you don’t deserve cookies.” She snatched them and took them to her room, even though they wouldn’t come home for days.
The food at school wasn’t even good. She would have to leech off of Constance for a few days. Again, she felt terrible for doing it, but it was pretty much a survival game, at the time. She would always lose a lot of weight whenever her parents left like that, whether she liked it or not.
”This is why I want to move to America, assholes!” she yelled into the emptiness of the house. She was particularly angry at them that day. It felt like a great day for them to be there and ask her how her day was, if she felt shitty or not.
Because god, she felt shitty at the moment. She didn’t want to have to clean the house or think about what to eat next so she wouldn’t lose any more weight.
But she was unlucky. Those two were too large of priorities for her to ignore. She didn’t want to do either though, so she slowly ate her way through the cookies. Her parents could probably deal with the mess. She was too tired to care.
And she should have also reviewed Romeo and Juliet and done at least half the essay before sleeping.
But did she care? Not really. Not at that moment.