chapter 1: something to talk about

“Sheridan Alexander Davis, get into this kitchen right this instant! We need to talk about something!” A stern voice tore throughout the halls of the Davis family’s two-story suburban home, loud enough to fall on the ears of its two children, lounging in the living room and watching television.

Sherry sighed and rolled her eyes while she prepared herself to trek to the kitchen to answer her mother’s call. Her little sister Allie, or “Allison Gertrude Davis” whenever the girls’ mother felt similar frustration toward the younger of the pair, snickered and smiled at Sherry, waving a finger in mock disapproval. Her face wore a look of “at least its not me this time”, and she shrugged her shoulders at her older sibling while giving her an admittedly genuine smile of morose pity.

Sherry only glared at her sister and then got up off the living room couch. As she trudged her way out of the living room, Allie whistled a funeral dirge while nodding her head along with the melody, taking pause only to laugh at whatever situation her older sister had gotten herself into. Just before Sherry left the room, she made sure to flip her sister a quick middle finger before making her way through the house’s softly furnished hallway.

Honestly, that kid was too smart for her own good, Sherry thought. The girl was older by three and a half years and she hadn’t been nearly as obnoxious and a know-it-all when she had been fourteen years old. And now Sherry was in trouble for something again… as usual, she had not a clue in Hell what that thing might have been.

Allie and Sherry’s mom was always angry, always frustrated about something or another. The woman was a perfectionist in every sense of the word and sometimes Sherry thought that it was impossible to ever make her happy.

Sherry might have been in store for a scolding because she had done something wrong or her mom might have just wanted to yell at her because… it was a day of the week that ended in Y. As she stepped into the kitchen lighting, she braced herself for whatever was coming next.

There she was. Caroline Davis as she lived and breathed, poised with hands on hips and her signature scowl adorning her angular features. Wasting no time, she immediately pointed at the kitchen garbage can.

“What exactly is that, if you don’t mind me asking?” she barked.

Sherry looked at the can and would have rolled her eyes again had she not feared her mother’s wrath. Sticking out of the top of the trash can was a snack cake wrapper. Sherry’s snack cake wrapper.

“What is the one rule about junk food in this house?” Carly began, full tyrant mode officially activated.

Sherry grimaced at her mother’s harsh tone. In truth, the rule for bringing junk food into the house was very straightforward: DON”T. But Sherry was practically eighteen, damnit. She had just graduated high school and wanted to live a little bit before being shipped off to college.

“Umm, it could be Allie’s or Dad’s…” Sherry fibbed. She knew it wasn’t but wasn’t quite in the mood to be eviscerated for the umpteenth time this week.

“Oh, really?” Caroline fired back, crossing her thin, slightly muscular arms over her flat but firm chest. “Because this isn’t the first time you’ve been caught, and you look like you’ve been pigging out lately.”

Sherry sighed and bowed her head in embarrassment. Knowing what was coming next didn’t make it any more bearable.

“You haven’t been watching what you eat and you’re putting on weight again!”

“Here we go again,” Sherry muttered under her breath. She hate, HATE, HATED being the only pudgy one in the family. Her little sister was skinny, her dad was skinny, her mother would practically die if she ever found an ounce of body fat on her own frame… Sherry had always been the “big one” in the family.

Of course, all this showed was how relative the term “big” was. Sherry was no twig, sure, but she wasn’t exactly overweight. She was a little soft and flabby in the tummy area, sure, but the point was that she was still healthy and relatively active. Any mother should have been content with having a healthy, happy daughter but Caroline wasn’t just any mother.

“You want to get fat right before you go off to college?” Carly started laying into her daughter.

“No, Mom.”

“Well, looks like you’re already there! And you’re not doing it on my watch! What is that?” she pointed angrily at the wrapper protruding from the top of the bin. “Show it to me!”

Sherry gingerly stepped over to the can and pulled out the offensive wrapper. They were zesty cakes, just about the most fattening snack on the market, but they were irresistible. They came in packets of two, individually wrapped, and Sherry had only wanted one. Just one! The other was still in its wrapper, looking innocuous enough as Sherry held it out to her mother. Carly’s eyes were lit with rage as she snatched the treat from her daughter.

“It’s exactly this kind of crap that you-,” Carly paused for a moment, scanning the wrapper for the first actual time since she’d spotted it sticking out of the bin. Her eyes lit up wide as her jaw dropped.