Skeletal by Katherine Hayton

sign of mum so I pulled the curtains back to let in the grey sky shine in.
    The spare key was on the lounge table, and I attached it to the clip on my backpack. Stupid idea to keep a spare where we could both access it. My stupid idea after a couple of incidents where my mother managed to lock herself out when she was the only one home. Not from this house. From another shabby state home. Well she could be the one who fended for herself from now on. You didn’t need to teach me twice.
    There was a sound from mum’s bedroom that stopped me cold, and raised the hairs on the back of my neck. A howl, a moan, the unmistakeable sound of someone in pain.
    I ran for her room and slammed against the door. It was locked as well. I pounded on it. Panic swarmed up my throat closing it shut. I had to exert my voicebox to get the sounds through. ‘Mum! Mum, can you hear me? Are you okay?’
    I pounded and tried to turn the handle but it bounced against the lock. My hand slid off, slick with the sudden sweat of fear. ‘Mum! Can you hear me? Should I call an ambulance? I’m calling an ambulance.’
    I ran back into the kitchen and reached for the phone when she came running up behind me. ‘Get into you room right this instant, and close the damn door behind you!’
    I stared at her. Relief lost to the ferocity of the anger I saw in her face.
    ‘Get to your room. Now!’ She slapped me across the face. The sting, the pain. And then she grabbed me by the shoulder and shook me. Pushed me towards the back corridor. Towards the stairs.
    I looked over my shoulder at her in confusion as she headed back to her room. Then saw the man standing there with his hands on his hips. Naked. Erect.
    I ran up to my room and slammed the door shut. As though that would erase the image from my mind.
     
    ***
     
    ‘No, no, no,’ Susie said as she grabbed the hairbrush from Melanie’s hands. ‘That’s not the way. You have to backcomb it, otherwise it won’t stay in place.’
    Tracy sat and let them fight over administering her hairstyle. She didn’t seem bothered either way. But then again she didn’t seem bothered about much of anything.
    Susie managed okay until it came to securing the twist in place. It held steady for about thirty seconds and then collapsed in slow motion. Now Tracy didn’t have a hairstyle and had backcombed hair that stuck out like a white woman’s afro.
    ‘Guys, you can’t leave her like that. She looks like a freak,’ Vila said.
    Tracy stuck her tongue out. ‘Takes one to know one.’
    ‘Here, let me try,’ I said and grabbed the brush off Susie. When I was seven I’d dreamed of being a hairdresser and practised whenever mum was in the mood to let me.
    I lightly brushed the outer layers, then twisted the rest into a knot, and secured it low on Tracy’s head. It may not have been the complicated arrangement the other two had been aiming for, but at least she could go out in public.
    ‘Now you look like a spinster,’ Vila said with a laugh.
    ‘What the hell’s a spinster?’ Tracy asked.
    ‘An old woman who lives alone with a collection of cats,’ I inserted. ‘And no you don’t. You just look a bit…’
    ‘A bit…?’ Melanie prompted, and Tracy raised her eyebrows.
    ‘A bit like a middle-aged woman with only two cats.’
    Tracy laughed again. Apparently unconcerned with how she looked. Something unique to her amongst female teenagers.
    ‘Hey Daina,’ Vila said and tapped my knee. ‘We’re up for maths next. Do you have your books sorted?’
    I shook my head, and Susie looked over in confusion. ‘What books? Did we need to bring something?’
    Vila shook her head. ‘Nah, she doesn’t have any school stuff. Mr Nippon said he won’t let her hand in any more homework until she gets the right equipment.’
    Susie laughed. ‘That sounds so rude: right equipment.’
    She and Tracy mocked each other with pretend genitalia, and then Susie turned back to me. ‘It’s a pity it’s not start of year. If