PiRead Novel Ocean

My mom always said I was just lazy by nature. As a fitness coach, she made me and my sister wear fitness trackers since we were kids. But no matter what I did, my arms and legs would suddenly stiffen, and I’d fall flat on the ground. My teachers even thought it might be ALS. Mom just snorted. “Stop making things up. She’s just lazy.” If I didn’t burn enough calories, she punished me even harder. “Your sister can do it. Why can’t you? You’re just lazy!” I cried and tried to explain. She didn’t believe me. “Data doesn’t lie. You’ll learn your lesson once you’re exhausted.” At the school track meet, I signed up for the 800 meters. When the whistle went off, I ran as hard as I could. But my legs got stiffer and stiffer. Mom sat in the stands, her face dark. Then my vision went black, and I fell. She looked at me with disgust. “Again? Playing dead so you don’t have to run?” “Fine. I’ll fix this today. Let’s see how long you stay down.” I lay there, watching her and my sister blur in front of me. Mom… this time, I’m really not being lazy. I just… can’t move anymore. Mom always said I was just born lazy. As a personal trainer, Mom had Mia and me wearing fitness trackers practically from birthAs a fitness coach, she put fitness trackers on me and Mia from the day we were born. But whether it was running laps in PE or doing the long jump, my arms and legs would suddenly lock up, and I would go sprawling across the ground. My teachers worried it might be ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Mom only scoffed. “Please. She’s just lazy.” Whenever I failed to meet my daily calorie goal, she punished me twice as hard. “Mia can handle the exact same workout, so why can’t you? You’re just lazy!” At first, I cried and tried to explain. Mom didn’t believe me. “The data doesn’t lie. Once you’re tired enough, maybe you’ll finally learn your lesson.” After a while, I started blaming myself too. Why was I so lazy? On the day of the school track meet, I signed up for the 800-meter race. The starting pist0l went off, and I ran as hard as I could, but my legs grew stiffer and stiffer. Mom sat in the bleachers, her face dark with anger. At last, my vision went black, and I collapsed. The back of my head struck the concrete curb, and blood spread across the ground. Mom stood beside me, frowning in disgust. “This again? You think playing dead gets you out of exercising?” “Fine. I’m going to break this bad habit of yours today. Let’s see how long it takes before you finally get up“Fine. I’m curing you of this attitude today. Let’s see how long it takes before you finally get up.” I lay on the ground as Mom and Mia blurred in front of me. Mom, I really wasn’t being lazy this time. I just could not move anymore. *** The wound on the back of my head hurt so badly it felt like my skull was splitting open. I opened my mouth, trying to explain, but I could not make a sound. Then the whole world went silent. A few classmates noticed something was wrong and quickly rushed over to me. Their faces were full of concern, nothing like Mom’s cold expression. Before they could say anything, Mia, standing beside Mom, spread her arms and blocked their wayBefore they could say anything, Mia spread her arms and blocked them. “You don’t have to help her. She’s just trying to get out of exercising!” With that, she lifted my limp wrist and pulled up the numbers on my fitness tracker for everyone to see. “Mom says this number has to reach 2.0, and she’s not even at 1.0 yet!” She meant the daily calorie burn Mom required from us. We were supposed to hit 2,000 active calories every day. Then Mia let go of my hand. My hand slammed hard against the ground, and my knuckles made a dull little thud against the pavement. That finally made Mom glance over. Out of habit, I shut my eyes and waited for the pain to come. A few seconds passed before I realized that once a person was dead, pain stopped coming. I had not even had time to feel relieved before I caught Mom’s gaze, and my stomach dropped all over again. But in the next second, after Mia tapped open the data on her own fitness tracker, the question in Mom’s eyes turned back into disgust. There was a smiley face beside Mia’s number, which meant she had hit her goal. Mia looked smug as she bragged to the other students. “I’m telling you, she’s always like this! She never hits the goal.” “And I’m two years younger than her, but I can still do it!” “Mom says she’s lazy, and she always talks back and makes Mom mad.” Hearing Mia take her side, Mom smiled and stroked Mia’s hairHearing Mia defend her, Mom smiled and stroked her hair. Seeing how calm the two of them looked, the classmates began to hesitate. “But is she really okay like that?” “I heard Chloe Parker is Ms. Morgan’s daughter. Chloe is always saying how much Ms. Morgan loves her and how well Ms. Morgan treats her, so Ms. Morgan wouldn’t just ignore her“I heard Chloe Parker is Ms. Morgan’s daughter. Chloe is always saying how much Ms. Morgan loves her and how good she is to her, so Ms. Morgan wouldn’t just ignore her.” “Maybe they just had a fight.” As they talked, more and more students gathered around. But Mia stopped them one by one, and no one managed to come close enough to check on me. Mom’s expression grew worse and worse. Out of habit, I apologized to her, but she could not hear me. She pointed at me, her voice full of disgust. “Chloe Parker! Are you done making a scene?” “You may not have any shame, but I do. Are you proud of this? Do you really want everyone laughing at us“You may not care about embarrassing yourself, but I still have a reputation. Is this supposed to make you proud? Do you really want everyone laughing at us that badly?” In the past, even when my limbs stiffened and I fell again and again, I would still force myself to get back up because I did not want to make Mom angrier. But now I stayed where I was, face down on the ground, without moving at all. Mia stared at my tracker and added fuel to the fire. “Mom, look. Chloe’s number is still going up.” “She’s totally fine. She’s just doing this to defy you“She’s totally fine. She’s just doing this to get back at you!” Mom was so angry her chest rose and fell sharply. “You want to put on a show? Fine. I’ll play along with you all day if I have to.” Watching Mom’s face turn red with fury, Mia stomped over and kicked my hand. “Bad Chloe! That’s what you get for making Mom mad!” By pure coincidence, my curled fingers slipped through the loop in the bow of her sneaker lace. Mia’s sneaker lace caught on my fingers before she could react, and she lost her balance, hitting the ground hardMia was caught off guard. She lost her balance and fell hard onto the ground. Her shrill crying exploded through the crowd. Mom hurried to help Mia up and carefully checked her for injuries. When she saw that Mia had split her lip, the fury in her eyes turned even more viciousWhen she saw that Mia’s mouth had been scraped open, the hostility in her eyes deepened. Then she raised her foot and kicked me hard. My limp, powerless body flipped over from the force of the kickMy soft, powerless body flipped over from the force of the blow. My body lay faceup, but my head, too heavy to turn with it, remained twisted to one sideMy body had landed faceup, but my head was still twisted to the side because it was too heavy to move with the rest of me. Anyone who looked closely would have seen that my head and body were positioned all wrong, almost unnaturally so. But Mom was too busy fussing over Mia to notice. All I could hear was her cursing at me. “Chloe, how could you be this cruel?” “That was Mia! Your own sister“That was Mia! Your own family!” “You’re a girl too. How would you feel if your face got smashed up like that?” The more she spoke, the angrier she became. Then she simply raised her hand and slapped me across the face again. “You just have to fight me on everything, don’t you? You have to go against Mia too!” “How did I end up raising something so lazy and so vicious? I wasted every bit of love I ever gave you!” The crack of the slap rang through the crowd, and some students covered their eyes in fear. Mia’s eyes were full of tears, but there was no hurt in them. If anything, there was a flicker of satisfaction, as if she had finally gotten even. “It wasn’t me... I was already... dead...” I murmured the words. For some reason, even though my body could no longer feel pain, my heart still felt as if it had been cut open again and again. It had not always been like this. In my hazy childhood memories, Mom had never treated me this way. Back then, she would always smile, give me a thumbs-up, and tell me I had done a great job. Whatever I wanted, she would buy it for me. Every day, she put so much thought into making me balanced meals, and at night, she would tell me stories until I fell asleep. I remembered all of it. Things only changed later, after my body started having problems. Her attitude toward me grew worse and worse. At first, she would still patiently talk me through what had gone wrong. Then she gradually became impatient. In the end, that impatience turned into deeper and deeper disgust. The truth was, I had never blamed Mom. I could even understand her. Dad once told me that Mom had a younger brother when she was little. But when he was ten, he died after a sudden high feverBut when he was ten, he died after running a fever. The doctors said his body had always been too weak, and he could not survive such a sudden, severe illness. After that, Mom became especially focused on physical fitness. When she was preg...n@nt with me, she and Dad had already talked about raising us in the healthiest way possibleFrom the time she had me, she and Dad had talked about raising healthy kids. She researched children’s exercise and ways to build strength, collecting thick stacks of notes and plans. She even had our fitness trackers custom-made. “Your mom just cares about you girls too much,” Dad told me. After hearing that, I finally understood that everything Mom did was for our own good. I did not want to disappoint her, so even when I fell over and over again, even when my whole body was covered in injuries, I kept getting back up and trying to meet her expectations. But no matter how hard I tried, in her eyes, I was still the lazy child. Several teachers finally noticed what was happening and rushed over to stop Mom, who was still slapping me. “Ms. Morgan, calm down!” My head swung from side to side under her blows. The wound on the back of my head, which had been pressed against the ground, lost that pressure, and more blood poured out with each movement. One teacher frowned and tried to come check on me. Mom stopped her at once. “Don’t bother with her! It’s just a little scrape. If it actually hurt, she would have screamed by now. She isn’t stupid“Don’t bother with her! She only scraped herself a little. If it actually hurt, she would have screamed by now. She isn’t stupid!” I gave a bitter smile. A long time ago, that had been true. Back then, Mom still cared about me. Whenever I fell or bumped into something, I would go to her so she could clean it, put ointment on it, and blow on it to make it hurt less. But later, whenever I cried, Mom would not even look at me. Over time, I learned to get back up quietly and stop saying it hurt. The teacher still looked uneasy. “She really doesn’t look well to me.” “Just to be safe, I’m going to call the school nurse.” Before Mom could stop her, the teacher had already made the call. Mom scoffed and did not even bother looking at me again. When the school nurse arrived, Mom talked her into leavingWhen the school nurse arrived, Mom sent the nurse right back. “She’s acting. Of course she has to commit to the part.” “Don’t worry. I’m her mother. You can trust me. Nothing is going to happen“Don’t worry. I’m her mother. If I say she’s fine, she’s fine. Nothing is going to happen.” “Everyone, go on. Clear out.” With that, she dispersed the crowd, then gave me one more glance. “If you’re so determined to stay here, then stay. Let’s see how long you can keep lying there.” Over the loudspeaker, Mia’s name was called. The announcement said she had taken first place in both the long jump and the sprint. Mom picked her up and kissed her twice on the cheek. “Come on. Let’s go get your awards.” “You did so well today. What do you want as your reward?” I watched their backs grow farther and farther away. The track meet was almost over, and all the students and teachers were packing up the equipment. Everyone was busy with their own tasks, leaving me lying on the ground all alone. A sour ache spread through my chest. Forty minutes later, the track meet officially ended. People walked past me in twos and threes. Every now and then, a few students who did not know what had happened worried about me. “Chloe has been lying there for so long. What if something really happened to her?” “Could she have heatstroke?” But their concern was quickly drowned out by louder laughter. “Her? I heard she’s throwing a tantrum at her mom. I would never upset my mom like that.” “All she does during recess and PE is run, but it’s not like she ever gets good results. It just makes her look like she’s pretending to work hard.” “She just pulled that sneaky little stunt and made Mia get hurt. What could possibly be wrong with her?” Those rumors sounded painfully familiar. I did not need to think hard to know Mia had spread them. Everyone shook their heads and moved on. When the voices faded, I was once again the only one left on the track field. According to the school’s schedule, after the track meet, there would be a school family flea market in the front lobby. The decorations had all been made by the students, and some of the best projects were displayed on the backdrop wall. Mia picked out a booth and set out the finished beaded bracelets. Mom took the lunches she had prepared out of her backpack. When her fingers touched my lunch box, they paused. She handed lunch to Mia, then absentmindedly poked at the food in my container with her spoon before asking coldly, “Where is Chloe? She doesn’t want to run, and now she doesn’t want to come to the market either?” Mia was wolfing down her food. She mumbled through a mouthful, “I asked her. She insisted it was your fault and said you had to apologize first, so you wouldn’t force her anymoreMia was wolfing down her food. She answered unclearly, “I asked her. She insisted it was your fault and said you had to apologize first, so you wouldn’t force her anymore.” Mom’s expression, which had just softened a little, darkened again. Mia looked deeply wronged and spoke carefully. “Mom, maybe I should go apologize to Chloe.” “Maybe she’s upset because I did well today. She isn’t usually like this.” Mom sighed and gave Mia the meat from her own lunchMom sighed and gave Mia the best part from her own lunch. “This has nothing to do with you. I’ve just spoiled her too much.” “I used to let things slide because I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, and now she thinks she can challenge me“I used to let things slide because I didn’t want to argue with her, and now she thinks she can challenge me.” “Today, I’m going to make her understand exactly who the parent is and who is supposed to listen.”