"Okay, that's it for today, girls. You better be here bright and early for tomorrow's practise." Stephanie shouted rather loudly; but she had to because the football team across the field from us were being extremely loud. They were tossing the ball around and I barely got a good look at Theo before Stephanie was blowing the whistle again. I could even see Stephanie take a quick peak at them, and it didn't take Einstein to figure out who she was looking for.

She smiled then twirled her raven hair around her slender finger. Then she was off.

"Thank goodness for that. I thought my feet were going to fall off." Cadence whined, holding her feet in agony. I stifled a laugh and launched myself down onto the grass. As soon as my head met the grass, all I wanted to do was sleep. But I couldn't do that. Once I reminded myself that I had to drive myself home in a few minutes, I hauled myself back up, ignoring the pain and throbbing in my legs and back. Holy shit.

My legs felt like jelly.

Just as I was starting to walk, I did accidentally trip over my own foot. But no one saw that. I hoped.

"Al's Diner?" Angel shouted from all the way from the bleachers. Mike's arm was swung around her shoulders, pushing her cosier and closer to his chest. They matched.

"Sorry! I have to get home!" I shouted back and Angel frowned. But that frown was soon wiped off her face as Mike was pecking her cheek. Cadence was making throwing up sounds and Charlotte looked like she was ten seconds away from committing arson.

Me and Cadence walked over to the bleachers and collected our stuff. "Can't you hold off like an hour?" Angel whined, showing me her best puppy dog eyes. I laughed and stuffed my water bottle back into my bag.

"Sor-" I was cut off by Charlotte as she rolled her eyes, "She's busy. She said that." I looked at her expectedly. I didn't know what to say.

"Yeah, I am. Sorry guys." I said and pouted. Cadence stepped back and ran over to the trash can, throwing in her food from lunch earlier on; leaving us alone with the weird feeling in the air. "Are you guys free to go tomorrow? It's fine if not."

I heard Charlotte sigh but I didn't look at her. Angel nodded and turned to Mike. "Want to come with us?" She asked and then Charlotte sighed again.

Cadence walked back over and took a seat on the bleachers, but I swung on my bag and stepped back. Mike nodded and kissed her head. I was single. A single Pringle.

"Great. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Bye!"

"Bye!"

"C ya."

As we all said our goodbyes, I walked across the field, making sure I wasn't getting close to the football team. They looked like a bunch of angry monsters. The whistle blew and I just about made it to the school doors before I met Theo's eyes. But he looked away before I could interpret what look he was giving me. I sighed deeply and got out my keys from my bag. I walked back outside to the school parking lot. My car was sat in the parking space, roasting in the sunlight.

I hopped inside and stayed sitting there. Then I remembered that bag of M&M's I bought. I fished them out from my bag, where I had put them earlier, and opened them up. I plugged my phone into the aux and laid back against the seat.

A good ten minutes must've passed because I was just sitting there munching on my bag of candy and singing along to the music that was blasting from my playlist.

My phone beeped and I sighed. I tossed my half eaten bag of candy into the cup holder and sucked off the chocolate from my fingers. The chocolate was melting slightly.

As I dried my hands I took out my phone from my bag and turned it on.

There, sat, staring up at me, was another message from my Dad. Why couldn't he just leave me alone? How had he not of gotten the hint that I didn't want to talk to him? The amount of messages he sent me was enough to tell I was ignoring them. I mean, I was always on my phone. If I was on my phone twenty-four seven and a message came through, that would be a good hint to take that I was ignoring you.

Good afternoon.

I have spoken to your Mother and she

said it would be a great idea for you

and Callum to see me this Saturday.

I stared at the message in disbelief. He spoke to Mom? They spoke? They actually spoke to one another?

I laughed loudly and threw my phone into the passenger seat, immediately starting up the car.

The whole drive back home I was fighting the battle in my head. How on earth did this happen? He spoke to Mom? Mom actually obliged and spoke to him?

No way.

I turned the car into the driveway and switched off the engine. I instantly got out and grabbed my stuff. My Mom's car was there in the drive also and I stomped my way up to the door.

But to my surprise, as soon as I opened the door, Mom was handing me a random heavy pumpkin.

"How was practise?" She asked me. She was busy carving a pumpkin to look up.

I swallowed thickly. I felt absolutely confused. "F-fine, thanks."

She then glanced up, frowning. "What's that look for?" She asked and I tried to come off as casual. But that didn't work. How did I even approach this with her?

"Nothing. I'm just extremely tired. I think I might head up to bed for a bit." I set the pumpkin down on the dining room table and starting leaving to go upstairs when all of a sudden, she was pulling me back.

"Nonsense. You can't go up to bed now. We've still got to go shopping." She said and wandered into the kitchen.

"For what?" I asked, following on behind her.

She grabbed a broacher out from her leather bag, and passed it to me. I looked down at it and laughed to myself. She was really going all out this year.

"Mom. We've already got Halloween decorations. Take a look around you." I said, gesturing to the room we were in. Orange - pumpkin spiced - candles were set alight and place mats were orange and red. Mom had stuck up a fake bloody hand on the porch door.

She sighed, but looked at me like I was crazy. "Yes, but not enough. Have you seen your room? You've got one decoration up there."

I tilted my head and stared at her, dumbfounded. "You want to buy stuff for my room?" I asked and she swallowed.

"Maybe." She said and locked her hands together with mine. "Why?" I asked, fake crying in the hope that she'd pity me and stop this outraging idea.

"Don't be so dramatic." She sighed. "I just want us to celebrate really well this year. We haven't been able to in the past," She stopped herself and I stepped forwards, pulling her into a hug. I knew what this was about. Dad. In the past when he would live with us, he didn't like to celebrate or have fun. Mom would always try to give her opinion but he wouldn't have it. "I understand." I said quietly.

She pulled back and aggressively wiped her eyes. "Dear me." She laughed to herself but I just looked at her.

I moved out of her way and grabbed a wine glass and a bottle of her favourite red wine. I poured a little bit into the glass and passed it to her. "Go sit down and I'll go and get dressed. We can go after I'm ready, okay?"

She nodded and took a sip. "Can you drive?"

I rolled my eyes playfully, "Fine."

"Thanks, sweetie." She said and kissed my cheek. She took herself into the living room and I took myself up into my room.

As I swung open my door, it was then when I realised how basic it looked. No wonder she wanted to decorate my room.

There wasn't just no decorations in here, but there was also my clothes sprawled out all over the floor. My shoes and bra's, also.

It was even emptier seeing no Zoe. She was still at my auntie's and I missed her a whole bunch. I needed to pick her up but I didn't know if my auntie was able to give her back. She was forming a special type of bond with her and it was extremely cute.

As soon as I was dressed and ready, me and my Mom headed out to the mall.

The mall was full of decorations and was extremely bustling with people. Some people looked like they were out from work and school, and others looked like they were just taking a trip to the mall on their day off.

I followed behind my Mom into various shops. She knew what we had to get and I just agreed to her because you should never disagree with what the Mother says. Whatever she got was trendy - apart from that flappy phone case of hers.

"What about this?" She asked, holding up a duvet. It had spiders on it. Gross.

"I don't particularly want to wake up to find spiders staring at me." I said and she huffed.

"Fine." She said and walked further down the aisle. "What about this?" She held up a skeleton duvet and I frowned. "Okay, fine. You pick if you think my choices aren't good enough."

I rolled my eyes and walked ahead of her. Nothing caught my eye until I came across something. I turned around and saw my Mom was focused on something. I took this time to run out of sight and over to the collection of scary masks. I grabbed one, Ghost, and slipped my head into it. I slowly walked back over to where I was, and crouched down. I laughed evilly as I heard footsteps coming towards me.

Just as she stepped out right where I wanted her to be, I jumped up and scared her. Although it wasn't her. It was a random lady and a man.

My eyes widened within the mask and they looked absolutely horrified.

I just stood there, hands up like I was going to pounce on them. Fudge cakes.

The man whisked the women away from me and I cursed to myself. "Sorry!" I called but they were already gone before they could hear my weak voice. Holy shit.

Then a scream made my heart skip.

It was my Mother. The right person I wanted to be scared and not some random couple.

"Goodness me, Willow!" She said, holding onto her chest tightly. She looked like her soul had been sucked out from her. "What do you think you're doing scaring me like that?"

"Sorry." I said, though my words were muffled from the mask. I tugged off the mask and put it back away with the other masks. "Can we go now? My feet hurt."

"No." She said and I groaned. She continued to walk around the store, throwing stuff into the cart.

"Why so moody today?" I asked, wrapping my arm around hers. She continued to pick out stuff from the shelf's that she thought looked rather spectacular; but it was just a load of shitty plastic decorations that we'd soon lose somewhere in the house.

"I'm not in a mood, sweetie." She took a look at me and guided me, by my arm, over to the self-checkout area. "What makes you think I am in a mood?"

I shrugged, and passed her something for her to scan. "Just you're normally a lot, calmer. But you're not now." I didn't know how to approach the talk with her. I knew if I ask her about Dad, it'll bring up much more than I bargained for.

She stayed quiet and I wondered if she didn't hear me. But then she looked at me, glossy-eyed. "Sorry, sweetie."

I stared at her, holding a random object that apparently can sing. What the f-

"Something at work today, it was tricky." She told me with a lightness in her tone. "Usually I don't get emotional about work, but today was extremely tricky. So tricky that they've made sure I had a couple weeks off."

That bad, huh.

I put down the object and hugged her side. I was hugging my Mom in the check-out point in the middle of everyone. She hugged herself closer to my side and kissed my head. I heard her sniffle.

"Do you want to talk about it? I heard talking about your feelings can make you feel much better." I said softly, but she shook her head.

"No, it's quite alright. I don't want to tell you about it because it's not very nice to hear. But work's work. Working as a nurse, it's not like every day is going to be amazing. We do surgeries for people who need it, and that is that. Life is life and there's not much I can do." She said and I could her the thickness of her sadness in her voice.

I hugged her tighter. "You can't save everyone Mom."

"I know." She whispered. "But it would be nice to try."

I pulled away and sent her a small smile, to which she returned. "You have tried. You're a great person and I'd feel so safe if you were operating a surgery on me." I said and she chuckled, nodding her head along to my words. "But in all seriousness, you're the best nurse out there. You care. Not just for your job, but for those people. Ms.Peters, that old lady you did that brain surgery on, she's healthy and also super happy. You saved her Mom. She couldn't of done it without you."

My Mom stared down at me, a look of fondness in her glassy eyes. She smiled sadly, and combed gently back my hair behind my ears. "I don't know what I could've done without you, Willow Sofia Anderson. You quite truly are the best daughter I've ever had. The best daughter out there."

"That's because I'm so amazing." I commented and she nodded firmly, a genuine wide smile breading out on her face.

"You really are amazing. Anyone could see that."

I smiled and hugged her one last time before we finished scanning and bagging up our shopping. We loaded the car and got back inside. Mom took a quick detour to Starbucks to buy us a pumpkin spiced latte and also an apple pie to share.

"Love you Mom."

"Love you daughter."

We both shared a look and couldn't help but laugh.

Everything circled back to my Mom. She was truly the best Mother out there and I loved her so much. She fascinated me. Everything she did, everything she said, stuck with me and inspired me. She was my only true idol. What made everything better was that I was a mini her.

Fiery and strong.

I was her.

Love you Mom.

The rest of the evening we spent together. We put up as much decorations possible in my room. We changed my old duvet for the new one. Candles were alight and made my room smell extremely nice. I now felt all Halloween-y. I couldn't wait.

I ended up cramming in some revision before I passed out asleep. But before I was knocked out of consciousness, I remembered feeling a blanket being pulled over my body and a gentle kiss to my forehead.

"Goodnight sweetie."

Goodnight Mom.