Presidential Punk (Take Numero Dos)

By Katie and Tomia

Prologue

“Kennedy! Oh Kennedy! Oh Kennedy! What has happened to your hair?” My Mom panicked, as she scampered around the kitchen.

Nothing had happened to my hair, besides for the fact that I now had two streaks of exotic blue hair- dye on my medium length strawberry blonde hair.

”Mommy, it looks fine!” I yelled back.

”Angel...” Mom said slowly. “It might be bad for your fathers reputation.”

Like it would! He was only a senator and I was only eight. I needed style. I wasn't like any ordinary girl, and I never intend to be. My style was colored hair - not blond, red, or brown; bright and colorful, just like me.

I had done this late last night, when my parents were both sleeping; I got the dye from the supermarket a few weeks ago.

“Oh, what are we going to do?” My Mom said, as she began pacing around the granite island.

”Mommy, it’s only temporary, five to forty washes!” I tried to explain, in my best 'I'm really, really sorry!' voice.

“We could bleach it, no, no, no-oh!” Mom quivered.

“If I knew this would have happened, I never would have done that! I’m sorry Mommy; I guess it’s to late now. I’ll never do it again, I promise!” I told her, trying not to let my internal feelings that felt otherwise, show.

"You're grounded, Young Lady!" Mom declared.

That night, I heard yelling coming from Mom and Dad's bedroom. And from the looks of it, so did my big brother, Carter, and big sister, Madison, because they were crouched next to me outside of our parent's bedroom door.

"This is not a political area, John! You do not control this! This is a house, which I am in control of!" Mom screamed.

"So what? You've never supported my political career!" Dad rebutted.

"Oh, so now you're going to pull politics into this!"

"No!" Dad boomed, using a voice we had never heard him use at home before. "This is a family matter!"

"A family matter? Oh, so NOW your family is important? Well, too late for that Mr. Future President! You've already lost two; you don't need to loose what's left!" Mom screamed back, her voicing cracking towards the end.

Dad didn't respond.

Instead, I heard Mom's light footsteps shuffling.

Carter, Madison, and I knew that Mom hit a sore- spot, only I couldn't quite place what.

"Come on," Carter said, squeezing Madison and I gently on our shoulders. "We'll sleep in my bed tonight."

Things must have been bad.

The next day at school, I told my three best friends, Lily, Gem, and Kyle about me getting grounded.

“Your what?” My friend Gem shrieked.

”Grounded! Don't rub it in!” I moaned.

And if there was one word that I didn't understand at that point in my life, it was 'grounded'. I was always allowed to do whatever I wanted, because no elders ever really noticed enough to care.

"It happens. Especially in baseball, when people get rough," Kyle offered.

"Yeah. And my Mom got 'grounded', too," Lily told us sadly. "But it's 'Big People' grounding."

I sighed, still comforted by my best friends.

Lily, Gem, and Kyle were right: my grounding wasn't too bad, but the events that were slowly arising around it, would be.