Chapter 2: My Innocent Year

Chapter 2
Out the window I can see my barn. Well, not really my barn, but the one I ride at. That is my secret. My mom has never let me ride, it doesn't matter how I beg her for at least one horseback riding lesson. She would never tell my why she didn't want me to ride. But I just sneak to the barn and do my share of payment which is to take care of the horse I ride practically every time I have a lesson and clean 4-5 stalls every day of the week (except Saturday and Sundays and Fridays). The horse that I ride every week is named Beautiful Star and she's my great girl. Then I have my hourly lesson. Sometimes I ride more than and hour, which makes me happy. The barn is owned by this guy named John Startler. He is also a horse instructor. He is the advanced horseback riding instructor, not mine. I ride at an intermediate level with a younger age group. Three fourths of the horses in the barn are owned by him and the rest are just boarders.
My room is messy today, but usually it's not since I share it with Dina. It's just messy because I was trying to find something yesterday before bed. But without the mess, the room's purple floor tiles show. Our room is big. On one side there's my wonderful, unmade bed, my clothes closet, and my messy table that mom has asked me to clean up for a long time. I never liked to clean up my table, and it looked horribly ugly. The other side is the exact opposite. Next to the window is Dina's bed. There's also a clothes closet and her desk. Clean, of course. Dina's desk is clean, always wiped down and I can see her homework on the desk, where she does homework and then puts everything carefully back after she's finished with it. She is always the first one done with homework so she can help mom and get the best jobs first. The best jobs are the jobs that aren't dirty. She's always organized, and I don't know how she keeps it up.
Dina is my slightly younger sister. She is the “perfect angel.” In my opinion, she's our mom's favorite. That's why I don't like her. She always blames me for her troubles and sometimes I wish her dead. She is allowed to do everything she wants in the family.
“Oh, and Clariska, MAKE YOUR BED!!!” My mom screamed. “Poor Dina has to deal with your stupid dang it mess.” She continues. “Oh, also, CLEAN UP YOUR MESS!!!” She's getting annoying really.
“Mom, STOP CALLING ME CLARISKA. I'M TALI OR CLARA!!” I screamed at her. But I shouldn't have. I could hear her stomping up the tall stairs, passing the family tree, passing the closed doors of my siblings' rooms. Then, my mom stops in front of my door and opens it.
“What did you say to me?” She asked in a serious voice.
“Mom, stop calling me Clariska. I'm Tali or Clara. I screamed out loud, you know so you would hear me say it,” I told her.
“Well, you shouldn't have. For the rest of this week and the next week, you will be home at four. You will do four hours of house chores during the day, never use the computer unless it's for homework, and never watch T.V., understand?” she asked me.
“Yes, mom. B-B-But I can't do chores for four hours a day. That's child labor.”
“Oh, yes you can.”
Then, I thought of today's morning and what I did wrong. It led to this mess that I hate. I hate the fact that I slept in class by accident. I also hate the fact that Tela was the one who woke me up. My story is pretty common, everybody said that to me when I was getting my books and backpack and coat before leaving school to get home.