"Hey sweety!" Silvia entered the room with a wave. Jennifer looked at her mother closely, she seemed even younger than she did yesterday, or rather, more than a single year. She looked like she could be a senior in college, if she went to school that is. Her hair was uncombed and given the stench probably hadn't showered today, or that week. Jennifer grimaced as Silvia hugged her as she settled on the latter. Silvia gave special attention to Jennifer's bulbous baby belly as she gave it a tender pat. "Have you been feeling any kicks? You certainly look like you could bust at any moment!" Silvia said with a wink.
Jennifer recoiled from her mom, disentangling herself from her grasp. "I don't know, maybe?" Jennifer questioned. She honestly didn't know given the time jumps.
"Aw well it's ok, I got everything set up for you today, and don't mind mom, she is just having a moment today ok sweety?" Silvia bit her lip at the second part, looking over her shoulder in a hushed tone, as if her mom could be standing behind her right then.
"Grandma's here?" Jennifer asked, genuinely shocked. Could have reality gone so far to have dragged her grandma into this? "Of course baby, she keeps saying she's going to kick us out but don't listen to here, you keep studying hard and she will come around." Silvia explained.
Jennifer shook her head, this was the worst, and somehow getting even worse. With a wave her mom grabbed her bedroom door and with a click, Jennifer realized she had locked the door. "What is going on?" Jennifer would have never been locked in her room, who even installs the lock on the outside? Something was definitely going on. Still however, Jennifer didn't try anything extreme, not that she really could, being stuck in her drab room with only a number of children books left her with little options, but it did give her time to think. Why had she gotten younger? She couldn't recall anything she did that was rude or mean. She shook her head in confusion, at least being sequestered like this ensured she would wake up older, maybe then she could figure out how to change this.
The rest of the day was mind-numbing. Moving around the room was near too much of a hassle to be of any worth. Her tiny body just wasn't suited to be lugging around a baby nearly a tenth of her whole weight. Forced to pretty much always keep a hand underneath her stomach and the other on her back as she moved around. Going to the bathroom was no better improvement. Her stomach was so large that she had to sit on the toilet extremely awkwardly, legs spread to make room for it, causing her legs to dangle from the floor, which made her feel dangerously unbalanced, as if she was trying to balance on a beam. The only time Jennifer felt excited was when she could hear her mom and grandma, who sounded much younger than the frail sixty year old she remembered, got into verbal spats. Jennifer couldn't make out much of what they were yelling about, but she knew that in the future, grandma would dump mom and her on the street, and it sounded like it was closer than later in the year.
The only other time she saw anyone else was looking out the window at kids passing by, and her mom bringing in the occasional snack or bringing her dinner. The meal itself consisted of a microwavable dinner that still had its wrapper on it, and tasted clearly of freezer burn that made Jennifer stick out her tongue in disgust. Finding no suitable garbage bin she relented to placing the used plastic try next to the door.
Luckily for Jennifer, she had started to go nose blind to the funk that permeated around her, and the mattress, while looking unwelcoming, was rather comfortable. The mattress was sunken in around the middle from wear and it catered to her body well. With a distant howl of an animal and muffled bickering from the other room, Jennifer found herself falling asleep.