Rest and Relaxation #AtoZChallenge R

This was it. The final day before Josephine could relax again.

Everyone sympathized with her as a "boy mom" but lately her daughter was just as high maintenance as the boys. While the teenage sons kept Jo busy with sports and high school activities like dances and dating, Amy was going into 8th grade this year. Her tastes changed gradually during the last school year, and more drastically over the summer. Her babysitting money went to clothes and make-up, and her attitude went off the rails.

She was off for last minute back to school supplies, giving her some peace in the car as she drove. The kids could be tearing each other limb from limb over a box of cheez-its for all she knew. This brief respite wouldn't last.

Sure enough, the big box store was full of other last minute shoppers. It was like Christmas, but less "holly jolly". The supplies of notebooks, pens, and pencils were picked over of course. She passed that aisle without a glance. Josephine Willows wasn't so last minute that her kids didn't have their classroom essentials yet. But there were other things they needed.

Doing laundry, she'd noticed that her eldest seemed to be running low on clean and hole-free tighty-whiteys. The shampoo in the family bathroom was at the bottom of the bottle, reminding her that Amy would want to keep some at her locker. She was trying out for cheerleading this year, and hoped to be a main player on the basketball team, too.

As Jo put these and other non-school back-to-school essentials in her cart, she ran into Kim from down the block. "You too, Jo?" Kim asked, scanning the cart.

"Hey Kim! I am so ready for the kids to be back in school. How about you?"

"You know it. Their daily band practice in the basement has frazzled my last nerve! Now at least they'll have to limit it to weekends." Kim pointed out the two bottles of wine in the top basket of her cart. "You should come over tomorrow. We'll have a little 'back-to-school' lunch."

"Good idea! What about Cathy?"

"I haven't seen her in days, but if you talk to her, yeah, let her know." She started moving her cart to the checkout. "And bring some wine. We'll kick off 'Rest and Relaxation season' right!" They both laughed at the idea of a whole season to relax, but at least there would be less drama during the days.

Jo smiled at the idea of relaxing with the girls the next day. If this was like Christmas, R&R was the "reason for the season". The mom's could take back their houses, at least for a day. She turned in the direction of the liquor section with a happy smile on her face.

Thanks for visiting my #AtoZChallenge! All month I'll be writing flash fiction, with the theme "Audience Participation".
Now it's your turn, lovely audience member. Do you have a writing prompt to suggest? Don't worry about choosing a letter of the alphabet, just leave me a word, a thought, a place, a concept... anything! and I'll add it to the list.

"Rest and Relaxation" came from the prompt "Back to School" provided by Liz A.  of Laws of Gravity, in a comment left on my H post, here.