if that meant denying her a ride. She didn’t want to leave her car at the airport for a year, so she had planned for a cab to pick her up the next morning. She hoped that her mother and father would still be asleep when she left otherwise she knew it would be a big ordeal full of tears and anger. After dinner, Emma washed her plate and headed back up to her room. She needed to shower and go over her list one final time in order to ensure that she did not forget anything for her trip. She had planned to stay in hostels while she traveled and had a list of each one in all of the different cities she planned on visiting. She also had a list of all of the sights that she wanted to see and along with her clothes, personal supplies, and other items she made sure she had several cell phone batteries, extra chargers and plenty of USB memory sticks for her laptop. She wanted to take pictures of everything. Emma knew that this would probably be the only time in her life that she would be able to spend such a long time overseas and she wanted to capture it all on her camera. She wanted to be able to share it with her friends, family and someday her grandchildren. This trip meant more to her than her parents would ever understand and she wanted to make sure she never forgot it. Emma barely slept that night. She was too excited and could not wait to see what the coming year held for her. She was also terrified. She wondered if going to another country alone was the smartest thing for her to do. She wished that she had asked a friend to join her, but knew that no one she knew could have afforded to go with her and she really was not that close to anyone that she did know. She hoped that while she was in Europe she would get to meet new people and make new friends. Emma was awake at 4:30 the next morning, her alarm was not set to go off until 5 am and she was glad that she had woken up before it went off. She did not want to take the chance of it waking her mother, but when the smell of pancakes and bacon hit her nostrils she knew her mother was already awake. Emma showered and dressed quickly before grabbing her bags and heading down the stairs. Her cab was to arrive at 6 AM and that could not come soon enough for her. “What are you doing,” Emma asked her mother as she walked into the kitchen. “Oh,” her mother replied, “I couldn’t sleep so I thought I would get up and cook you a big breakfast before you leave. I know it is going to be a long time before you get to eat like this again.” Emma rolled her eyes. ‘Now she is going to try and bribe me with food’ , Emma thought to herself. Emma partially blamed her mother for the issues that she had with her weight. Every time Emma had become upset her mother had given her food to comfort her. When Emma wanted to do something that her mother did not approve of then she would give Emma food or even pretend that she was being a good mother by spending time with Emma while baking. Emma sat down as her other handed her a plate and thought about the time that she wanted to attend a sleep over with several girls from her school. Emma’s mother had decided that would be a great night to spend baking all kinds of sweets with her daughter. Of course Emma had a good time, but she longed to spend time with girls her own age. She felt left out when she went to school the next Monday morning when all of the girls were talking about how much fun they had at the sleepover. Emma remembered crying that night when she got home because the girls had ignored her the entire day at school because she had not attended. Emma quietly ate her breakfast. She knew it was the least she could do for her mother and she really did not want to leave on bad terms. No matter what her parents put her through she would always love her mother and want to please her. Emma watched as a tear rolled down her mother’s cheek. She wished that she could do something to change the way her mother felt, but she