The Fitness Coach Mother Broke Her Daughter With A Watch Chapter 01

The Fitness Coach Mother Broke Her Daughter With A Watch Chapter 01

Mom always said I was just born lazy.

As a personal trainer, Mom had Mia and me wearing fitness trackers practically from birth.

But whether it was running laps in PE or doing the long jump, my arms and legs would suddenly lock up, and I would go sprawling across the ground.

My teachers worried it might be ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Mom only scoffed. “Please. She’s just lazy.”

Whenever I failed to meet my daily calorie goal, she punished me twice as hard.

“Mia can handle the exact same workout, so why can’t you? You’re just lazy!”

At first, I cried and tried to explain.

Mom didn’t believe me. “The data doesn’t lie. Once you’re tired enough, maybe you’ll finally learn your lesson.”

After a while, I started blaming myself too. Why was I so lazy?

On the day of the school track meet, I signed up for the 800-meter race.

The starting pistol went off, and I ran as hard as I could, but my legs grew stiffer and stiffer.

Mom sat in the bleachers, her face dark with anger.

At last, my vision went black, and I collapsed.

The back of my head struck the concrete curb, and blood spread across the ground.

Mom stood beside me, frowning in disgust.

“This again? You think playing dead gets you out of exercising?”

“Fine. I’m going to break this bad habit of yours today. Let’s see how long it takes before you finally get up.”

I lay on the ground as Mom and Mia blurred in front of me.

Mom, I really wasn’t being lazy this time.

I just could not move anymore.

***

The wound on the back of my head hurt so badly it felt like my skull was splitting open.

I opened my mouth, trying to explain, but I could not make a sound.

Then the whole world went silent.

A few classmates noticed something was wrong and quickly rushed over to me.

Their faces were full of concern, nothing like Mom’s cold expression.

Before they could say anything, Mia, standing beside Mom, spread her arms and blocked their way.

“You don’t have to help her. She’s just trying to get out of exercising!”

With that, she lifted my limp wrist and pulled up the numbers on my fitness tracker for everyone to see.

“Mom says this number has to reach 2.0, and she’s not even at 1.0 yet!”

She meant the daily calorie burn Mom required from us. We were supposed to hit 2,000 active calories every day.

Then Mia let go of my hand.

My hand slammed hard against the ground, and my knuckles made a dull little thud against the pavement.

That finally made Mom glance over.

Out of habit, I shut my eyes and waited for the pain to come.

A few seconds passed before I realized that once a person was dead, pain stopped coming.

I had not even had time to feel relieved before I caught Mom’s gaze, and my stomach dropped all over again.

But in the next second, after Mia tapped open the data on her own fitness tracker, the question in Mom’s eyes turned back into disgust.

There was a smiley face beside Mia’s number, which meant she had hit her goal.

Mia looked smug as she bragged to the other students.

“I’m telling you, she’s always like this! She never hits the goal.”

“And I’m two years younger than her, but I can still do it!”

“Mom says she’s lazy, and she always talks back and makes Mom mad.”

Hearing Mia take her side, Mom smiled and stroked Mia’s hair.

Seeing how calm the two of them looked, the classmates began to hesitate.

“But is she really okay like that?”

“I heard Chloe Parker is Ms. Morgan’s daughter. Chloe is always saying how much Ms. Morgan loves her and how well Ms. Morgan treats her, so Ms. Morgan wouldn’t just ignore her.”

“Maybe they just had a fight.”

As they talked, more and more students gathered around.

But Mia stopped them one by one, and no one managed to come close enough to check on me.

Mom’s expression grew worse and worse.

Out of habit, I apologized to her, but she could not hear me.

She pointed at me, her voice full of disgust.

“Chloe Parker! Are you done making a scene?”

“You may not have any shame, but I do. Are you proud of this? Do you really want everyone laughing at us?”

In the past, even when my limbs stiffened and I fell again and again, I would still force myself to get back up because I did not want to make Mom angrier.

But now I stayed where I was, face down on the ground, without moving at all.

Mia stared at my tracker and added fuel to the fire.

“Mom, look. Chloe’s number is still going up.”

“She’s totally fine. She’s just doing this to defy you!”

Mom was so angry her chest rose and fell sharply.

“You want to put on a show? Fine. I’ll play along with you all day if I have to.”

Watching Mom’s face turn red with fury, Mia stomped over and kicked my hand.

“Bad Chloe! That’s what you get for making Mom mad!”

By pure coincidence, my curled fingers slipped through the loop in the bow of her sneaker lace.

Mia’s sneaker lace caught on my fingers before she could react, and she lost her balance, hitting the ground hard.

Her shrill crying exploded through the crowd.

Mom hurried to help Mia up and carefully checked her for injuries.

When she saw that Mia had split her lip, the fury in her eyes turned even more vicious.

Then she raised her foot and kicked me hard.

My limp, powerless body flipped over from the force of the kick.