This was 18 years ago and the dental college heavily subsidized the cost because we were in poverty, you'll pay high, high prices here for dental.

She only made like $700 a month (we were on assistance, so most of our rent and part of our food was covered at least), so $20 wasn't cheap for us either. It's all relative. She'd just rather spend what little money she had on herself, instead of her kids.

I remember when I was 8 my shoes wore out, and I was being sent to school in this pair of $3 mark-down K-mart flipflops we got out of the clearance bin. It was winter and we were being walked from the gym in the snow to the main building and my gym teacher was so irritated with me. Asking why I was so stupid wearing sandals without socks, her face broke when I told her that's all I could find money for under the car seats. Because it was my responsibility to find money to pay for my shoes. And that I didn't have socks because my grandma forgot to get them in August for me and that was the only time I could get them (my mom didn't wear socks, or anything but flip-flops, so she didn't see why we needed them. Grandma would buy us clothing once a year, but nothing beyond that).

They called my mom into the office that day, bitched her out. She played that good ol' "My baby son died (over 8 years ago by that point) and my little girls are so hard to deal with. I'm all alone and we're broke how dare you judge me we're living in a group homeless shelter" card. My teacher gave me a pack of socks that I wore in my flip-flops through the winter, always told me to bring a spare so if my socks got wet in the snow I could put dry ones in once I got back to the main building.

Christ my life was sad. I had to be mothered by a stranger that didn't even like me.