What should I do?

this is a very long story, and im going to try my best to condense it. basically, around last winter i was applying to colleges in my home state (va). i got into the same university as my best friend (ill call her X) however, my brother in michigan told my mom and i that he was lonely and wanted us to come up with him- especially since he has children now. at first, i was a little hesitant. as time went on, my mom started to talk me into not going to the college in virginia ("it's so far" "you'll get lonely" etc) talking points which i knew she was parroting from my brother. eventually, i gave in and decided to go to a university in michigan. this university gave me a scholarship- so ill only have to pay about $6I, vs almost $27k at the university here in virginia. my mom also got a job lined up in michigan which will allow her to make much more money (around 99k). so, we began to move earlier this month. however, a situation with my brother occurred where he became upset about our cat (despite driving with her for almost 16 hours) and kicked us out at night. my mom and i hopped from hotel to hotel until we ran out of money and ended up at a homeless shelter. things were rough at the shelter, and escalated until she had a mental breakdown behind the wheel. my mother was screaming at me and threatened to beat me up. while i attempted to reason with her, she told me to get out of her car. while i was exiting, she sped up the car and it dragged me before she stopped. she didn't apologize to me, and we weren't able to get medical care. instead she told me to lie to my social worker (which my social worker found out about). this lead to my social worker buying a bus ticket back home for me, so i could get away from my mom. im now back at home living with my friend X and her mother. X's mother told me that she doesn't mind if i stay with her, as long as i go to school at the local community college or work while she helps me get an id, drivers license, and a bank account. however..as much as i would like to stay at home and get myself together, im worried about giving up the opportunity of a low cost education in michigan. im also horrified of what my mom will do, considering i have already been on a campus tour and bought a few things for college. i don't want to imagine how angry she will be at me. tldr: escaped my mom, not sure if i should stay home and take care of myself and work, or going back to michigan for college. what should i do?

Didn't see in the subject - how old are you? The situation is very unfortunate. A good way to do this is to achieve self-support as quickly as possible.

A very scary situation. I think I agree that, first of all, you need to deal with issues with self-sufficiency, find a job, but not give up training.

sorry, i just turned 18 earlier this month

Something's not right here. You mom had a job lined up, so why were you living in homeless shelters? Why were you living with bro in the first place? The same type of research that lead to "college will be less expensive" could have been used by your mother to find an apartment. Does the university in Michigan know of the change in your circumstances? Can it help with housing, etc.? You could go back if that kind of financial help was available. $6000 is an amount you could earn yourself. Given your mother's clear mental instability, you shouldn't live with her. BTW, is she working? Does she have an apartment? Or is she still on the street? I wonder if the 'job lined up' was a lie to get you to move.

my mom worked with an unhelpful real estate agent, and instead of working with someone new, she kept working with this person. because of this, she was unable to find a home when we moved- which is why we were with my brother. (personally i didn't because i knew he understandably did not want us in his home). my mom is still currently living in the shelter with no money. she has a teaching job which she starts on august 30th, however she will not be paid until early september. im just not quite sure what move to make in this situation

Your mom has serious problems. She's qualified to teach, but she had a much lower paying job in VA? What, no teaching jobs there? She decided to move in the middle of summer, *knowing her job didn't start until fall?* This makes no sense - if she had no income to pay for an apartment, what the heck was a real estate agent supposed to do? He or she wasn't being 'unhelpful' landlords expect payment for their apartments.

Try to find a part-time job and rent a house for yourself. Contact the university, it may be true Contact the housing