Doesn't it just figure

It is my last week of class and my stepbrother's wife is making life more exasperating. She is taking us back to court on Thursday, which is the day of my final (it is optional, but I'm an over-achiever and want an A) So I am debating on whether to go and take it or not. We have to be in court at 9am and my final is at 3, technically enough time to get there, but I have to drive from one end of the state to the other.
I am sick and tired of playing this game, she (the mother) likes to take things that are said and twist them to suit her purposes. Her daughter, my niece, knows EXACTLY how to play her mom. She puts on an act when she is on the phone with her, makes her voice sound like she is crying to get her mother upset and bummed out, all the while she is making faces and whispering to those of us around her. Last night I asked my niece if she wanted a shower or a bath (while she was on the phone with her mom) and she whispered "bath" well her mother heard the word "bad". As in she is bad for missing her mom, or something to that effect. The mother is selectively taping the phone calls, and it is noticable on our tape, cuz our tape cuts out when she does something on her end with her tape recorder. It is rather annoying.
If she spent half as much energy trying to better herself and get a job as she is expending on making our lives more difficult, she would be employed by now. She wants economic assistance, but probably can't get much if she doesn't have my niece in her custody.
This whole situation is making me a nervous wreck, and I need a vacation!!!