Left Behind | ONGOING |

Chapter One: A Morning Routine

L E V I

The first few weeks after mom left were the hardest. 

In the back of my mind, there was always one question: when is she coming back? 

Don't get me wrong, my mother isn't a good parent. In fact, I was already used to her being gone for days at a time. She would leave me alone to take care of my younger brothers, Elijah and Aiden. But every time, there was always the reassurance that we wouldn't be completely left without a parent - that we wouldn't be left behind again.

Eventually, I got used to it - the lying, the stressful days, the sleepless nights. But even today, more than seven months after my so-called mother fled the scene, I still wonder what life would have been like if I didn't have to grow up before I even hit my teenage years.

~*~

Rolling over on my ratty mattress, I took a peek at my alarm clock. Five thirty-one blinked in a bright red, causing me to let out a sigh and sit up. 

I got six hours of sleep - something that happens rarely these days. 

I've attended Coolell High School, the biggest - and only - high school in Loburn for a few days now. Despite the city being fairly large, some genius decided that it would be a good idea to pack every kid in grades 9-12 on one campus. Apparently, that wasn't claustrophobic enough because the kids from the next town over, New Malinste, joined the party as well. 

Stretching, I finally hopped out of bed, ready to start the day. Humming random tunes in the shower, I mentally went through my checklist of what needed to be done today. 

 - Make sure Aiden has his paper crafts for daycare, you had to go all the way back to get it last time. 

- Convince Eli to get lunch at school, you need to buy groceries this afternoon. He might not want to 'use our limited money,' so find some way to make him eat. Maybe blackmail? 

- Funds are running a bit low, so cut back on how much food you eat at home for the next few weeks. You're apart of the free lunch program anyway. 

I made sure to only spend a few minutes in the shower, because the water bill couldn't go too high this month. As the weeks progress, it's been getting harder to keep up with all the payments. Summer break really helped though; I could do longer shifts at work without worrying about school. There are very few places that would hire a fourteen-year-old kid, and even then, my bosses won't let me work for more than six hours at once. 

Entering my improvised bedroom in the den, I plodded over to the old dresser pressed onto the wall. Pulling out one of the drawers, I rummaged through it, finally finding the uniform that had arrived in the mail a couple of weeks before school started. Yes, a uniform. Although Coolell was a public high school, everyone was required to wear it. However, besides the uniform, the dress code was pretty lax. You were allowed to 'express yourself' in other ways such as hairstyles, accessories, and other things like that. 

After changing into my clothes, I turned to the thin mirror hanging next to my mattress. The uniform consisted of a plain white shirt with a black long-sleeved blazer, black pants, and a grey tie. Adjusting the tie to be loose so that I won't choke to death before school started, I took one last look at my appearance before heading back out of the room. Dumping my backpack on one of the chairs in the dining room, I went down the hall of our small townhouse to the boy's room.  I slowly opened the door, flicking on the lights. The small light bulb illuminated the single bed in one corner and the toddler bed on the opposite side of the room. Walking over to the larger bed, I shook the ten-year-old sleeping there until I could hear a quiet groan from underneath the blankets.