The Outcast ✔️

Chapter 8

Date: April 11th, 2021 (Sunday)

It was 8 am and Lauren woke up on her own for the first time in months. She looked over to Maddie's bed to see she wasn't there. She got out of her bed and left her room to go check Nathans and Owen's room to see if she was in there. When she opened the door she saw Maddie sleeping next to Owen. She assumed that Maddie must have had another bad dream last night. She gets them a lot so she always ends up sleeping with Owen on most nights.

Lauren decided to let them sleep longer. She walked downstairs to see that Ryan was sitting on the couch.

"Looks like someone woke up on her own without someone having to threaten to pour water on her to get up," She heard someone say behind her. She turned around to see that it was Nathan.

"Oh so they told you about that," Lauren said.

"Yeah, they did. They also said you are usually a hard person to get up before 10 am. So what are you doing up at 8?"

"Well Owen forced me to go to bed at 9 pm last night so I slept well I guess and I am not tired anymore."

"Ah ok. Well, you can come watch TV with me and Ryan until everyone else gets up. I think Brett is taking all of us to see mom around 12," Nathan said walking over to the couch. Lauren followed him and sat between Nathan and Ryan.

__________

All of the kids went to visit their mom around 12 and stayed there until around 4 pm when Brett said it was time for them to get home. They have now just gotten home and are sitting in the living room.

"Lauren, you need to do your homework," Brett said, looking at her. 

"But I don't know how to do it," She said.

"What is it?" Ryan asked her.

"Math. We are doing division and it makes absolutely no sense,"

"Ah I am pretty good at Division," Ryan said

"So am I," Owen said.

"Ok, why don't the two of you help her, " Brett said.

The three of them went upstairs into Lauren and Maddie's room.

10 Minutes later

Owen and Ryan have been trying to help her for the past 10 minutes and it wasn't going that great.

"I give up. This just makes no sense to me. Why is it so hard?" Lauren said in a frustrated tone.

"Lauren calm down. Maybe we just need to try a different method instead," Ryan said, trying to calm her down.

"Ok, so the problem is Twelve divided by four. How about we try drawing 4 circles and we put a dot in each of them until we count 12?" Owen said.

"That's a great idea," Ryan said.

Lauren didn't understand why doing what they said would help her but she drew 4 circles and put a dot in each of them until she counted up to 12 anyway.

"Ok now. How many dots are in each circle?" Owen said.

"Umm three. What's that supposed to mean?" She asked.

"That's the answer. Twelve divided by four is three," Ryan said.

Lauren was shocked for a few seconds and then it clicked and she finally understood.

"Oh, so fifteen divided by three. I would draw three circles and count up to fifteen," She started saying while drawing the circles and putting dots in them. Once she finished she said, " That would be five meaning that fifteen divided by three is five?" She looked up at them.

"That's correct," Ryan said smiling.

"I think I finally understand this. Thank you so much," She said with a big smile on her face and went to hug Owen and Ryan.

_________

Lauren finished her homework around 5:30 and everyone was now downstairs watching tv. All of a sudden the front door opened. It was their dad.

"Hey Maddie and Owen, how about I take you guys out somewhere to eat and we can catch up some more?"

"Sure but what about Lauren? Don't you want to catch up with her as well?"

"Oh umm I will take her out sometime later this week," Cameron said. 

Maddie and Owen nodded then got up off the couch and went out with their dad. Lauren knew he wasn't going to take her out later this week. She's gotten used to the way he treats her. She wants to know why but at the same time she doesn't because she is afraid of the reasoning. She also wonders why none of her other siblings other than Ryan could tell how rudely he actually treats her. Did they know and just not care? Lauren knew she needed to clear her mind before she had terrible thoughts come through and the only way she knew how was to go running.

"Can I go outside and Run?"

"Sure but be back before dark and don't go too far from the house," Ryan said.

__________

Lauren had been running for 30 minutes when she started to get tired. That's when she noticed a girl jogging on the sidewalk that looked familiar.

She yelled out, "Zoey, is that you?"

The girl jogging stopped and turned to look at Lauren and said, "Lauren?"

"OMG IT REALLY IS YOU," Lauren said yelling and running towards Zoey.

Zoey is her cousin on her dad's side. She is 13, only a year older than Lauren so they were super close with each other even closer than Lauren was to Maddie but that was before they had to move away three years ago. Zoey and Lauren would do everything together and tell each other anything. They never kept a secret from each other.

"I missed you so much," Lauren said with happy tears welling up in her eyes.

"I missed you so much more. I missed having my best friend by my side every single day. I am so happy that you are back," Zoey said also with tears in her eyes and going to hug Lauren.

When Lauren left 3 years ago Zoey didn't take it well. She was upset for weeks. She just wanted her cousin but more importantly her best friend back. Her parents were concerned about her but eventually, Zoey was able to convince herself that one day Lauren was going to come back.

"Please don't ever leave me again," Zoey said, pulling out of the hug and looking at Lauren.

"I promise. I don't want to ever leave you again," Lauren said back.