Sleepless

"My name is Bethan Linda Hart. I live in Northern Ireland with my parents, my baby brother and my older sister. We emigrated here to Northern Ireland when my father got a job with a scientific discovery firm."

Bethan was cut off from her first journal entry by the painful sound of Thomas, her baby brother,  bawling in the next room. She sighed after she heard no footsteps come and she moved away from her desk and headed to his room. Bethan flicked on the low light, not wanting to hurt his eyes, and walked over to his cot, picking him up and holding him.

She walked round his room for a minute, rocking him in her arms, until he dropped back off to sleep again. Then she checked the windows were locked and put him back in his cot. Then she headed to her parents' room. She heard a low voice talking. Only one, mind. 

"Yes. Alright, darling. Yes. Yes. Of course. Yes. I love you too, darling. Yes. Yes. Goodnight. Yes. Bye bye, now." Bethan heard the beep of a telephone and the creaking of a mattress. The door opened and her mother, Linda, stood there. "Did I hear Thomas crying, sweetheart?" she asked. Bethan nodded.

"He's back asleep now. Jodie didn't wake up." Linda nodded. 

"That's a relief. She's always so tired, that girl." Bethan rolled her eyes and walked away again, shaking her head.

Bethan was only fifteen and a half, and already she took more responsibility for a baby than the rest of her family. Though to be fair, Thomas had always hated Jodie since she pinched his cheeks too hard that time. He gurgles menacingly whenever she enters the room. A bit like a corgi, thought Bethan with a smile. She closed her door and looked at her journal. She really couldn't be bothered now. 

She stripped down to her underwear - a pair of comfy boxers and a vest - then set her alarm for seven o'clock and settled down in her bed. The sheets were cold and unfamiliar.

This place would take some getting used to.

★★★★★

Bethan's alarm clock started buzzing at seven o'clock. 

She sat up when she saw that the sky outside was dark and cursed.

"What the hell? I thought it was summer here." It had been ten o'clock Ireland time when they had arrived from Perth, Australia. Bethan hadn't taken into account the erratic weather changes of Great Britain. She shook her head and took off her vest and boxers, stepping into her en suite bathroom, and proceeded to have a shower. 

 About ten minutes into her shower, the showerhead sputtered and Bethan looked up at it in shock as the water slowly stopped. She frowned.

"Mum!" she called, turning her face to the door, bending to pick up a down. The showerhead gave a gurgle and Bethan looked at it in alarm. "Mum!" she called, louder. "The shower's stopped!" The pipes of the shower gave a groan and a creak and water startled to trickle out again. "What the..." Bethan dropped the towel, getting ready for the water again, until a dark sludge squeezed out of the small holes in the shower head. "Oh, gross!" she murmured. Then the pressure increased and Bethan only just managed to dart out of the way. She heard a hissing sound and her eyes widened as the dark sludge began to corrode the shower cubicle. "Sh*t..." she murmured. She grabbed her towel, turned off the shower, and hurried back to her room to get dressed.

★★★★★

Linda sat at the coffee table, drinking her mug of steaming coffee. Thomas was sleeping in the high chair opposite her, and Daniel, her husband, was sleeping soundly in the bed upstairs. He'd got back late. They better start paying him overtime if this is how it's going to work, she thought dismally. 

Bethan stomped into the room.

"Morning, Bethan," said Linda emotionlessly. "You ready for school?"

"Ready for school my ass," muttered Bethan. "That shower is a killing machine!" Linda rolled her eyes.

"Just because the water's a little too hot - "

"Mum! Come look!" Linda glared at Bethan, silencing her. "Sorry."

"Get your breakfast. The bus will be here in twenty minutes and it's a ten minute walk to the bus stop." Bethan nodded and grabbed a box of Kellogs and poured them into a bowl, dousing them with milk and sprinkling them with sugar. "What's the point in me buying this healthy crap if all you do is put sugar on it?" complained Linda after Bethan finished her cereal and washed up the bowl in the sink.

"It tasted good," replied Bethan. Linda sighed. 

"Is all your school stuff ready? Got your books and things?" Bethan nodded. Linda looked at the kitchen clock. "You better get a move on then. Don't be late." Bethan nodded and grabbed her satchel from the banister, heading out the door.

"Who moves to the middle of f*cking nowhere. Seriously," she muttered to herself as she started her journey to the bus stop.

First chapter :) Drop a comment? - Squidge