Don't Forget Me Please

C1. Early Mornings

*The bold Writing are the characters' thoughts :)*

Waking up to the beeps of an alarm clock was a unfamiliar experience for a girl who rarely got 5 hours of sleep let alone a whole nights worth, as nightmares plagued her sleep schedule due to her parents were tragically ripped away from her almost two years ago. Grunting, whilst rolling over to reach it, she turned it off, mentally scolding herself at how loud it was. '7:00' it read, meaning it was time to get up.

*Clementine POV*

'Might as well get this over with', that's a familiar thought that runs through my brain and is my outlook towards life nowadays. Walking over to the wardrobe, I look in the mirror and then at an old photo of me and my parents and notice how much I've changed in the space of a year. "I used to be so happy and now look at me" I mutter under my breath, just in case anyone else somehow managed to hear me. Tears threaten to run down my face as I start to reminisce about the good old days with my parents, but I don't let them. 'God I love Lee and AJ, they welcomed me into their home when no-one else would, but I miss my parents so much. None of my real family would take me in, Uncle Kenny and Aunt Katjaa offered and I would've accepted but I didn't really know them, they were just my parents friends and Duck is a bit weird.'

After a few minutes of thinking, and a few more tears than I would like to admit, I pull myself together and grab my outfit for my first day of my new school, nothing special of course as I don't want to stick out. I decided on a white shirt, a black hoody, my blue denim jacket, some ripped jeans and some black and white vans. 'Not too bad I guess, hopefully no-one will pay too much attention to me and I can just skate through.' I lay all my clothes neatly on my bed and head out to go and have a shower. Realising I almost forgot something, I ran back to my desk and picked up my white and blue baseball cap and laid it with the rest of my clothes for the day.

"Can't forget this, not today. Thank you Dad, I will treasure this always, I hope you and mom are happy up there and I hope you're both proud of me, I miss you both so much" I breathe out, smiling and not taking my eyes of my cap. Other than my parents, Lee and AJ, that cap is the most important thing to me and I'll never go anywhere without it.

My thoughts are suddenly interrupted as AJ bursts into the door into my room, "Morning Clem!" I don't understand how he manages to have so much energy, especially when it's so early in the morning.

"Morning goofball," I reply with a smile, "What did I say about knocking on my door first though?"

"Sorry, Dad just wanted me to make sure you were awake, he didn't want you to be late on your first day." He turned around and went to leave as quickly as he entered. "Oh and breakfast is almost done" AJ exclaimed and ran down the hall towards the stairs.

Shutting my door behind me, I head down the hall but stop at the top of the stairs. "Morning Lee, I'm just gonna go for a quick shower and then I'll be down" I say, loud enough that he can hear me.

"Morning sweetpea, no worries just don't be too long, breakfast is nearly done." Lee replies with his signature deep voice. Smiling, I turn around and go to have my shower. 'I don't understand why anyone likes long showers anyway' I chuckle as I think to myself.

Once I have my quick shower, I dry myself off with my towel and my hair with my hairdryer, and get changed into the outfit sitting on the side waiting for me. Finally picking my hat up and placing it on my head, I look once more in the mirror, making sure I don't look terrible and head downstairs for breakfast. My stomach rumbles as I smell what Lee is cooking, 'Whatever it is, it smells amazing'

As I reach the bottom step that leads into the dining room, I see that the table is covered in all my favourite breakfast foods, pancakes, eggs and bacon and apple slices. 'God I love apples' "Hey Lee, what's with all this, what's the special occasion?" I ask still slightly confused.

"Hey sweetpea, and this....I just wanted you to know how proud I am of you for today, I know how hard it is for you, being in a new city and starting at a whole new school. You are such a strong young woman and I know that your parents are watching over us right now and I know they'd be so proud of you, you've come a long way, especially with everything you've had to go through" Lee explained.

Hearing all that brought a tear to my eyes and I thought I've had enough of those already this morning. Just as I'm about to respond I hear AJ, "I helped too!" he exclaimed "I chopped up the apples as I know they're your favourite!"

I go over and kiss him on the forehead and ruffle his hair "Thank you goofball, it's amazing." I then make my way over to Lee and give him a big hug, "Thank you too, you're also one of the main reasons why I am who I am, so you have to take some of the credit too. It all looks amazing, I don't know what else to say."

"Don't say anything then, dig in, it's all for you. I just wanted to do something nice for you, so I hope you enjoy. I love you sweetpea." Lee says. I'm sure I see a tear in his eyes but he would never let me admit that so I drop it. The only time I've seen him cry was at my parents funeral, he's always been so strong.

"I love you too." I reply

"I love you three." AJ jumps in. We both laugh at what he said, whilst AJ doesn't understand what's so funny. 'Never grow old AJ' I think to myself. AJ meanwhile had lost interest in what was funny and helps himself to the lovely smelling, hot breakfast sitting in front of him, prompting Lee and I to follow in his footsteps. I put two pancakes, a few rashers of bacon and an egg on my plate, along with a few apple slices on the side and a glass of water. 'This should fill me up until dinner tonight, unless my nerves cause me to bring it back up again.' As much as I don't want to admit it, I'm fucking nervous for today. Not that I care if I have friends or not, because I genuinely do not care but I just don't want everyone to hate me. There's a difference between choosing to be alone and being forced to be alone.

Lee notices I've not really eaten anything and that I'm starting to zone out and asks "You okay sweetpea, something on your mind?" His voice brings me back to my current situation rather than ones occurring in my head but I don't reply. He doesn't accept my silence and follows up "You're nervous for today aren't you?" I slowly nod, not used to letting my guard drop and showing something over than my carefree attitude. "Don't worry about it sweetpea, sure it will be difficult but I know you, and you are so strong and independent and I know you got this. And plus you got history with me today so there's something to look forward to." Lee laughs but continues, "Whether you agree or not is up to you but you will have your own group of friends who love you for you, and maybe even a boyfriend too, just make sure he's better than that Gabe kid" 'Good, he still doesn't know I'm into girls as well as boys. I don't know when or how to tell him or whether he'd be happy with it'

"And just think about it, the sooner you finish school today, the sooner you can pick me up and the sooner we can come home and play together" AJ says excitedly. I smile at both answers, showing my gratitude and start to eat my breakfast before looking over at the clock. 7:45. School starts at 8:30 so we haven't got long to finish breakfast before we have to leave and take AJ to school before heading to school ourselves.

I continue eating breakfast until I'm full up. I feel bad because Lee made so much and I didn't eat a lot but I'm sure he understands how nervous I am. Noticing AJ is finished too, I say "Come on AJ, lets go do our teeth and then we'll both be ready to go. Race you" I bolt up the stairs, slowing down at the top to let AJ past to win.

"I win!" he shouts. I smile and ruffle his hair and we both go to the bathroom to do our teeth. As soon as we are done, noticing the table has already been cleared, we grab our bags and head out the door to the car where Lee is already waiting. I lock the door behind me and hop into the passengers seat with AJ in the back.

"We all ready?" Lee asks. AJ and I nod in agreement and we set off on the short journey to school. Looking at Lee then back at AJ and finally gazing out the window, I wonder 'Is this gonna be as bad as I think it's gonna be or will it turn out to be a good day.' Although I'm used to being alone, and to be honest I don't mind it, I seriously hope its the latter of the two.