Shoe Laces

chapter one

Pilot
(s1, e1)

Malorie awake with a groan as someone pounded on the bedroom door. Fiona entered the room and Mal rolled out of her bed carefully, making sure she didn't fall from the top of the bunk bed to the floor.

"It's 7:15," Fiona told the three children in the room. Debbie was already out of bed and dressed, leaning over Liam's crib. He was staring at her with great interest as she quietly talked to him.

Mal hurried to the dresser that she and Debbie shared and quickly found an outfit satisfactory enough for the day: a Nirvana t-shirt that was at least three sizes to large for her, an old red-and-white long-sleeved top, and a pair of straight legged jeans she had successfully stolen from Fiona.  She slammed the drawer shut and ran down the hallway as she pulled the old shirt over her head, pushing past the open door Fiona was standing front of as she hurried to the bathroom.

"First shower!" Ian called from his shared bedroom. Mal grabbed the bathroom door and threw it quickly shut behind her. She locked the door as someone banged on it from the other side.

"You got it yesterday," Lip whined from the other side of the door.

Mal smiled as she stripped and quickly showered. After she got out of the shower she allowed herself to move slower, eager to waste either of her older brothers time. She winced in pain as she yanked the hair tie out of her hair and quickly pulled a brush threw her nearly pin straight hair. Eventually she pulled on her outfit for the day, and turned to leave, barely having the door open before Ian rushed in behind her and pushed her into the hallway, slamming the door behind her.

Lip was right behind him and pounded on the bathroom door. "Fuck you!"

When Mal entered her bedroom both Debbie and Liam had disappeared. Mal assumed they had gone downstairs already. She threw her pajamas on her bed and left the room. As she started down the stairs she realized she had forgotten to grab a jacket for the day and hurriedly turned and ran back up the stairs, immediately heading towards her brothers' room. Carl was the only one still in there, and he was digging furiously through a drawer. 

Mal took a quick look around the room and grabbed a navy blue hoodie that she knew was going to be huge on her. She pulled it over her head and her thoughts were confirmed. The sleeves went almost all the way to her fingertips and the pocket on the front that was supposed to be at her stomach stretched down past her waist. She rolled the sleeves up to her elbows and they immediately rolled back down. She swore under her breath and left the room, Carl still in the room behind her.

As soon as Mal reached the bottom of the stairs she hurried into the kitchen to help with breakfast. Fiona was busy bringing things from the kitchen to be dining room table.

"Can you grab a carton of milk for the fridge?" Fiona asked Mal.

"Yup," Mal replied. She grabbed the half empty gallon of milk from the fridge and shut the door. She scanned the calendar for the date. "Wait, what's the date?"

"The fifteenth," Lip told her from where he was sitting at the table.

Mal's eyes rushed over the calendar until she found the day. "Fiona," she called behind her. Fiona came over to the fridge and Mal pointed at the date.

"Shit," Fiona muttered. Mal brought the milk to the table as Fiona grabbed the old energy bar box that they used to collect money for the electric bill.