𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗢𝗢 - 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗹

𝟭𝟴. 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗧𝗛 𝗛𝗨𝗥𝗧𝗦

AEI: hi! hello!! so!!! THANK YOU FOR 40K READS!!!!!!!! i noticed it the other night and was a little bit ecstatic and dropped a plastic plate on my foot. thank you all so very, very much!!! gracie is everything to me and 40K reads is a LOT, like actually an insane amount, and i'm still struggling to process it. i barely know forty people, let alone forty THOUSAND, so i feel unnervingly seen but also very honoured. tysm!!!

also, i'm sorry for this chapter. it's is weird and janky and doesn't flow, but i've rewritten it nine times now, and i can't make it go right. i just want to get out of aou. i hate it here. it's boring. let me write cw!gracie before i explode.

LAST ALSO!!! MINOR TW!!! gracie hurts herself purposely in this chapter. she's done it in a few chapters before, and she doesn't really understand why it's wrong, but she's started to pick up this mindset that sometimes, it's 'good to hurt.' if that's something that might trigger you, please don't read. 

The next day, something very, very weird happens.

Me and Cooper are downstairs, eating cereal at the table in our pyjamas, when someone knocks on the front door. Three times, super loud. It's not polite at all. You shouldn't knock that loud anyway, but especially not early in the morning, 'cause people might get mad at you for waking them up. I know Nat would, anyway.

Lila is sitting on the sofa – she's having peanut butter on her toast, so she can't be near me – and she sits up very fast when the door goes.

"Is it Dad and Auntie Nat?"

"No, stupid," Cooper says, scooping the marshmallows out of his Lucky Charms and passing them to me. "They just left. Anyway, they both have a key."

Laura frowns at him from the sink. I just keep eating my new marshmallows.

"Cooper, don't call your sister stupid. It isn't kind and it isn't true." She puts down her teatowel. "All of you, be nice to each other while I go get that. OK?"

Cooper and Lila both do the whole 'yes mom' thing. I don't, 'cause Laura isn't my mom, and anyway, I don't want to promise that I'm going to be nice to Lila if I don't know that it's true. She's very hard to be nice to, sometimes. Especially when I get all volcano-ish and mad.

Cooper keeps picking at his cereal, and Lila turns to look at me.

"I wish I got to live with Auntie Nat." She says loudly. "She's the best. Why are you mad at her, Gracie?"

My stomach goes weird and flippy.

"How'd you know I was mad?" I ask, spinning my spoon in lots of loopy circles around my bowl. The milk is all sugary now. I don't want it.

Lila just shrugs. "Auntie Nat said. She was waiting for you alllllll evening yesterday, but you didn't even say hi or anything, and when she was saying goodnight to me, she was so sad. I don't know why you're being so mean to her. I can go live with her instead, if you don't want her. Cooper, can I go–"

"Lila, why don't you ever just shut up?" Cooper snaps. He drops his spoon with a bang, eyes all narrow, and I swing my foot hard into the side of my chair. You can't really hear it, 'cause I'm wearing my fluffy slippers, but I make sure I'm doing it hard enough to hurt.

Cooper and Lila just keep arguing around me.

"Nat doesn't want you, anyway. She's already got Gracie."

"But Gracie doesn't even like her!"

"Yes she does, stupid. Just 'cause you get mad at Mom sometimes, doesn't mean you don't love her, does it?"