I'm Not Ten Years Old, I'm Fourteen, You Dingus

Chapter Four: Lazy Starts

-- Rayna POV --

Over the next two days, I noticed something. Something was terribly, terribly wrong. Abi was just as hyper as usual, but quick to be offended. Violet was not hyper, just really tired. And quick to be moved to tears. At around five thirty, after waking up Abi, I approached Violet's sleeping figure and shook her.

"Violet, are you awake? Do you want food?" I asked gently. "No thanks. I'm fine." Was the muffled reply I received. "Don't you want to wake up?" "I woke up at four every morning and went to sleep at eight forty-five for a year. I think I've earned another hour or two." She mumbled, before flipping herself on her side and began to sleep.

Abi was sitting at the table, eating a bowl of cereal. "Violet won't get up, like I told you. And know, as a product of your foolishness, you owe me a packet of m&ms." She semi-boasts. "Well, don't you have a bet to live up to with Brooklyn?" I ask, curious. "Why, indeed I do. I need to tell her that." Abi scrambled up to bug Brooklyn.

Finally, by seven, we were all up. By nine, we were in the road. "Why are you such early birds?.." Complained Harry. "How else am I supposed to have first dibs on the toast?" I teasingly ask. "Plus, Jessica's got enough to deal with on her own." I gestured to a wide-awake Jessica with circles under her eyes who was busy stroking the hair of a sleeping Violet.

"Jessica plays mom a lot where you come from?" Niall asks, pointing towards his girlfriend. Obviously, he's never seen this side of her before. "Satan here comes from a broken home, as social services call it. Jessica personally made it her mission to be sort of a mother figure for her." Abi pipes up from reading a book. "So far, she has succeeded. Nobody makes her a purring kitten so fast." She remarks. And, by golly, she's right. Violet is literally purring.

At lunch, instead of heading to Nando's, Brooklyn pulls you into a Dairy Queen drive-through and buys us ice cream for lunch. "I'll have eighteen vanilla cups, please." She orders into the microphone. "Eighteen, miss?" She drive-through person asks. "Yep. Eighteen."

Jessica is busy facepalming while Abi fastly devours her ice cream, dreading later this evening. I'm pretty sure we'll all regret this tonight, but it's good while it lasts.