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At six o'clock on the dot, Gaia stirred from a deep sleep just seconds before she heard her daughter's cries of hunger. Her body well trained, she found that almost every single morning, she woke a moment before her daughter did and Wednesday was no different as she slipped out of her comfortable bed on autopilot. Evan lay snoring beside her, a little more horizontal than the position he had gone to sleep in, and it made her smile to see him looking so peaceful. Tuesday had been a difficult day, when no amount of medication had soothed his aching body and he had gritted his teeth against the pain that shot through him when his son had clambered onto his lap for a hug.
Today would be better, or at least she hoped it would as she picked up her hungry child and shushed her in her arms, rubbing her back as she stumbled downstairs in the silent house. Even after three years, the novelty of living in a house rather than a flat hadn't quite worn off, her home feeling so much bigger than any she had known before. As a child, she had lived in a poky flat on a council estate with her parents; after her father remarried, they had upgraded to a block across town. It was only when she had moved in with Evan and Zara that she had walked up a staircase she could call her own.
A shadow loomed in the kitchen, a figure at the table, and Gaia felt her heart thunk in her chest before racing double time at the realisation that she wasn't alone. One hand clutched over her chest and the other holding Clover close, she frowned at the fuzzy silhouette that sat hunched over the kitchen table with an array of files and folders spread out in front of her.
"Zar?" Gaia couldn't hold back the yawn that escaped her, her body expelling the night to embrace the day. "What're you doing up?" She shook her wrist to check her watch, a delicate piece of silver she had inherited from her mother. "It's only just gone six, hun, why're you up?"
Zara looked up over the top of her glasses, pushing them up the bridge of her nose and adjusting her gaze through the lenses. She was already dressed in her school uniform, except for the blazer that always hung by the door, and Gaia made a mental note to take her shopping before she began her next year of school: Zara had worn the same shirt and skirt for almost two years now, squeezing into a uniform that was a little too small, and now the shirt strained around her growing chest while the skirt pinched her waist.
"I have my last exam in three hours," she said. "My very last one. I can't screw it up but I keep getting these things mixed up." She tapped the cover of her GCSE religious studies textbook and took a sip of the coffee she'd made herself. Judging by the grimace that took over her expression, it had gone cold. Gaia let out a quiet sigh and she shifted Clover over to her hip as she tucked one arm around Zara's shoulders, bending down to kiss the top of her head.
"You'll be fine, Zar, I know it. You've worked so hard, I'm sure it'll be fine," she said with a smile.
"You can't guarantee that," Zara said, but there was a lightness in her voice. It was a pure fact, rather than a concern. Gaia pressed her lips together.
