Happier

Chapter 3

When Lacey wakes up that Thursday morning, she has no idea of what's about to happen. Everything still feels normal. She does her normal morning routine -shower, getting dressed, hair, make-up, social media check- and then leaves for school with her sister. Their parents had both left for work early that day. Something about Thursdays being the bussiest day of the week. The Goldberg sisters don't talk much on the way to school. They listen to music and sing along, but no words are exchanged, until Stacey breaks that silence. 
"How's Arch doing?" the question throws Lacey off for a second. The sisters never ask each other about boyfriends, unless it's a brand new boy. But Archie has been Lacey's boyfriend for about six months now and Stacey has only ever asked how he is in the beginning when she wanted to know every detail about the dates they went on. 
"He's fine, why do you ask?" Lacey asks while taking the turn onto the school parking lot. 
"No reason. Just curious," Stacey replies, but even without looking at her sister, Lacey knows something's wrong. She parks the car and before Stacey can even reach for the door, her sister stops her. 
"Stace, what's wrong?" she asks worriedly. 
"Nothing, I just wanted to know how my sister's love life is going. Because I care about her," Lacey raises her eyebrow, giving her sister a quizzical look. The only time she would say something like that, is when somebody has broken her heart. Last month, she had a fight with her best friend and she used that exact same sentence on her sister. 'Because I care about her'. 
"Okay, who's broken your heart this time?" Lacey questions, "Is it Annabelle again? Because I swear to God, if she did I will-" her words are cut off by her sister. 

"It's Jason," Lacey's eyes grow wide at her sister's response. 
"What did he do? And why the hell are you involved with that piece of trash?" the oldest sister feels her blood boil at the mention of asshole number one of Roosevelt High. 
"I was the one who he cheated on Melanie with," Stacey mumbles, making Lacey's hands ball up into fists, "and after you told him off with the cola, he broke up with me as well." Lacey blinks a couple of times. Her best friend was a wreck because her sister came into that douche's sight and now her sister is a wreck. Technically, it's not Lacey's fault. It's Jason's. But for some reason, Lacey still feels guilty for breaking her sister's heart. 
"I'm so sorry, Stace. You deserve someone better than Jason," Lacey starts and takes her sister's hand in  hers, "Jason is a jerk for what he has done to Mel and to you. Hell, what he's done to the whole female population in our school. But you, Stacey Elizabeth Goldberg, deserve way better than that. OK? Don't you ever forget that," Lacey wipes away the one tear that rolls down Stacey's cheek before they lean in for a hug. That's all Stacey needed to hear. Just those few words from her sister were enough. No boy could ever break the Goldberg sisters. No one could. Except for maybe one thing. 

When Lacey walks into the school yard, she finds her best friends in the same spot she did yesterday. This time, however, there were four people. The boyfriend, her two best friends and Ryan. A smile forms upon her face when she sees Melanie with a wide grin on her face. 
"Someone looks chipper," she says when she reaches the bench. Melanie looks at her, the sparkle that used to be in her eyes pre-hurricane Jason, is back. It took a week, but Melanie is finally back on track. A chorus of 'good morning's sounds among the group and soon enough, they get tangled up into a conversation about miss Waterstone's relationship with one of her students. According to Lydia, one of the other cheerleaders, miss Waterstone has had sex on multiple occassions in different classrooms with one student. Everyone thinks it's Jason. 
"Hey, Mel. Are you coming back to the Roosevelt Roses?" Violet asks once the conversation has sailed off. Both Violet and Lacey look at the blonde with hopefull eyes. 
"If the captain lets me," she replies and looks at Lacey. She smiles from ear to ear. 
"Welcome back to the Roosevelt Roses, Melanie Marshall," Melanie flies into the arms of her best friend in excitement. Today is going to be a good day. For now. 

It's the first cheerleading practice with Melanie back on the pyramid. All the girls on the squad are very supportive of her return and make sure she's caught up with the new routine they're doing for Friday's football game. 
"I need more fire, girls, come on!" yells coach Rivers after they've done the choreo once. All the girls are panting as they come together in a huddle to listen to what the coach has to say. "If this is all you've got, we're not going to be any entertainment on Friday," she continues, "Marshall, I'm glad you're back, but you really need to try harder. That was the sloppiest you've ever danced," she tells Melanie. The blonde girl swallows a lump in her throat.
"Coach, I've only learned the choreo today, I-"
"That's not a reason to do it sloppy, Marshall. I need you back on track and better than ever, okay?" Melanie just nods, not wanting to get into a fight with the coach the first day back. "Goldberg, I need you to give 500% as captain to prepare Marshall for the big game Friday. I need every bit of energy from all of you, otherwise we will flop," Lacey raises her eyebrow at coach's complaint.
"Coach, I'm sorry, but we're already giving all we have and that's still not enough for you. We're not occupied with cheerleading 24/7, we have other stuff too," coach Rivers looks at the young talkative cheerleader in front of her.
"Goldberg, what's that thing I always tell you?" Lacey sighs and rolls her eyes.
"Cheerleading is a 24-hour job, if you don't think about cheerleading every second of the day, you're not worthy of being a Roosevelt Rose," the coach and Lacey say in unison, only Lacey's sounds annoyed.
"All of you need to focus on cheerleading more, girls. You're a Roosevelt Rose, act like one," the coach finalises, "now hit the showers." The squad is dismissed and all of them head towards the changing rooms.
"How am I ever going to know this choreo by tomorrow?" Melanie sighs as she sits down on the bench and starts untying her sneakers.
"We'll put in some extra rehearsals, you'll be fine," Lacey reassures her.
"What if I just sit this one out? I'll be much better next week and I'll be more confident," she thinks out loud, but both Violet and Lacey disagree.
"No way, Jose. You're doing this," Violet says, "like Lacey said, we'll put in some more rehearsals. Mel, you're one of our best, we can't do this without you," she sits down next to the blonde and puts her arms around her in a sideway hug.

"You've done last week without me," Melanie reasons.

"Yeah, and we flopped," Lacey tells her as she takes her uniform off to put her normal clothes on. The three girls giggle a little before agreeing on more rehearsals and changing. They'll be fine. The Roosevelt Roses are always fine, even when coach tells them they aren't.    

During lunch, the gang of five sits at their usual table, having lunch and chatting a little. For a while, Lacey scans the cafetaria and in the far left corner, near the door, sit the mysterious boy again. With his dark hair and beanie hat he always wears, staring at his computer screen again. Lacey wonders what he's working on, but then decides it's none of her business. She's not supposed to interract with someone like him, let alone care. 
"Lacey," a familiar voice sounds. Lacey looks up and sees her sister standing at their table. Her face looks white and her eyes have that panic in them that makes Lacey panic as well. Stacey and Lacey never talk to each other in school. That was a vow they had to make. "Can you come with me? It's an emergency," Stacey's voice sounds worried, rushed even. Lacey simply nods, takes her stuff and says goodbye to her friends before dashing off behind her sister. The next few moments are blank. Everything is in slow motion and Lacey only hears half of what they're saying. Something with a car crash, her mother and death. 

Their father takes them to the hospital to say their last goodbyes to their mother. Stacey is crying. Lacey isn't. She's numb. She feels nothing. And while Melanie would be dancing around in her bedroom in her cheerleader uniform and Violet would be making out with Ryan and Archie would be playing the guitar, completely unaware of what was happening to their best friend-slash-girlfriend, Lacey looked at her mother. Her dead mother. Completely lifeless. Completely silent. Her blonde hair lays messily across her forhead, hands folded on her stomach. Her brown eyes shut. They would never see those gorgeous, reassuring brown eyes again. Stacey is still crying, Lacey has her arms protectively around her sister's shoulders. And that's when the tears escape Lacey's eyes as well. She can't keep her eyes off of the dead body of her mother. Ever since Lacey was a child, she thought her mother was a princess. Later on, she realized she was an angel. Whenever Lacey fell down, she was there to hold her up. Even though Lacey didn't show it too much, she loved her mother dearly. Even on the bad days where her mother would demand the most impossible things. She still loved her. She'll always love her. And deep down, she knows her mother loved her too.