Head Over Heels ✓

9 / love is all you need

january, age 12

The first week back after the Christmas holidays was always a difficult one, especially when the two week break had been so relaxing. Lucas had drifted between his parents, spending a little more time with his father as his mother's due date had neared. The house had begun to feel crowded with Audrie stressing about her boyfriend and her A-levels while Liliana and Felicity had been bouncing off the walls waiting for the new baby, and Truman had been juggling his job and his family when his wife had struggled to keep on top of everything. Her fourth pregnancy had proved to be the most difficult, plagued by morning sickness for the first three months and her third trimester had seemed to pass impossibly slowly as she hauled herself through each day before being bedridden by Christmas.

Charlotte Mi-jin Song was born at ten past four on Saturday the fourth of January, eighteen hours after Sarah had decided it was time to go to the hospital. Truman had been by her side from her first contraction on Friday morning until she had been dismissed after lunch on Sunday with their new baby. Her parents had stepped in to look after the girls while Lucas had been with his father when he had heard the news. It wasn't until the baby was home that he had met her, leaving his father's house a few hours early to meet his new sister as she slept in her own cot in her parents' room. Liliana and Felicity had been staring at her as though she was a unicorn when he had arrived: they hadn't moved for hours.

After meeting Charlotte on Sunday afternoon, it had been back to school for Lucas on Monday morning but it was difficult to feel in the mood when he had hardly slept a wink that night. Charlotte didn't seem to happy about having been born, the cold world a harsh reality after nine months of warm luxury. She had a good set of lungs on her that had hardly been out of practice since her birth. All through the night she had wailed as nothing seemed to settle her: she was fed and dry, her bed perfectly comfortable, but she only quietened when she was swayed in her mother's arms. That was no easy task when Sarah was beyond shattered after a hellish labour: she hardly had enough energy to hold up her head, let alone soothe the baby that had torn her apart.

The lack of the sleep was the last thing Lucas needed when school was already a struggle. The lessons were long and hard, the school still too big even after more than a year, and he was finding it difficult to spend another year without Asher in his class. Mika was still by his side in every lesson with her trademark smile and her words of encouragement and he appreciated her and her positivity to no end, but it couldn't change the fact that Asher had other teachers and other friends. He had Adler.

After a week that had seemed to go on forever with Charlotte screaming blue murder every night, Friday was hell. He couldn't stop yawning from the moment he had stepped through the gates with Audrie, the two of them going their separate ways once they hit the quad. She headed off to the cushy sixth form centre to relax before she had to be in her form while Lucas headed straight to his classroom. At the start of Year Seven, he had waited for Asher but he was almost always late and Lucas couldn't stand being less than five minutes early to morning registration: he needed time to get ready for the day, time to find his books in his locker and settle in his seat.

When lunchtime finally rolled around after a terrible morning - history and double maths followed by double science after the break - the last thing he felt like doing was pasting a facade over his exhaustion. His body was almost as tired as his mind, his shoulders sagging as he dragged his feet out of the science lab as soon as he had packed up after the bell had rung. He like the bells: they gave the day structure. He didn't like the teachers who ignored them.

"Hey! Lucas!" Mika called, chasing him into the hallway with her heavy bag thumping against her back as she jogged to catch up with him. "Aren't you coming to lunch?" She pulled her hair out from under her collar when she came to a stop, scooping it up into a ponytail.