Blue Neighbourhood (Camren)

WILD

(Trigger warning: mention of abuse)

~9 years ago~

"Good morning." Lauren looked up to the tall woman in front of her. "You seem a little nervous," she observed and Lauren looked down to hide her face but not for long, because the woman kneeled in front of her and lifted it up again. "You don't have to be nervous. I'm Mrs. Edgeworth, your new teacher and I can promise you that you've got a great new class."

"Okay," Lauren said quietly but she just wanted to cry. She didn't understand why her parents had to move her, she was just too young to understand what was going on and that was why she blamed them. They were the bad guys for her, they took her friends and home away from her. The little girl got pulled out of her thoughts when Mrs. Edgeworth stood up again and held out her hand. Lauren hesitated for a moment but then decided to trust the woman and take her hand.

Mrs. Edgeworth gave her a little tour through her new school and everything here seemed much smaller than in her old school but that was okay, she didn't like to be around too many people at once anyway. It was the first thing she seemed to enjoy since they came here.

The last stop was Lauren's new classroom and she could feel how her pulse rose with every step they got closer. The door was already opened and she could hear all the noise her new classmates were making and she got intimidated. What if they wouldn't like her? Her old classmates did, but she knew them much longer. Now it was different, she didn't know any of these kids but they already knew each other. They were already friends, spent time with each other and all these little things. She'd just be an outsider and the thought scared her.

Inside the room, she noticed that everyone was paired up in groups and talked, except one girl. She sat in the first row and was too busy with drawing something on a white paper in front of her. It seemed like her mind was in another world and she didn't care what happened around her. No one noticed that Mrs. Edgeworth entered the classroom with a new student so Lauren took advantage of it and a looked at the girl for a little longer, something about her seemed more interesting than about the others. She smiled when she saw how the girl looked at her own drawing in confusion until her hair fell in her face and she couldn't see it anymore. She put it behind her ear and looked up. Her eyes met Lauren's, but she looked shyly away after a moment. Lauren first thought was that the girl was pretty, her second was that she wanted them to be friends. Who didn't want to have pretty friends?

"Good morning class!" Her new teacher said loud enough so that everyone would turn their attention to her. "I wanna introduce you to your new classmate. I know it's odd that we get someone new in the middle of a school year, but I expect you to treat her like everyone else, okay?" Everyone nodded in agreement and it made Lauren feel a little bit better about the situation. "So Lauren, can you tell us something about you?"

"Uhh yes, sure," Only now she let go of her teacher's hand so that she could play nervously with her own. "Hello, I'm Lauren and uh I-I just got 8." She said and hoped that this was already enough.

"Where are you from?" She heard one of her classmates ask.

"Miami." They all reacted excited, apparently it was something special. They asked some more question and Lauren started feeling more comfortable around them, yet she was glad when they were done with asking her things.

"Thank you, Lauren! You can just choose where you wanna sit." Mrs. Edgeworth said and Lauren nodded. She didn't have to think about where she wanted to sit and walked straight to the girl with the pretty smile, deciding to take the free seat next to her. When Lauren sat down her she automatically looked at the drawing so other girl was working on and her eyes widened, because it looked so good for her age.