The Karate Kid

Daniel's Apartment

"Autumn!" I heard a voice shout from the living room. It was Sherry's voice. I got out of bed and got changed into some clean clothes. I wore some black skinny jeans and a slightly baggy shirt. I loved to wear baggy shirts; they made me feel so comfortable.

After I got ready, I opened the door to my room and walked into the kitchen where Alfie was making a breakfast that smelt amazing. As I walked in the room, he turned around and his mouth gaped. He was looking at my forehead and my eye.

"Autumn, it's gotten worse! It's all bruised and swollen!" Alfie said, as I put a finger to my mouth.

"Shh! You're talking too loud, Sherry will hear!" I said, whispering. Alfie furrowed his eyebrows and sighed as I said this.

"Fine, I'm not going to tell her anyway. It's just going to freak her out" Alfie said, turning back to the breakfast that he was making. I sat down at the dining table and waited for Alfie to finish making the food.

Minutes later, Alfie had finished making the food. He gave me a plate of buttered toast and I smiled, digging in. I loved buttered toast, it was just delicious. Alfie was such a great cook, he always put the right amount of butter on my toast.

"Morning everyone!" Sherry said as she walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table. She checked her watch and noticed that she only had a few minutes before she had to set off for her first day of work.

As soon as Sherry walked into the room, I quickly put my hand over my bruises and swells so that she couldn't see. Alfie looked at me and sighed quietly to himself. I couldn't let Sherry see what those jerks did to me...she would be so mad.

"Oh my goodness, only ten minutes until I need to catch the bus. No time for breakfast! Bye guys, have a great first day at school, I love you all!" Sherry said quickly as she got up from her chair and walked out of the kitchen.

I took my hand away from my face and looked down at my finished plate. Just as Sherry left, Oliver came into the kitchen with Lila in his arms. She looked just as sleepy as me. Oliver grabbed a slice of toast from the plate that was piling up and ate it while feeding Lila her bottle.

Oliver, my older brother, loved to look after Lila. Sherry usually looked after her, but when she couldn't, Oliver would step in. He looked up from feeding Lila and gasped at my face. I was really starting to get fed up of being treated like I'm contagious or something.

"What did you do Autumn?" He asked, concerned. I was fed up of explaining and it was only the morning. I just couldn't wait to get this same question from a load of students at my new school. What a great first day this will be...not!

I just ignored Oliver and got up, grabbing my school bag and walking out of the door. I caught a glimpse of my four year old sister, Piper, getting out of bed before I left. She was so sleepy as she just woke up so she didn't manage to see my face luckily.

I decided to knock on Daniel's apartment door to see if he would want to walk to school with me. A nice woman with permed dark brown hair answered the door, and she smiled at me. I couldn't help but notice that she was looking at my bruised forehead and eye rather than anything else which very slightly irritated me. I was just guessing that it was because Daniel had been out with me that very night I got injured and was wondering if anything happened to Daniel.

"Hello, how may I help you?" the woman asked, holding the door open for me to step inside. I felt relieved that she didn't ask questions about my bruises.

"Hello, I'm Daniel's friend. I was just wondering if he would want to walk with me to school" I told her, smiling slightly to not seem rude. She nodded and gestured for me to walk inside with her hand. As she did this, I walked inside and waited for Daniel to finish getting ready for school.

When Daniel eventually finished, he came out of his bedroom door with sunglasses on. I knew exactly why he had those sunglasses on as soon as he walked out of the room. It was because he had a sore black eye, just like me.

I raised my eyebrows at him as he walked towards me, looking happy enough to see me. He just grabbed a piece of toast and I followed him to the door, ready to leave for school. Only, we were stopped by Daniel's mom.

"Daniel, take off the glasses. I want to see your baby browns" she said, smiling at him and clearly just thinking that he was trying to look good for his first day as well as my own.

"Ma, we're going to be late for school, we need to get going" Daniel replied, placing his hand on the door and trying to avoid the demand.

"Daniel take the glasses off now" his mother said much more sternly than the first time she asked. She was clearly sensing that something was wrong.

"Ma, no, we've got to get to school" Daniel replied further, only to be interrupted by his mom once again. It made me feel really awkward because I knew what he was hiding and his mother was so worried about him.

"Now!" She said, looking at him with a sharp look in her eye. She could definitely sense that something was wrong.

Daniel hesitated before he took off the glasses. He looked at his mother with a a plain expression planted on his face. I looked at his eye and sighed. I knew exactly how we felt, I had an eye just like it. I knew how frustrating it could be to tell your family members a lie about what happened.

"Ma, don't worry, I just had a little incident. My friend Autumn here and I fell off of my bike and we hit our faces on the curb. It's no big deal" Daniel said as his mother started bustling around, touching his eye very lightly.

Daniel didn't even take his bike to the beach last night, but his mom couldn't have known that since she apparently went to bed early. I gave a reassuring nod to Daniel's lie so that his mother wouldn't worry just like Sherry would if she found out.

"Are you sure you two don't want to stay home from school?" She asked, still slightly concerned. We both shook our heads and finally walked out of the door.

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