Adopted By The Hemmings (mgc)

Twenty

Luna woke up with an anxious heart and what seemed like a million notifications on her phone screen. She had barely scrolled through the first five before she realized what they were about. Biting her lip, she crawled out of bed and began getting dressed for the day. She was pulling her shoes on when there was a knock on the door and she found Luke standing there, with his phone in his hand.

"Have you seen these?" His voice was tight as he searched her face for anything to give away how she was feeling.

"Yeah, saw them when I woke up."

"You know these mean nothing, don't you? That none of what they're saying is true."  Luna nodded as she gathered her bag from her desk.

"I know. You should probably get dressed, it'll be time to leave soon." Brushing past him, Luna made her way down to the kitchen. Her phone continued to buzz against her thigh as she found Liz in the kitchen sipping her morning coffee.

"Morning Lu, how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." She grabbed an apple from the counter, but just sat across from Liz rolling it between her hands. Liz's eyes were still on her so she finally took a bite as Luke walked in. He was quiet and still unsmiling.

"Morning Luke."

"Morning mum." Luke mumbled as he began putting together a bowl of cereal. Everything fell quiet until Luna's phone began buzzing once more. Over and over. Pulling it out of her pocket quickly she, pulled it from its case and took the battery out of the back. Sitting it down in a huff she began eating her apple once more.

"Okay, someone needs to tell me what's going on and it needs to be done fast." Liz's eyes flipped back and forth between them. Luke was playing with his cereal as Luna simply took another bite. Liz gave them both a moment and when Luna swallowed her bite she looked to her.

"It's nothing." Luke's spoon clanged against his bowl as he faced Luna.

"Tell her, Lu."

"No, it's not a huge deal. It's just people being dumb because they have nothing better to do in their lives."

The two sat there staring the other down until Liz cleared her throat.

"Luna, regardless of whether you think it's a big deal, I would still like an explanation as to what is going on." Liz's eye brow was arched as she stared Luna down.  Luna put the battery back in its place and powered up her phone.

"Lane stated something on Twitter and it was about me. Now, a lot of other people have begun to say some. . . not very nice things." Luna's phone began to buzz once more as she slid her phone across the counter to Liz. After reading a few of them, Liz squared her shoulders and stood.

"You two go wait in the living room, I'll call the school and let them know you'll be in late. I have a few calls to make."

She walked out of the room with Luna's phone in hand, not even waiting for the two to respond. Luna pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes.

"Are you mad?"

"No, I'm not, but Luke I would've been fine. I didn't want to worry anyone, that's why I wasn't going to tell her."

"Lu, I'm sorry, but that's crap and you know it. Mum, dad, and all of us are here for you so you don't have to handle stuff like this alone. What is going on is not right, and I know you're a strong person, but that would've gotten to anybody."

Luna stared at Luke for a few minutes. Her mind racing trying to find words to defend her decision, but there weren't any. Luke was right, if she had let this go on she would've exploded eventually.