The Wonder Of You -:- Fifth Harmony Kidfic

chapter 1 ~ no home

"Look, I'm sorry alright. Please. I'll clean it up," twelve-year-old Lauren squeaked, backing away from the menacing look of her foster mom.

"And the plate? That cost good money. What makes you think I can afford to replace that and feed my own kids."

"Y-y-ou have the monthly checks for fostering," Lauren said, not adding that the money was technically for feeding and clothing her and not the kids of her foster parents.

"You stupid girl," the woman sneered, shoving Lauren hard, sending her to the ground of the kitchen. "Just wait until Andrew hears. You'll be in for far worse than what I'm about to do."

Lauren whimpered as her foster mom opened one of the utensil drawers. When the spatula appeared she knew she was in for a hell of a beating.

"I'm sorry," Lauren cried, knowing that running was futile and that she had to convince her foster mom that she really did feel bad about dropping the dinner dish on the floor. "Leslie, please."

"Shut up. Don't go screaming and scaring the others," Leslie said, raising the utensil.

Lauren was unable to do anything as a series of whacks started landing on her face, arms, and legs.

She bit her tongue the whole time, afraid that if she made noise she would just get hit harder.

"You useless, annoying, fucking pain in my ass." Leslie said, raining down more hits before adding, "The world would be better off without you."

Lauren believed every word of her foster mom. Besides, she was tired of breathing anyways.

~.~.~

Dinah and Normani sat behind the counter of their diner, 'Ofa. They were two hours from closing and service was slowing down for the night as families began to wrap up their dinners and night workers started coming in for cups of coffee before starting their shifts.

"Lily, why don't you head home for the night? We'll pay you for the full hour," Normani said to their last server who was set to leave at 9. It was only 8pm now but she didn't want to take an hour off of her server's paycheck if she didn't ask to leave.

"Are you sure?" Lily asked, starting to remove her apron.

"Positive. You worked hard tonight. Dinah and I can take care of things now," Normani said, making her wife offer a thumbs up of agreement as she was hunched over her computer, most likely budgeting for their next supply run of the month.

"See you guys tomorrow," Lily said as she gathered her things from the back and waved goodbye to her bosses.

"Have a nice night," Dinah said, still not looking up.

"Should I tell the cooking staff to head home too?" Normani asked, getting up to grab the coffee pot so she could replenish the cups of the three people that were hanging around either studying or winding down for the night.

"We can send them out at 9. A few customers might come in for late dinners," Dinah said, pulling her eyes from her work for a minute so she could look at her wife. She couldn't help the smile that grew on her face as she admired the woman from afar.

"Do you think we can get away with closing an hour early?"

"Hopefully. I'm exhausted," Dinah said, rubbing her tired face.

Running a highly successful diner from 6am to 10pm, Monday through Friday was far from easy work. Normani and Dinah were both hands-on types of bosses and often liked to be the ones to open and close their place every day (with a few exceptions when they let their head chef do it).