and we will be okay

group project

Yes I'm writing a new book before updating the others. And what about it?

warning for physical and verbal abuse. Although it's not really strong, its there.

-

This was not Lauren planned her morning.

She stands in the corner of her kitchen watching her younger siblings out of the corner of her eyes. Lauren swallows the lump in her throat and squeezes her eyes shut.

"Yes mom, I'm sorry, I should have texted you," Lauren whimpers. She feels a familiar sharp pain on her cheek and sucks in a breath. Another whimper escapes when her mother's hand grips the collar of her shirt and pulls her forward with no gentle intention.

"You better be Michelle. You can't do anything right can you? Get out, tonight I don't want to hear a damn thing from you, got it?" Her mother browbeats. Lauren nods and opens her eyes when she knows the footsteps are gone.

She pushes back the tears in her eyes and grabs her bag from a stool by island and waves her siblings over, muttering that they needed to go before they were going to be late for school. The two youngest kids look to each other before silently following their older sister out of the house.

She makes her way to her car and gets in wordlessly. She tosses her bag on the floor and waits while her brother gets in the passenger and her sister gets into the back. She buckles herself and taps her fingers on the steering wheel for a moment, trying to collect herself be Lauren knew she needed to focused on driving to be able to drive safely.

"Lo, are you okay?" Chris whispers, glancing at Lauren worriedly.  He knew the girl never talked to him about the things that happened behind closed doors. Luckily he didn't always really know what Lauren endured. She always protected him from that. But being only thirteen and seeing his sister hurt was scary, especially since she always concealed that hurt.

Lauren forces a smile on her lips. She cups his cheeks with one hand softly and nods. She ruffles his dark hair and puts the keys.

"I'm okay. You two don't need to worry about me okay? I'm your big sister and I've got it. You just worry about yourselves okay?" Lauren says, looking back at Taylor. Both kids nod and Lauren smiles. "Good, that's how it should be."

Lauren passes Taylor the aux cord, "Here Tay, you pick the music today." Lauren says. The eleven year old smiles at her sister. Lauren unlocks her phone and opens up a music app and gives her phone to her younger sister.

Lauren finally drives onto the street and starts heading to the middle school.

After dropping off Chris and Taylor, Lauren arrives at the highschool a few minutes later. She takes a few minutes to collect herself before grabbing her bag and heading inside.

Lauren heads straight to her first hour, English. She keeps her head low and sighs in relief when she reaches the door.

Lauren pushes the door open and is surprised to find another student sitting in there. She shrugs it off and takes her usual seat by the window. Dumping her bag on the ground, Lauren sits and opens her phone to text her brother to make sure he made it to class on time.

Once the text is sent and sets in her phone in her bag and pulls out her notebook. She begins to write things that come to her mind. Her eyes stay trained on the paper until her teacher's voice interrupts the silence in the classroom. The other student hadn't spoken either.

"Oh, good morning Dinah! Good morning Lauren! How are we feeling today?" The woman smiles, walking into the classroom with a mug in her hand. The girls mumble good morning replies in response. The teacher playfully makes a face at their responses.