A/N - Well, this is the very beginning of Lulu's story… It feels weird, but so comforting, to be back in this World again. I took a much needed break, collecting myself, and now I'm raring to go. Hopefully, I'll be able to get the first chapter of Addie's story out soon, but I'm not sure if I can carry them off simultaneously.

So, it's gonna be slow for the first few chapters, but it will get there eventually. I hope you'll bear with me, and be as devoted to this story as the other. And besides, y'all know how it's gonna end XD. I look forward to reading any reviews that may come through, but I'm not really expecting much just yet…

Blessed Be XOXOXOX

I woke as a brand new day dawned.

The sun, fat and red, peaked over the horizon, spreading brilliant sparks of colour across the dusky sky as night and day embraced. Soft morning light leaked in through the window, giving life to the agile shadows that played lazily across the ugly peach-coloured walls of my shit-heap trailer.

Another day beginning.

Another day in the wasted ruins of a life I never imagined I would have to survive.

Sighing wearily, roughly rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I glanced across at my adorably tacky Finding Nemo alarm clock, nestled on the nightstand amongst a mess of tattered books and porcelain Unicorn ornaments that I had been collecting for as long as I could remember.

6:29

One minute…

One meagre minute…

There was only one minute until the voice of Dory, painfully cheerful in the ungodly hour of the morning, rang through the room as she heralded the start of another day. A foreboding trill of optimism that would hurt like an ice-cold blade to my heart, forcing me to drag my sorry ass from the relative comfort of my bed and face another day in the miserable story of my life.

One minute that felt like forever, and never, at the same time.

And then…

"Hey there, Mr Grumpy Gills" the computer-generated voice of Dory shrilled loudly through the cramped confines of my bedroom. "When life gets you down, you wanna know what you've gotta do?"

Sighing, I tossed the thin bed sheet back, letting the humid morning air caress is sticky fingers across my pale, naked body while I struggled to summon up the energy to face this day.

Since my parents had been killed in a car accident, taken in the blink of an eye, I had been struggling to face the onslaught of my life, day in and day out. Struggling to be who I needed to be to see myself through this.

"Just keep swimming…" I murmured along with Dory, pushing my fingers through the tragic chaos of my fiery red curls as I reached out to switch the alarm off, flooding the room with blessed silence. "Just keep swimming…"

The day had begun, and whether I liked it or not, I had to play my part.

Easing out of the bed that offered my aching back no favours, I pulled on a pair of cotton shorts and a Snoopy tank top that hugged my curvy figure, shuffling through the mess of clothes and books strewn across the linoleum floor and stepping out into the hallway of my pitiful excuse for a home.

I loathed this trailer.

I hated it more than I had ever hated anything. It was small, and shitty, and stank of cat piss on hot days.

But, it was all we had.

I had lost our house not long after the funeral. Barely surviving on a waitress salary, I couldn't keep up with the mortgage payments and put food on the table at the same time.

It had taken only days for the bank to repossess the house we had grown up in, leaving us on the street with no idea where we would go.

Yawning, I lifted a hand and knocked firmly on the bedroom door of my little sister.

"Millie, time to get up" I called, stepping into the bathroom that was no bigger than a wardrobe. Standing in the centre, I could reach out and touch all four walls easily, without even having to strain.

It was depressing.

"Five more minutes, please" came her muffled reply. I would bet anything she had stayed up well past midnight, reading.

We both shared a love of good books.

"No more minutes" I laughed, splashing a handful of cold water on my face in an attempt to breathe some sort of life into me.

No matter how numb I was, how hopeless and defeated I felt, I had to stay strong…

For her.

Drying my face with a hand towel, I leaned against the stained basin and studied my tired reflexion in the rusted mirror of the medicine cabinet.

I looked the same as I always had, still blessed with the old-world beauty that had won me the crown of Preen County Pie Princess, but there was something in my eyes that made me look older than my twenty-one years.

In the space of a single night, when everything I had known and loved had been taken so cruelly from me, I had been forced to grow up faster than a girl my age should. With the simple, heartless act of a drunk driver, I had become a mother to the sister I loved more than anything else in the whole, wide World.

In that one night, I had lost the gentle spark of innocence that used to gleam in the depths of my cornflower blue eyes, instead becoming hard so I could face the trials and tribulations of life head-on.

Taking a hair-tie from the tap, I pulled my curls in a messy chignon, attempting to tame the wild curls that spilled down my shoulders, and failing. The bane of my existence, they framed my pale features perfectly in soft tendrils, and were the first thing people noticed when they met me.

I only wished they would do what I wanted when I wanted them to.

Humming to myself, I made my way to the other end of the trailer, where the kitchen and lounge room were squished together, pounding the palm of my hand against Millie's door as I walked by.

"Come on, lazy bones" I said, forming my words around the smile stretched across my lips. "You're gonna be late for school if you don't get your ass out of bed right now!"

"God!" she scowled, emerging from her room moments later, dressed in a Spongebob Square Pants nightie, her hair mussed around her elfish face in a frizzy halo. "Tyrant much?"

She was the most beautiful thing the World had ever created.

And she was mine. A part of me.

"What do you want for breakfast?" I laughed, opening the fridge and scanning the measly contents of the near-empty shelves.

We hadn't been grocery shopping in… In too long to remember.

"What've we got?"

"An apple, and…" I pulled out a non-descript plastic container, and sniffed the contents. "And some Chinese food way past due" Sighing, I dropped it in the trashcan, and closed the fridge door.

I sucked at being a grown-up.

"I'll make you something at the diner" I said as she came up behind me, brushing her teeth. "Some of those apple-cinnamon pancakes you like"

"Cool" she smiled, toothpaste foaming around her pouty lips.

"Shotgun first shower" I giggled, playfully pushing past her and racing into the bathroom, locking the door behind me.

"Not fair" she groaned. "You always get first shower"

"You snooze, you lose" I laughed, stripping out of my clothes and dropping them into the overflowing basket of dirty laundry we had been ignoring for the last week.

I showered quickly, washing myself and brushing my teeth as fast as I could to save the limited hot water. Our tank was tiny, giving us only a few minutes worth of hot water, and I always tried to leave enough for Millie.

Afterwards, feeling slightly more alive as I dried myself off, I dressed in my uniform of a yellow button-down dress, complete with a crisp white half-apron, and a pair of white tennis shoes that were kind to my feet. It wasn't anywhere near as embarrassing as it should have been, despite the fact that it clashed horribly with the scarlet tresses I pinned back with a big, silver clip.

"Well, Lulu" I said to the reflexion that stared back at me from the mirror. "Maybe today will be the day that changes everything. Maybe today, something big will happen, and all your dreams'll come true"

But I knew that today would be like all the others before it.

I would survive it, as I had done so many times before, but nothing would change.

There would be nothing special about it.

Nothing at all…