Author's Note
This is my first Waterloo Road fanfic, and it follows the same sort of idea as the show, in that it's a slightly exaggerated situation, that's not hugely likely to happen and be sorted in the way it is here, it's a dramatization of 'everyday' life struggles.
I own the Armstrong Family, and any other character names you don't recognise, though mostly they are mentioned as fillers like in a register etc., but all other characters belong to BBC/Waterloo Road.
The story itself is centred around my character, but will involve other characters, though largely some of the smaller 'guest stars' such as Sally Froggatt, because often, I like them as much as the main cast.
It's set in roughly series 3/4, mainly because I haven't watched any further, and also Rachel Mason is my favourite head :)
A shrill, but muffled beeping woke Elle up from her half-asleep state. Momentarily confused due to lack of sleep, she wondered where she was, then recognised the artworks done by her 4 year old sister. Lottie's room, again. She'd nearly forgotten the events of the previous evening that had led to her comforting her youngest sister to sleep again; she must have fallen asleep with her.
Groaning and stretching, she carefully got up without disturbing Lottie and walked back to her room to silence the piercing sound of the alarm clock. Deciding she had a few minutes of her own, she hopped into the shower in the hope it would wake her up, and somehow make the next few hours be less tiresome than usual. A fruitless wish, in reality, she thought to herself.
She threw on her uniform, and towel dried her hair as far as she could, looking wistfully at her hairdryer in the bin, which had completely given up the ghost the previous evening. Looking in the mirror, she noticed her uniform was a little small. 'Great' she thought, 'another thing to add to the list of things to buy if I get any money...'
Deciding she could put it off no longer, she ambled slowly towards her sisters' rooms. She paused outside the doors, wondering which to wake up first, and eventually decided to wake up Lottie first, and give Maddy a few extra minutes in bed. She walked into Lottie's room and opened the blinds to let the sunshine in.
'I don't wanna get up' moaned Lottie from under her duvet.
'Lottie, please!' begged Elle 'you have to, you've got to go to school, come on' she coaxed. 'Please?'
Lottie grumbled in response and pushed back her pink duvet, as Elle ferreted through her drawers and picked out some suitable, clean uniform for the cold late October day. Satisfied that Lottie was up, she ran quickly to the kitchen and found the small cupcake hidden at the back of the fridge, and put a single, lit pink candle into it, before walking back up to Maddy's room. Lottie came out just as she walked past and giggled with excitement, following Elle to Maddy's room at the end of the hallway. Slowly, Elle opened the door and Lottie ran in, jumped on Maddy and squealed 'Happy Birthday!'.
'Huh?' Maddy groaned as she rubbed her eyes and Elle tuned the light on. She spotted the cake in Elle's hands and grinned madly. 'It's my birthday!' she smiled.
'Officially 7 years old!' Elle laughed, handing the cake to her to blow out the candle. 'Make a wish' she added, smiling.
Maddy squeezed her eyes shut and thought long and hard before enthusiastically blowing out the candle, as if she had to blow out 7 in one breath, not just 1.
'I wished mum would come home' she whispered, smiling at her older sister.
Elle sighed. 'You know you're not really meant to say what you wished for, it's a secret!' she said, poking the end of Maddy's nose as she did, making the small girl giggle.
'That's why I whispered it, so only you hear, that way the fairies won't know I told anyone, and it will still come true' Maddy responded earnestly. The young girl's innocence was heartbreaking to Elle. She sighed as she gave her sister a big hug and put on a brave face, for their sake, she had to be strong for them.
'Come on, lie-in's over, time to get up!' she called, heading back downstairs with Lottie in tow to make breakfast.
'Can I have coco pops?' Lottie asked innocently.
Elle sighed as she looked in the cupboard. 'We're fresh out of coco pops, how about cornflakes?' she asked hopefully. Looking down at the disappointed face of her little sister broke her heart, but there was nothing she could do about it, they couldn't afford to but coco pops anymore, not when they had other food available. Elle was acutely aware that one day, the money would run out, and the thought of what would happen then made her shudder. 'Please?' she added, looking back to her sister as she pulled the box out of the cupboard.
'Ok.' She huffed, then smiled to show she wasn't angry at her sister. Lottie loved her big sisters more than anything in the world, but she did wish her mum would come home, then they could be a proper family and could go out like they used to, to the park and the cinema and all the other things they used to do together. Elle said mum had had to go away for a while, and Lottie didn't understand why mum got a long holiday, and they had to stay at home and go to school. It didn't seem fair.
Elle looked at the small girl's dreamy face and smiled. She couldn't imagine life without her 2 crazy sisters, no matter how tiresome it sometimes may be. She poured 3 bowls of cereal and put a small amount of milk in each one, as Maddy appeared at the doorway, in her uniform ready to go.
'Well done honey.' Elle smiled, relieved that that wasn't a battle they were going to have that day as the 3 of them sat down and ate their rations of cereal.
Elle went back up to her room to pick up her bags and noticed the time with a shock. All the other clocks in the house had broken, and she hadn't realised it has 8:30 already. She ran back downstairs and ushered the girls to the door to put on shoes and coats, which she sadly observed were also too small.
Eventually they left the house, and Elle thanked God that they didn't live far from the primary school as she dropped them off by the gate. At least she wasn't going to get hassle for them being late, but she anxiously looked at the time on her phone and realised she was going to have to run, as she needed to be at school in 5 minutes, and it was a 20 minute walk away.
So that was a bit of an introduction really, I promise I'll include actual waterloo road characters soon ;)
Hope you enjoyed it :)
Like I said, I've never really attempted something like this before, and in the past I have tended to lose the will to write if I don't get feedback, so please review etc. to keep me sane, and you just might get more ;)
(even 1 word anonymous reviews are appreciated, though proper ones are preferable :P)
I look forward to hearing from you, and posting more :D xxx
