On the first day of school, Adelaide woke up to the smell of burning waffles. For the first ten seconds of consciousness she internally groaned that her mother had attempted, and failed, at yet another back-to-school breakfast. But those ten seconds ended all too quickly when she remembered that there were no more charcoaled breakfasts to be had, that the smell was all in her head.
Lorraine Weaving, despite all her hard efforts, was not made for life in the kitchen. Every year on the first day of school Addie would come downstairs to her mother leaning over her black, crisped attempt wondering where it had all went wrong. She'd stand there bare footed in her purple dressing gown with her hands mindlessly running through her hair. When she heard Addie chuckling in the doorway she'd turn to her, brandishing a spatula at her. "Not a word Adelaide, not a single word." She'd then proceed to dump it in the trash while Addie pulled put a new set of ingredients. Breakfast was her strength in the kitchen. She could make all sorts of breakfast foods but ask for anything remotely outside of the breakfast realm and she was hopeless.
Addie smiled at the memories and made a beeline for the shower. She took her time, washing her hair and scrubbing every inch of herself with her favorite apricot body wash. When she got out she dried her hair, but didn't bother doing much else other than brushing it. Her unruly waves had a mind of their own and doing anything to tame them would be pointless, so she left them to fall where they may.
When it came to choosing her outfit she was way ahead of herself – well, Lydia was. Two weeks ago her red-headed best friend was sifting through her closet, insisting that they should be prepared she put together a Lydia-approved outfit. Only the stiff collar of the white shirt was visible under the soft, pale blue material of Addie's favorite sweater. The sleeves were rolled up so the cuffs of the shirt were also visible. This was paired with a white skirt that ended just a bit above her knees and her brown ankle boots. She tossed on a long silver necklace and grabbed her brown leather messenger bag before heading downstairs.
She considered making breakfast for all of two minutes before deciding against it. Instead, she hopped into her car and headed off in the direction of Julia's. It was Sophie's first day of kindergarten and she thought she would tag along on the journey there before school. She sang tunelessly along with the radio for the five minuted car ride before she pulled up to the fancy looking apartment building. Reaching the lobby she thought of taking the elevator before deciding not to risk it and headed for the stairwell. Luckily it was only two floors.
Letting herself in she called out and headed straight for the kitchen where she found Michael cooking breakfast whilst simultaneously watching the news.
"Hey kiddo," he walked past and ruffled her hair as she took a seat on one of the bar stools, "Come to see Sophs off?"
"That and the free food." She poured herself a mug of coffee, sipping it as she watched the news. She listened to the news anchor inform the residents of Beacon Hills that a body had been found in the woods that surrounded their town. Officially intrigued, Addie and Michael listened closely as the story went on. The same woods that bordered Addie's house. The same woods she'd driven past last night when the body had been discovered. She thought back and tried to remember if anything had been different last night on her way back from Julia's at around eleven. Nothing stood out from the many other times she'd made the journey, only a car parked on the edge but that was hardly enough to scare her.
"What did they find in the woods?" Both Addie and Michael jumped and Addie turned to see a shorter version of Julia standing at her side with her hair sticking up everywhere.
"Uh, just some little bears having a picnic, Monkey." Addie grinned as she hoisted Sophie onto her lap and thanked Michael for the plate of scrambled eggs and toast he placed in front of her.
"That sounds fun!" Sophie reached over and stole a bite of Addie's toast, "Auntie Addie, mommy said that if I asked nicely you'd do my hair for me?"
"Did she now?" Addie frowned, "I'm really sorry Sophie, but I only do hair for little girl's on their first day of kindergarten."
"But it is my first day of kindergarten Aunt Addie!" Sophie giggled.
"It is? Well why didn't you tell me?!" Addie held a giggling Sophie's hand and lead her through to the bathroom.
"Did you see the photo of my new little brother or sister?" Sophie smiled widely. For such a young age she'd been really excited about the idea of a new sibling. According to their parents, Julia had thrown an absolute fit when she heard that Addie was coming along. Sophie chatted away without pausing for breath as Addie french-braided her blonde hair to both sides and tied the ends with little pink ribbons. She went back to her breakfast with Sophie at her side and Julia joined the three of them after a few minutes. After everyone had successfully finished their food, Michael grabbed the camera and they made their way downstairs.
Addie got into her car and followed the other three to the elementary school just around the corner from the high school she attended. She watched the herds or parents sending of their children and smiled at the eager children. Sophie jumped out of her car seat with some help from her mom and they went inside to stand outside her new classroom. After the obligatory pictures with her Mom, Dad and Aunt, Sophie sprinted off into the classroom without a second look behind her.
"Well, she wasn't too cut up about leaving us. Nice to know seeing as shes the one who'll be looking after us when we're old and gray." Michael joked, and Addie chuckled before looking to her sister to find tears in her eyes. She watched as Michael put an arm around her shoulder and soothed her as they walked towards the car.
"Thanks for coming Addie." Julia gave her a sad smile, "We'll see you on Thursday for dinner?" When Addie nodded they waved and got into the car heading home.
Addie did not have that luxury, instead she had a full day of school to look forward to.
Pulling up to the school parking lot it took her a couple of minutes to find an open spot in the already crowded lot. After texting Lydia the night before, she knew where to find her. But just as she slung her bag over her shoulder and locked her car, she spotted the vehicle she'd seen last night. It was the same light blue jeep that had been parked at the edge of the woods. She watched as the figure got out, well fell out, and jogged over to meet his friend. He turned ever so slightly and she got a glimpse of the pairs faces. Stiles and Scott. It was then that she remembered a piece of information that Stiles had told her the night before in the elevator. Of course.
As they started to walk towards the school entrance, she jogged to catch up with them and fell in step beside them, "You know," she started and both Stiles and Scott jumped in the air with fright, turning towards her with wide eyes, "When you said that you listened in on your dad's radio calls I thought you meant like misdemeanors or breaking and entering. Not freakin' dead bodies in the woods. Are you two insane?"
The two seemed to be having a hard time getting their heart rates down from the scare and Addie smirked a little inwardly. "Wait- how did you know?" Scott stumbled over his words.
"I saw Stiles' car on the road that runs along the side of the woods last night when I was driving home." She explained, "That and Stiles told me that you two had a thing for playing Holmes and Watson with his dad's radio."
"Okay, so maybe we did but – hey wait, who's Holmes and who's Watson?" Stiles asked making Scott and Addie roll their eyes simultaneously.
"So, uh, did you find it?" Addie asked and they both grinned, feeling like they'd avoided a scolding.
"Well no, I didn't." Stiles said, "My dad caught me. But Scott did."
They both turned to face Scott, "Yeah, but only half of it-"
"I changed my mind, I don't want to know." Addie waved her hand and scrunched up her face, not wanting to know the gory details making the boys chuckle. She was about to peel off to make her way to her locker when she the lacrosse sticks hanging from their backpacks.
"I didn't know you two were on the lacrosse team." She pointed towards the sticks.
"Oh, yeah. We don't really play that much. Well, at all really." Stiles' cheeks pinked up the way she noticed they did whenever he got a little embarrassed, Scott on the other hand had a quiet look of determination on his face.
"Maybe that's for the best, you know staying on the bench." Stiles screwed up his eyes in confusion, before she continued on, "I have this theory that anyone who actually plays on the field during a game instantly becomes an insufferable jackass." The only exception to what had proved to be a very true theory was her friend Danny, an all around nice guy.
Stiles snorted and Addie waved as she made her way to her locker, finding Lydia already waiting on her.
"You took your time," Lydia said as she reached her, texting away on her phone.
"Good morning to you too, best friend." Addie laughed as she put in her hag and took out the necessary books and her schedule. "Let me see your schedule." The girls compared classes, and while they had a few together, first period was not one of them.
"How was your morning? You look good, by the way" Lydia said as they walked down the hall before they would have to split into opposite directions. Addie noticed that this was Lydia's round about way of asking how she'd coped with it being the first first-day without her mother. While she appreciated it she held her chin up and smiled.
"Good, thanks. I went round to Julia's to see Sophie on her first day. She was so excited." They came to a stop outside Addie's English classroom and Addie leaned casually against the wall, "And thanks, you have good taste," Addie said, referring to the clothes she wore, "You look great too,"
"When don't I?" Lydia gave a winning smile before spinning and flouncing off in the opposite direction, leaving Addie to laugh to herself as she made her way inside and took her seat.
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Addie's first day outfit has been added to polyvore and as always graphics can be found on tumblr!
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