Luna groaned and rubbed her eyes. She pulled her vibrating phone out from under her pillow. "4:30 a.m WAKE UP!" flashed on her screen. God, was it Monday already?
She turned to her side to see Lana, sleeping peacefully with her arm wrapped around Lunas. Aw, she looked so peaceful, Luna thought.
Suddenly Lana turned to the other side, kicking Luna in the process. Hard. Luna groaned and rubbed her shin. This reminded her of when Lynn used to have nightmares. Ah, the good ol' days.
She carefully got up, kissed Lana softly on the head, then checked if Luan was asleep. Yup, the girl could sleep all day if she could.
Luna left the room quietly, and peered into Lori and Leni's room. Lori was standing in front of her mirror, putting on eyeshadow. "Shhh", Lori said, jerking her chin toward Leni's bed.
Luna turned to Leni, who was fast asleep. Lori slowly walked over to Luna, and gently shoved her out into the hallway before following and quietly closed the door.
"Why are you awake?" Lori asked as she put on some earrings. "School? Plus I gotta make sure you actually leave with a full stomach", Luna answered, remembering the time Lori left to work without eating and ended up passing out.
Lori smiled softly and stroked Luna's head. "You're the best", she whispered. "I know", Luna smirked. "Now finish getting ready while I make breakfast", she said, punching Lori in the arm before heading downstairs.
As Luna walked into the kitchen, she thought of before, when she would wake up at 7:30 since school started at 8:30. Now, instead of waking up 1 hour before school starts, she wakes up 4 hours before school starts.
Why? Well of course, Luna was the machine of the family (Said by Leni). Lori had early morning shift at 5:00 am every day, and since she had first period spare she technically wouldn't start class until 10:00. This gave her 5 hours to go to work, she'd come to school, go straight to work right after school, then come home around dinnertime, do her homework, go to sleep super late, and wake up again at 4:00 am the next morning.
Luna's schedule was definitely easier than Lori's, but it was still a lot of work for a 15-year old girl. Let's watch to see how Luna's day goes on, shall we?
She walks into the kitchen, yawning, as she opens the fridge. "Hmm.. Lucy's fake blood, gross… Lana's mud pie? Grosser…. Ugh Lynn's protein shake? Grossest" She mutters as she takes a sniff of everything.
She finally decides on making chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Lori comes down, and scarfs down the delicious food. "Slow down," Luna laughed.
"Luna, what can I say? Your cooking is amazing. Plus, doing this for 10 other people must be a lot of work. How do you do it?" Lori asks as she sips her coffee.
Luna just laughs, and says, "You're going to be late." Lori jumps up, realizing that she was going to be late. She quickly chugs the rest of her coffee, gives Luna a hug, and races out the door.
5:00 am, Luna is now packing lunches for her siblings. She knew the twins got picky if one of them had more peanut butter or more jelly than the other, so she had to make an even amount on the sandwiches.
She packed Lisa and Lynn steamed vegetables. Lisa was eating a lot of veggies because it was "brain fuel" as she put it. Lynn was just trying to get her vitamins and proteins, since she was an athlete.
She made a bagel with extra cream cheese for Leni and Lori. Even though Lori was at work, Luna still made her lunch and stashed it in her locker to give to Lori at lunchtime. It was the least she could do.
For Lincoln and Luan, she made tuna sandwiches, the one food that they both loved. Gross. Finally, for her and Lucy, she made fries with extra ketchup for Lucy.
When she was done, she looked at the time. God, it was already almost 6:00 am. It always took long to make lunches, since she made different food for everyone.
She quickly ran upstairs, brushed her teeth and took a quick shower. She headed into her room, making sure Lana was still asleep.
The last time Lana crawled into Lori's bed when she had a nightmare, Lori went into the bathroom in the morning and Lana panicked. She full-on threw a fit and thought Lori was abducted by aliens. Luna knew better then to leave her alone, but what choice did she have?
Luckily, Lana was still sleeping. Perfect. She quickly got dressed and headed back downstairs, then started to make more pancakes.
Yes, she made pancakes in the morning, but that was just for Lori, since she knew the food would get cold by the time the others woke up.
As she was finishing flipping the last pancake, Leni, Luan, and Lynn walked into the kitchen, still in their pajamas.
"I'm exhausted. Anyone else hear Lana crying in the middle of the night?" Lynn complains, rubbing her eyes. "You heard that?" Luna asked, surprised.
"Um, duh, these walls are thinner than those pancakes! Ha ha ha, get it?" Luan laughed as everyone groaned. "But seriously, those pancakes are extremely thin", Luan said, turning serious.
Luna looks down at the pancakes and then roll her eyes. "Um, you try waking up at 4:30 a.m to make breakfast AND lunch for 10 other people. Not to mention with Lana kicking you in your sleep," Luna mutters.
"Another nightmare?" Leni asks her sympathetically as she sits down and reaches for the syrup. "Yup. I think we should seriously consider getting Lana some help. She's having a lot of nightmares." Luna says, rubbing her temples.
"You should. I mean, the kid's six, and she can't sleep at all. How pathetic." Lynn says as she takes a huge bite of the pancake.
"Says the girl who was afraid to sleep by herself for a whole year and slept in Luna's bed." Luan laughs.
"Shut up!"
"It's true though!"
"Both of you shut up!" Luna shouts as she stood up. She looked at her phone, and was surprised to see that it was already 7. "I'm gonna go wake the others. Don't finish the pancakes." She says as she glares at the three.
As she jogs upstairs, she makes a mental note to ask Lori what to do about Lana. She walks into Lincoln's room and sees him fast asleep, lightly snoring. Luna gently shook him, and said "Wake up, Linc. Time for school, and if you hurry you'll get the bathroom first." She whispers.
Lincoln groans as he sits up and rubs his eyes. "It's Monday already?" he asks Luna. She laughs and ruffles his hair. "Sorry dude, but looks like your days of sleeping in are over." She was referring to the Spring Break they had, which was two weeks off.
She walked out of Lincoln's room and went into Lisa and Lily's. Luna was surprised to see that Lisa was already awake, Lily was awake as well, watching Lisa write some formula on her chalkboard.
"Lisa? What are you doing up so early?" she asks as she reaches into Lily's crib and picks up the now awake baby.
"Oh hello, elder sister. I was just trying to solve this complicated formula. I mean, I just don't know what I'm doing wrong." Lisa says as she turns back to the chalkboard and frowns.
Luna stares at the chalkboard, and then turns to smile at Lisa. "You forgot to carry the one." Luna says, shaking her head.
Lisa stares at the chalkboard, then lights up. "Well well, you're right! Seems like those calculus lessons are really paying off." She winks at Luna, who in return rolls her eyes and tells her to get ready for school.
Luna then walks across the hall, to Lucy's room, but the latter was nowhere in sight. "Hey Luna," Lucy says from behind her, making Luna scream and almost drop Lily.
"Girl we gotta put a bell on you", Luna pants with a hand on her heart. Lucy takes Lily from her and says "I woke up a while ago and got ready. I'll go down and eat."
Then she disappears. Luna shakes her head and chuckles. Lucy was a strange girl all right.
She then makes her way to her own bedroom, where she sees Lana sitting on her bed, her feet dangling over the edge.
Lana looks up, and when she sees Luna she smiles big. "Hi Luna! Thanks for letting me bunk here last night. You're the best." She says. Luna leans against the bed post and forces a smile back. "Lana, about that-"
"Lori secretly hates when I come to her. Leni gets as scared as I do. But you, you always take care of me. I'm so glad to have a sister like you. Like, you should definitely get the 'Best Sister' award, if there is one." Lana goes on.
She jumps off the best and hugs Luna, then runs out to get ready for school. Luna groans, and thinks, so much for telling her to stop sleeping with me.
She then goes to Lola's room, wondering what she should do about Lana. Suddenly the door opens and Lola steps out, wearing her face mask and curlers. "It's 7:15! We have to leave in 45 minutes and now you come to wake me up?" she yells at Luna, then stomps toward the bathroom. Luna blinks. Okayyy then. Well, at least I didn't have to interrupt her beauty sleep.
45 minutes later, and everyone is by the front door, all ready with their backpacks and lunch bags. "Everyone ready?" Luna asks as she shifts Lily to the other arm.
On the way to school, she drops Lily off at her daycare friend's house. Katy, who was the mom of Lily's friend, usually took her son to daycare and insisted on taking Lily as well. After she finished work, she would pick them both up and take them to her house, where Lori would pick her up after she finished work.
Luna didn't complain, it was much easier for everyone that way. They walked to school, since Lori took the van and no one else could drive anyway.
The elementary school was first, where she dropped of Lisa, Lana, Lola, Lucy, and Lincoln. The four elder girls waved to their younger siblings as they split up and went to their friends.
Just 1 block down was the middle school, where Lynn and Luan went. Once they got there, they as well would split up to go to their friends.
She and Leni would walk over another block to get to the high school. Thank god all schools were super close.
After School
After school was a whole other situation. It would be chaotic, but since Luna was in charge everything ran smoothly. Technically the high schools didn't start until 8:45, so that meant they finished school at 3:15, while the middle and elementary schools finished at 3:00. Luan and Lynn would walk by themselves to the elementary school, so Leni and Luna can pick all of them up from there.
When they got to the elementary school, they found their younger siblings all sitting on the grass, their bags all piled up near a tree. The place was completely empty, since every kid wanted to go home ASAP. "Finally you're here", Lola says as she rolls her eyes. She wasn't sitting, because she didn't want her dress to get dirty.
Once they got home, everyone immediately ran off to do their own things, while Luna went down to do the laundry.
Ever since the accident, the kids stopped doing their chores. This meant Lori and Luna had to clean up after them. Well, mostly Luna, since Lori had work.
"Luna, I have baseball in half an hour, remember?" Lynn calls as she pokes her head into the basement. "Yeah, I remember. Can you also tell Lucy to get ready for her poetry reading and Lola to get ready for ribbon practice?" Luna calls back.
Then she sneezes. Twice. Weird, she never got sick. She shook it off, thinking it must've been some dust. Luna hurries upstairs, where she found Lynn, Lola, and Lucy waiting by the door. "Hurry up!" Lola calls, impatiently. Luna goes into the kitchen, chugs down a bottle of water along with an Advil, because for some strange reason she had a terrible headache. "Coming, coming", she calls back as she grabs her wallet and phone. She sees Leni on the couch painting her nails, with Lincoln and Lana beside her watching TV.
"Leni, you're in charge while I'm gone. Don't worry, I'll be back by 5." She tells her, looking at the clock. "Don't worry, Luna, I can handle it." Leni says reassuringly, but Luna is still unsure. "C'mon Luna!" Lola yells again, so she rolls her eyes and follows them out the door.
They take the bus, because their activities happen all over town, so it would be hard to walk. An hour later, she walks back up the porch with all three sisters she left with, feeling proud of herself.
Unfortunately, Luna walks inside to find complete chaos. Leni was screaming and running away from a bunch of Lana's animals. Lana, was trying to run from Lucy's bat colony. Luan and Lincoln were hiding behind the couch, and she could hear something explode from upstairs.
She whistles loudly, getting everyone to stop and stare. "ENOUGH! Lucy, get your bats and bring them upstairs. Lana, control your pets. Luan go upstairs and check on Lisa, and Lincoln, Lynn, and Lola can clean up this mess. GO, PEOPLE, GO!" she yells as everyone scrambles to do as told.
She sighs as she walks into the kitchen, feeling light-headed. No time for that, she had to make dinner. She peered into the fridge, then cursed under her breath when she realized she forgot to go grocery shopping.
She finally decided on ordering a pizza, since her head was hurting too much to do anything. She reaches for her phone and groans, knowing Lori would throw a fit for wasting money.
7:00 pm.
"Mmm, what smells good?" Lori says as she walks into the house holding Lily. Luna reaches for Lily, tickling her, then turns to answer Lori.
"Pizza, I forgot to go grocery shopping." She says sheepishly. Lori frowns, but shakes her head. "Whatever, just remember to go tomorrow, okay?" she tells her, making Luna mad.
Can't Lori ever give her a break? Lily begins to cry, and Luna goes to the kitchen to warm her up a bottle of milk while Lori takes the last 2 slices of pizza and starts to gobble them up.
Luna watches her, not wanting to tell her one of those slices was for herself, since she didn't eat. Whatever, she could last without eating for a while.
Luna puts Lily in her high chair and gives her the bottle, watching as she drinks it up. Suddenly, she feels her head start to hurt even more, and she stands up to get the bottle of Advil on the counter.
Big mistake. She began to feel super dizzy and weak as she stood up. "Luna?" she heard Lori call, but it seemed like she was miles away.
The last thing she saw was Lori's concerned face before she passed out.
"She has a fever of over 110 degrees, she hasn't eaten at all this day. She feels very warm as well"
"Luna? Luna, can you hear me?"
"Move over Stinkoln, give her some room!"
"Oh no, she's not waking up! What if she's dead?"
"Jesus, Lola, she's not dead. See, she's waking up right now"
Everyone turned to look down at Luna, as she slightly opens her eyes from hearing a lot of chatter. "What happened?" she mumbled as she sat up, then realized she was on her beanbag chair in her room. "You passed out. God Luna you're sick. You need to stay home tomorrow and rest, okay?" Lori tells her, looking concerned. "But- but who's gonna take care of everything?" she asks.
"Me!" Everyone turns to look at Leni, who also turns around as well to see what they were looking at. "Oh right, you're looking at me. I can do it! I can take care of everything tomorrow! I am older, after all." She says, flipping her hair over her shoulder and knocking off her sunglasses in the process.
Luna tries to protest, but Lori gives her a look, so she keeps her mouth shut. As everyone files out, Luna flops back onto the beanbag chair, knowing tomorrow will end in disaster.
The Next Day
Leni woke up to Lola screaming. She quickly shot out of bed and ran into the hallway, to find everyone glaring at her. "Like, what happened?" Leni asks them, confused.
"IT IS 7:30! WE ARE SUPPOSED TO LEAVE IN HALF AN HOUR AND YOU DIDN'T WAKE US UP!" Lola yells, then storms back toward her room, with everyone immediately rushing to get ready.
Leni was confused, then it hit her that Luna was sick and she was taking charge today. She facepalmed then ran into the bathroom before anyone else could.
She quickly brushed her teeth and showered, then ran downstairs to get breakfast ready. She threw some granola bars onto the table, and put down some orange juice and some glasses. It'll have to do.
But what about lunch? She wasn't a good cook, not like Luna. She reached for the cookie jar on the top shelf of the cupboard, and took out a handful of bills. Yes, their secret emergency cash was stashed in a cookie jar. Only Lori, Leni and Luna knew it was there.
Lunch money will have to do for today. "C'mon guys, let's go!" she yelled up the stairs then checked her watch. It was 8:15. How the heck was it 8:15? There was no way they'd make it. Leni sighed. This day was off to a bad start.
After School
"C'mon you guys, let's go!" Leni yelled as she arrived at the elementary school. "Lynn, you have practice, right? And Lisa, don't you have some kind of science convention or something?" she called. Luna had texted her earlier, telling her the schedule and what things everyone had. Unfortunately, Leni had accidentally deleted the message right after reading it. Whatever, she kinda remembered it.
"Why do we have to come along?" Lana complained as Leni led them to the bus stop. "I don't have time to take you home." Leni answered, looking through her purse for bus money. She had run late after school, forgetting that she had to pick up her siblings.
Leni then realized she didn't have any coins for the bus. She groaned and then turned to her siblings. "Looks like we're gonna have to walk." She says sheepishly as everyone groans. "Hey, c'mon. Look, I know a shortcut to Lynn's practice, let's go." She tells them, then starts to hurry down the street.
1 hour later.
"Leni, how could you do this to me?" Lynn yelled as she stormed into the house. "Lynn, I'm so sorry, I had no idea." Leni told her, but Lynn just glared.
Luna, who was sitting on the couch, stood up. "What's going on?" she asked Lynn. "Leni told me she knew a shortcut, and ended up taking me to football! I had soccer today, and soccer is on the other side of town! I have a game tomorrow, and coach wouldn't let me come to practice today because I was late!" Lynn complained.
"What's even worse is that she didn't even give us lunch!" Lola yelled. "What? I gave you money!" Leni cried, pulling her wallet from her bag. She then saw the folded bills inside and realized she forgot to give her siblings the money in the morning.
Just then, Luan came storming down the stairs. "You forgot me at school!" she yelled at Leni. Huh, it was surprisingly quiet on the way home. "I had a dentist appointment today and you were supposed to pick me up from the Middle School at 2:30! My braces have been hurting so bad for weeks, and Luna finally got me appointment and now I missed it! I had to come home because I couldn't even take the bus by myself and Luna was too sick to take me. Thank a lot" she spat, and stomped back upstairs.
The others followed her, muttering under their breaths. Luna gave Leni a sympathetic look. "I-I messed up bad.." Leni started to cry. "Leni, you didn't mess up," Luna told her, putting an arm around her.
"Oh shut up Luna, I don't need your pity," she snapped. Luna was stunned. "God, you try to act like you're better than me, and I get it. You're a better sister okay? I don't need you to rub it in my face," Leni glared at Luna, then stormed out onto the porch.
Luna stood there, shocked at Leni's outburst. She quietly slipped out the front porch, and sat down beside a crying Leni. "What do you want Luna?" Leni cried, not looking up at her.
"I wanted to apologize." Luna told her, causing Leni to look up at her, confused. "Why?" she questioned.
"Dude, I never knew you felt this way. I mean, do you really think I'ma better sister than you?" Luna asked.
"Luna, you can, like, fix any problem that happens. Yesterday when you left me in charge? Chaos. You came home and in two seconds fixed everything. You just do stuff so easily. I guess it's probably because I'm not as smart as you." Leni said, looking down at her feet.
Luna just laughed, making Leni glare at her. "Sorry, dude. I didn't mean to laugh. It's just, you don't have to be smart to be a good sister. And honestly? I'm jealous of you." She said, and seeing Leni's confused glance, she goes on. "C'mon sis, you're so pretty! You get every guy to ask you out, and you're amazing when it comes to fashion. I don't have half the looks you do." Luna says, nudging her older sister. Leni gave her a sad smile.
"Okay, that isn't the point. The point is, even I made mistakes when I first babysat." She chuckles. "Like what?" Leni asked, furrowing her brow.
"Dude, when I was 10, and mom took you and Lori to the mall, and dad was at some big meeting. Luan and Lynn weren't that much of a problem, but Linc was 6, Lucy was 3, and the twins were 1. I legit got confused between the twins, and it was stressing me out because I couldn't tell them apart. Meanwhile Lucy somehow managed to climb up into the vents and I could never find her. Linc kept flipping the channels on TV and accidentally saw a small part of a horror movie, and he wouldn't stop screaming. It was torture." Luna laughed, remembering the day as if it was yesterday.
"How did you fix it?" Leni asked her, clearly interested in this story. "I didn't." Luna admitted. Leni raised her eyebrows. "But- but how could you not?" Leni blurted. "Dude, I wasn't always good at fixing problems. In the end, I had to stick pieces of tape with their names on the twins, I tied Lucy down to the couch, and I put a sleeping pill in milk to make Linc fall asleep. It was torture, not to mention Luan and Lynn were no help whatsoever." She rolls her eyes.
Leni just blinks at her. Luna laughs, and continues. "Mom and Dad came home and man, were they cheesed. Luckily I wasn't punished, since it was my first time. But I thought for sure they wouldn't let me babysit ever again."
"So why did they let you?" Leni asks.
"Because, Leni, the best part about making mistakes, is that you learn from them. After that day, I vowed to myself that I would never do that again. And every time I babysat, I would always think of that day, and make sure that I wouldn't let things go haywire. Dude, you made this big mistake today. It's bad, I know, but now you'll know how to better deal with them in the future, You can't always beat yourself up. And hey, if you ever feel bad about this day, just remember how my first time went." Luna laughed, making Leni laugh along with her.
"Thanks, Luna. Hey, you really are a good sister." Leni says, nudging her. Luna shrugs, and says "I learned from the best." Leni giggles and gives Luna a hug.
"Luna! Can you help me paint my nails?" Lola calls from inside. Luna and Leni both head inside, where they see everyone just sitting around doing their pastime activities. "I can paint them for you", Leni offers. "Are you sure you won't, I don't know, mess up?" Lola glares at her.
"Lola," Luna warns. Lola sighs, and then agrees. Leni throws Luna a grateful smile, then heads upstairs with Lola. Luna then turns to the others, who are all staring at her. "What?" she asks them. "You gave us name tags?" Lana asks. "Tied me to a chair?" Lucy questions. "Put a sleeping pill in my milk?" Linc wiggles his eyebrows. Everyone bursts out laughing. "Oh shut up you guys," Luna mumbles, making everyone laugh harder. She couldn't help but laugh along with them. "How is she? I feel terrible for yelling." Lynn says, jerking her chin upstairs. "Me too," Luan admits. "We all do," Lincoln says. "It was her first time. We all make mistakes." Luna smiles. "I don't think anyone's made as big as a mistake as you did." Leni calls from upstairs, making everyone start laughing again. Luna rolls her eyes, but she can hear Lola and Leni upstairs, laughing as well. She smiles.
Leni was going to be fine. That's all that mattered.
…
SORRY? I know I said I was gonna update on Friday or Saturday but my mom was super sick so I was taking care of her. Then I had to do a few assignments yesterday, so super busy. Today I woke up just as sick as my mom so I stayed home from school. So I decided to finish this chapter, even though I was really tired. There are some parts in here that are rushed, so I'm sorry if it sounds weird. At the same time though, I would rushed it even more on Friday and posted it but I thought you guys would rather have a long, good chapter, rather than a short quick one. So yeah, here I am! Now about my posting schedule, lol, I might not actually keep up with that, but I'll at least try posting once a week. For once I got nothing else to say, so stay tuned! Xoxo, dreamergirl
Summary for next Chapter:
When Luna cleans up in Lisa's room, she accidentally gets sucked by a portal that takes her 10 years into the future. She makes some shocking discoveries, and unintentionally starts a fight between her siblings. She has to fix everything and fast, or else she'll be stuck there forever.