"Wake up Serenity." I said, shaking her shoulders. Grumbling, she turned away from me and yawned, cuddling into her blankets. Shaking her again, she swatted my hands away and told me in a few descriptive words to go away.
"Your going to be late for work." I commented, sending her turning to the clock and then bounding out of the bed into the bathroom, where I knew a shower would be running soon. Putting the pillows back in their original places before they had been flung around by the abrupt move, I threw the blanket on, smoothed it out and left it as it was.
Heading down to the kitchen, I noted it was in complete disarray and knew I would have to clean it up later. Searching through the pantry, I found the pancake mix and brought that down, along with a bowl and a wire whisk. Humming as I opened the fridge door, I brought out the eggs and milk, ending up having to close the door with my foot. Following the directions, I whisked it all up at the end, making sure the pan on the stove was hot, and started to cook them. It made me think of my mother at that moment, she use to make pancakes all the time, for Amber and I before we went to school. She was quite pushy on the prospects of eating breakfast.
"You do too much." The voice made me jump and slop more mix onto the pan than necessary.
"It's nothing, sit down. They're almost done and I'm making coffee." Gesturing with one hand to where I had started the coffee, which had been before I had woken her up. Gratefully, she sat down and rested her tired head in her arms, her wet hair clinging to the skin. Watching her, I realized how tired she must really be. Having to go to work at 7:00 a.m. and getting back at 9:00 p.m. or later had to be tough, I don't even know why they kept her that late, but it had to be for some reason or another. She had told me that she worked at the hospital, and they had to keep her late. It was a little mind-boggling. She was only a nurse… but the hours were still so late.
Piling the pancakes on a plate, I set them on the middle of the table, and two were gone almost immediately off the top. Serenity dug into them, seemingly happy. Seeing that the coffee was ready, I set it in front of her and preceded to head upstairs, to get changes from my P-J's into something more comfortable.
Making sure to call a 'have a good day at work' over my shoulder, before I went up the stairs, to Serenity though.
Opening the door, I yawned and rubbed at my eyes, seeing if it would wake me up at all. Unfortunately, it proved not to and I felt even more sleepy as I stared at my comforting bed. This had become a normal routine, but I still wasn't use to the early mornings, since I had always had problems getting to sleep at night.
After searching through my messy closet, and finding an appropriate outfit, I ran a brush through my hair and applied some make-up. Eye shadow, mascara, eye liner, nothing too overboard really. Turning to see if I could find where I'd put my eyeliner, my eyes landed on my bedside table, where the letter still lay in the bottom drawer, and I could feel my hand itch to open it. No, I repeated, I didn't need that, I didn't need to see it. Averting my eyes to the clock, I saw it was about 8:00, Serenity probably left at 7:30, since they had said she could come in a little later today... So I must've been in here for at least half an hour, a little hard to believe.
Swiftly carrying myself across the hall, I creaked open the door to Samantha's bedroom and let the hall light flood in, along with the natural light already filling the room from the window. Sitting down on the edge of her bed, I brought one hand down to shake her shoulder gently, watching as her brown eyes fluttered open. With a yawn, she sat up, rubbing her own eyes.
"Mornin'." I said gently, not trying to jolt her too suddenly from her recent sleep.
"Mornin'." Sam replied to me and looked at her closet, then back up at me. Putting my hands up in defence, and telling her I was going to leave anyway, I left the room and yelled over my shoulder she should hurry. There was about an hour and half before she was heading over to Julie's.
Making my way downstairs, I saw the pancakes still on the plate, only about two left, and knew they were cold already. Half heartedly munching on one, I got out the cereal and milk for Sam, since I knew she had no real interest in eating these cold flat disks.
"Have you eaten?" She asked, sitting down at the breakfast table. I hadn't, except for that one pancake I'd just finished, but I didn't tell her that. Nodding my head, I set a bowl on the table, along with a spoon, and took away the plate with the one pancake, deciding it didn't appeal to me that much either. Turning the tap on, adding a small amount of dish soap, I watched as the bubbles sprung up and the sink filled. Letting the dishes slink into the water, I turned the water off and decided to let them soak.
"What are you doing over at Julie's?" I asked Sam, turning to lean against the counter.
"Nothing really, just normal girl stuff." She shrugged. Despite her off hand manner, I could tell she was a little excited about the plan. Julie was a nice girl and I saw no reason why she hadn't gone over there for awhile. It was out of my hands though, for when I'd told Serenity about what I'd thought, she told me to leave it as is and it would work itself out. It seems that it had. There wasn't really anything else to talk about, so I turned my attention to the crumbs scattered on the counter from last night. Wiping it off with one hand into my other cupped hand, I threw them into the garbage and found myself bored again.
Upon seeing Sam was done with her cereal, I took her bowl and spoon, "You ready?"
"Yeah. I just gotta put my shoes and my coat on and I'll be ready to go." She said, getting up and going into the living room. Was it just me or was she acting a little distant? Either I was paranoid, or something was going on. I could deal with it later and went to put my own shoes and jean jacket on because I did have to walk her over there.
"Let's go." said I and she nodded, already having opened the door and waiting for me.
---
"Have fun!" I said cheerfully to Sam as she ran inside the house with Julie, leaving me at the door with Julie's mom, or Rain as she had wanted me to call her.
"Any plans?" I asked, finding nothing else to say. Rain wiped her brow and straightened out her shirt.
"No, just staying at home doing housework and making sure the girls don't get themselves into any trouble." She chuckled, her hands on her hips as she looked over her shoulder.
"Good luck." I laughed, already heading my way down the porch steps, waving a goodbye. Rain shut the door and I was alone once again. With a sigh, I headed forward down the street and managed to come upon the lot, as most people had been known to call it. Sending a glance over it, I saw a group standing in the corner and to my horror, or surprise, I wasn't sure, I saw my sister standing off to the right. She was watching me and my stomach suddenly churned, I didn't want to talk to her. Or I couldn't. Despite the 2 years that had passed, she still didn't know about dad leaving, and I really had no desire to inform her of it.
Deciding to just keep walking on my way, it would've worked fine and peachy, if Two-Bit hadn't come along. The only reason I knew Two-Bit was because Sam sometimes hung out with his younger sister, and he'd been home one time when I'd come to drop her off. He seemed like an okay guy, funny, maybe a little too… crazy?
"Hey Camille!" Two-Bit said, giving me a goofy grin, his eyes sparkling.
"Hi." I said nervously, resisting the urge to bolt. His gaze turned to the field and just my luck, he spotted my sister staring at us.
"Comin'?" He asked, as he started to walk towards the group. I couldn't really refuse now. I didn't want my sister to think I didn't want to see her, and I'm sure Two-Bit would say something if I said no.
"Yeah." I muttered, starting to walk along beside him.
