A/N; Hi everyone. I'm back! Its been a week but boy what a week its been. I went on this trip to Florida to preform at the outback bowl, but thats not important...

What is important is that inspiration comes from experiance! (and having nothing better to do than read fanfiction and listen to music on a 24 hour bus ride but whatever...) I mean I have so many ideas i dont even know how to fit them all in... :/

Thanks to all those who reviewed, it means a lot to me 3

It was Monday afternoon and Eponine walked slowly through the halls, trying her best to avoid colliding with everyone. Thanks to her dad she now had a nice big dark purple bruise on her stomach and it was still tender. She did her best to put on a happy face but the bruise had been right in the dead center of her abdomen and it hurt a bit every time she took a step.

After her father had left and she was sure the coast was clear she stopped wallowing in self pity and went back to her room to see how her siblings were doing. They were both curled up on her bed, a look of intense fear and anger in their eyes; Eponine tried to smile so as to hide from them but they were smart kids.

"What he do to you this time?" asked Gavroche in a grim voice, not at all like a ten year-old's should be.

She shrugged, trying her best to seem normal, "Not much, he just insulted me a bit then slapped me when I wouldn't hold my tongue."

"That was all?" inquired her sister

"Well he slapped me so hard I fell back; he then saw the need to kick me while I was down."

"Oh 'Ponine!" exclaimed the young brunette girl as her hand found its way to her mouth.

"It's not that bad, I've been through worse."

"How can you say that? How can you just cast this off as something normal?"

"What else can I do 'Zelma?" her voice now sounding irritated with a slight edge, "Cry and complain about this? Wallow in self-pity? Well that won't do me any good! It's the same old story, what's the use in tears? Admitting to myself that this is my normal just helps me get through alright, better than hoping for a change and then being disappointed when NOTHING changes, because guess what nothing EVER will!" Her voice echoed through the room and for several moments no one said anything. Azelma and Gavroche looked at her with wide eyes- sadness, fear and shocked mixed in them. Eponine bit her lip and closed her eyes as she sighed and her expression softened. "I'm sorry guys; I shouldn't have flipped out on you like that."

Gavroche found his way to her lap and snuggled into her, "No its ok, if anything I'm surprised it took you this long." Eponine chuckled softly at his comment.

Azelma looked at her in slight shame, "I'm sorry Eponine, we have no right to question you, you're the one who protect us and puts up with this to do so."

"It's alright." She said softly, "I'm just happy as long as you guys are ok."

The three Thenardier children just laid their on Eponine's bed, Eponine on one side with her back pressed against the head board and Gavroche curled up on her lap while Azelma laid down next her. The moon streaked into the room and illuminated the faces of the younger children. Within no time they were fast asleep while Eponine stayed awake thinking about everything, sleep not wanting to take over, she liked the night though. Nighttime usually provided Eponine with time for herself and her thoughts, the day was usually so busy and loud that she could never concentrate and things were always distracted her, night was the time that everybody else was sleeping, she could find her moment of peace and that made the day bearable. Carefully she slid her arms off of Gavroche and reached over to her bag that was on the floor next to her and took out her journal and a pen, glancing up at the moon for light she swiftly wrote away in her journal and let her thoughts spill.

When her father returned later that night Eponine was still writing away, she paused for a moment as soon as he came in through the front door and froze, wanting to know what he had been up to, or if he felt anything for what he did. As usual he didn't, he simply staggered in through the door and kicked off his shoes before stumbling off to his room, not even bothering to check any of their rooms to see if they were ok. After awhile Eponine got tired of writing and soon fell asleep to the sounds of her siblings' soft breathing. In the morning her father had barley acknowledged her and she was honestly fine with that, she liked it better than him being mad and hurting her even more, the feeling stayed the same for the rest of the morning and then her father disappeared from the afternoon on and Eponine went on with her day, neither discussing what happened, though it hurt Eponine to move around.

That was Sunday and now it was Monday and while she could lie down and sit around her home the day before, she was now forced to move around the building to get to all her classes for school. It didn't help that as soon as Grantaire saw her he decided to tease her and poke her stomach, unintentionally hitting the exact stop her bruise was, further deepening it; while it was painful and she winced slightly she kept a smile on and stayed to her snarky self.

"Why must do have the constant need to poke me?"

"Because I find it entertaining." He replied very matter-a-factly. He poked her again when she was off guard causing her to bite down on her lip to keep from wincing. She rolled her eyes and slapped Grantaire's shoulder to act normal and ignore the pain hoping no one would see the pain in her eyes; however her wincing and lip biting didn't go unnoticed by everyone.

That day at lunch she didn't sit with Les Amis, she didn't want them to sense something was wrong and start questioning her about it, 10 minutes with them provided no challenge to act normal but 45 she felt was nearly impossible, so instead she took her lunch –which was just a peanut butter sandwich and an apple- and went to the auditorium. She liked it in there because it was always empty due to it being away in its own little section of the school and the stage was open and the piano just sat there in the middle of it all; it was a very quiet spot which is just how she liked it, it was quiet secluded and a nice place to think. No one knew she went there, to everyone at lunch she had just disappeared from their sights, they had tried to find her before; they had checked the library, locker bank, bleachers, courtyard and even the pool but it never occurred to anyone to check in the auditorium.

When the bell rang for the next class Eponine groaned a bit, her next class was gym. It was the very last thing she needed. She grumbled a bit as she sneaked out of the auditorium and made her way to the gymnasium, dreading every minute of it. She liked gym she did but the thought of it now with her abs just made her cringe. However as she got closer and closer her spirit lightened up and a smile found a home on her face; gym might have meant a bit of pain but it also meant Marius. Out of all her friends she was closest to him, they had found each other freshman year and she was thankful to have him as a bud. No matter how she was feeling he always seemed to lighten up her day. As soon as she got to the locker room she quickly changed and jogged out to meet us with Marius in the gym.

As soon as she saw him her stomach filled up with butterflies and she smiled, while she and Marius had known each other for two years and told each other practically everything there was one thing she hadn't told him, she had a slight crush on him...No make that a big one: she was practically in love with him. She wasn't sure when it started, all she knew was that after a few months her heart fluttered every time she was near him, thought being who she was she was very good at hiding it and playing cool, being around a bunch of other guys all the time didn't hurt either. It had been two years and nothing had really changed, nothing ever did, they were still friends and nothing more. The second she walked into the gym she say him sitting there on some bleachers waiting for her, when she was closer to him she saw her and smiled as he got up.

"Hey 'Ponine I haven't seen you much today? Where have you been?"

She bit her lip nervously, "Oh just around." She shrugged before tilting her head and looking at Marius, "I like the way you style your hair." She stated as she ruffled it.

He snorted and fluffed his hair back to normal, "I like the way you always tease."

Before another word could be said the gym teacher blew his whistle and called everyone in. As soon as everyone was gathered up they learned that they would be playing the most stereotypic high school game ever, dodge ball. The class groaned and Eponine winced at bit, her stomach feeling the pain a nice red rubber ball would do to her already bruised skin. They were split up into teams, luckily Marius and Eponine were on the same one, and quickly started the game. Eponine was not the most athletic but she was very quick and nimble, as well as light on her feet, dodging all the balls was a real breeze for her. The same couldn't be said for Marius, he was pretty good at avoiding the balls and even caught some and got other people out, but as the numbers on their team got lower and lower he was made a target more and more often, soon it was only him, Eponine and a handful of others on his team. Suddenly a ball was coming his way to which he instinctively ducked out of the way, but he also turned slightly so his side was to the other team, due to that he didn't see one of the players pick up a ball and prepare to chuck it at him. Not knowing what to do Eponine ran toward him and tried to push him out of the way, only to result in the ball making impact with her lower torso. She impact was so great she fell over on her side and skidded for a bit. For a moment she didn't move, the pain in her stomach was enormous and the wind was knocked out of her. Coach blew the whistle and paused the game, a crowd soon surrounded Eponine.

Marius ran toward her and pushed through the crowd, "Eponine, are you alright?"

She slowly sat up and wrapped her arms around her abdomen, nodding slightly, "Yea I'm alright."

"Eponine you're hurt, you need some help." He stated as he helped her stand up.

"Don't fret Marius," she gritted through her teeth as she rose up to her feet, "I don't feel any pain."

"Don't try to be a hero 'Ponine."

"I'm not! I'm honestly just fine."

Just then the guy who chucked the ball at Eponine bursted in, "I am so sorry, I didn't mean for it to hurt that much."

"Its fine." She replied, "These things do happen, no harm no foul."

With that Marius slowly walked her over to the bleachers, his hand on her elbows due to her arms still being wrapped tightly around her stomach. Coach excused her from the rest of the game but she still had to sit there and watch. As she sat there looking on at the rest of the class one thought came into her mind,

I now have an excuse to my bruised stomach. She laughed as that thought entered her mind, then she frowned as she realized what it meant, nothing would ever change.

A/N; One last thing, i've gotten request for a couple different Eponine parings, i know what i wanted to do with this story but im a push over so i'll let you decide :D
Tell me who you want me to pair Eponine up with options are;

a) Enjolras

b) Marius

c) Another amis -ex; Joly or Grantaire, ect. (I know its odd but hey it might work...maybe)

If you want your guy to win then you better vote -i know i could do a poll but i want the results to be a surprise ;)