I squished the mouthwash around in my mouth then pulled back the shower curtain and spat in into the bathtub. "Lucy!" Ian yelled at me and splashed me with water. "Get out of here! Fiona!" he yelled. I pulled the curtain back around. Fiona came into the bathroom. "Did you brush your teeth?" She asked and squeezed my cheeks, I opened my mouth for her. "Ok, go get ready for school then" she told me as she grabbed the toothbrush and toothpaste. "She didn't brush them, just used mouthwash" Ian said. I stopped in the doorway. "Close enough. Not like we actually brushed our teeth when we were kids" Fiona then started brushing her teeth. She realised I was still there and pointed at me to go. "Towel" Ian said form the shower as he turned off the water. I found one on the ground and handed it to him then headed to the toilet "use the downstairs one" Fi told me through a mouthful of toothpaste. "Dads in there" I said. "Awake or unconscious?" Ian asked as he stepped out of the shower. "Sleeping" I answered "more like passed out" he said and left. Fiona looked at the shower for a bit "can you get Liam up? I'm going to have a shower" she said. I nodded and got of the toilet then headed into my room.
Liam was sitting in his cot just looking at the doorway. He started to whine when he saw me. I undid the clamps and pulled down the side so I could get him out. "Change his diaper too!" Fiona yelled from the bathroom. I sighed but put Liam on the ground and grabbed a diaper from the pile. "Not poop, not poop, not poop" I prayed as I took of his old diaper. Thankfully it was only wet. He started to wiggled and kick as soon as it was off, he liked being naked as much as I did. "If I have to wear clothes so do you" I told him but he didn't stop wiggling. I grabbed Debbie's mirror of the dresser and gave it to him. He caught a glimpse of himself in it and just stared which gave me time to put a clean diaper on.
"You're not meant to carry him downstairs. You'll drop him again" Debbie yelled at me as soon as I got into the kitchen. I ignored her and took Liam over to his highchair; Carl helped me put him in it then grabbed a handful of cereal and put it on the tray. "I'm telling Fiona" Debbie said and walked out from behind the bench. "You're wearing that to school?!" I asked with a chuckle as soon as I saw she was wearing her new skirt. Debbie looked down at the skirt. "Don't listen to her, you look great Debs" lip said as he walked into the kitchen. He gently slapped me on the back of the head.
A couple of girls giggled as Debbie walked past them but I had other things on my mind. I spotted Preenie, her head was shaven and she had a bruise on her check. My stomach felt funny as I approached her, I wondered what her mom had done to her but knew that was something I shouldn't ask. "Hey" I mumbled as I got close to her but she didn't say anything and walked away from me. I stopped and let her go.
Preenie had moped and avoided me all day. I slung my bag on my shoulder and took off after her yet again. "Preenie. Please" I yelled out to her. Some other girls gathered around in front of her and started pointing and laughing, "look at her head." "You trying to be a boy now?" "She's so ugly" they said as the laughed. "Hey, arseholes. Shut up!" I yelled at them and stood between them and Preenie. They continued to giggle. I punched the closest girl in the face. They all backed off quickly after that. Preenie took off, I looked the girls up and down then slowly turned around and left too.
"Hey, Lucy right?" Lee asked as I walked past a group of kids. I hadn't really spoken to him before but everyone knew he was part of the street kid group and that he lived in a crack house. "What you want?" I asked him. "Want to hang out? We're going to check out the Irving's place, it just got condemned" he said. I looked at the other kids with him, they were all poor, had absent families for various reasons and spent most of their time hanging out on the street and committing petty crimes. For the most part they were friendly and kept to themselves though. "Sure" I mumbled and walked over to them. They introduced themselves, Cue, Cindi, Jav, Possum and Lolly.