I ran to the landing then prepared to jump down the rest of the stairs, I added too much force and ended up running into the table and rebounding a bit. Thankfully Ian was there to stop me falling on my arse, "this is bullshit" he said and went to the door. "Ian wait" Fiona said. "Lucy!" I heard a high pitched, airy voice say and arms were wrapped around me. I pulled back, it was Monica. "Gonna wash his mouth out with soap" Frank said. "I made breakfast" she said oblivious to how awkward everything was. I wasn't the only one struggling, Debbie stood off to the side and Fi looked stunned in the kitchen. Carl came down the stairs next, "You can wash mine out. I want to fart bubbles" I heard him say. Monica gave him a similar welcome, his shock didn't last as long and he started on his breakfast. I joined him after silently checking with Fiona that it would be ok. "Where's Lip?" Monica asked. I grabbed some orange juice in a wine glass, I knew after one sip it wasn't just juice. "Carl" I said and handed him the glass. His eyes lit up once he realised and he downed the whole glass. "Grammy died" Debbie whispered as she sat next to me "oh. Are you ok?" I asked her, she just rolled her eyes and started eating. "How did Grammy die?" I asked Frank. "Shelia smothered her" Frank said. "What?" Debbie said. "She asked her to, cancers painful. Shelia sat on her face with a pillow" Frank said "that would have been so cool" I said. "Did she shit herself? people do that when they die" Carl asked. "Yes" Frank said. Carl and I chuckled. Debbie got up and left.
I pushed into Fiona and ran to the table for some more juice. "Lucy! No" she said and grabbed my shoulders. "Help me clean" she led me into the kitchen instead. Potato wondered in with some coffee and donuts, "are you really going to do this every morning?" Fi asked him as she wiped up some of the mess Monica made. I ran over to him and grabbed a coffee. "Do what?" he asked "Show up, tryin to woo me" Fiona said as I gulped down some coffee. "I'm looking for Lip" "aha" "what I can't be friends with your brother?" "No you can't" "are we going to have a funeral?" I heard Debbie ask from the other room "no" fi said as she continued to clean up and Debbie came into the kitchen. "Who died?" Potato asked "Grammy" Debbie and I said at the same time. "Oh I'm sorry guys" potato said awkwardly. "why not?" Debbie asked Fi "because a funeral requires a body and your father hasn't picked her up yet" fi answered as she picked up the plate in front of me. She paused when she noticed the coffee in my hand and grabbed it off me, I had finished most of it. "so she's just laying somewhere all alone?" Debbie said angrily, Potato also continued to blab on in the background "she's dead, I don't think she cares" I said "you're so mean" Debbie said and slapped my arm. Carl came barging into the room "I spy donuts" he yelled "hey check it out Steve. It's a bloody butt hole" he stuck his tongue through the donut "haha awesome dude" potato said. "School, let's go" fi said "lunch?" Debbie asked. "Shit" Fi said and rushed to make it. I grabbed another coffee and headed out of the kitchen. Debbie and Carl soon caught up to me with my lunch, left over breakfast. "Is Potato not driving us?" I asked them. "No" Debbie snapped. Carl and I pushed each other and stumbled around on the way to school.
As soon as I walked into the room I knew homeless Joe was there waiting, he was stinky today. Everyone else in the room had also clearly noticed. "Hey Joe, what you know?!" I yelled out, he lifted his head up and gave me a big almost toothless grin. He stood up and stuck his fist out for a bump, I obliged then led him out the door. He lit a smoke as soon as we were outside. I grabbed the beer from my bag and handed it to him, I had already put it in a paper bag. "Thank you m'dear" he said and stopped at the bin, he used the top of the bin to pop the cap of the bottle. "And your $20, anything else you need Joe?" I asked. He grunted and waved at me as he walked off. I headed towards the bus stop.
"Yo! Little Gallagher" the happy, strangely high pitched voice of Vinny the bus driver sounded through the bus. I changed directions and headed towards him. "Yo! How's the sitting going?" I asked. He chuckled "ready for an update?" he asked and continued before I even had a chance to reply. I leaned against the pole and listened. "You know that's a tv show, right?" a guy whispered. I smiled and nodded.
I hurried inside, as soon as I opened the door I heard moaning. Frank and Monica were at it on the couch, "oh gross" I whined and headed to the stairs. Monica at least stopped and fumbled with her panties. "Lucy, sweetie…" she started but trailed off. "Nothing gross about love. It's what created you" Frank yelled out. "Frank" Monica hissed and I heard a slap. I hurried into my room. Debbie was on her bed doing homework. "So gross" I mumbled as I closed the door. Debbie didn't even look up from her book.
"Fiona" I whined as she headed into the kitchen. She looked at the mess and sighed, "when's Monica going?" I asked her. "Soon hopefully" she said. "They were having sex on the couch" I told her. "Yeah, they were having it in here too" she said and started to clean again. "How was school?" She asked me "crap" I said and held out my hand for the bowls she was picking up. She passed them to me and I took them to the sink.
I was woken up by music thumping downstairs and loud voices. Debbie soon crawled down from her bed and went to investigate. The music stopped and started and there was some yelling but that eventually stopped and I could hear Debbie laughing. I snuck down the other stairs to see what was going on, Fi was sitting on the stool. "Fi" I called out to her but didn't leave the stairs, she came over to me "come on let's go back upstairs" she said and put me back to bed. She gave me some ear plugs as she tucked me in.
—-
There were people passed out all over the lounge-room when I got up. Carl came into the room. "Want to stack stuff on them?" I asked him. "Yeah, bet we can beat our record with some of these old ones" Carl said. There was a knock on the door, I went and answered it. Lee and Cue were standing there. I stepped aside and let them in "wow, you have a party last night?" Cue asked as Lee just headed straight to the toilet. "Frank and Monica did" I mumbled and went back to stacking things on one of the passed out adults. "You still homeless?" Carl asked. "Yeah, don't care though" Cue said and wondered upstairs. "Don't hog the bathroom!" Fi yelled out as she came down, "great, there better no be vomit everywhere" she mumbled as she looked around the room. "I'm going to win" I told Carl as his drunk moved a bit. "I already stacked heaps on" he said and went faster. "Your base sucks though" Fi said, I smirked at Carl. "You had breakfast yet?" she asked. I shook my head.
A green plaid skirt, white top and a black knit sweater had been nicely laid on my bed, Debbie had a matching outfit which she was already getting into. "I'm not wearing that" I said. "Then don't" Debbie threw back at me. "So you're just going to love her again!" I shouted at Debbie "no but Little Hank said this outfits cute" "he is so gross" "don't say that!" Debbie yelled and started pushing me, I pushed her back. "No no. Stop. Don't fight" Monica's voice said from the doorway, we didn't stop until Fi came and separated us. "We have to leave now girls" Fi said "Lucy's not in her cheerleading outfit" Monica whined as she hugged Debbie then tried to hug me but I dodged her. "It's too cold, I'm not wearing it"
I waited for everyone else out the front. We walked to the game together, Monica jumped around and cheered. Debbie joined in for a bit until Little Hank showed up. He blew me kisses every time no one was watching, I pretended to throw up but stuck my figure in my throat to far and started to gag. Monica came rushing over and started patting my head "what's wrong sweetie?" I didn't answer. "I got you into a piano competition" she said excitedly "it's in a couple of weeks. You're so going to win! The mayor is going to be there" "What! No, I don't want to" I said as I physically felt sick. "Are you shy? don't be, you are so awesome. You're going to win" Monica said and danced off again. I grabbed Fiona's hand and tried to come up with a way to get out of it. "Are you ok?" She asked "its weird" "yeah"
Hanna sat next to me "you guys really went all out hey?" she said. "Not often we get to cheer Carl" Ian said. Little Hank winked at us. "Gross" Hanna mumbled. I laughed.
We cheered for Carl and waved the banners Fi made. Debbie and little Hank sold pop and beer from an ice cooler Ian had dragged to the game. Monica kept grabbing my hand or trying to pull me into her lap while her and Frank cheered and cuddled. Lip eventually showed up "Lip come on sit down" Monica said as Debbie hugged Lip, I went to say hello to him too, but Lip started yelling before I had the chance. "What? I'm off the boat for one minute and there's a fucking mutiny?" He started "yeah well no one told you to get out of the boat" Fi replied "actually you did" he snapped. "hey Lip don't be mad at Fiona common" Monica interrupted which just made Lip angrier "hey Monica, shut up. Like the rest of my life this has nothing to do with you" Esti interrupted "I sit?" "Yeah sit wherever is fine" lip told her. Esti sat down next to me and hugged me "Lucy?!" She asked, I nodded. She squeezed my cheek and said something in Portuguese. Fi and Lip continued to argue. "She just showed up, what was I suppose to do" Fi told Lip. Lip stormed off "Oh, you're just going to storm off like a baby? to bad there's no door you can slam" Fi yelled after him "your sons a real prick" Frank said to Monica. I went to run after him but Esti grabbed my waist and made me sit on her lap. Fi marched down to Potato. Carl made a good move and everyone started to cheer again.
Hanna, Mac, Cue, Lee and I hung around after the game for a bit. "House is full now" Mac told us. "So you will be sticking around?" Hanna eagerly asked. "Hopefully, not a bad place" he said. Lee chuckled, "most people would disagree" he said. "Well screw them, I got a house, a bed, friends, football, way to get food. What else do I need?" Mac said as he stood on one of the benches. I smiled. "Yeah!" I agreed and jumped up next to him.
I passed Debbie and Carl heading out to get pizzas and chicken on the way home. Frank was passing around a bong in the kitchen with some of the drunks from last night. I headed up to my room.
Fiona came in, "where is everyone?" She asked. "Debbie and Carl are getting pizza and Monica and Ian went somewhere" I said, "together?" "Yeah" "well apparently I'm going out with Esti" she said and pulled a face. "really?" I asked. Fi just shrugged and left. Some music started playing downstairs and I heard Monica's voice. There was a bit of yelling and then the music stopped again. I decided to get up to see what was going on, the music started up again on my way down the kitchen stairs. Kev was in the kitchen making drinks "make me one?" I asked him as I walked through to the lounge room, I didn't wait for a reply. Frank was slouched against the door frame and looked sad, I went over to him and patted him on the head, he sobbed a bit then pulled me in for a hug and handed me his beer. I took a small sip then joined the party. The red bong was being passed around and it sounded like Frank and Monica's friends had already been drinking for a while.
—-
I was sitting at the table with a bowl of cereal while Frank rolled a joint. One of their friends was passed out of the couch, there were bottles and rubbish everywhere. Monica came inside with a box "where the hell did you go?" Frank asked her. "Don't be mad but I went and paid for your mothers ashes. You need the closure baby" Monica told him. "I can't believe she's really gone" Frank said as he opened up the bag. He took some of the ashes and put them in with his pot. Ian came down the stairs and went to the kitchen. "Your mother was a real cunt" Monica said as she lit the joint. "Amen" Frank said. "Breakfast of champions, I see" Ian said. The back door burst open. "Gallagher!" Terry Milkovich yelled. Frank jumped up and hid behind me "I paid you! I paid you, terry!" He yelled. Terry slapped Grammys ashes off the table and stormed over to Ian while Frank jumped the kitchen bench. Terry punched Ian in the face, Ian fell down and Terry got on top of him and continued to punch him. I took off up the stairs and towards the bat. I could hear Monica, Frank and Terry yelling. I ran back into the kitchen and raised the bat. "Get off him!" I screamed. It was enough to get Terry to stop and Monica was able to wrestle him off Ian. "My Mandy's pregnant! And this little shit is going to pay!" Terry yelled. Ian moaned on the ground, blood pouring from his nose. "Attaboy" Frank said and gave him a thumbs up. A gust of wind came through the door and blew Grammys ashes everywhere.