Lauren placed a soft kiss on her cheek as she stroked the bubbled skin on her brow. It was Sunday, the last day of Christmas break. Camila walked into her room that morning clearly upset and crying. Camila was scared to go back to school, by now everybody knew what happened to the five of them, everybody knew why Camila had been missing the past five months. She was scared of everyone’s reaction, she didn’t want people pointing at her, people staring at her, people whispering about her. She managed to catch up, but she was still scared of having missed out on everything. But what she was most scared of were the reactions of the student body towards her burns.. they cover pretty much her whole arms and left side of her brow. Plus the thick red scar running from above her ear towards her eyebrow. What if they started to bully her, what if they thought she was ugly..
Lauren reassured her that no one would bully her, and she reminded her of the ‘always be there for each other’ rule. Camila knew that whatever happened she would have four beautiful girls on her side who would help her. But still, she was afraid of how people would react.
The next morning Lauren had to drag the tiny girl out of her bed, after Camila was finally done showering she discovered another problem. Since Camila lost such a huge amount of weight her clothes were too big. Her jeans fell down immediately after she pulled them up, ‘LAUREN!’ she called out into the hallway, and not much later Lauren appeared in the doorway. ‘Everything’s to big’ she said with a frown as she pulled on the hem of her jeans. ‘Shit..’ Lauren cursed as she went through Camila’s drawers, without saying another word Lauren walked out of Camila’s room. Camila was about to stand up to ask her where she was going when Lauren returned with a couple of jeans ‘these don’t fit me anymore’ Lauren told her as she laid them out on the bed. Camila decided to go with the dark blue high waisted one and put on one of her own sweaters which still fit her reasonably.
Lauren was already eating breakfast at the kitchen table when Camila descended the stairs on her crutches. Once she sat down Chris approached her with a plate of pancakes and started talking with his mouth full ‘Wah sum pucakes?’ Camila shot him a questioning look and he quickly chewed and swallowed before speaking again ‘want some pancakes?’. Camila smiled and took the plate ‘thank you’. Taylor took a seat next to Camila and started gushing about how exited she was for school, Clara entered the kitchen and kisses all four of them on the head. ‘Good morning!’ she exclaimed and all four of them politely returned a ‘good morning’. ‘Do you need a ride? I’m bringing Taylor and Chris to school too’ she asked Camila and Lauren who both shook their head ‘Today’s Ally’s turn’ Camila told her before returning to her pancakes. ‘Are you also planning on getting your driver’s license when you can walk again?’ Taylor asked suddenly and Camila almost choked on her pancake, Lauren patted Camila’s back while she shot Taylor a warning look. ‘I don’t know. I’m allowed to drive with epilepsy but it will be limited, and I need to undergo some test’ Camila told Taylor with a small smile ‘plus I don’t know when I will be able to walk properly again’ she finished with a frown. Taylor just patted Camila’s shoulder with a supportive smile before returning to her own breakfast again.
‘Y’all ready?’ Ally asked as Camila and Lauren climbed into the backseat of her black Sedan, the four of them just hummed in response clearly not looking forward to going back to school. Since the five of them have almost all classes they decided that they would carry Camila’s bag. The whole car ride Camila had been tense and it only seemed to get worse when Ally parked in the school parking lot. Lauren got out and reached her arm out for Camila to take, but before grabbing Lauren’s hand she pulled the hood of her sweater over her head. ‘Camz..’ Lauren started but Camila lifted her hand to shut her up clearly not in the mood to argue. When they entered the school people were already staring and pointing at them especially Camila, Lauren shot some of the people warning looks as she stayed by Camila’s side. Camila fidgeted with the lock on her locker but after some time she turned to Lauren clearly embarrassed ‘I can’t remember my combination..’ she mumbled so only Lauren could hear. Lauren didn’t reply since it was obvious that Camila was embarrassed, 24-74-3. Camila shoved the books she needed for her first two classes into her bag which Lauren was holding open for her.
