Oh To Be a Bird at Sea

one

And when Louis walks into his house at 4:17 on a Thursday afternoon he is met with his mother. She's bent over the counter, cutting board out in front of her. The rhythmic sounds of the knife hitting the cutting board stops when she hears Louis enter the kitchen.

"Hi honey" She greets with a warm smile, now turned around to face her middle child. Louis smiles at her as he sits himself on one of the kitchen island chairs, letting his legs swing below him and resting his head on his crossed arms.

"Hi mom"

"How was your day?" She asks, her face now turned inquisitive and Louis takes a deep breath when he hears the accusatory tint in her voice. He isn't in a great mood and doesn't really want to talk about anything that happened today.

So instead he just shrugs. "Fine enough"

Alison lets out a breath before, "You were late to first period today." And there it is. Louis lets his eyes fall closed before taking a breath and lifting his head off of his arms to meet his mothers eye.

"Yeah, my alarm didn't go off." He answers. Louis doesn't mention how he had woken up 5 minutes before he was supposed to be at school, his heart dropping when he saw the time. How he got ready in five minutes, forgetting to pack a lunch or eat breakfast, then rushed himself off to school only to still be 20 minutes late. Or how he had an anxiety attack in the bathroom after his math teacher yelled at him for arriving late to said class.

But he never has mentioned any of it, so why start now?

"You cant be late to school, it's only the second week. Your grades will drop if you continue to act irresponsibly." She pulls her blond hair back into a low pony, her sharp cheekbones highlighted and her eyes bright. She looks regal, Louis has always thought that, her authority makes her scary though, and Louis doesn't like that.

"I'm sorry. I'm not going to make a habit out of it, my alarm just didn't go off." Louis explains, in an almost pathetic tone. He almost winces when he hears the wetness in his voice, his bad mood finally catching up to him.

"You should've set two alarms." She says dismissively, either not noticing her sons closeness to a breakdown, or not caring.

Louis looks at her for a moment, brows furrowed. "Lia and Adrien were late on Monday and you weren't mad at them" He states, shaking his head when he remembers them coming home from school talking about how they took too long to get ready and winded up 10 minutes late to school, only for mom and dad to wave it off like no big deal.

"That's different they're not struggling in any of their classes" She replies like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"It's the second week, no ones struggling in any of their classes" Louis snaps back, getting annoyed by her bias. He has to bite his tongue before he says anything else.

"I meant in the past. They both have 4.0 GPA's and yours is barely a 3. If you ever want to get anywhere in life you need to get good grades this year so you have a chance at getting into college."

"I will. I've always tried, I'm just not smart." Louis is getting mad now, because his ability in school has always been a soft spot for him, as well as comparing him to his siblings.

"Apparently not. Or you just don't care, and you need to start caring right now." She enhances her word by pointing one of her perfectly manicured fingers in his direction.

Louis blinks. Trying to figure out how this conversation got here. "Ok I'm sorry. From now on I'll set two alarms" He hops off the chair and makes his way to the hallway.

"Don't forget to do your homework!" His mom calls after him.

He rolls his eyes in response, something he only does when he knows she can't see him, and makes his way up to his room. He has his fists in a ball by his side and can't seem to shake the anger out of his system.