Sooo, I wrote a bit!
Thena Barnes woke up with a start, two hours before the alarm. The whole week had been filled with exhausting sleep schedules, pushing her a step closer to completely risking her education for a few more minutes of sleep.
Rolling out of bed, the DJ inside her head started to play music again as if it had never paused in the first place.
But except for that, the apartment was strangely quiet. Her mother must've overslept again. Thena couldn't blame her. At least she had inherited those genes from her mother.
Quietly slipping out of her room, careful not to step on the creaky planks of the floor, the girl made her way towards the kitchen to prepare breakfast before her mom woke up.
Apparently she wasn't that quiet as she had hoped because as soon as she opened a fresh jar of jam -took her quite the struggle, she had to admit- her mother, Juliet Barnes, had appeared next to her.
"Sunshine, what are you doing at this early hour already?" She mumbled a lot, as if the words alone made her tired.
Thena would've flinched if it wasn't a normal habit. Instead, she used her usual method of escaping questions. "Did you know that penguins can be in same-sex relationships?", she spit out a random fact she had collected from one of the many books she had read.
Her mother brushed away a blonde strand of hair that had fallen into her face and her eyes glossed over the walls, zoning out. "Oh, really?" Her voice was filled with mild interest, only a whisper.
Thena gently led her mother to the table, pushing her on the first chair. "Yeah! Crazy, right?" She kept talking to her mom, keeping her company as the woman brabbled inaudible words with a weak smile on her pale face.
Suddenly something seemed to have snapped in her brain, because her gaze cleared and she looked around as if somebody had just woken her up from a deep sleep.
"No, what am I doing?", She stood up, sudden determination in her gray eyes. "Thena, you shouldn't care for me, I am your mother, not the other way 'round!"
Thena didn't protest when her mom started to toast slices of bread with eggs and bacon. Those little episodes happened rather often that year, so she was glad when her mom went back to her usual self again.
On some days, Juliet Barnes would zone out eventually, where she trailed away from reality and left Thena to herself for a few minutes or even hours.
Not that she had a problem with being alone. But it was creepy when a grown woman started to malfunction. It reminded Thena of Katniss Everdeen's mom.
The doctor had said that it had to do something with her mental state because the constant stress of raising a child by herself was draining her. But she'd always deny that, not wanting to risk losing Thena to the youth welfare office.
A loud thump at the window made both of the blonde women turn towards the source of the sound. They both moved in sync when they looked back at eachother and at the window again.
Thena had grabbed a butterknife, as if this could defend her from whatever had crashed against the window.
Her mother hesitated. Then she shook her head and dropped the rolling pin she had clutched in her hands.
"It's probably just a bird"
"Oh, yeah, you're right"
"I mean, what else would-"
