The Outcast ✔️

Chapter 9

Date: April 12th, 2021 (Monday)

It was currently 5:50 am and the three youngest plus Brett needed to leave in about 40 minutes to make it to school on time. Everyone was up except for of course Lauren.

"Lauren it's time to wake up," Maddie said walking over to Lauren's bed.

"Mmm no I don't want to get up," Lauren mumbled and snuggled more into her blankets.

Maddie sighed and then said in a threatening tone, "If you don't get up right now then I will get Owen."

Lauren jumped up out of bed and said, "No, I'm up. You don't have to get Owen."

Lauren knew Owen wouldn't be happy with her if he had to wake her up and she really didn't want to deal with an angry Owen at this hour of the day. Maddie walked out of the room while Lauren got dressed.

__________

Brett dropped the kids off at their school. Luckily the middle school was right next to the high school so he didn't have to go anywhere else.

"Remember Lauren that you meet us right here immediately after school is over," Owen said to her sternly. She just nodded at him.

"Ok now have a great day at school," Maddie said while she and Owen started walking towards the high school.

Lauren walked into her middle school and went straight to her locker to get her books for her first class which was English.

"Hey, Lauren!" Two girls said excitedly behind her.

Lauren turned around to see that it was her two best friends, Sarah and Cayla. They have been her best friends for two years. They became friends with her after her other group of friends ditched her.

"Hey," Lauren said back just as excited.

"We missed you on Friday and since you don't have a phone we couldn't text you. What happened? Are you ok?" Sarah asked her concerned.

"Oh um yeah, I'm fine. Our house caught on fire and then my mom ended up in the hospital. Apparently, she has cancer and has known for 7 months but never told us. Oh, and I now live with my dad who treats me like dirt, and my 3 older brothers," Lauren said.

Sarah and Cayla were both shocked. They honestly didn't know what to really say.

"I'm so sorry about your mom. I'm sure she will be able to beat cancer. She is super strong and brave," Sarah said.

"Yeah what Sarah said. If you need anything or just someone to talk to, we are here for you," Cayla said.

"Thanks, guys," Lauren said and hugged them.

The bell rang and all of them walked towards their classroom.

______

It was now Lauren's last class which was her favorite, Gym. Today they are playing basketball. The teams all have 3 players so Lauren was able to be on a team with her 2 best friends.

They have been playing basketball for about an hour now. There are 8 teams and each team only plays against 4 teams for the sake of time. Lauren's team has already won 3 games since each game is being played to 18 points. They are now playing game 4. Lauren's team was winning with the score being 12-16. They only needed 1 more basket to win.

"Cayla, I'm open. Pass me the ball," Lauren shouted at Cayla who was being guarded by two people.

Cayla immediately passed the ball to Lauren who was about 3ft away from the hoop and as soon as she got the ball she threw it to score her team 2 more points and they won the game.

"Yay! We won again," Sarah shouted.

"We are still undefeated," Cayla shouted.

"We are amazing," Lauren said.

The reason they are so good is that Cayla is a great basketball player and is very athletic. She even played on the 7th-grade team. Lauren is better at running but she is very athletic. Sarah is more of a book-smart person but she is still slightly athletic.

"Alright everyone, class is almost over. As we have completed all of our games. The top two teams will play against each other tomorrow. Those teams will be Lauren's team versus Caden's team. The winner of that game will play against Mrs.Gilmore's class champions. Now class is dismissed."

"Hey Caden, we are going to crush your team," Cayla said to him.

"Oh really? I don't think so. We are way better than three of you," Caden said back smirking, and then walked away.

"I can't wait till tomorrow when we wipe the smirk off his face," Sarah said.

"Yeah me too. We can totally beat them," Lauren said as the three of them started walking outside.

"Caden is just all talk. He really isn't all that good," Cayla said.

"I heard during last basketball season during one of the games he actually tripped over the ball and fell face first," Sarah said while laughing.

"Oh yeah, I was at that game. It was hilarious," Cayla said and then started laughing.

"Gosh he just makes a big fool of himself," Lauren said while trying to catch her breath from laughing.

"Alright well, we have to go before we miss our bus. See you tomorrow Lauren," Sarah said walking away with Cayla.

"See ya," Lauren said back. She then looked around to see if she could find her siblings. She saw them over by the tree so she walked over to them.

"Hi," Lauren said, still smiling from the events that just happened in the past hour. Owen and Maddie looked up from their phones to see their little sister standing in front of them still in her gym clothes and all sweaty.

"Eww you are all sweaty," Owen said, making a disgusted face.

"Well yeah. I was just in gym class and forget to change out of my gym clothes. We were playing basketball and guess what?" Lauren said, smiling even more if that was even possible. She was just so excited that she and her friends were actually able to win at something in Gym since this whole year they haven't really done that great at any games they played.

"Hmm idk what?" Maddie said, trying to match her enthusiasm. She and Owen weren't quite sure what Lauren was so excited about but they were so glad she was at least happy about something considering how upset she's been the past few days.

"My team, which is with my best friends, Sarah and Cayla, won all 4 of the games we played today. We are undefeated. Tomorrow we play in the championship game against Caden's team and then if we win, which I'm sure we will, we play against the champion in Mrs. Gilmore's class," Lauren said with so much excitement in her voice.

"Oh my gosh, that's amazing. I am so happy for you," Owen said to her while smiling.

"Lauren, that's amazing. I'm sure you and your friends will win it all the way," Maddie said while smiling down at her.

"Ok, Bretts here. He said he will take us to see mom for a little bit and then we will go home," Owen said.