Ice frozen dreams turned golden

Chapter 21

Laura inspired me to write this, so credits go to her! Laura, I love you to the moon and to saturn! ✨

Lizzie opened her eyes and rays of sunshine blinding her eyes made her close them again. How was the sun already shining? Usually, when she woke up the sun hadn't even risen yet.

Groaning, Lizzie turned around to look at her alarm clock only to realize she had slept in. Cursing herself, she got up as fast as she could, looking around for her school uniform.

She had never ever overslept before. She was so used to getting up before sunrise that she was always the first one up in the Alwyn household, which was the reason why Taylor and Joe never had to wake her up. They knew from experience that she would already be awake.

But last night she had had an especially scary nightmare and hadn't been able to go to sleep for ages. On top of that, she had been incredibly stressed these last days as they had several important tests to take and essays to write.
The stress and sleep deprivation finally seemed to have caught up with her.

Lizzie brushed her hair, quickly putting it up in a ponytail before she threw on her uniform and stormed downstairs.

"Hey, you're okay?" Taylor asked, and Lizzie nodded.

"I overslept. I'm sorry. I swear I didn't mean to," Lizzie apologized immediately.

"Oh no. Don't apologize. I should've checked on you, I'm sorry," Taylor replied, and Lizzie couldn't believe that the woman was apologizing to her.

"I am old enough to get up on my own, Taylor. It's not your fault. It's just, I had a nightmare last night and I'm so stressed about all these upcoming tests and essays that I hardly slept last night..." Lizzie didn't want Taylor to blame herself.

"You had a nightmare? You should've come to us. You know you're never a bother, right?" Taylor asked, and gently rubbed her arm.

Lizzie forced a smile for her. "I know. It wasn't that bad, though. I could handle it myself."
The truth was, no matter how often Taylor or Joe said that Lizzie wasn't a bother to them, the girl didn't want to annoy them too much.
She didn't want to risk getting sent back home.

"I am still sorry. Next time you are not downstairs at the usual time, I'll come and check on you," Taylor said, and then gave her a plate with pancakes, "I left you some pancakes. Hurry up, Ryan is going to come and pick you up in ten minutes!"

Lizzie ate as fast as she could, and even though she hadn't even finished half of the plate, Elena interrupted her soon enough.
"Lizzie, hurry up! Ryan is coming any minute now, and I want to get to school early today! We are going to see dinosaurs and alligators today!"

Lizzie smiled. Elena hadn't spoken about anything else in the last few weeks. She was way too excited for her class to visit the Natural history museum today.

"I'll go grab my back! We don't want you to be late!" Lizzie replied and immediately got up to run upstairs and get her school back.
Only a few minutes later, she sat in Ryan's car, and Elena was still talking about all the exciting things she would see today.

"I really hope you have a fun time, Lena. I'm sure you will see lots of alligators and crocodiles today!" Lizzie said when they finally arrived at school and Elena was ready to run to her classmates who were already standing in the parking lot next to the bus that would take them to the museum today.

"I CAN NOT WAIT!" Elena yelled and waved them goodbye before she ran to her friends.

"I don't think she will ever stop talking about this. I bet she wants to go there every single weekend now," Thea sighed, and Lizzie nodded her head.