Focus on You

Chapter One

I woke up to the sound of Ms. Frankie coughing loudly in the living area. There was a faint smell of cigarette smoke in the air. I looked at my alarm clock. 4:47.

I sighed slowly so no one could hear me. I hated waking up in the middle of the night. Whenever I wake up around this time, I can never go back to sleep. I stared at the empty bunk above me.

I swear I hate this place. I hate this life. I just wanna go away forever.

I shut my eyes to keep from crying, but I failed. I laid on my side with my blanket over my head, as I wept silently. I almost cried myself to sleep, but was disturbed by my alarm.

I quickly turned the alarm off and got out of bed. I whipped out a pair of faded black jeans and a blue superman shirt. I took a quick shower and changed into my clothes. I looked in the mirror to fix my hair. I have thick brown/golden naturally curly hair. I never have enough money to buy the hair products that I need like oils and such, so my hair is sometimes dry. I pulled all my hair back into a ponytail after breaking two of my hair ties. I looked in the mirror and examined the blue and red braces covering my teeth and frowned. I proceeded to brush them and couldn't help but notice the red bumps on my cheeks. I look in the mirror everyday and see the same things, but every now and then, these flaws I see come to my attention. I finished brushing my teeth and left out to wake up Cori and put my shoes on.

"Wake up, Coco." I pushed lightly on her shoulder and slipped one foot into my new black Converse sneakers at the same time. "It's time for school." I put the other shoe on.

She eventually woke up, and I got her clothes together. After she took her shower and got dressed, I let her go back to sleep on her top bunk. It was only seven o'clock. I always wake up first to make sure Cori and I get to take our showers. When everyone else wakes up at seven fifteen, it's hard to get to the shower. Plus, because Cori is the only elementary student and I'm the only high school student in the house, our buses leave at a different time than the middle school students'. We have to leave earlier.

I went downstairs to the kitchen to find something for Coco and I to eat. I made her a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch cereal and grabbed me a banana. We both sat at the table, eating.

"Eliza." Ms. Frankie called for me, pronouncing my name ee-ly-zah.

"El-luh-zay," I corrected her.

"I need you to take care of dishes for this week," she ignored me. Ms. Frankie spoke in a rough and husky voice. She was a short, chubby, thirty or forty something year old white lady. She has long dark hair that's really thick. She stayed having a cigarette in her mouth at all times, which was the cause of her rough voice. I nodded at her and she walked away.

I heard kids wake up, so we hurried to finish eating. I slipped into my oversized batman letterman jacket on the way out the door and headed out.

*

"I'll see you later, Co." I hugged her as she was officially on her way to her first day of school.

"Bye, El." She smiled and got on the bus. She waved bye at me as she sat next to the window.

I love this girl like she's mine. Her parents passed away a year ago in a car accident, and she was sent to Ms. Frankie shortly afterwards.

I began to walk to my bus stop about two blocks away. I plugged my headphones in, blasting OutKast through an old android phone that had no cellular service. I shuffled all of their songs and continued walking. I looked around as I walked and saw Kendrick.

Kendrick Lamar Duckworth.

I smiled and waved as I saw him. I quickly closed my mouth as I remembered my braces. He smiled and waved back. That has pretty much been the only communication between us, lately. I've stopped to say hi a few times, but rarely.