Becoming A Ballinger

Chapter 19

Lauren's POV

"So, who was the ladie? That came with Lucy?" Lacey asks me as we both lay in our beds.

"That's Rachel. She's probably the sweetest person I know," I smile thinking of all the time Rachel gave up to help Lucy and I out.

"Oh, how do you know her?" She asks.

"YouTube."

Lacey looks confused. "You're a YouTuber?"

I laugh. "No way! I wouldn't be able to do that."

"Okay... So then did you like help her with something or are you guys just friends?" She questions.

"I only met her today, like Lucy," I smile. "She has a YouTube channel and  Lucy and I watch her and her whole family. We both got brought to Canberra because of a 'contest' we won."

"Wow," Lacey looks at me.

"What?" I ask after she just stares at me with a concerned and worried look on her face.

"Nothing. Its just... After this whole thing has cleared up, you're going to leave and I'll be by myself again," she looks sad.

I look at her, unsure what to say. I suppose I didn't really think about it. What would happen to Luce and I after today, what we would do now that we know Lacey is Lucy's sister. It's all so complicated.

"I didn't really work that out..." I admit.

"I know." Lacey tells me.

"I don't even know where I'm going to live now," I tell her. "I've basically become an orphan. Trevor, although he wasn't much of a father, he was all the family I had." 

"So you're staying here then?" Lacey asks curiously.

I suppose that's what will happen now: I'll be stuck here for god knows how long. I'll be in the system, one I've been avoiding ever since Mum passed. I'll have to move schools, so my grades will take a while to come back up again.

"I don't think I'm ready for that big of a change." I say looking down at my feet.

Lacey comes and sits next to me on the bed, her arm around my shoulder she tells me all the good things being part of the system can bring. None of them sounded that good to me.

"You get to... travel! For free. When you move homes," she smiles pleased with her suggestion.

"So you get moved from house to house?" I ask worried.

"No!" Lacey replies quickly, "you'll find the right place for you."

I smile sadly at her and focus back on my feet.

---

Lucy's POV

"So you can't do anything until Monday?!" Rachel talks angrily to the phone in her hand.

As the person on the other side of the line responds she seems to become even more annoyed.

I watch her as she ends the call with a "Yes, thankyou I understand. I'll be there at 9."

Her eyes skim around the room before settling on me. I give a small smile, she's evidentially worked up about something.

"What's wrong?" I ask knowing it's not really any of my business anyway.

She looks down. "It's fine.. I just... I'm sorting some stuff out. You know... grown up crap." She laughs in attempt to cheer both she and I up.

"Are you hungry?" I ask. In all honestly, I feel full- nearly over-full- but maybe food is Rachel's happy place like a lot of other people's.

"No, are you?" She responds blandly.

"Not really," I breathe out the breath I didn't really realise I was holding.

"I think it's time for bed." She states shoving her phone into her pocket and grabbing her car keys. I stand up too and walk over to her.

"Ready?" She asks.

I nod and we walk out of the venue side-by-side.

Hey everyone! Sorry for being super slack on updates, I kinda took a break from writing this and moved onto another book, feel free to go read it- "Our New Beginning".
This is a short chapter but that's because I'm planning some more exciting chapters, some more boring fillers though are going to follow.