southside trash [shameless]

• Chapter 1 • Electric •

I wake up to see Carl lying curled up in front of me, fast asleep, and I rub my eyes to clear the sleep.

Hoisting myself over him to get out of bed, careful not to wake him just yet, my feet hit the floor with a light thud, but not enough to wake anyone up. I tiptoe towards the door when suddenly someone knocks on it before opening it.

Fiona walks in, to wake us up for school, gasping and putting a hand over her heart in surprise at how close I was to the door.

I chuckle at her shocked expression, and she grins at me before playfully shoving me away and I walk past her into the bathroom, locking the door behind me.

I sit down on the toilet and out of no where hear someone slam against the bathroom door, after hearing Ian shout "first shower!"

"Sucks to be you!" I laugh, "first shower is mine." I stand up for the toilet and turn the shower on, removing my oversized shirt I use as pyjamas, I think it might have belonged to Kevin... or Lip, who knows, it's mine now.

"Damn it." He grumbles, hitting the door.

"Ian, you had it yesterday." I hear Lip point out, before I messily tie my hair up and out the way and climb into the shower. I quickly wash myself and rinse off the soap. I turn the shower off and climb out, wrapping a random towel around me and rushing out of the bathroom. I go into Debs, Liam and I's room and grab some underwear and a bra, I dry myself off properly and put them on, along with a pair of socks and a random t-shirt.

I jog into the boys' room and find one of Ian's hoodies hooked on the end of Lip's bed, and take it. I run down the stairs with no pants on, holding the hoodie under my arm.

"Morning everyone," I smile as I enter the busy kitchen.

"No pants today Em?" Lip observes gesturing to me loosely with his cereal spoon.

"Haven't you heard? It's the new trend." I sarcastically reply, tossing the hoodie on top of the washing machine and taking my old jeans, that are ripped but not to be fashionable, off of the dirty laundry pile, guess they'll have to be washed later. I grab the surface cleaner spray off the shelf and spray it over the jeans loosely, and then under my t-shirt as a btec deodorant. I pull the jeans on, jumping as I pull them up, and then buttoning them.

I stroll towards the fridge, pulling Ian's hoodie over my head, eyes scanning for today's date; the fifteenth. "Fuck, Fi?" I mutter then call out.

"Yeah," she replies, coming over and looking at the same thing as me, "shit."

I grab the letter from the notice board and a small cardboard box and place them in the middle of the table, "Electric."

"Yeah," Lip nods, handing me the milk, which I pass to Fiona, who adds some water to it to make it last longer.

After grabbing forty bucks from my jacket which is on the hook by the door, I sit down at the end of the table, next to Lip, chucking the forty bucks into the box and pour myself a small bowl of cereal, using the now diluted milk that Fiona handed back to us.

"Coming through," Ian grunts, carrying Carl on his back and putting him down on a chair, and then sitting down between Carl and I.

Lip tosses some money into the box before passing it to Ian, "electric."

Ian does the same and then passes it to Carl and repeating the same word, "electric."

Carl passes it on to Debbie, without contributing any cash, making me narrow my eyes at him jokingly, "electric," he grins at me cheekily.

Debbie pulls out her hot pink purse and puts some money in as well, and then counts it all up.

"No, you got a Happy Meal on the front of that shirt." Fiona sighs, gesturing to Carl from across the table where she is trying to quickly feed Liam.  She walks around the table towards him.

"Oh um, field trip. Need Dad's signature." Ian realises, pulling a letter from school out of his pocket and handing it to Debbie.

"Okay," she smiles, grabbing a pen from the table and scribbling out Frank's signature.

"Arms up." Fiona tells Carl, and he complies, letting her pull the ketchup-stained shirt off of him and she turns it inside out before putting it back on him.

Debs hands Ian back his letter and I raise an eyebrow at the signature, "wow Debs, that's getting really good." I say, impressed as I glance over Ian's shoulder.

"Who's got the phone?" Fiona asks.

"I got it." Lip replies, after checking his pockets.

"Any minutes left?" She follows up.

"Uh, fourteen." He answer, tossing her the phone.

I finish up my cereal and grab my bowl, as well as everyone else's empty bowls, and carry them over to the sink quickly washing them up.

"Hey I need something for show-and-tell." Debs speaks up, taking a sip from a mug that seems far to big for her.

"How much are we short?" Fiona asks, taking the cereal box from the table and putting it away.

"Eighteen dollars, thirty cents." Debs replies

"I'm tutoring after school, should be able to kick in ten more." Lip offers.

"Wait did Carl put in any?" Ian asks.

"You're almost nine, you're gonna have to start pulling your weight." Debbie says. The way she's speaking would sound extremely strange to someone who didn't know us Gallagher's, but to us, of course, it sounds completely normal.

"She's right monkey, and get a real job, not just dipping into the collection plate at Saint Tim's." I chuckle slightly.

"I'm filling in for Candi." Fiona tells us, turning on the washing machine, held closed by a chair, "I can cover the rest." She sits down next to Lip, taking Liam from his high chair and putting him on her lap, and starts to try and finish feeding him his food.

"Extra kraut on mine," Lip quickly says.

"Cheese on mine." Ian pipes in.

"Mine too." I nod to her, and grab my scruffy, third-hand converse, that were originally Fiona's, and she's gotten them from a second hand store, and pull them on , quickly lacing them up.

"Somebody's gotta take Liam." Fiona points out.

"Uh, I got a calculus test." Lip apologises with a shrug.

"I'm working after school." Ian explains.

Fiona looks to me pleadingly but I sigh, "with what I'm doing after school, you don't want him with me."

Fiona raises an eyebrow at me but then shrugs to Debbie.

"Show-and-tell?" Debs offers.

"Show then the birthmark on his back. It looks like Latvia." She nods, passing him to Debbie.

I pull my jacket on quickly, and grab my bag from beside the door, "bye Fi!" I shout, opening the front door.

"See you later!" She shouts back.

We all walk out the door together. I glance over to the empty plot beside or house and see a bike.

"Hey Lip," I nudge him with my elbow, "race you for it." I challenge.

He looks at me for a second, before we both run, trying to shove each other away. I almost fall over but then shove him hard out the way and grab the handlebars, pulling it up and jumping on.

"Hey, that's my fucking bike!" Some kid playing in the snow outside screams, only making me cycle faster.

"Haha sucker!" I laugh loudly looking back at Lip, "have fun walking to school!" I wave to him loosely and continue cycling away towards school.