It was a pretty average day planned out for Lauren: take Claire to school, try not to lecture her on what she's wearing and her hair, try not to comfort her about her parent's death, try not to act too calm or too worried, try to be herself, stop in the grocery store on the way home, open up the shop, pick Claire up when school finishes, don't ask Claire about her day or how she's feeling, work in the shop until closing time (hoping Claire will decide to finally start doing some hours too, probably not).
So when her alarm went off that morning, you can probably understand why she wasn't overly eager to get out of bed but she did slowly drag herself out of bed and into her adjoining bathroom. She showered quickly before towel-drying her hair and then throwing it up in a messy bun. "Claire!" She yelled as she started rummaging through her wardrobe for an outfit, finally deciding on a pair of leggings with an oversized jumper. When she didn't hear the younger girl walking around, she yelled out her name again accompanied with an 'wake up!'
Once she was dressed and had minimal make-up on, she left her room and went to bang on the girl's door. "Claire, get your arse out of bed now." She spoke sternly and heard the groans from the female inside along with the sounds of her finally getting out of bed. She couldn't help but feel bad since the girl was still dealing with her parent's death but she knew she needed to get up and get on with her life, especially since it had been many, many months since the crash.
As Claire got ready for school, Lauren busied herself with making the morning coffee for the pair of them and sorting out some lunch for her (even if she never ate it any more ) She was eating a bagel and taking sips of her coffee as she leant over the kitchen table, reading the daily newspaper when Claire finally emerged from her bedroom, looking as scruffy as ever but she tried not to pull a face or comment on it.
"Morning sweet." She said gently as she stood up straight. "Coffee's there if you want it along with your lunch, just lemme know when you're ready to go and we'll leave." She smiled and went back to her reading. Shortly after that, as expected, Claire was ready and Lauren placed her nearly-empty mug in the sink and left the newspaper on the table before grabbing her car keys and heading out the front door.
It was roughly a twenty minute drive to the school Claire went to and they were silent the whole way. Sure, Lauren tried to make conversation but it was either answer with grunts or blunt answers and eventually she gave up. It was the same every day and she was growing more tired, more upset for the pink-haired girl sat next to her and wanted the Claire she used to know back.
"Have a good day." She called out the car as she watched the girl head into the school before making her way home. She turned the radio on the drive home and sung along to the radio, remembering back to when her and Claire used to do it all the time but instead of letting it bring her down, she just smiled at the memory and the fact that she knew she'll get her Claire back.
Once she was back at the shop, she parked in her garage, smiling to herself when she saw a car already waiting in the shop's parking lot. She made a gesture to the car to let whoever it was know that she was just opening and wondered who it was since she didn't recognise the car and the shop wasn't exactly in the middle of everything. Letting herself in, she flicked on the lights but stayed standing by the door, holding it open for whoever it was in the car.
