"Good morning my child." Lin yelled tossing my backpack on top of me.

"Oof!" I bolted up, due to the weight of the backpack on my gut. "Why?!" I yelled back.

"It's time to get up." He replied.

"And that involved throwing my backpack on my already bruised stomach?" I asked.

"Oh crap! I'm sorry." He said, taking my backpack off of me, and sitting down on my bed, "lemme see."

"See what? The bruises?" I asked.

"Yeah, how bad is it?"

"Oh, um, not that bad, I mean, I've seen worse." I said.

"May I?" He asked, moving the blanket off of my torso.

"Yeah sure." I smiled a little, to show him it was alright, he lifted up my shirt a little, just so my stomach was visible.

"Abi..." He said, "I'm sorry." He pulled my shirt down. "There are eggs in the kitchen." He kissed the top of my head, patted my shoulder and left the room.

I sighed and got out of bed, changing into jeans and a Waitress t-shirt, that I got when I went to see it with Lin and Vanessa. I straightened my hair, and made my way out of my room.

"Morning." Vanessa said, smiling, she was fully dressed, and was carrying her work bag, and Seb was in a little baby carrier on her front.

"Morning." I smiled back.

"I'll see you later!" She called back for me, as she left for work. I waved a little, only after she was gone. I sat down at the breakfast table with only a glass of orange juice, ignoring my stomach once again.

"Hola chica." Lin said, joining me, "you ready for rehearsal today?" He asked, "and by ready, I mean, are you ready to watch us run our Easter Bonnet a fafillion times?"

"Fafillion? Is that a new one?" I asked.

"Yep." He smiled into his coffee, which, may I add, was in a Garfield mug.

"Does Vanessa know?" I asked.

"Nope." He smiled more, taking a gulp out of his mug.

"Alright then." I smiled.

"I had your teachers email me your work, I printed it off." He handed me a substantial pile of paper, which I assumed was everything I was going to miss in the next couple of days.

"I'm gonna die." I groaned.

"I don't know how you're doing pre-calc." He said, thumbing through the pile.

"Neither do I." I rolled my eyes, "wait, never mind I take that back, math is my favorite subject."

"Can't I just have someone in the family who isn't obsessed with finding some random variable! Or figuring out that mathematical crap!" He blurted.

"Well, keep dreaming the impossible dream." I grinned.

"Man of La Mancha. Respect. Ok, you're my kid again, let's go." He got up from the table grabbing both my backpack and his.

"I can take my bag." I said, standing up as well.

"I said it, and I meant it, you never have to do anything ever again." He smiled, and walked out the door, my bag on his left shoulder, his on his right. "Also," he called back to me, "I feel like if I put this bag on your back, I will legit break your shoulders."

"It won't." I laughed.

"Yes it will small child." He said, which only made me laugh more. "Take my hand." He said once we got outside, and I didn't want to argue, so I did. "I may have already mentioned this, but, I'm never letting you out of sight again. I'm not losing you again."

"Okay." I smiled.

Lin waved a cab over. This means that he went full New Yorker and yelled for one. It was refreshing. We took the cab to the theater we were using for the Easter Bonnet.

We walked in to the the theater, and found a crap load of people there. I found a seat, somewhere in the middle of the auditorium, where I sat down, and started to do the massive load of work I had been assigned. The first thing I saw was Spanish work on putting something in the past participle. I had my name and like 3 problems done when I heard Anthony.

"Hey yo Kid!" He said excitedly.

"Hi Anthony," I looked up, glad to have a distraction from my homework.

"You came back in one piece." He was grinning, as he managed to pick me up in a huge hug, scattering all of my work. "I'm sorry, I'll help you with that, I just, we were terrified. Lin was terrified, I'm so glad you're okay." He set me down, then crouched down to pick up my homework.

"I'm glad I'm okay too." I said, bending down to help him.

"So, whatcha working on?" He asked, handing me my pile of work back.

"Spanish." I said, sitting back down.

"Spanish? I speak Spanish!" He said excitedly, grabbing the packet from me, and eagerly finishing the rest of the first page.

"Anthony." I said, and he looked at me.

"Oh, homework, learning, education, yes, important, don't copy other people's work." He handed me the packet, and started to walk away.

"Wait!" I stopped him. "So, when it says to change 'yo voy a volver mi libro' to past tense..." I trailed off, hoping he'd finish the sentence.

"Yo vuelto mi libro." He smiled at me, then walked back to the stage, and back to rehearsal.

I managed to get 2 more pages of Spanish done, then decided to save the rest for another day. I put the rest of the work in a folder, and pulled out Bio, then put Bio back away, I was definitely going to steal those answers from someone, I was an idiot taking AP biology.

I fumbled for my headphones in my bag, and plugged them into my phone, turning on Hamilton. Now, before you tell me to get back to work, this is technically educational, considering I am an APUSH student. Oh crap! APUSH.

I grabbed my notebook out of my backpack, and flipped it open to the page where I was writing my speech for EduHam, which, by the way was on Wednesday. Crap.

I guess I say crap, because that page has a title, and 3 or 4 paragraphs, all of which were scribbled out. This is the hardest thing I will ever have to write. I mean, it should be easy right? All I have to do is answer, 'What does Hamilton mean to you?'. For the life of me I cannot answer that question.

"Abigail Leigh Miranda thank God." Leslie sat down next to me and I immediately shoved my notebook away.

"Hi Leslie." I smiled.

"Hi, what was up with the notebook?" He asked.

"Oh, I thought you were Lin, it's my speech for EduHam." I said.

"Oh! You're giving the speech, that's fitting, you nervous?" He asked.

"Well, I have like, nothing written." I confessed.

"You'll figure something out, I mean, it's Wednesday."

"Don't remind me." I groaned.

"Listen, I just wanted to let you know, we were scared senseless when you were gone. Seriously, but, if you ever do get forced on a plane back to Oregon, that won't be the end of your relationship with us. We will find you, and we will bring you back to us. I promise, you're family, we're not going to just forget you like that." He gave me a much needed hug.

"Thanks."

"No problem kiddo." He said, "I think they need me to rehearse. Bye small child." He waved a bit, as he walked back to the stage.

I had gotten through some of my English work, and then I was sitting there glaring at my math homework, when I heard someone behind me.

"You know, to do math, you need to do math."

"Daveed you scared me!" I said turning around, "and to do math, you also need to know how to do math." I smiled.

"Let me help," he said, and I handed him my paper.

"Are you sure you can help?" I asked.

"Abigail, I went to Brown." He said and I rolled my eyes.

"Of course. Of course you went to Brown. I mean, that makes total sense." As I was complaining about the intelligence I didn't know Daveed Diggs possessed, he handed the paper back to me.

"Hopefully that helps." He had written out the directions with an example.

"This should help a ton, thank you so much."

"No problem." He smiled.

•••

After the rehearsal, we were going out to dinner as a group, I really didn't want to. I didn't want to eat, but I felt like people were going to make me eat.

I was sitting between Lin and Rory. Rory ordered, and the waiter looked at me expectantly.

"I'm okay." I smiled, and he turned to Lin.

"Um, uh, I'll have the steak." He said, then turned back to me.

"I'm sorry." I said, training my eyes on the table.

"I love you."

"What?" I asked, looking up.

"I love you." He gave me a sad smile. "Why can't you love yourself?" He asked.

"I'm sorry." I repeated.

"Don't be sorry. It's not your fault. Just remember, someone is on your side. No one is alone." I smiled a little at his Into The Woods reference and managed to have a good dinner, I mean, without the food.

•••

Thanks for reading!

- Abi