Chapter Text
Ada woke up in the darkness, dragged from sleep by the abrupt wail of her phone’s alarm. She groaned as she rolled over to switch off the sound. Her skin prickled against the cold air of the dark February morning, wanting nothing more than to bury back into her pillows and stay huddled beneath her blankets. Squinting against the brightness of her phone's screen, she took a few moments to scroll through some messages from her friends that she missed the night before. Outside her door, she heard the telltale creak of floorboards, followed by the struggling rattle of the door handle. Her youngest brother, Freddie, popped his head around the door with a sleepy smile, clutching the ears of his well-loved stuffed rabbit in his hand.
“Mornin’.” he rasped in his croaky morning voice, rubbing his eyes with his other fist as he approached Ada.
“Morning my little Freddie-bear.” Ada returned with a yawn. She reached out to pull the boy up onto her bed, folding him up into the warmth of her duvet. He snuggled into her side, resting his head on his sister's chest as they both quietly adjusted to the morning. After a few lazy moments passed, Ada gave her brother a light squeeze. “Right, come on then, time to get up. You hungry?”
Freddie shook his head, fighting against the oncoming day by crawling onto Adas lap and wrapping his little arms around her neck in protest. Ada couldn't help but chuckle at his futile protests as she hugged him tightly. She wanted to let him stay in bed.
“You don't want to be late for school do you?” Ada prompted, stroking his back soothingly. After a slight hesitation, Freddie shook his head no again. “No? Me either. Shall we go and make some tea and toast and watch TV before Maya and Charlie get up?”
The prospect of having control over their Friday morning TV and forcing their other siblings to watch childrens cartoons had Freddie jumping back and nodding excitedly.
“Come on then,” Ada stretched before rolling out of bed and pulling her dressing gown on over her pyjamas. She turned back to Freddie, who stood on her bed, pouting comically.
“Pick up?” he asked reaching out and grabbing his hands towards his sister, teddy tucked under his arm, refusing to get down from the bed until Ada agreed to carry him. Ada shook her head fondly as she scooped Freddie into her arms, resting the small child on her hip as she carried him out of her room.
Across the landing, lights shon from underneath all the doors. Everybody was up, slowly getting ready for the day. Their father was already out at work, always leaving before anybody else was awake to drive to whatever building site he was stationed at that week. Their mother worked as a receptionist at a local hotel, usually having just enough time to drop Freddie off at his primary school before starting her morning shifts, leaving the older three children to get the bus to their secondary school. Ada, being the eldest, had the responsibility of getting herself and her siblings ready for the school day, which included making Freddie his breakfast.
Ada deposited the child on the settee of their small livingroom, wrapping the boy in a throw blanket, remembering the lecture she got off her dad a few weeks back about how expensive it was to turn on their electric fire these days. After smacking the remote a few times, she managed to get the TV on and clicked through the children's channels for Freddie to pick something to watch. Once he was settled, she made her way through to the kitchen, cursing herself for forgetting to put socks on as her bare feet made contact with the cold tiles. Ada filled up the kettle, yawning loudly as she selected their mugs and waited for the water to boil. Opening the cupboard door, she sighed. It had been a while since her parents had been food shopping and the cupboards were pretty bare. She pulled out the bread bag, counting the slices. Three. Four if you included the heel of the bread that no one ever wanted to eat; Ada knew already that that piece would be hers. She took all four slices over to the toaster and popped them in, tossing the empty bag into the overflowing bin.
Ada heard footsteps on the stairs, followed by the creek of the living room door. Charlie, her other brother, had smelt the toast cooking and had come down in hopes of breakfast. She tuned into the hushed squabbling of the boys, listening to them arguing over the TV remote as she buttered the toast and cut it for her brothers. Freddie liked his in four little triangles while Charlie had his cut into two rectangles.
“Don’t you dare change the channel.” Ada scolded as she carried the plates to the dining table in the living room.
“You know I like to watch my stuff on a Friday!” Charlie argued, holding the remote out of Freddie’s reach as the younger boy struggled to retrieve it.
“You’re 14. He’s 4. Let him have his programmes on for a change.” Ada called as she went back to grab the mugs of tea, setting them next to the corresponding plates. “Plus he was up first. You snooze you loose I’m afraid.”
“Yeah but-“ Charlie began to protest.
“But you haven’t done your chores, either. It was your turn to take out the bins, wasn’t it? So why is the bin bag still full?” Ada cut in, folding her arms over her chest. It was too early for her to be dealing with a teenager picking fights with a small child. Charlie scowled, shoulders sagging in defeat. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. So give Fred the remote back and both of you come and eat.”
Charlie grumbled a quiet ‘thanks’ as he sat at the table, and Ada chose to ignore the way Freddie screwed up his face and stuck his tongue out at his older brother as he climbed into the seat opposite. She grabbed a plate a mug of tea from the kitchen for her sister.
“No fighting.” Ada warned her brothers as she left the room to head upstairs. With her hands full, Ada was unable to knock on her sister's door, so she called out. “Hey Maya, you up? Got your breakfast.”
The 11-year old opened the door mid yawn, hair disheveled and clearly still fighting sleep.
“Thanks.” Maya mumbled, taking the food. As Ada turned to leave, Maya spoke again. “Can you plait my hair please?”
“My breakfast is downstairs getting cold.” Ada groaned. “I’ve told you before that if you need your hair doing to tell me the night before.”
“Please. I have P.E. first period today and you know how frizzy my hair gets when I’m sweaty.” Maya pleaded, voice laced with a faint anxiety. “You know I’m useless with my hair and everyone will laugh at me if I walk around with it-“
“Okay, okay fine.” Ada conceded, remembering how mean other 11 years olds could be over stupid things like hair and clothes. She didn’t want to subject her sister to that. “Sit on the floor and I’ll do it while you eat.”
Ada followed her sister into her bedroom and grabbed a hair brush and bobbles off the side. She sat on the edge of Mayas bed, waiting for her sister to situate herself on the floor between her legs so she could get to work on brushing through her hair. Maya’s hair wasn’t as long as Ada’s, but it was just as thick and unruly, so it took some time to brush out all the tangles, but Maya didn’t complain- even when Ada had to tug quite aggressively at a stubborn knot.
“Schools open then?” Maya asked through a mouthful of toast.
“Think so.” Ada responded, concentrating on parting Maya’s hair straight down the center. “Check the website.”
Maya picked up her phone and pulled up the Pinewood Academy website and refreshed the page a few times, hoping that a ‘school closure’ announcement would pop up.
“Not fair.” She mumbled, dropping the phone onto the carpet in a huff “Landley has been closed all week. Why is it just our school that’s still open? Hardly anyone is in.”
“You know they’d force us to come in even if the country flooded and we all had to swim to school.” Ada joked, earning a half hearted snort of laughter from her sister as her fingers worked delicately to weave Mayas hair into two plaits.
Ada tried her hardest to keep the prospect of school light hearted for her siblings, but with the constant distributions to their lessons due to teachers being off sick alongside less and less of their peers turning up to school every day, her reassuring words weren’t enough to keep their fears at bay.
There was a virus. Something that the doctors and the researchers hadn’t seen before. And it was all over the news- 'Deadly virus wipes out hundreds in an African village.' 'Symptoms are seen in widespread Asian towns.’ 'Two men dead in South America.' 'Aid workers kept in quarantine in England.' It had been getting worse for weeks now, but the news channels and political broadcasts had assured the public that there was nothing to worry about. But Ada wasn’t so sure. At first they were told that it was a strain of the common flu that had mutated and had started killing people in countries with poor health care. Then Doctors' offices up and down the country were suddenly jammed packed with people of all ages with symptoms of this strange virus. High fever, headaches, and delirious behaviour. Some people were sent off to intensive care units, but nobody seemed to know if or when they would recover. There were rumours of some people burning up with a fever so high that it killed them within mere hours. Other whispers spoke of a demented behaviour in victims causing them to attack others. But these were only rumours. The worst part of it all was when the funerals were stopped. People were told to alert the authorities when a relative died. Their bodies were collected within the hour of them passing by a team of government medics. But they assured the nation that they had it under control.
“Done.” Ada finished, tying off the second braid and getting to her feet.
“Thanks.” said Maya, offering Ada her empty plate and mug as she stood too. “Can you take this down?”
“Seriously?” Ada tilted her head. “This isn’t room service.”
“You’re going down anyway.” Maya smiled innocently, pushing the plates closer to her sister. “Please?”
Ada narrowed her eyes and took the plate wordlessly, leaving Maya’s bedroom and closing the door behind her. Just as she began descending the stairs, hoping that her cup of tea would still be warm enough to enjoy, her mothers voice rang from behind a closed door.
“Adaline!” She shouted, and Ada froze at the use of her full name, instantly running through a list of the things she could’ve done wrong since going to bed the night before. Her mother appeared at the top of the stairs and continued. “Did you know Fred’s school is closed today? Apparently they sent the text out last night, too many staff are off sick .”
“Uh, no.” Ada responded, tilting her head slightly in confusion. “Should I have known?”
“Don’t be cheeky, I don’t have time for this today.” Her mum rolled her eyes in annoyance.
“I’m not being cheeky.” Ada defended quickly, unsure why she was seemingly in the wrong. “I’m just saying, you’re the one who would’ve got the text saying his school was shut. How was I supposed to know that?”
“Honestly Ada, you’re testing my patience today.” Her mum pointed a finger at her, voice growing tense in increasing frustration. Ada opened her mouth to defend herself again but she was cut off. “Anyway, I can’t miss any more time off work, we need the money. You’ll have to stay home with him.”
“What? No, I can’t. My school isn’t closed and I’m supposed to be going straight to Zoe’s after school to stay over-.” Ada began but was quickly cut off.
“Don’t argue with me. I’ll call your school and tell them you’re not in today.” She spoke, and Ada sighed in defeat. At least Freddie would be pleased with the news. ”Not that it matters if I call or not, didn’t you say only 5 people showed up to tutor yesterday morning? You won’t be missed.”
“Right. Okay, yeah.” Ada agreed flatly, turning away.
“You could act a bit more pleased, most kids would be over the moon with their parents letting them have a Friday off school.” Her mother huffed, disappearing back into her room. Ada didn’t bother to retaliate.
She pulled her phone out of her dressing gown pocket with her free hand and opened up her group chat with her friends from school as she made her way back through the living room and into the kitchen.
“My mum is keeping me home today so won’t be in, sorry guys. See you all on Monday.” She sent the message as she dumped her sister's plate into the sink with the other dirty breakfast plates.
“Good news Freddie,” Ada called, finally picking up her breakfast and plopping herself down on the sofa next to her youngest brother. The thick piece of toast was cold and soggy now, but she bit into it all the same. They couldn’t afford to waste food. “We’re having a pyjama day.”
“Really?!” The little boy asked excitedly, beaming from ear to ear. “I stay home? With you?”
“Yup.” Ada nodded, instantly feeling a bit better about missing a day off school. “Your school is closed so I have stay here and look after you.”
“That’s not fair!” Charlie exclaimed. “Why do you get to miss school? Can I stay home too?”
“Mum can’t miss work so I have to stay here and look after Fred.” Ada explained calmly. “If you want to stay home, go and ask mum. But don’t be a prick about it, she’s already in a bad mood.”
“Yeah, don’t be a prick.” Freddie echoed and Ada choked back a splutter of laughter.
“And you don’t repeat that word in front of mum and dad.” Ada scolded lightly, poking the boy in the stomach which caused him to squirm around and giggle.
Charlie stomped off upstairs as Ada settled into the worn out sofa. Freddie curled up happily into her side for a morning in front of the tv. The room was cold and it was still dark outside, but her brother's warmth was enough to keep Ada content. Upstairs, the muffled sound of an argument had begun- Ada could only make out a few words of Charlie pleading his case to stay at home, only to be shut sternly down by their mother. As voices rose and Freddie looked up to her anxiously, Ada turned up the volume on the tv, drowning them out with a children's song about shapes, and ruffled his hair affectionately. Half an hour had passed, and finally Charlie re-emerged into the living room fully dressed in his school uniform and face set firmly in an unimpressed scowl.
“No luck then?” She teased, amused at his bad mood.
“Piss off.” He grumbled in return, barging past the sofa angrily to collect his lunch from the kitchen.
“Bad word!” Freddie shouted, jumping up on the sofa and pointing after him. As Charlie re-emerged, he stuck his tongue out at the child, shoving his lunch box into his backpack.
“What’s up with you? What was all the shouting about?” Maya asked, taking out her headphones as she entered, dressed in the identical black uniform to Charlie, and shuffled past him to collect her own lunch.
“Charlie said ‘piss off’!” Freddie told his other sister and Maya cackled in laughter.
Ada pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head, she really needed to remember not to swear in front of Fred. With a roll of his eyes and an angry grunt, Charlie slung his bag over his shoulder and stormed out of the living room and into the hallway to put on his school shoes.
“I’m staying home with Fred. Mum wouldn’t let him have the day off school so he’s pis- he’s angry about that.” Ada explained to Maya who also rolled her eyes at her older brother's childish grump.
“Are you staying at Zoe’s tonight?” Maya asked, putting on her own backpack.
“Yeah. I’ll still be here when you get home though. Will have to wait for mom or dad to get home from work before I can go out later. Wait that reminds me-“ Ada began, listening to Charlie unlock the front door. Ada called out so both of her siblings could hear her. “Take a coat with a hood! It’s gonna rain later!“
A hurried scuffle of waterproof coats was followed by the opening and slamming of the front door as Charlie made his exit.
“He left without me!” Maya exclaimed, mouth falling open in mild shock, before hurrying after him . “What a prick!”
Ada clamped her hand over Freddie’s mouth before he could repeat the word as the front door opened and closed again, as Maya left for school too.
“Stop slamming the door!” Their mother called after them hurrying down the stairs and into the hallway. She was running late for work again. “I’ll be back before dinner time I think. If you want to be useful today, the house is a tip so clean up a bit, yeah Ada?”
“Sure thing.” Ada responded evenly. She anticipated the list of chores her mum would text her to do throughout the day now she was being made to stay at home. “Remember that I’m staying out tonight, so please don’t be too late home.”
“Yeah okay!” Her mum called absently behind her as she left the house.
“Goodbye Ada, see you later.” Ada muttered to herself sarcastically as she picked up her phone. “Thanks for staying home today, you’re really doing me a favour.”
“If you’ve got jobs to do, does that mean we can’t watch movies all day?” Freddie asked, big blue eyes full of disappointment.
“Yeah, I’m sorry love.” Ada brushed back his chestnut curls off his forehead. “But you can watch them while I work. And I’ll be as quick as I can.”
Freddie took a moment to think, cogs whirring in his little brain, not satisfied with his sister doing all the housework while he had all the fun on his own.
“If we both do the jobs then we get it done more fastly.” He settled on, nodding firmly, certain in his choice to help out.
“Okay little man.” Ada chuckled softly, running a thumb across his freckled cheek. “What do you want to start with- dishes or sorting clothes?”
“Dishes!” He proclaimed, clearly more excited to splash around in the water than he was to actually wash some dirty plates. Washing the dishes was Ada’s least favourite chore, so having the company and enthusiasm of her brother would surely help her get through it. She grabbed a chair and dragged to through to the sink, allowing Freddie to climb on it to reach the sink- he knew not to put his hands in the hot water as it ran, creating thick suds of soap. The process was slow and tedious, with Ada washing the plates and Freddie scooping up mounds of soap suds, occasionally asking Ada if he could dry a plate. Ada knew she would have, in fact, got the job done faster on her own, but the way Freddie beamed as Ada blew a handful of bubbles into the air made the extra time in the kitchen pass quickly.
Their day together passed quicker than the pair would have liked. After the chores were done, Ada got them both dressed and returned to the sofa. Freddie watched endless hours of tv while colouring or playing with toys while Ada sat at the table churning out pages of school work- the last thing she wanted to do was fall behind. Before they knew it, Charlie and Maya were home, chatting excitedly in the hallway as they kicked off their shoes and hung up their coats. Ada paused her work to tune into their conversation, their friendliness with each other quite out of place and taking her by surprise.
“No! I promise you, he broke Mr Linden's nose-“
“It wasn’t his nose that was bleeding, it was his arm. I heard those Year 13 boys talking about it, it happened outside their physics class.”
“Good day guys?!” Ada called, beckoning her siblings into the living room.
“Ada, it was mental!” Charlie entered first, flopping down onto the sofa, unbothered by the childrens shows that still played on the TV. “There was some kid-“
“No! Let me tell it, you’ll tell it wrong!” Maya interrupted, taking a seat at the table opposite Ada.
“Okay okay, don’t start arguing.” Ada chimed in, curious to get the gossip. “Charlie was speaking first so let him carry on. You can jump in if he forgets something okay?”
“Yeah so. Do you know that Callum Banner in your year? The one that cut all his hair off and got put in isolation until it grew back?” Charlie began.
“Yeah, I know him.” Ada nodded. Callum was a rowdy, confident boy who always had something to say about their schools military-like rules. He was smart and popular, but never mean, and Ada respected him from afar despite never really speaking to him. “What happened?”
“Well apparently he was in final period asked to go to the toilet because he was feeling sick, and because he looked green the teacher let him go… you know it’s bad when the teachers actually let you go..” Charlie rambled and Ada nodded along patiently. “Then Mr Linden, you know, the P.E. teacher, ran into him in the corridor and told him off. Then Callum just went for him! Just attacked him right there in the corridor!”
“He broke his nose!” Maya added. “Apparently there was blood everywhere!”
“How many times, it was his arm!” Charlie corrected. “But yeah apparently there was blood all over the place. It took three more teachers to pull him off and they locked him in a science lab. He was still kicking the door trying to get out when we were all leaving. It was crazy!”
“Are you sure it was Callum?” Ada asked, concerned. “I mean he was never one for following rules but attacking a teacher? That doesn’t sound like him.”
“It was him.” Maya nodded. “Everyone was talking about it. And there was loads of police and an ambulance on the car park when we left.”
“Jesus, was the teacher okay in the end? Did you see him get taken to the ambulance.”
“No idea.” Charlie shrugged, loosening his school tie. “The other teachers wouldn’t let us see.”
“Yeah, well, at least they got one thing right.” Ada huffed, making a mental note to text her friends and get their side of the story. “Right then, go and get changed then it’s homework time.”
Charlie groaned, but Maya began unpacking her school bag at the table to work alongside her sister.
“Come on, it’s Friday.” Charlie protested, slumping further into the sofa. “No one does homework on a Friday.”
Ada gestured sarcastically to the work spread out in front of her. “I do.”
“Yeah, because you’re a nerd.” Charlie laughed.
“Nerd!” Freddie echoed from where he lay on the carpet.
“Nothing wrong with being a nerd.” Ada defended. “Plus, I’m going out tonight and if I don’t make you do it now, you’ll forget about it and then be super stressed about it Sunday night when you remember and make it everyone else’s problem.”
“I won’t forget. I just don’t want to do it right now.” Charlie grumbled, reaching for the remote.
“I’ll make you a deal.” Ada began. “If you sit at the table and do your work, you can have whatever you want on the tv until mom and dad get home.”
“And if I don’t want to work?” Her brother challenged, and Ada tensed at his defiance. Charlie was always the hardest of her siblings to keep in line. Probably because he was old enough to remember a time where Ada wasn’t in charge of them all and constantly reminded her that she wasn’t his mother. Ada wished she could be the fun big sister she wanted to be, she really did. But their parents didn’t care if they finished their homework or not. So it fell to Ada to make sure it was done. It was better for them all that way.
“Then piss off upstairs and leave us to concentrate.” Ada shrugged calmly, turning her attention back to her work. She learnt a long time ago that the quickest way to get Charlie to do what she wanted was to ignore his attempts to get a rise out of her and act unfussed by his decision. Most of the time, he would end up doing what she asked anyway.
Sure enough the boy huffed and mumbled something under his breath, yet he grabbed up his bag and joined his sisters at the table. He took longer than necessary to choose a new program to watch but after only a few minutes Charlie fell into a steady rhythm of watching the screen between scribbling down answers to his maths homework. Before long, Freddie had joined them too, messily colouring in a picture of a boat with the concentration of a scholar.
Ada always found it hard to know if she was doing the right thing for her siblings by staying strict with their school work despite their parents not caring, and she worried that they’d grow to hate school because of her. But as she looked up from her paper and watched Charlie quietly coach Maya through a particularly difficult sum with an encouraging smile on his face, she held onto the idea that one day they would all be able to see that even if she wasn’t doing right by them, she always tried to do good.