My alarm sounds too early for my liking. After only getting a couple hours of sleep I know today is going to be rough. I quickly get changed into a light pink dress that goes down to my knees, then I head to get the kids up. I wake Noelle up first knowing she will be easier to get up than the others. I dress her in some blue jean shorts and a plain light blue t-shirt. I then get Noah up and dress him in a similar outfit, knowing they still like to dress alike. Getting Remy up is harder, I tried just about everything, eventually it comes down to me bribing her with extra ice cream tonight after dinner. After they are all dressed I head down to make breakfast and decide on oatmeal and toast. As the kids are eating I head upstairs to get the boys up, while they are getting dressed I go to get Ollie ready.

"Bri!" Ollie yells as I walk into the room.

"Hey munchkin, are you ready to get up?" I ask

"Yes!" he screams.

I dress him into an orange t-shirt and some short overalls, then take him down stairs to eat. when I walk in I see the kids are done eating and the older boys are talking while finishing up their breakfast.

"You know you can wake me up to help you with the kids in the morning." Caleb says while scolding me, he then whispers under his breath that we will talk about the marks that cover my face and arms later. I immediately dread the future conversation.

"of course", I reply, "but you deserve all the extra sleep you can get."

" I hate seeing you try and do this all on your own" he says.

"Caleb its fine, you know I have trouble sleeping anyways."

"Can I have some cookies?" Remy asks with the cutest puppy dog eyes.

"No you need to eat your breakfast." I say as I see Caleb sneak a hand into the cookie jar and hand Remy a double chocolate chip cookie. I turn my back and pretend not to notice while sending Caleb an evil glare.

"Hey Liam, how's your science project going?" I ask.

"Don't worry about it." He responses as he walks out the door.

Caleb and I share a glance of annoyance as I clean chocolate cookie crumbs from Ollie and Remy's faces. Once we are all done we get our shoes on and grab our  backpacks then head out. The walk to school takes ten minutes and the only reason I survive it is because Ollie and Remy are strapped into a double stroller. Lucky for us the elementary school is next to the high school. We drop the kids off at school and rush to get Ollie to daycare, before heading to class. The bell rings as I walk into the room. My first three periods go by in a blur, I find myself unable to pay attention to caught up on thinking about the night before. As the bell rings I perk up knowing I get to see my best friend this period.

"Hey sunshine, rough night?", Corey asks as I walk to the table.

"Always." I reply with my usual answer.

"Have you seen the new guys yet?" Corey asks with a curious look on his face.

"No. What new guys?" I ask.

"I guess a couple of new guys started today and are really hot, according to like every girl at school. You aren't going to fall for their bad boy charm are you?" he asks while laughing.

"Well no need to worry about me falling for them, I don't have time for boys, like ever. Besides after Alex I don't think I am ready for anything serious."

After English Corey and I head to lunch. I grab an apple and bottle of water, not wanting to spend more money than necessary. I then meet up with Caleb and Liam and give them twenty-five dollars each to eat lunch for the rest of the week, I then head to sit down. Corey and I sit at our usual lunch table and continue our debate from earlier.

"So do you still think people should wear long sleeve shirts with shorts Corey, or do you give up?" I asked.

"Ill never give up. It looks fine together i don't see why its such a big deal." Corey responses.

"You have no fashion sense." I practically yell.

"Calm down sunshine, we don't want you to blow a fuse." He says while laughing

"You are such a poopy head.", I say while sticking my tongue out at him, knowing I sound like a two year old instead of a seventeen year old girl.

"Wow great comeback Briar.", he says with a smug smirk crossing his face.

The rest of lunch goes by in a blur, it always passes too quickly for my liking. The rest of my day goes by and I didn't see the new kids in any of my classes. When the bell rings I rush to meet Caleb to grab his backpack before he walks to work. After I head to the daycare and pick up Ollie then start my short walk to the elementary school. After I collect the rest of the little kids we head to the park so they can play while we wait on Liam to get done with rugby practice. As I put the bags down I noticed Remi has made it to the top of the swirly slide.

"Catch me at the bottom Briar!", she screams right before she goes down.

" I'll always catch you.", I say, barely making it to the bottom of the slide before she reaches the bottom. I start to blow raspberries on her, which makes her giggle like crazy. The rest of the time at the park mainly consists of me chasing them while the run around laughing their heads off. An hour later we are all packed up and heading to get Liam.

" How was practice dude?", I ask.

" It was fine.", Liam states.

"That's cool.", I say. I still cant figure out what's been bothering him recently, he normally has a bubbly and outgoing personality.

            When we get home the kids sit at the kitchen table to do their homework, while Ollie and Remi bring out things to color. I immediately head to start dinner, tonight were having taco salad. As the food is cooking I help the kids with their homework, finding comfort in our simple routine. As the kids put their completed homework away I start to plate the taco salad, savoring the delicious smell.  As I set the plates on the table I have all the kids go wash up before dinner. When we all are finally sitting at the table we start the game we play while eating, high and low.

"Ok Ollie, you're up first. What was your high for the day?", I ask while wiggling my eyebrows at him, making everyone laugh.

"Sliding at the park!", he screams with a mouthful of food.

"Don't talk with your mouthful.", I softly scold him. "And your low?", I question.

" I was on yellow today cause my didn't listen." he says with sad puppy eyes.

"Try and do better tomorrow.", I say turning my attention towards Remi, knowing her turns next.

           As we finish up the game our plates are almost empty, I head to start washing dishes. As I clean everything up they all take off to play. As I clean I quietly hum the song Night Changes by one direction. I eventually end up dancing and singing as loud as I can. As I finish up cleaning I feel like someone is watching me, but when I look out the window I don't see anything. Bushing off the feeling I head upstairs to bathe Ollie and Remi before bed. I quickly bathe them then tell Noah and Noelle they need to take their showers. When everyone is cleaned up I look at the time as it reads 8:30 PM. We all gather in the kids room, Liam included and read our nightly book. Its the book mom read to us older three as kids, I love you as big as the world. As I read it the kids drift off an d when the book is finished all the kids are asleep. I quietly grab Ollie and head towards our room, while saying goodnight to Liam.

         I gently place Ollie in his bed then work on my homework before heading into work. As I get into focus mode I feel the sense that someone is watching me again. I get up to close my window, but before I do I see black silhouettes of people standing on the street. I quickly slam my window closed, lock it, and pull the curtains shut. I try to settle my nerves by concentrating on my homework. As I am doing my homework I hear the sound of a door closing downstairs. I jump in surprise then grab a bat before heading down. I sneak down the stairs as I round the corner I swing the bat and do a warrior call.

"Stop you crazy psycho!" Caleb screams.

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry Caleb, I didn't realize it was time for you to come home." I say in between breathes.

"Its cool.", he say while laughing.

"Shit, if you're here that means I'm going to be late for work if I don't hurry up!, I whisper scream, while racing upstairs, "Your foods in the fridge.", I tell him.

I quickly get dressed then check on all the kids before I head out. Seeing all of them asleep I head out the door while wishing Caleb a good night. On the walk to work that stalking feeling returns, but I don't have enough time to think about it before I arrived. As I walk in the door to check my line up for tonight my boss hollers my name.

"what's up?", I ask.

"You've been booked all night." he says with a happy smile on his face.

"Are, are you sure?",  I stutter.

"Yeah.", he says, "do you know how much money that is?".

"How much?", I question with skeptical eyes.

"they offered ten thousand dollars for one night.", he says with so much joy in his eyes.

" You mean I would get five thousand dollars for this?", I questioned with disbelief in my head.

" yeah, now go get dressed.", he tells me.

I quickly get dressed and try as hard as I can to perfect the light makeup I have on my face. As I stumble towards the room, nerves taking over, I cant help but think how much that five grand will help us. As  I open the door five pair of eyes stare back at me.