Hope

Kristel woke up to Amber fussing, making her sit up quickly, which resulted in a head rush. Kristel put a hand to her head, closing her eyes for a second. She waited for herself to get used to the feeling then got out of the bed to get a bottle. After getting Ambers hunger taken care of, Kristel ventured out into the house. Zack was still asleep on the couch. Everyone else from the night before had gone home.

Looking into the kitchen, Kristel's stomach rumbled hungrily. Trying to stay quiet, she rummaged through Zack's kitchen to see what was edible. She let Amber play on the floor with a wooden spoon she had found. Amber happily banged the spoon on the ground as Icky tried to wrestle it away from her. After finding a couple boxes of stale cereal, Kristel looked at Zack's stock of ingredients to see if she could make something for the two of them. "Defiantly a bachelors kitchen," she muttered to herself. She soon found everything she needed and began to make scrambled eggs and some pancakes.

As she began to clean up her small mess, Zack walked into the kitchen, sniffing the air. "What smells good?" he asked, rubbing his eyes, sleepily, startling Kristel.

She turned around, a hand on her heart. "Eggs and pancakes," she squeaked out.

Zacks stomach growled as he grabbed a plate so she could plate some up for him. "Thanks," he gave her a smile, making her give a small smile back.

"I-I know I shouldn't have been snooping, but I didn't know when you were going to wake up, and I didn't want to disturb you."

Zack smiled. "You really are too polite," he laughed. "You could've woke me up, I wouldn't have minded."

Kristel felt her checks redden, before turning to plate herself some breakfast.

"You're a good cook, this is really good." Zack asked, going for a second helping.

"It's just pancakes," Kristel gave a small laugh.

"Where's your family?" Zack asked becoming serious, as they sat down at his table, Kristel sat Amber on her lap, as the dogs raced into the room.

Kristel pursed her lips, not sure how much she actually wanted to say about herself. "Far away," she whispered after a couple of minutes, studying the wood grain of the table.

"Don't you know where they are?" Zack persisted. Kristel nodded her head, not trusting herself to speak. Refusing to make eye contact with him. "Wouldn't they help you if they knew you were living on the street?" Zack continued, trying to find out anything he could about Kristel.

Kristel shrugged, shifting uncomfortably. She had known that something like this would happen eventually, she had just hoped it would've been later. She was thankful when the front door opened, revealing Val and Michelle. Kristel looked at the clock to see the two of them were an hour early. "Hey Kristel!" Val came into the kitchen and hugged her, then noticed the way Kristel was acting. "What did you do to her?" Val turned on Zack, making him flinch.

"I-I didn't do anything, I was just asking-," Zack held his hands up, trying to get Val to back off.

"Asking her what?" Michelle asked, coming into the kitchen. Standing by Kristel, making her give a small smile. "You know better than to ask girls personal things."

Zack stuttered, lost for words as Val and Michelle began to laugh. Kristel laughed a little at Zack's frustration. "He didn't mean anything by it…I wouldn't blame any of you," Kristel said quietly, as Amber attempted to get to the floor.

Kristel sat Amber down, then looked back up at Val and Michelle. "I wasn't expecting you two so early. I was hoping to get Amber cleaned up, and possibly get my clothes washed before we went anywhere." Kristel glanced towards Zack to see if she could use his bathroom for Amber.

"Oh, that's fine, we're not in a hurry," Val smiled, taking a seat at the kitchen table, rubbing her belly.

"Did Zack make you breakfast?" Michelle asked, noticing their plates.

"Kristel made eggs and pancakes," Zack explained.

"Oh, that sounds yummy" Val looked around the kitchen.

Kristel laughed, "I think there's a few more left." She got up to grab the plate then offered it to Val who took it eagerly.

"Watch out for the preggo," Michelle teased, making Val flip her off.

"Where's Amber?" Kristel sat upright, having lost sight of her daughter. Everyone looked around the room, running into the living room when they heard barking.

Amber sat in the middle of the room, inches from Ichabod's tail. Majesty watched a careful distance away, giving soft warning barks. Kristel held her breath as Amber reached for Icky's tail. The small black dog watched Amber, then before she could pull it, he moved it out of the way.

Amber looked in astonishment at the vanishing tail, then attempted to grab the tail again. "Okay, we're not doing this," Kristel scooped Amber up. Amber gave a frustrated cry, as her game was interrupted. "You need cleaned up," Kristel booped Amber on the nose, before heading to the bathroom. After giving Amber a quick bath, Kristel walked into the living room. Val, Michelle and Zack sat on the couches, talking about the upcoming tour.

"Here's some clothes," Michelle threw at Kristel. "Your clothes were still dirty and we figured you wouldn't want to wear sweat pants to the mall."

"Thanks," Kristel replied, looking at the clothes. "Vengeance University…why is that name familiar?" Kristel mumbled to herself, making Zack look at her, surprised.

"You know of Vengeance University?" Zack asked, as Kristel ran to the bedroom to change.
"Yeah," Kristel replied, walking back into the room a couple seconds later, her hair up in a quick ponytail. "One of my friends is really into Avenged Sevenfold. I vaguely remember her saying something about a clothing line."

"You've heard of the band?" Val questioned.

Kristel gave a small smile laughing a little. "One of my friends wouldn't let me leave her house until I had all the guys' stage names and instruments memorized. Then she had to show me her favorite YouTube videos and all of the music videos. Her favorite video was Bat Country. Pretty sure it was because of the fly swatters."

Michelle glanced at the clock, noticing it was almost quarter after ten. "We should get going if we're going to make it to the store," she jumped up, making Val jump up too.

"Did you have a car seat for Amber?" Kristel asked, getting up to stand near the girls.

"It's in the car, come on I'll show you," Val motioned for Kristel to follow.

Val and Michelle headed outside before Zack stopped Kristel momentarily. "Hey, take this," Zack handed Kristel his credit card. "Buy a couple extra things for yourself."

"W-What?" Kristel asked, startled, pushing it back towards him. "No, you've done too much already."

"Please, I insist," Zack put his credit card into Kristel's hand, forcing her to wrap her fingers around the card. "If you don't buy anything for yourself with it, at least buy a couple things you need for Amber." Kristel looked at Zack, at a loss. "It's okay," Zack reassured her.

"As soon as I find a job I will be paying you back," Kristel promised.

"Don't worry about that," Zack shook his head. "You should catch up to the other two," Zack cut Kristel's retort short. Kristel gave Zack a frustrated sigh, before running out the door with Amber to join Val and Michelle.