Apartment (Chapter 6, Story 1)

Kella and her family lived in an old brownstone apartment on the southeast side of town. Most of her classmates lived in the same building, but Kella never spent any time outside of school with them; her siblings and mother kept her too busy. The apartment would have been a tight squeeze for a family of three, so it was nearly bursting at the seams from the exertion of containing Kella, Karen, and the six other people who lived there. The house was always in a shambles. Books, Barbies, and popped balloons littered the hallways. Milk, eggs, oatmeal, and tomato sauce dripped from every surface of the kitchen. The trashcans were always overflowing with dirty diapers, unpaid bills, and broken shards of glass. Even if Karen had been able to afford nice furniture, there wouldn't have been any room for it. But the family did what they could with what little they had. There was one small table in the center of the kitchen. There should have been four chairs placed around it, but they were always being used for makeshift tents or TV stands, and when one of the table legs had been broken years ago, Karen had sawed the remaining three legs off and, since then, the family ate Asian-style, on the floor. There was also a small oven and a sink in the kitchen, which were seldom used since no one in the house cooked and paper plates were almost always used at meals. There were two other rooms, a den and a bedroom; both were used for sleeping. There was a double bed in bedroom where April, Laura, Kailey, and Joshua got to sleep, since they were little. The rest of the family took turns sleeping in the love seat in the den. When it was Karen's turn to sleep there, Kella, David, and Michelle put on their socks, gloves, and winter coats and slept on the floor, but if it was one of their turns, all three shared the couch. There was no bathroom in the apartment, so in the mornings the four older children had to walk out of the apartment, down the corridor, and up a flight of stairs. The bathroom, which served two floors, was nearly always occupied, so when it became vacant, they all had to attempt to brush their teeth, wash their faces, and comb their hair simultaneously to avoid being late for school.