"Oh gosh," Ally murmured, rolling onto her back.  She looked up through the darkness and onto the ceiling.  She needed to know the time, but didn't want to check her phone.  If it was too early and she checked, the light from the phone would keep her up for at least another thirty minutes.  The alarm didn't go off, so she quickly deduced it wasn't 6:15 yet.  She wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep.  Usually she did really well in the mornings, always able to beat the alarm by a minute or two, hop up, and get ready for school.  Today she didn't feel it.  Her job had to keep her a couple hours later than usual the night before and she made herself dinner afterwards since everyone else was already sleeping.  She was grateful for the extra hours, so the extra income, but it could be a toll on her sleeping schedule.  "Dang, and I still need to go to school, huh?" she asked herself, turning onto her side.  "Yeah, you do," she answered, looking at the phone.  The low-brightness screen read 5:57, so she decided it was time to get up.

She stood, throwing her arms up in the air and stretching.  Some people said that was bad in the mornings, but she felt the opposite.  It helped her feel more active and awake.  After a minute of stretching and yawning, Ally finally moved into the bathroom.  It didn't sound like anyone else was awake, so she tried her best to keep quiet.  Her brother would have to get up soon, and she wasn't sure whether or not she should wake him up.  "After my shower," she told herself and locked the bathroom door.  The water took a couple minutes to warm up, so she decided to brush her teeth in the time being.  She couldn't stand having a bad-tasting mouth and enjoyed the minty freshness of the toothbrush.  The water warmed and she hopped in the shower.

Because the other two would need the bathroom, she did her best to do the daily ritual of the shower quickly.  To keep her mind occupied while she conditioned, she hummed and planned out her day.  The first day of school usually didn't last the full seven-eight hours, normally lasting only four hours.  Maybe she could relax at the park or something afterwards.

After her shower, she dried off and put on a simple blue T-shirt, jeans, and a Wonder Woman logo necklace.  She didn't have anyone to impress and just wanted to be comfortable, especially before the stress to come later in the year when colleges and universities either accepted or declined her requests.  She let out a long sigh thinking about the close future and exited.  Her brother was still snoring away on the couch.  The time on her phone read 6:17, so she gave his shoulder a shove.  "Hey, you need to wake up."  He let out a grumble and shifted deeper into the couch.  "Come on, Matt, you need to start waking up."  Knowing how he was, he would wait at least twenty minutes before getting up, so that's why she had to wake him up early.

Having done her job, Ally moved into the kitchen and thought about breakfast.  She didn't really want anything warm or heavy to eat and opted to eat Honey Bunches of Oats.  It was her favorite, so she didn't mind eating it.  While grabbing the milk, she also grabbed a bottle of cool water.  She read an article a while back that cool water was much better at waking someone up in the mornings than coffee.  Whereas she didn't really believe water was much much better at waking people up than coffee, she did it anyways.

The cereal took less than ten minutes to eat, so Ally rebrushed her teeth, gathered her backpack, and moved to her father's room.  He wasn't awake, but she gave his cheek a kiss anyways, whispered, "I love you," and exited, closing the door behind her.  He was a hard worker, so she completely understood why he slept so long.  Her brother, on the other hand, was barely stirring.  "Shoot, if you don't get up, you're going to be late and our dad is going to be pissed."

"Whatever," Matt muttered and continued to shift around.

Ally shut the door with disappointment and began her walk to the school.  She was fortunate enough to have the school a mere mile and a half away.  It took her about twenty minutes to get there, twenty-five on a bad day.  The cool morning air woke her up and refreshed her.  At least she could be out of the house and out of work.  School wouldn't be so stressful today and for that she was grateful.

At the school, Ally picked up her schedule and went to her homeroom where two girls were seated.  She took a seat a bit towards the front to make anything easier to see.  She recognized the two girls from the year before- or at least thought she did-, but couldn't remember any specific names.  "Good morning guys," she greeted, leaning back a bit in the seat.  She then added with a chuckle, "You guys excited for today?"