An Ounce of Hope

Chapter 1

It was 4:30 A.M., I think, and I wasn't quite sure what to do. If I stayed awake, I could risk collapsing during my speech today in 4th period, but if I fell asleep, I would risk oversleeping and missing my bus. I pondered for about an hour and finally thought it'd be a better idea to sleep, but as I looked over at my clock it glared bright blue numbers and radiated light from one corner to another, 5:27 A.M. In return I groaned and got up without sleep. I immediately walked over and shut my alarm off before it could make any noise, then I slowly crept downstairs in nothing but a pair of shorts and a bra to protect me from the cold dark house. The coffee machine was still on from last night when I made myself a small cup of dirty bean water, thank god that I'm the first one awake, dad would have killed me, I thought and chuckled to myself as I grabbed a cup from the cupboard. The coffee grounds flowed seamlessly into the filter and the water was near silent. The aroma of a fresh cup of coffee lingered around exploring every crevice and crack in the house, it was finally 6 A.M. 

Alarms went off throughout the house as I slowly made my way up the stairs and back to my bedroom. I shut my door and began to change into my school's uniform, a dark red skirt that reached just above my knee, white socks that went halfway up my shin, black flat shoes that resembled the shape of a poorly educated person's drawing as to what ballet shoes were supposed to look like, a white button-down shirt, and topped with a grayish-red colored cardigan. I folded the sleeves of my shirt to fit just below the edge of the sweater's long sleeves. My hair wasn't much of an issue after I brushed it and put it up in a tight presentable bun. I felt and looked gorgeous, but then I had to put on my glasses. They were a seasick color. They made me look terrible and my mother wouldn't take me to get better-looking ones, perhaps a thin and round pair with a gold tint around the edge to make my eyes sparkle in the light, or maybe a pair that glimmered a deep red color to match my uniform. It was all just a dream in my head though, I had to stick with the rectangle glasses that I had. 

I tried to ignore what the glasses did to my overall look as I finished my coffee and prepared my school bag. A pretty blue binder held my folders that were neatly organized by the order of my classes and two notebooks, one a shimmery blue and the other a vermillion green. Along with my binder were two lightweight textbooks, one for my AP history class, and the other for my current math class, Pre-AP Calculus. I was a sophomore in high school, and one of the best students too. For the last nine years of my school career, my grade point average was above 3.8 if not above 4.0. Finally in my school bag was a book I was about halfway done with. I grabbed my wallet and shoved it in the smaller portion of my bag and I rushed out the door, the time was now 6:17 A.M. 

I walked to the bus stop quickly and arrived just 5 minutes before the bus was supposed to come. I waited for a bit and got on as quick as I could, scoring the only seat left on the bus. However, this scenario changed when a senior got on the bus.  I gave the kind old man my seat and stood against a pole. By the time I arrived at my destination it was already 7:15, this gave me just enough time to enjoy a cup of coffee at the nearest café while I finished my homework from the night before. I exited the soothing location around 8:10 with a cherry single-serving pastry in my hands and made my way to the cafeteria at my school to wait for my school to start at roughly 8:50 A.M.