A Queen Is Strong

Chapter 2

Waking up the next morning to my phone ringing wasn't pleasant. The ringtone was always 10 times louder when a room was quiet and even worse when it's the first thing you hear in the morning.

Reaching over to see who it is, I saw 'Hailey' on my screen. Knowing it was one of my friends, both annoyed me and lessened my momentary anxiousness due to the ringing.

My friends knew I wasn't a morning person, but Hailey certainly was, so it wasn't uncommon for her to call before 9am to make plans. Before I could hit the 'talk' button, the call ended.

Now that really annoyed me as now I'm awake, and I'd have to call her back.

Uhh, why am I so grumpy in the mornings I thought as I laid back down under my blanket with my phone in hand. I decided I would call Hailey back in a few minutes, after I had a chance to wake up a little more.

I wasn't someone who likes to talk in the mornings, no that was more my mom and brothers' thing. I took after my father in many ways, and the no-talking-in-the-mornings trait definitely got passed down to me. I was hard to shut-up other time, but you wouldn't get more than a few, potentially grumpy words from me, until at least 30 minutes after I'd woken up.

Enjoying my last few minutes of peace before having to leave my bed was my favourite part of everyday, so that's what I was doing right now. But as they say "all good things, must come to an end," so I got out of bed and walked into the bathroom across the hall.

After I had stared in the mirror for an unnecessarily long time, just making eye contact with my own reflection, I was ready. Ready to actually get ready that is. Mornings routines were preformed slowly, very slowly and breaks of just sitting on my bed and either staring at my closet or somethings nothing at all were definitely needed.

So after about 20 minutes I was dressed, and finally made my way down stairs. Where I saw my parents and Mason sitting at the table, all with a cup of coffee and a plate of pancakes.

Walking in, I headed to the coffee pot while mumbling a "Hi" to everyone. My dad made his classic "good afternoon" joke, and like always I looked at the clock getting ready for my reply about how "it was only 9:23, so it was definitely still morning." He looked at the clock and faked surprise and then concern before saying "you're right, are you feeling alright?" I just rolled my eyes and mumbled a "ya" before grabbing my coffee with what most would consider too much vanilla creamer and sitting down to eat a pancake.

After eating I put my plate in the dishwasher and grabbed my unfinished cup of coffee, heading to the living room to finally call Hailey back.

She answered rather quickly as if she'd been waiting for my call. "Heyyy" she said as she anwered the call. "hey" I said right back, waiting for her to explain the reason for her early morning wake up call. "So, I was wondering if you wanted to go to the beach today? I talked to Everyone (everyone being our five friends: Hayden—her twin brother/Olivia's boyfriend, Olivia, Devon and Lawson) and they said they'd go, so what about you are you in?" "Sure, sounds good. What time were you thinking?" I replied to her obviously excited tone. "Um, I was thinking around 11. That should give everyone time to get ready. Do you want a ride I can stop by on the way?" She said knowing neither of us would want to show up alone and have to find everyone. "Ya, sounds good. Do you know where Lawson is by chance?" I asked thinking if she'd talked to him, she misfit know.

"Ya, he's at Devon's, apparently the girl he went home with, lives with her 'scary' older brother. And when they walked in the door, they saw him and his 'equally as scary' friends all turn their heads. He said it was like a horror movie seeing all their heads turn and give him menacing glares." She finishes with a slight laugh, and I chuckle with her. So what did he do, and how'd he end up at Devon's?" I asked confused and completely invested in how the story ends. It didn't matter that it was my brother because she said he was at Devon's so I knew he was fine.

"Well, I heard it all from Devon, but Lawson apparently just said "well I'm glad you made it home safely, it was nice to meet you, good night," and ran way like a scared child, those were Devon's words, but I think they make the story even funnier." She barely gets the last words out as she's laughing so hard, and I'm right with her having trouble catching my own breath.

"Oh my god, that's amazing. I wish I could've seen it. Hell, I would pay to see that. He played it smart though." I chuckled, but meant every word.

"Which part she," she asked, "where he 'bid her farewell' as if he was doing a good deed, or how he ran away because he saw some 'big, scary dudes?'" She couldn't help but laugh as she said "bid her Farewell," in an attempt at a proper sounding British accent.

"All of it" I replied, and we both burst into more laughter.

After we both calmed down, we talked about where she went after the party and how I got home. She had went to see a "friend," while I said I took a cab home.

Christiano then popped into my head. Memories of our somewhat odd conversation came to my mind and I mentioned how there was a guy who I found interesting, but didn't elaborate that I knew his name. Although that was all I knew.

She was intrigued by this, but I had no juicy gossip to give her so she lost interest pretty quickly.

We hung up, after a few more minutes and she said she would be here in 45 minutes to pick me up for the beach.

I was actually really excited to get a tan and visit all the shops on the boardwalk. But I think the real reason I was excited was that there was ice cream. Anyone who knows me, know how much I like ice cream, and how I won't leave the beach without it.