PK / PETER KAVINSKY

2.

I'd forgotten how much I hated early morning wake-ups for school and was unpleasantly disturbed from my deep slumber by a loud chorus of 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go'. I'd set it as my alarm to try and inspire some kind of motivation into my morning routine, but it wasn't until my second cup of coffee downstairs in the kitchen that I started feeling a bit more human. 

Dad bustled around the kitchen in his pyjamas, grabbing various files and pieces of paper and shoving them into his briefcase. He then sidled into his bedroom, giving me some time to get used to being awake so early in the morning.

"Hi honey, how did you sleep?" He asked coming back into the room fully-dressed and ready for work. I nodded blearily over my coffee cup in answer to his question, too cozy to move from my stool at the island in the kitchen to even consider changing. The gray sweatpants I had on were probably around two sizes too big but who cared when they were this comfy?

My dad did not have one bad bone in his body and found it especially difficult to say no to anything me or Sam asked for, much to the annoyance of mom, who on the other hand saw through the two of us immediately and was a bit trickier to sway. 

"Please don't be late today J, for Sam if anything." He said warningly, kissing the top of my head as he passed by.

"I've never seen him this enthusiastic about lacrosse for a while," Dad continued, "he seems to be loving having a mentor this season. Sam said you're in his grade, do you think I would know who..." As if on cue my little brother scampered in mid-way through dad's sentence, a bagel half-stuffed in his mouth. "Excited?" My dad smiled, smoothing Sam's hair out of his eyes.

"Yeah!" He twisted his mouth, "But J said that there's so much work and..."

"You don't have to worry about any of that yet though, you've got a good few years before you reach J's level of stress." Dad reassured him, winking at me.

I smiled to myself, yes, they both could be annoying at times, but dad was dad, and Sam was much cuter than the other younger siblings my friends had. 

"I said I'd pick up Lara-Jean and Kitty up on the way to school." I mentioned, my voice husky from being used for the first time that morning.

"Ok, no problem honey, you'll remember Sam's training after school again?" Dad transferred a piece of toast onto a plate after it popped up from the toaster.

I groaned into my coffee, I would have to face Kavinsky and the rest of his cronies twice in 24 hours. Lucky me.

"Come on J, your mom is back from France in two weeks and then she can do all of the running around for Sam." Dad said patiently.

"I know." I grumbled and plodded away from the island to the stairs. 

On entering my bedroom, I grabbed the clothes I had laid out on my chair the night before and shoved on a bit of make-up before attempting to tame the knots in my hair.

The green sweater I'd chosen was more for comfort than style but after throwing on some black mom jeans I hoped I looked at least presentable. I snatched my backpack up from the floor, hastily cramming the books inside and headed off back down the stairs to the front door where Sam waited with anticipation. He handed me the keys and I calledout a loud "bye dad" as I pulled the door behind me.

It only took ten minutes to get to Lara-Jean's house and seeing the car pull up, she and her sister walked down their path to join us.

"Alright Sam, into the back if you will." I said and Sam reluctantly unclicked his belt and clambered into the backseat.

Lara-Jean opened the passenger door and hopped in next to me, Kitty in the seat behind her.

"You are a life saver." She hugged me across the car. "Honestly I don't think I would have managed the first day back if I had to drive in as well." I laughed along with Lara-Jean, I knew too well what her driving skills were like.