One Day at a Time - (Season One)

Chapter One: The Ruiz Siblings

The sun, peaking through the blinds and quietly burning her eyelids, was what woke her up. Marty groaned, rubbing her eyes in discomfort and turning her back to the offensive light... but it was too late anyway. Grey eyes drowsily blinked open as she silently cursed herself for forgetting to shut the blinds the night before--for the third freaking night in a row.

Sighing, she gingerly sat up and stretched, her back popping delightfully before she began rolling her neck. A peek at the silent alarm clock on her messy nightstand let her know that it was ten minutes to seven and that she needed to start prepping breakfast. She was not in the mood to hear it go off in the next five minutes; Marty switched the alarm off with an aggravated flick before rolling off her bed and blindly searching for her slippers with her feet. She grabbed the blue robe that'd been abandoned on the post of her bed the night before and roughly pulled it on, barely able to escape eating the floor when she tripped over one of her discarded sneakers as she walked out the door. A quick peek into Lukas' bedroom, as she made her way into the small kitchen, let her know that her brother was still sleeping peacefully.

Her brother was somewhat of a picky eater, but he never said 'no' to the sweet and creamy oatmeal Marty had perfected over the years. She quickly got all of the supplies out and began making their breakfast out of muscle memory as her tired mind wandered. Marty could hear her brother's alarm go off and Lukas' disgruntled groans as he stumbled out of bed and shut it off. The familiar complaints made a tiny smile bloom across her face, neither one of them was the biggest fan of mornings and it showed. It was innocuous moments like this one that made the late nights and her seemingly never-ending work shifts completely worth it.

Last night, she'd been stocking the shelves at Walmart for five hours. By the end of her shift, her back was killing her when she finally got home at around three thirty in the morning. Her shift at the library would start twenty minutes after dropping Lukas off at the elementary school and it would end half an hour before she needed to go pick him back up.

She'd spend those precious free hours tending to Lukas and completing the daily chores around the apartment before putting her brother to bed. With her brother happily snoring and with their insomniac neighbor from next door, Nana Peyton, watching over him, Marty would be free to make her way back to Walmart and keep stocking shelves at night. That was her regular routine, barring Tuesdays and Thursdays, which were movie days. Marty worked at the local theater from four to six on those afternoons as a movie projectionist before taking Lukas home for dinner and helping him finish up his homework before prepping him for bed. Movie days were Lukas' favorite of all her workdays, and not just because she was able to get her brother into the theater to watch movies for free... but because it was a guaranteed evening where she'd be home with him.

Lukas stumbled into the kitchen and plopped down in his chair just as Marty started pouring the oatmeal into bowls. Her brother gave her a sleepy grin as he started to spoon it into his mouth. Marty had finally sat down when she noticed how messy her brother's bedhead was, his mused hair was flying all over his face and stuck straight up on the left side. A small snort escaped from her throat, which only earned her a curious look from the six-year-old.

"What?" he questioned, looking a lot more awake now than he had a few minutes ago.

Marty shook her head, "Nothing, come on, Lukas, let's hurry up. We gotta get you dressed for school, 'kay?"

"Hmm, 'kay. Today's movie day, right?" Lukas asked, adorable dimples making an appearance on his face as he wiggled in his seat in excitement.

"Yup." Marty confirmed, "But if Ms. Caroline tells me you had a bad day, you can't watch any movies during my shift, and instead, you'll have to sit in the projection room with me."