(Title Undecided)

I wake up when my 5 am alarm goes off.  It used to be harder to get up, but now that I've been doing it for a year, it's second nature. I love the feeling of the dawn approaching, creeping into the sky until suddenly, like the dimmer on a light switch, the sky transforms from a dark gray to a hazy blue.

            The birds seem to be the only other souls awake.  The world still dreaming, asleep in their beds; hanging on to the last threads of slumber before they fray away completely.  I stretch as I stand up, shivering against the light breeze that blows in through my cracked window.  I retrieve a pair of yoga pants from the pile of clothes that never seems to leave the floral armchair in the corner of my room, and pull them on. Changing into a sports bra and a tank top, I don my running shoes, and slip out the door.

            Running is one of the best feelings in the world.  That is, when you can actually do it.  I remember back to a year ago when running became a necessity; when it was so hard to even run around the block without gasping for air.  This makes me push even harder, and I can feel my brunette ponytail slapping against my back, hear the clap of my feet against the pavement.  Running has a sort of rhythm to it, a steadiness you can lose yourself in.  That must be why I dance too, I think.  Every school night, five days a week.  Modern, jazz, ballet, you name it.  It's one of the few things in life that I can pour myself into and completely escape for a few hours.

            When I get home the shower calls my name.  I go into the bathroom and the huge mirror attracts my attention.  I stare into my wide blue eyes.  My mom says they're like the clouds on a stormy day.  I like to think of that as the description of my soul.  Stormy, dark, a little foggy, unsure of what it wants, ready to rip your head off one moment or blow over the next.  People always say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, right?

            My face is covered in a light sheen of sweat, my cheeks flushed.  My pupils are slightly dilated and I almost don't recognize myself as I take in my reflection.  Running always gives me a natural sort of high, and I can almost palpably feel my energy tingling around me from head to toe.

            The cold water from the shower brings me back to my senses and I step out, wrapping myself in a towel and padding back into my room.  The sun is now completely up and the earth has started to revolve again.  For some reason I always thought of the earth as going to sleep at night too.  Sort of chilling out and recharging it's battery for the morn to come; stop spinning long enough to relax before it's thrown back into the dizziness of the day.  I can hear other noises now.  Cars starting, dogs barking, buses screeching their way down the street.  I remember, suddenly, that it's the first day of summer and replace buses with trash trucks.  No more riding the awkward morning bus to school, where no one talks or sits too close to each other.  I smile at the thought and hurry over to my closet.

            I pull a clean pressed polo shirt over my head.  Green today.  That used to be my favorite color.  The color of trees and grass and plants.  The color of life.  Not anymore.  I frown.  Now that I think about it I realize I don’t even have one. 

I shimmy into a pair of cut-off denim shorts.  The day already promises to be hot.  With a comb I neatly detangle my hair and weave it into a braid down my back.  Now, the standard white visor and lastly; my converse.  They’re a must.  I wear them every day.

            These shoes, they are like walking pieces of history.  They are faded and dirty and fit like a glove.  Like one that belongs to a baseball player, melded so perfectly into the shape of their hand that it's like a second skin.  Absorbing the impact of all the curve balls that life throws at me.

            My house feels dead.  Like it's gone to the grave too.  A seemingly solid structure on the outside, but hollow within.  Like opening the door could just send everything crumbling to the ground.  So I creep down the hall, like a stranger in my own house, and quickly slip into the room adjacent to mine.