Kate Hopper's life hadn't been exactly easy.
Ever since her little sister had fallen ill, it seemed her life turned into a game of dominoes, and as each one fell, it felt as if things got harder and harder.
When her life got uprooted from New York C...
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KATE COULDN'T REMEMBER the last time her and her father had eaten breakfast together, but for some reason, that morning they decided to do so.
Neither of them had slept well that night, if they'd even slept at all, considering Hopper didn't come home until a quarter after four looking for that boy. While he had been running himself ragged physically, Kate had been doing the same thing to herself mentally—she hadn't been able to sleep for more than fifteen minutes or so at a time, waiting for her father to come home. It had taken until about four forty-five for the girl to stay asleep, and she wouldn't have had a problem with that if she didn't have to wake up at six for school.
Kate had always been somewhat of a night owl, to begin with. It was her time to do things uninterrupted, to do things without someone making fun of her, but another thing she liked about being awake at night was that it was peaceful. While she had no problem staying up so late usually, it had been the waking up early part that killed her on the inside. She had never truly been a morning person, per see, which was why she had no problem with sleeping well into the morning, possibly into the early afternoon. There were, truly, only two common occasions where that proved to be an issue: whenever she was staying at Steve's (because he was more of a morning person, he woke up much earlier than she did, and consequently, she woke up earlier) and whenever she had to go to school. Otherwise, whenever she had the chance, she slept in.
While they ate breakfast that morning, Hopper had tried to play off the fact that he'd woken up early (really that he'd woken up on time, but she'd take it) just to see his daughter leave for school, but Kate knew the reality of the situation. Though she was sixteen, a junior in high school, she knew the thought of someone else's twelve-year-old kid disappearing freaked him out. She almost laughed at the idea: missing was still better than dead.
