Mr. Hemmings |l.h.|

chapter 6

Cassi

My eyes flutter open and I look around my oh so familiar bedroom. I look up at my window, only to be blinded by the rays of sunlight that are flowing into my room. I sit up in my bed and stare at the blank wall in front of me. My room always feels extremely bright in the mornings. My walls are still perfectly white from when the house was built, I've never bothered with painting them. Also, all my furniture and decorations are light neutral tones with only a few pops of color scattered around the room.

"Cass?" I turn my head to my door that is barely cracked open. My younger sister Violet is standing outside in the hallway.

"Yeah Vi?" I ask

"Why are you up this early?" I look over at my neon yellow alarm clock sitting next to my bed. It's only six in the morning, far too early for me to put awake. I slip out of my bed and slide on my favorite pink slippers.

"Guess my body felt like it was time to wake up" I say as I meet Violet in the hall. I give her a peck on the top of the head. "Now go get ready for school."

Violet nods and runs off to the bathroom. Violet and I have such a good relationship. She is only nine years old, ten years younger than me. She was an "oops baby", but my whole family loves her and treats her like a princess.

I walk down the stairs to the kitchen to have my daily cup of coffee. I grab my favorite cup out of the cupboard and start brewing my coffee from my Keurig.

"Good morning sweetheart." I jump at the sound of my mom's voice. She normally doesn't wake up until closer to 6:30.

"Morning mom." I take a sip of my black coffee while I walk to our kitchen table. "Why are you up so early?"

"Well I wanted to tell you last night, but I have an interview today." My mom says with a beaming smile. She grabs a coffee mug for herself and begins brewing a cup.

"Oh really? That's awesome! I didn't know that you were looking for a job," I say. I know that things at the restaurant are a little tight right now. My mom has talked about looking for a better job with a stable income, but I always thought it was just an idea. I didn't expect her to start looking for job opportunities.

"Yes. Your father and I decided that it's wise for me to have a fixed income. You know things at the restaurant are always changing. But I'll still be helping around the restaurant when I can, I won't abandon your dad like that. Anyways, the interview is at 7:30, so I need you to take Violet to school for me." My mom explains as she comes over to sit with me.

"Well, that does sound like a good plan," I say, continuing to drink my coffee.

"Yes, yes. Did you have a good time with Rachel last night?" My mom asks. She picks up the newspaper and begins to flick through it. I'm sure she is going to look at the list of job openings in our area. Knowing my mom, she wants to have a backup plan in case she doesn't get the position she's interviewing for.

"Oh, oh yeah. We just hung out and talked about our first day of school. We had a good time." I take the last sip of my coffee and place the empty mug onto the wooden table.

"That's nice. I guess you were pretty tired since you were asleep when we came home."

"Yeah, I was." After Mr. Hemmings dropped me off, I wasn't able to sleep. The party ended around 8:00 pm and I arrived home at 9:00. I had changed out of my party clothes and got into bed but all I could do was toss and turn. I ended up going on a walk around my neighborhood to kill some time, and hopefully make me tired. And it worked. Right when I got home, I crashed hard.

"Anyways, I better go get ready. When you get home today, I want to hear all about your first day of school." My mom stands up and takes both of our mugs to the sink that is full of dishes. Seeing the pile of dishes makes my mom stop. I know that she is contemplating doing them, but I also know that she hates doing the dishes almost as much as Violet and I. I watch as she starts letting the water run. Mom starts picking up dishes and lathering them in soap. She begins scrubbing our mugs when I realize that she really need to be getting ready for her interview