When I opened my eyes in the morning, something was different.
It was the light. It was still the gray-green light of a cloudy day in the forest, but it was clearer somehow. I realized there was no fog veiling my window. I jumped up to look outside, and then groaned in horror. A fine layer of snow covered the yard, dusted the top of Kimi's convertible, and whitened the road. But that wasn't the worst part. All the rain from yesterday had frozen solid — coating the needles on the trees in fantastic, gorgeous patterns, and making the driveway a deadly ice slick. I had enough trouble not falling down when the ground was dry; it might be safer for me to go back to bed now.
I immediately went to my suitcase and grabbed two pairs of fuzzy spiderman socks and slipped them on before I dragged my tired ass down the stairs. The kitchen was mostly quiet aside from Charlie and Kimi sitting at the breakfast table–Kimi had her reading glasses on as she flicked through a stack of papers and Charlie who seemed fairly invested in the Seattle newspaper barely gave me a 'hmph' as a morning 'hello'. I swore his mustache twitched.
"Morning," Kimi tried to greet me as I immediately directed myself to the coffee maker.
I groggily hummed in response. I was pretty sure I looked half-dead with how exhausted I felt. I didn't get much sleep last night – the nightmares were strangely getting more and more abundant. As I poured the coffee into an extra mug laid out, I drank it like it was a cup of heaven and found myself idly leaning against the counter, staring out the window.
Kimi sighed, "You should really drink water before you drink coffee. It's very dehydrating."
I continued sipping on it. Kimi rolled her eyes before she averted her attention back to the stack of papers set on the table until she flicked her attention back onto me and said matter-of-factly, "At least have an orange or something. You need sustenance."
I rolled my eyes, but found that if I didn't take anything, Kimi would probably browbeat my ass all morning to school, so I decided an apple was decent enough for a breakfast fill. Charlie briefly glanced at me – I could tell he felt very out of place when Kimi and I got into frequent scruffs. I mean, what was he supposed to say? It wasn't like he had a foot in the door for scolding me or telling Kimi how to parent – but it made it easier for me to have a buffer between us, getting Kimi slightly off my back.
