The Brighter Side of Life

Chapter 2

The next morning, I was up as usual to go for my early morning jog, ensuring that I could jack the bathroom before anyone else could use it.

You see, when you live in a house with 12 other people, 5 of which are boys that you have to share a bathroom with, it can get pretty hectic in the mornings.

Actually, it's pure chaos.

So, as a result of this, you have to be smart, because there's always that one guy who spends way too long doing his hair (*cough* Dante *cough*). Not to mention the other that takes a hundred year shower, the one that tries to shave even though he hasn't hit puberty yet (it's up to the point where we all have to hide our razors), and the one that always finishes the shampoo. It's really the worst way to start the day, so I'm smart enough to go for a jog every morning and beat the school rush.

While they're fighting relentlessly for bathroom time, I'm happily munching on a piece of buttery toast!

Anyway, it seems like the early bird not only gets the worm, it also gets the girl.

Well, gets to talk to her at least.

It was the first day of the second week of school, and I went for my jog once around the block, avoiding the neighbours' evil cat and casually jumping over the rock that used to trip me up when I first started this whole jogging thing. I wasn't looking forward to school, so I made sure to blast music through my headphones to take my mind off it.

You'd be surprised what a bit of Imagine Dragons can do for a boy in the early hours of the morn.

I arrived back at the home at about 6:00am, leaving myself 30 minutes to shower before everyone else got up.

Before you ask, no, I didn't see her when one of us were coming out of the shower, and no, I didn't see her door ajar and decide to spy on her while she was sleeping. I'm not a creep, and this isn't a hormonal fanfic.

It was literally a 30 second conversation.

Weirdly, I'd already been thinking about her by the time I got back to the home. She was in the office for a long time yesterday, and I'd wondered why Maggie didn't introduce us to the new girl like she did everyone else when they were new.

Also, what was her name?

By the time I got bored of waiting outside the door, they weren't even half way done, and I didn't want to intrude just to get a look at the new girl. That would be insensitive.

And I am nothing if not sensitive.

"Do you know where to go?"

Yep, the first thing I'd ever said to her was a generic question. Where has romance gone?

She was about to go into the boys' bathroom, and there were things in there that I didn't think she should see.

There are things in there that no-one should see.

I knew it was her from the centimetre of her that I'd seen through the crack in the doorframe (along with the fact that I knew for a fact she did not live in The Home before that day)but could only see the back of her head because she was frozen in the doorway, as if she was deliberating where to go from there.

When she didn't move for a few seconds I decided to speak again.

"Uh, if you wanted the girls' bathroom, it's on the floor below this one. Just go down the stairs and it should be the door directly in front of you. Labeled, quite cleverly I think, 'Only for those who identify as female', the 'only' thickly underlined." I advised, chuckling slightly. "There are some full-blown feminists in this house, as you may have noticed."