Comfort Zone

You Look Like the Lovechild of Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling and You Know it

There is absolutely nothing worse than waking up to the awful sound of your alarm clock.

Well there probably, definitely is, but none that I can think of over the obnoxious blaring noise.

I move my hand frantically around my bed in search of my phone, refusing to open my eyes just yet. I finally find it under my pillow and swipe to open up the screen and make the incessant noise stop.

"Ahh," I screech as I drop the phone, not prepared for the sudden blast of light.

Once I get the awful beeping to stop, I allow myself a quick moment to wallow in self-pity at the thought of going to school before I reluctantly drag myself out of bed.

I walk over to look in my mirror and cringe at my reflection. My long brown hair is sticking out in every direction and there are dark bags beneath my hazel eyes.

I run a brush through my hair and over my teeth. Then, I put some makeup on to hide the bags, swipe on a little mascara and viola! The sight of me is now much less likely to frighten any children.

I look at my watch and see that I still have around twenty minutes before I need to leave, a rare occurrence. It's usually a mad dash out the door to get to school on time.

With my few extra minutes, I decide to pick out a little bit nicer outfit than my usual jeans, T-shirt, and sneakers. Once I am done I head into the kitchen.

"Hey squirt," I say upon entering the room and seeing my brother, Andrew.

Andrew is an early bird, always has been. Unlike the rest of my family, he loves mornings. Mom, Dad, and I hate them, thats why I don't see my parents right now. As soon as I got my license they moved their hours around specifically so that they wouldn't have to be at work until ten. I'm pretty sure that their laziness is the only reason I got a car, but hey, I'm not complaining.

They own a bakery downtown called "Cassie's Corner." My mom, Cassie, is in charge of the all the baking, and my dad handles all of the businessy stuff.

They make a great team Mr. and Mrs. Baker, the bakery owners (I secretly think Mom married Dad just for his name sometimes). Cassie's Corner is pretty successful. They're even thinking about opening another one in the next town over.

I grab a pop tart and take a seat next to Andrew.

"Mom and Dad didn't sign my permission slip to go to the planetarium," he says, pulling out a forum from his backpack. "Can you sign it for me?"

"Sure," I say shrugging my shoulders.

I grab the slip and make sure it really is what he says it is. Then, knowing my parents won't mind, I quickly scribble down my mom's name. It looks absolutely nothing like her's but I'm sure it's good enough for a fifth-grade, field trip, permission slip.

"There you go buddy," I say, sliding the paper towards him.

"Thanks, Henley."

"So the planetarium, huh?" I question.

"Ya it's going to be awesome," he answers enthusiastically.

"Alright, well don't get too wild ok? No repeats of the June Farms Incident."

June Farms is a small family owned ranch right outside of town. Ever since I was in middle school the classes at Berkley have taken field trips there. Andrew went last fall and there was a bit of an incident.

Cute as he may be, Andrew isn't always the sharpest tool in the shed. For some reason he decided that it would be a good idea to throw rocks at the farm's geese. Not smart.