A Dance of Life

17

My alarm for 6:30 am rings clear and true, forcing me out of sleep; I'm more than tempted to throw my phone across the room.

Responsibilities and priorities, I remind myself. Don't be lazy; you have stuff to do.

I trudge to Pat's bed and shake Diana awake. "D, it's time to wake up," I whine, dragging the last word.

She's either a deep sleeper or is ignoring me because she doesn't move an inch. I'm too lazy to call Pat to handle this and I want to try and do it myself anyways. I take a deep breath, go to the bathroom to wash my face and urinate, before attempting to wake them up again.

"Diana," I say with a more forceful voice, "Hey, it's time to wake up."

"Five more minutes," she groans, pulling the covers over her face.

"No, right now. Let me tell you a little trick," I say, dragging the covers back down. "If you get ready early, you can go back to sleep until it's time to leave. Works for me every time."

She grumbles and rolls out of bed, "What time is it?"

"It's time for you to take a shower; there's only one bathroom and we don't want to raise any suspicions by you coming in late."

"Actually, we'd raise eyes if we came in early," she comments as I push her towards the bathroom.

"Oh, well; fresh start then."

I sit on my bed and do my devotionals while I wait for her to finish. She comes out five minutes later looking more annoyed. I move to wake Lucas up but she stops me.

"Elementary school starts at 8:45."

"Umm, alright but I think for the sake of order he should still have a shower and eat breakfast," I advise. "If he wants to go back to sleep then he can but I don't want a case where we're rushing to get him ready."

"I know what he needs, Annelise, you don't have to tell me," she mutters, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"I'm not trying to take your role in his life, D, but we all need to be in some sort of routine if this is going to work out. And you need to understand that me and Pat, we have your best interest at heart. We aren't doing this for brownie points; we're doing it because we care. Sure, I've never been in this situation before but that doesn't mean I'm completely clueless; we have to work together.

"So grab whatever you want from the cupboard and find something that your brother can wear as well, I'm going to go shower. When I'm out you'll go wake Pat up for her own shower, then Lucas goes in after her. After that, we'll all eat breakfast. Okay?"

She sulks at my tone but nods in compliance.

45 minutes later, we are all seated at the dining table eating breakfast. I'm eating oats with an assortment of fruits, Pat is drinking coffee and the kids are having cereal.

"Is all your homework done?" I ask after forcing another spoonful into my mouth; I'm completely over this diet.

Lucas nods his head but Diana acts as if I didn't just ask a question. "Diana?" I repeat. I glance at Pat who is watching with an eyebrow raised, she gives me a small smile and places her mug down.

"Here's the thing, Diana," she starts, leaning towards her. "We don't need an attitude first thing in the morning, or at any time at all. This may be difficult for you but you need to be considerate and realize that it's difficult for all of us. Please?"

"Sorry," Diana says softly, "I'll do better. And yeah, I'm done with my homework?"

"Do we need to check it?" I inquire, the words running out of my mouth before I can stop them.