A Different Kind of Superman

3 | the early mouse joins a club

The next morning my alarm clock screamed at me, and startled, I threw my little pink pillow to the floor as if I were trying to make a slam dunk. After I realized what time it was, I got out of my bed, walked over to my alarm clock across the room, and fumbled around with the off switch. In the dark without glasses and a little anxiety created my high level of panic as I continued to hit the top of my alarm clock until finding the correct switch.

When there was nothing but darkness and silence in my room again, I hobbled back over to my bed where my little pillow was waiting for me to pick it up. I groaned as I bent down to grab it, the muscles in my legs aching for some unknown reason. The bed was calling me to lay back down and close my eyes for another ten minutes, but I couldn't. I wouldn't.

Don't lay down, I scolded myself. No phone either.

I groaned once more when my mind said no bed or phone. My daily routine typically included a snooze and then fully waking up to check my phone, but I was in the process of retraining my brain to stop both of those habits.

Twenty minutes later, I've finished curling my shoulder length black hair and slipping into a white and navy blue striped shirt and a pair of shorts. I snatched my favorite silver necklace from my jewelry box before running down the stairs.

My brother was eating his bowl of Cocoa Puffs as my mother filled our thermoses with pasta. There was one person missing from the scene: my sister. Undoubtedly, she was still upstairs snoring away in a deep sleep. The other person was my father, but he had already left for early before we woke up.

"Your hair is curly." David crunched on his cereal as he stated the obvious. "Why do you do it?"

His question was clear, but I paused before answering. "I burn my hair with heat every morning for the sake of beauty."

David dropped his spoon in his bowl. "I don't get it. Why do you hurt your hair to be prettier when you don't need to be prettier?"

"Because I can and I said so, chump." I put my hands on my hips and tiled my head. This child would one day learn why women do what they do for the sake of beauty; today was not that day.

My mother interrupted David before anything else could escape his mouth. "Just eat. Is Nicole awake yet?"

Without saying anything else, my brother dropped everything and ran upstairs like a cheetah to check on our sister. "She's awake!" He shouted from the top of the stairs as if he believed we were miles away.

Eventually Nicole came downstairs, and by that time, David and I had already finished eating breakfast. She was not a morning person, the only person in the family who struggled with waking up early. I minded my own business and watched as Nicole skipped breakfast. Then she proceeded to walk out the door with her unbrushed black hair in a top knot towards the bus stop at the corner of the street.

Twenty minutes later, I set foot through the school doors once again. With Bree on my left and Liv on my right, we made our infamous inverted stairs, but to me, it just looked more like a 'v' when we stood in this order. We walked through the main hallway that was parallel to the other hallway where I had bumped into Mr. Brailles yesterday.

At the EKC, some people were standing, others sitting. When I made eye contact with Thomas, I stopped in my tracks and remembered what I did last night.

"Mouse," he waved at me, motioning me to come towards him. I didn't want to, but for some reason, I did. "What did you send me yesterday?"

I reached into the depths of my memory for any information on what I texted him. There was nothing comprehensible.