“Come on, Leah! Get up!” Groaning, I squinted against the sunlight pouring in from the window. It was the first day of back to school. That one month could really spoil a person. I glanced at the digital clock on the wall, and rolled over again.

“Danielle! It’s freaking five o’clock. The assembly isn’t until nine!”

“But we have to get ready! We get to take classes with the upperclassmen and guys this year, and they’re going to be at the assembly too! We’ve got to look good for them all!”

I sighed and pulled the covers over my head. I already knew that Danielle was going to take two full hours getting ready and then take about an hour to eat breakfast, with an hour left to fix a couple details in her outfit or her make-up and then, getting to the assembly. It was the same with her every day, except that she’d be too busy picking out an outfit and applying make-up to bother waking me up today. At 7:30, my own alarm sounded and I finally sat up and stretched. I could almost reach the ceiling with my fingertips. Jumping down from the bunk bed, I could see that Danielle was still in the bathroom. She was probably going to look like she came from the local whorehouse by the time she came out. I quickly switched my large, almost tunic-like t-shirt for a plain, black tank top with thick straps and a grey hoodie over it. By the time she got out of the bathroom at 8, I had already pulled a brush through my horrid bed hair, captured it in a simple ponytail and was munching on the toast that was the last of my breakfast.

“You should wear something better,” Danielle had put on less make-up than I thought she would. She still had applied foundation, eye shadow, eye liner, blush, mascara and probably other stuff she has yet to teach me about. I swear if I hadn’t lived with this girl since we came to the academy when we were five, I still wouldn’t know what those things are called. She was wearing short shorts and a spaghetti-strap tank top with what could be mistaken as a designer jacket over that. “You know that there are going to be so many upper classmen there, right? You want that to be your first impression?”

“Well, unlike you I’m taking Advanced Hand-to-hand combat, Advanced Self Defense and Technology-Special Program. I really don’t think those are things I want to be dressed up for.” Not that she needed to be reminded. We have always been really different from each other and did not see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, but we always agreed to disagree. We accepted the fact that we will never be alike, but that doesn’t keep us from being friends that enjoy watching movies together, giving each other manicures and pedicures, talking about celebrities that we think are cute, and going on shopping sprees at the Dludum, the town that surround the hill our Academy rests on. “Besides, I’m sure that I’m not going to be the only girl that isn’t dressed up all pretty.”

“Whatever,” she shrugged it off. She didn’t forget of course, she just still hasn’t given up trying to make me more girly.

I dropped my plate and cereal bowl in the sink of our open kitchen, grabbed my toiletries and headed to the bathroom to brush my teeth. She had purposely left her make-up out on the sink. “You should put away your stuff when you’re done with it.”

“You should clean up your stuff when you’re done.”

“I was going to wash that when we got back,” I scowled, flicking my still wet hands at her. She had already finished her breakfast and was washing the dishes. She doesn’t always eat much, but she eats fast.

“No, you weren’t. You’d wait until after dinner and by then the milk would have spoiled and stunk up our room. Don’t know about you, but I don’t want that scent in our room.”

“Touché,” I muttered as I dropped my toiletries on the dresser. I grabbed my keys and was out the door before she could spear me with another comment.