Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep… my heart starts racing, realizing it's my alarm clock telling me I need to get my a** out of bed or I’ll be late for school. The sound of the alarm gets obnoxiously louder and faster until I roll over in frustration to turn it off. I finally get the will to pull myself out of bed with all the strength I have knowing my mom will come in any minute to yell at me for not being up. I slip into the bathroom with my eyes still closed trying to find my way to the sink where I could wash off yesterday's makeup from me falling asleep mid english essay with my “dinner” strewn across my bed. And when I say dinner, I mean a bag of Hot Cheetos ( Only the Lime flavor because they're clearly superior), some York Peppermint Patties with a side of Zesta crackers.The cold water rushes against my face filling every gross pore, washing it clean. After looking at myself in the mirror for a while I decide not even to apply makeup knowing tomorrow was going to be the same morning fiasco, um I mean routine that I do every single day. I walked back into my room pacing back and forth amongst the vast amounts of clothes on the floor trying to salvage maybe a clean shirt and a due for a wash pair of ripped jeans. I finally bend down and grab a black short sleeve Thrasher T-shirt, a pair of over worn jeans and miss matching socks. Not bothering to pick up the mess I just made, I throw on my clothes as fast as possible and grab my white low top vans. The white has turned more to a cream and there's a red stain on them from when I dropped a Takis on them months prior. My mom finally bursts into my room yelling as loud as she possibly could. “Lea!!!!!!!” She said. “Get out of bed right this minute or you’re gonna be late for school!” I roll my eyes at the fact I’m already dressed, out of bed, and ready to go. She notices me ready and says in a sweet voice “ Okay honey, I’ll see you down stairs.” She kisses my forehead and heads back down stairs leaving my door wide open. I groan out of frustration, “ugh I don’t wanna go to school today…” I said as I looked at my calendar hung on my wall. I pick up a sharpie and add another X amongst all of the others from previous morning. 18 more days, than finally junior year would be over. I drop the marker off on the top of my dresser and slide my keys into my pocket. I run down stairs in a panic as I look at the time. 7:15 it read.

“No time for a nutritious breakfast, I guess hot Cheetos will do.” I said.

“I think not!” My mom says in a sweet tone as she hands me a sandwich bag full of Honey Nut Cheerios.

“Thank you mama.” I said and she kissed my forehead again.

“You’re welcome dolly, and please drive safe, you’re my last baby.” She said.

“I will mom I swear.”

“Okay dolly polly have a good day I love you so much!”

“I love you too mama have a good day.” I said as I walked out the garage door heading to my car. I unlock my 2017 Range Rover, white with black interior. One of the nicest things I’ve ever had and i worked my butt off to get it. I hop into the driver seat and turn on the car. Chapter Six By Kendrick Lamar plays at the highest volume. I begin questioning why my music is so loud. My mind flashes to last night. My hands on the wheel, soft and relaxed, my head drooped and my body ached. Sitting there asking myself if I should go in or put it in reverse and never look back. My car clock now said 7:20, my anxiety booming knowing school starts in 10 minutes. I don’t know why I get this anxiety when I do this to myself every hectic morning and somehow it get to school on time.  I go through the motions like I do every other day. It starts off with Honors chemistry, than second is AP US, off to third which is yearbook, following an off period which is well deserved. After that I have lunch, I typically go eat with my friends in the parking lot consuming unhealthy amounts of junk food and listening to music. Once lunch is over it's onto, AP Lang, algebra 2/ Trig and finally spanish 4. Anybody who touches me can feel the stress radiate out of my body and feel my knots in my neck. Luckily my boyfriend takes his fingers and massages the knots out when I accidentally fall asleep at his house trying to do as much at home as possible while still spending time with him. After school I go home, do the mass amounts of homework I have, go to practice, occasionally go out with friends but mostly just hangout with my best friend Morgon and my boyfriend Thomas. We all go through so much stuff together. Our families expect the most out of us and when we try our best and we break we get yelled at more. When this happens we all usually drive to our favorite spot, challenger regional park. We sit in each others cars not even talking music all the way up questioning why were still here. Pulling up to a stop light from my 7:30-9:30 practice on Friday nights I feel a buzz. I look down and my heart stops. The text read: “ Lea, get home ASAP we need to have a chat” My step dad does this everytime ive done something “wrong”. I finally pull up to the house dreading going inside. Sitting in silence, absorbing as much as possible knowing I wasn’t going to enjoy silence for a while after stepping through my front door. I get out of my car and wobble in pain from my garage to my door with my sore legs. As soon as I walk in I see my parents. My step dad says “ Lea, I see that you got an F on your spanish test today.”

I nod “ Yea, it's been a really long week and I didn't have enough time to study as much as I would have like to.”

“ I don't want to hear any excuses Lea, you know this is unexceptable” he yelled causing my dog to run and hide under the table.

“ I understand I'm sorry, just all of my hard classes as well as playing volleyball while trying to get a scholarship because I don't have enough to support me through college, and working at my job and trying to still have a social life.” I spoke in a timid voice.

“ I don't care you need a job, try harder in school and also we don't see that you're working hard enough in volleyball so we're not going to pay for recruits to look at you anymore.” My step dad said angrily. “ If you have to stop hanging out with your friends and your boyfriend to get your grades up and work more to pay your $200 a month to live here I’d suggest doing it.”

Tears began to run down my face. “ I'm a 17 year old girl!” I yelled to the point where my voice cracked. “I shouldn't be going through this amount of stress, anxiety, and pressure to do go when all I ever do is try my best and it's never enough. I'm done.”

“ You can't talk to me like that missy, you live under this roof and you'll obey what I say!” my step dad yelled. My mom sat quietly in the back not saying a word.

Fine than, I'll just go.” I grabbed my keys, tears rushing down my face.

“ You’re a terrible child and the worst older sister!” he said as I slammed the door running to my car. I text Morgon and Thomas to meet at our spot where we go when stuff like this happens. Tears stained on my skin, I sit patiently waiting for them to arrive. I see the headlights of Morgon’s car in my rearview mirror, Thomas pulling up right behind her. We all get in my car and I just start crying, no one says a word as they give me their warm embrace. I finally stop crying and they both look at me, They're nights didn't go much better. I turn to both of them, and than an idea pops into my head. “ Remember how I’ve always wanted to road trip to California?”

“ Duh you talk about it all the time.” Morgon said.

“ Well what if we just go now?” I suggested.

“Well what about our parents?” Thomas said.

“ who cares they clearly don't care about us lets just go away for a while. Well be back before school ends, It’ll be so fun.” I said.

They both thought about it for a while. “ Fine lets just full send.” Morgon said.

“Yea lets go babe.”

Morgon and thomas hop in their cars and go to their houses to drop off their cars and grab a bag of clothes and tell their parents goodbye. I pick each one up, Thomas being the last. I look at both of them,  “Let's do this guys!” I said excitedly.

Wahooooooo!!!!!” They both shouted as my sunroof undid itself and the light of the moon shined into my car. Tongue Tied by Grouplove began to play. “ TAKE ME TO YOU YOUR BESTFRIENDS HOUSE ROLL AROUND THIS ROUNDABOUT OH YEAHHH” we all screamed at the top off our lungs as we hopped on the highway. My heart finally was warm, all of my stress has left my body, and I actually felt pure happiness for the first time in a while. No fake being happy or trying to please others, just my favorite people and I in a car on our way to create one of the best moments of our lives.