At 6:30 AM, I woke up.

At 6:45 AM, I actually got up and put on my clothes.

At 6:47 AM, I ate breakfast.

At 6:51 AM, I went upstairs to wake my little sister.

From 6:52 to 6:59 AM, she performed her morning ritual while I waited for her to finish so we could catch the bus on time.

At 7:00 AM, I sprinted to the bus stop.

At 7:43 AM, I arrived at school and made my way to class.

At 7:47 AM, I sat down in my seat between my best friend Jeff and the mysterious new girl Lani.

At 8:00 AM, the class started.

At 12:00 PM, class was dismissed for lunch. Jeff and I sat down at our usual table.

At 12:45 PM, I returned to class.

At 3:45 PM, class was dismissed and I walked down to the pool for practice.

At 4:00 PM, I began enduring unusual and cruel punishment from the coach.

At 6:00 PM, practice ended and I picked up my sister from basketball and went home.

At 6:40 PM, I arrived at home and ate dinner.

At 7:00 PM, I finished eating dinner and sat down at my computer to play some Pokémon.

At 7:30 PM, I started working on homework.

At 9:30 PM, I finished my homework and took a shower

At 10:00 PM, I went to bed.

As I read over my assignment one last time to make sure I didn't forget anything, I began to realize how boring my life was. Here I am, sitting in English class, listening to old Ms. Collins lecture on the importance of subtle details in poetry. As far as I'm concerned, the poet probably just wrote a bunch of words, then locked some crazy English teachers in a room and told them to overanalyze the crap out of it and turn it into something 'artistic'. In fact, I'm convinced that all English teachers are somewhat crazy. Ms. Collins, for example, would give out random assignments for homework that make absolutely no sense and contribute nothing to the material we're studying. Once, she insisted that we write down our favorite fruit, and afterwards, she told us to have a relative take a picture of us intimately holding it while sleeping. She insisted that it helped us understand sex without having to actually experience it. One poor guy didn't read the whole instruction clearly and ended up having to caress a watermelon for a whole night and get his sister to take a picture of him drooling over a watermelon. That picture is still on Facebook.

Anyways, this assignment she had us do for today involved noting everything we did for a day and writing a schedule. I actually thought this was pretty interesting despite the fact that we're probably never going to use it anyways and it's probably just a waste of time. As it turns out, I do absolutely nothing interesting. Every day was the same; get up, go to school, swim, come home, do homework, sleep. In fact, every school day has been like this since freshman year. During middle school, I would have a lot of free time and play video games or watch anime to escape from the dull routine of life. However, circumstances changed when I started high school. At first, high school was interesting. There were new people, different classes, and a lot to get used to. After the first month, though, everything just felt so routine and boring like before. However, one thing changed. Somehow, high school managed to creep in and take over every waking hour of my life. After swimming and homework, I no longer had the time to engage in fantasy worlds and escape from reality. It seems like there was nothing to look forward to except the weekends and the holidays. I don't have any real long-term goals or any reason to try hard (well, except the fear of my parents' wrath). It's not like I choose not to try something new or pursue another hobby, it's just that I don't really have the time or energy to do anything else. I tried to stay up later into the night and even tried to quit swimming, but I just got tired and unhealthy and I gave up. The only thing I do as a hobby anymore is Pokémon, as swimming is practically a job. Sometimes, during boring classes like this one, I wish that I was somewhere else…

"Hey, Steven, are you going to turn in your homework or what?"

"Huh?" I said as I turned around to see my best friend Jeff standing next to my desk with a silly grin on her face.

"Well, you've been staring at the wall for a while now and the teacher is going to leave now, so you better hurry up. If you don't get up soon, I'll go to lunch without you."

"Yeah… Sorry. I'll get my homework turned in," I said as I got up and put my homework at the top of the pile.

"Well," I said as we walked down to the cafeteria, "Snow Ball is coming up."

"Are you going to go?"

"Well, I don't know. I kinda want to go though, cause we're juniors and we won't be here for too long, and it would be a shame if I never went to one. But, I honestly just want to be lazy and watch TV or something, and besides, I don't really have anybody to ask."

"How about that new girl, Lani?"

"I don't know…"

"Come on! It would be fun! And besides, I noticed the way you look at her every morning. You totally have a crush on her," he said with a wink.

At this point, I started blushing as we entered the cafeteria. We walked over the table where we always sat. "Anyways," I said, "I just think she's cute. Besides, she never talks. I don't even know how she feels about me anyways."

"Well," he replies, "At least ask. You've got nothing to lose, and besides, she would probably appreciate it if someone asked her to the dance. Or are you too scared?"

"No… it's not that… and besides! You have no right to judge! You never have to worry about stuff like this. You have Claudia!"

"True," he said while scratching his neck. Claudia is Jeff's adopted little sister, and she is the world to him. She's autistic and she sometimes has a hard time taking care of herself, but she is one of the kindest and most innocent people I've ever met and she is an incredible artist. All of her paintings and sketches convey so much thought and emotion that they could pass as masterpieces. Since Claudia loved to dance, when she started high school, Jeff made sure to take her to all the school dances and make sure she's safe.

As I started to eat my lunch, I thought about the past few minutes. Sure, I would be taking a risk by asking anyone to the dance, but with Lani, I've never really spoken to her since the first week. She never said a word in school, and it seemed like she didn't really want anybody to talk to her either. She always seems happy and cheerful most of the time, but when I try to talk to her, she gets all shy and embarrassed. It's weird. Sure, she's cute and never hurt anyone, but she just felt so distant and, well, out of my league. I'm not sure if I'm willing to risk getting in her bad books just for a stupid dance. But then again, I'm really bored with my life, and maybe taking a risk like this might be just the right thing to do. Perhaps I should take the initiative and maybe it would be fun.

With that thought, Jeff and I got up and headed back to class.

The next day, after completing the same routine for school mornings, I got off the bus and made my way to homeroom, as usual. My bus always arrived early, so I'm usually one of the first people in the room. I made my way to my seat and was about to start sleeping at my desk until the teacher arrived, when I noticed Lani looking at me funny. I guess half of my brain told my body to take a nap on the table while the other half told my body to get up and say "Hi", but what ended up happening was me flipping over and falling out of my chair. I looked up and I saw Lani staring at me with this silly grin on her face. God, that was so embarrassing. I hid my face against the desk until I calmed down and figured I should do something about the awkward situation.

"Well… good morning, I guess?" I said nervously.

She waved back as usual.

After an awkward pause, I said, "Well, that was embarrassing."

She smiled.

"Well, do you think I'm an idiot now?"

She shook her head.

"Oh good… because…"

She tilted her head a little and looked at me as if to say "Go on."

"Well… because… this is just too embarrassing. I don't know if I should tell you."

She continued looking at me like that. She must really want me to finish my sentence. I mean I might as well ask her to the dance now. Better get it done early than having to wait until the last minute and have other problems happen. After all, at least she didn't think I'm an idiot, so that's good.

"Well… you know how Snow Ball is coming up?"

She nodded, probably sensing where this is going. So far, she hasn't run away yet, so that seemed promising.

"And… well… I was wondering if you… ifyouwouldliketogotosnowballwithme," I blurted out before hiding my face in embarrassment. What is she going to do? I'm so scared!

She tapped my shoulder to get my attention, and as I lifted my head up to look at her, she smiled and gave me a surprise hug. After a while, she released her hug and nodded happily, with an honest smile and a light blush on her face.

"Wait! You really will? That's awesome! Thank you so much!" I exclaimed. A mix of happiness and relief crashed down on me. Maybe this was the start of something exciting.

AN: 1,806 words. I personally like the chapters a little longer. I'll see what I can do. Anyways, one or two of you might be wondering what happened to the Espeon story. The thing was, I knew where to start and I knew where to end up, but I have no idea how to write the middle. Sorry, but I have a better plan for this fanfic. If I get done with this one, I might go back and finish the other one. As always, reviews are awesome.