DEAN

Day 3, 11:45 am

"Kori! Kori!" I shook her by the shoulders. "Get up!"

She groaned, still half-asleep. "It doesn't start till noon," she mumbled.

"Yeah, and it's quarter to!"

Kori's eyes snapped open. "You serious?" she demanded.

"Yeah," I answered. "Totally. It'll take us 5 minutes to get there, get up!"

She leapt out of bed, then hesitated. "Um, I need to shower, but…"

"Can you do it in 5 minutes?"

She paused, then nodded. "I can try." She ran to her bag and whipped out some clothes. She ran into the bathroom. Through the door she yelled at me sarcastically.

"Oh, and thanks, by the way, for waking me up 10 minutes before we have to leave!" she called.

"You're lucky I woke you up at all!" I shot back. "I just woke up, too, you know!"

"Oh, well, then everything's pink and fluffy, isn't it, Dean?" she said. Then I heard the water start to run.

I sighed. This wasn't my fault, but yelling about it wouldn't help. I had to get ready. I found my toothbrush and paste and brushed my teeth. I realized that I had to do it without running water. Oh, well.

5 minutes later Kori shot out of the bathroom. She grabbed a brush and began brushing her wet hair while I got in the shower. But over the water and through the door, I could still hear her raging loudly.

"Great!" she said. "The first day of Step Up, and I'm gonna hafta forfeit cause my stupid cousin didn't wake me up in time! I've practiced, too! I can get 36 feet, for crying out loud! I could get the gold, but no! I forfeit cause I overslept!" She continued yelling things in Chinese, which I was actually getting strangely used to.

I was out of the shower in 3 minutes. We had 2 left till we'd have to leave.

"You ready?" I asked her.

"Um… I need to put my hair up and do makeup."

"Makeup?" I demanded as I watched her go into the bathroom with her toiletry bag. "You're riding a motorcycle, you don't need makeup!"

"Yes I do! Just a little something for shine… maybe a touch of mascara."

I rolled my eyes. Kori may be a rider, but she's still female. "Kor, we have to go. Now."

"OK, OK. Just let me brush my teeth."

"Why didn't you do that while I was showering?"

"Are you kidding? Gross, Dean! And swallow the toothpaste? Use my spit as water? Really, sometimes you're totally disgusting."

"At least I'm ready!"

"URGH!" she yelled. Then she quickly brushed her teeth, put her hair in a low ponytail, and we were out the door.