My alarm went off at 7 a.m. and I immediately hit snooze.  I hadn't had to get up this early in two months.  I turned over and pulled my covers over my head, wishing it wasn't the first day of school.  School sucked.  It was so easy for everyone else.  My dyslexia made it so much harder.  Dad seemed to think it was all in the attitude, but he'd never had dyslexia.  He didn't understand.

After pressing snooze twice more, I finally got out of bed and hopped in the shower.  I took long showers and heard some pounding on the door after a while, which was not uncommon.  I finished up and hopped out, wrapping a towel around myself.  As I walked back to my room, I could hear the twins and Molly talking excitedly to Pippa out in the kitchen.  They were ridiculously happy about school starting.  I wish some of their enthusiasm would rub off on me.

I turned on my iPod as I got ready in my bedroom.  I took a lot of pride in my appearance nowadays.  I straightened my hair, did my make-up, and made sure my clothing was perfectly in place.  I had on a jean skirt, a tank top, and a light-colored button-up shirt open over it.  I had to admit, I looked adorable.

I quickly took my school supplies out of the plastic bag and rummaged around for my backpack in the closet.  I stuffed everything inside and found my school schedule under my computer.  Camila Luz Miranda was ready for sophomore year.  Well, as ready as she could be.

I walked out to the kitchen where Pippa and Dad were busy getting breakfast ready for the kids.  I went to the pantry and found the strawberry Pop-Tarts.  I groaned when I saw they didn't have icing.

"Pippa, I told you to get the kind with icing," I complained.

"They were out," she told me as she poured milk on the cereal. 

Dad walked to the pantry, took one look at me and said, "Go change."

I looked down at my outfit, not thinking it seemed inappropriate at all.  "Why?"

"That tank top is way too low," he said.  "In fact, throw it out."

"I'm not throwing it out," I told him as I walked around him.

"Your boobs are practically falling out," Molly commented from the table.  She loved whenever I got admonished.  She continued to be little miss perfect.  Perfect grades, perfect attitude.  Perfect daughter, unlike me.

"Shut up!" I snapped at her.

"Go change," Dad said again.  I rolled my eyes and walked back to my bedroom.  I found something else and quickly changed.

It was the first day of school for the twins, so it was going to be a family event.  Pippa found the good camera and we all hopped on the subway and headed for Hunter.  There was a full-on photo shoot in front of the school and in front of all the little kids' classrooms.  I went along with it for a few minutes, but then started to get impatient.  My parents weren't the only ones going overboard.  There were plenty of families taking pictures and posting to social media.  It was ridiculous.

"Dad, I'm gonna go to Cara's after school," I told him, trying to disappear.  "See you later."

"Uh, I believe Pippa grounded you," he told me as Pippa fiddled with some buttons on Raina's outfit.  I let out an annoyed sound.

"She's not my mom," I told him.  I never understood how Pippa thought she could just order me around.  She and my dad had been married for over five years now.  I was used to her being in my life, but I still didn't want her telling me what to do.

"Doesn't matter.  She's your parent and what she says goes.  Come straight home after school."

"Dad!" I protested.

"Have a good day," he told me, ending the conversation.  "Have a positive attitude."

I groaned as I turned and walked towards the high school wing.  The other teenagers seemed glad to see each other.  The first day of school was alright, I guess.  It was nice to see everyone after two months away.  There were always those kids who seemed to have changed dramatically over the summer.  Jason had shot up two inches, and it looked like Caroline had finally grown some boobs.  I found my locker and began unloading some of my supplies. 

"Camila!" Mrs. Jenkins, the English teacher greeted me with a smiling face.  She'd had me for freshman English and it looked like I had her again this year.  Small school.  "How was your summer?"

"It was fine," I told her.  "How was yours?"

"Great, thanks," she said, leaning against the locker next to me.  "Did you get through the summer reading okay?"

If by getting through summer reading she meant finding chapter summaries online, then yes.  "Yeah, I did," I lied.

"Great," she said.  "Spoiler alert, we have a pop quiz first thing today on them."

My stomach dropped.  Just what I needed.  Welcome to Hunter College High School.

I thanked her for the warning and loaded the items I needed for the first two periods.  Hopefully I'd at least have some friends in class.

First period was geometry.  I was okay at math.  I mostly got A's and B's.  Mr. Dixon was a good teacher, I'd heard so I think we'd get along okay.  Second period was English with Mrs. Jenkins.  I plopped in my seat and was glad to see Cara was in class with me.  We sat in the back next to each other and giggled before the bell rang.

"Welcome to sophomore English!" Mrs. Jenkins announced to the twenty or so of us.  "I hope you had a wonderful summer full of lots of reading."

She passed out the syllabus and went over what we'd be doing the first semester.  Lots of reading and writing, of course.  She also recommended we started going to SAT and ACT prep classes, which Hunter offered on the weekends.  I'm sure Dad would make me go.  I tucked the papers into my folder and sighed.

Mrs. Jenkins announced it was time for a pop quiz about our summer reading.  She passed the paper out to me first.  In my IEP (Individualized Education Plan), I got extra time for assignments.  Usually I didn't take it, not wanting to be viewed as dumb amongst my classmates.  I scanned through the questions quickly and it looked semi-familiar.  I answered the best I could.

My spelling was atrocious.  Reading was hard enough.  Trying to get the letters in the right order was even harder.  My IEP called for not counting off for spelling errors, except for a list of "high-frequency" words.  There were certain things I was expected to know how to spell. My SPED teachers were likely going to give me a bigger list this year.

Near the end of class, one of my SPED teachers showed up, smiling, and asked to see me.  How embarrassing.  I'm pretty sure everyone knew I was a SPED kid, but I still didn't like being called out.  I gathered me things and followed her out and down to the SPED room.  There were the usual pleasantries of asking about my summer and my family.

We sat down and she pulled out a folder with my name on it.  She talked to me about what we were going to focus on this year.  It all involved reading and spelling, of course.  Like I thought, she gave me a new list of words I was expected to spell correctly.  She told me my annual IEP meeting was scheduled for a couple weeks from now.  Every year, Dad had to come and meet with the teachers, though he usually did multiple times a year.  The formal meeting was a legality – he had to sign papers acknowledging my education plan and the teachers had to explain everything.

The bell rang and it was on to history class.  I trudged through the rest of the day, listening to teachers go on and on about expectations.  No phones, no gum, no food.   Tests, quizzes, papers, SAT prep.  Already, I was exhausted.  I had several hours of homework for the evening.

Since it was the first day of school, Pippa came to pick up the little kids from school.  Most of the time, Molly and I would take them home on the subway with us.  I walked to the elementary wing and saw them greeting their mother.  Felix was talking a mile a minute, showing her an art craft he'd done that day.  Raina was clinging to her, obviously exhausted from her first full day of school.  I imagine it had to be a bit of a shock having to go to school for a full seven hours.

Pippa carried Raina in her arms and held Felix's hand as we walked to the door. 

"How was everyone's day?" she asked Molly and me.

"Great!" Molly said, and proceeded to tell her all about her day.  I just let her talk, not really in the mood to talk about how I already wanted to quit.  I just let Pippa and her kids talk as we walked and rode the subway.  When we got home, I went straight to my room to take a little nap.  Too much thinking.

I was awoken when my door was opened an hour or so later.  Dad was home.  "Hey, kiddo," he greeted me as he walked in.

I pushed myself to sit up, gathering the covers around me.  "Hey," I mumbled as he sat on my desk chair.

"How was school?"

"Fine," I said, rubbing at my eyes.  I really didn't want to get into details.

"Did you meet with your SPED teachers?"

"Uh-huh," I said.

"And?"

"And I'll meet with them twice a week.  I have a new list of words to learn to spell," I reported.  He nodded.

"I'm meeting with them in a couple weeks," he reminded me.  "Anything you want me to bring up?"

"Not really," I said.  He just nodded and we were quiet for a few moments.  Dad and I weren't as close as we once were.  Back when it was just us, we were thick as thieves.  Now that I was a teenager, I was going to him less and less.

"Can you babysit on Friday?" he asked me.  "Pip and I have a dinner thing."

"Sure, I guess," I said.  "Can I have Cara over?"

"Sure," he said.  He seemed to like Cara for the most part.  We got into some shenanigans together, but nothing crazy.  It would be nice to have a little extra money.  "Thanks.  Dinner will be ready in fifteen."

I stretched as he stood up and walked out of the room.  I went to the bathroom and then went to the living room, where the twins were watching PJ Masks and playing with Legos.  I sat with them and joined in their building.  There was something relaxing about playing with Legos.

"We're making an airport," Felix told me.

"Very cool," I said.  For the next ten minutes I played with my little brother and sister.  Sometimes I got a little jealous of them.  They had their mom and dad.  They had each other.  I'd grown up as an only child and they had built-in playmates.  They were both really happy kids and I liked being their big sister.

Pippa asked me to set the table so I did.  Soon, we were all sitting around the table.  All the kids were exhausted from the first day of school.  The twins were practically falling asleep at the table.  They barely ate half their dinner.  When most of us were finished, Lin picked up Raina and took her to her room to change her into her PJs, then came back for Felix.  He read them a quick bedtime story and then tucked them into bed at 7:30. 

Molly helped with the dishes and I started on my homework.  Two hours was light, if you'd believe it.  I knew the teachers would start to pile it on soon.  I finished around nine and decided to go to bed a little early.  Dad came in and kissed me goodnight.

Morning came too quickly.  I must have been more tired than I thought because Dad had to drag me out of bed.  It was Friday, at least.  After making it through another school day, Molly and I picked the twins up from kindergarten and we rode the subway together.  Felix and Raina ended up falling asleep on the couch watching TV because they were so tired.

Dad got home around six and immediately started getting ready to go out.  He had to wear a tux, which I knew he hated.  Pippa looked amazing in her red dress.  I had to turn away when Dad started getting handsy with her.  Ewww.

Cara came over about 6:30 and Dad put us in charge of ordering pizza.  We got cheese for the twins and we got Hawaiian for us, along with a bunch of breadsticks and soda.  Dad and Pippa kissed everyone goodbye and then Cara and I were in charge.

We played hide and seek with the twins for a while.  Molly kept to herself in her room with her iPad.  The twins were fun to play with.  Around 8:00, we put them to bed after reading them a couple stories.  After that, Cara and I had the night to ourselves.  We popped some popcorn and signed into our Netflix account.

My phone dinged with a text from Diego, another kid who lived in our building.  He didn't go to Hunter, but he was hot and I had a bit of a crush on him.

Hanging out on the roof.  Come up?

I smirked and showed the text to Cara.

"Let's go!"

I began to get up, then remembered we were supposed to be babysitting the kids.  "What about the twins?"

"They're in bed," she reminded me.  "Molly can take care of them if they get up."

I knocked on Molly's door and poked my head in.  "Hey, Cara and I are gonna go up to the roof for a while."

She narrowed her eyes at me. "I don't think Mom and Dad would like that."

"It's fine," I told her.

"I'm telling," she threatened.  Such a goody two-shoes.

"No you're not," I countered.  "Because if you do, I'll tell the whole sixth grade that you wet the bed this summer."

Her face flushed red, I grinned, and I headed up to the roof with Cara.