Monday morning at school, Lia was on a cloud nine.  She'd visited her top choice school over the weekend and had gotten to spend some one-on-one quality time with both parents.  Many teenagers would be horrified at the thought of spending that much time with their parents, but Lia truly loved and looked up to them.  As a senior, she knew this would be the last time she'd be living full time with them.

"Your outline is due by Wednesday," her AP Art History teacher instructed the class, "And your rough draft is due by next Monday."

She droned on as Lia diligently wrote the assignments down in her student planner.  It may have been slightly OCD, but she'd found it was the best way to keep herself on track.  There was something about checking items off a to-do list that gave her a sense of accomplishment. 

Her days were quickly becoming even more packed than they had been before.  Looking at the week ahead, she had two exams, a paper, plus regular homework each day and more SAT prep.  That didn't include any extracurricular activities.  She felt a wave of panic come over her, seeing all she needed to do.  Then she reminded herself that she'd decided to take the plunge and get a bit of extra help. 

Charlie Havens, a fellow senior and the school's resident drug dealer, was known to sell a variety of uppers to help kids stay up into the wee hours to study.  At Hunter, it was almost a necessity.  She flipped back through her student planner and found the sticky note with his number on it. 

As the teacher finished up her directions and people started to pack up their things, she pulled out her iPhone and typed a quick message.  He responded back within a minute, telling her to meet at his locker after school.  That took care of that.  She smiled when she saw a message alert from Ayden.  It was a picture of him standing in front of the Alexander Hamilton statue at Columbia in a goofy pose. 

Her thumbs flew over her screen with a response: Ask him how he kept going non-stop.  I need a nap.

The bell rang and she started to make her way to her next class, continuing to text with Ayden.  Technically, they weren't supposed to have phones out at all during the school day, but most teachers didn't have a problem with them being used between classes.  They texted about the get together she would be hosting that coming Thursday.  Her parents would be out of town and they'd given her permission to have a couple friends over.  It wasn't a full-out lie - she would just be having more people than she'd originally told them.  They'd have the place cleaned to perfection by the time her parents came home Sunday.

As she walked into her next class, she smiled again as she tucked her phone into her backpack. Maybe everything had been in her head with Ayden. Lots of couples spent time apart because of school and made it. They'd been together nearly three years and it would be such a shame to give up now.

Hours later, the school day finally ended. She had about five minutes until she had to meet a kid in the library for tutoring. Lia quickly stuffed her backpack, grabbed her jacket, and headed down the hallway to Charlie's locker.

Ever the rule follower, Lia felt her heart start to pound as she walked up to him. She got in trouble every once in a while like every teenager, but this was next level stuff. It was a prescription drug but she didn't have a prescription.  It could be potentially dangerous.  Lia reminded herself that tons of kids at Hunter and every school in America did this. It was the cost to get into top schools.

As instructed, she set her backpack on the floor with the top unzipped. She handed him $50 and he discreetly dropped a small bottle into the top of her bag as they made small talk. It was done in less than a minute.

—-

After tutoring, Lia slung her backpack over her shoulder and hurried towards her subway stop, feeling like all eyes were on her. Did she look guilty? She distracted herself by pulling out her phone and checking Twitter. Her eyes stayed glued to her screen the whole ride to Brooklyn.

Finally she arrived home to the piercing sound of screeching. Her mother was whisper-yelling at Stella to get off her brother, who was currently pinned to the floor.

"Moooooommyyy!!" He screamed as Vanessa tried to finish a phone call with one finger plugged in her other ear. Vanessa looked at her oldest daughter pleadingly.

Lia rolled her eyes at the audacity of her sister as she rushed over to break up the wrestling match. Sometimes she wondered what it would have been like to grow up as a twin. Would he or she feel as high strung as she usually felt?

She managed to peel Stella off of Sebastian as she yelled, "Give me Owlette!"

Lia could see the red plush doll from PJ Masks being held very firmly in Seb's arms. The little boy cried at the trauma he'd been through. "No! She's mine!"

Her parents had bought two of the same toy to avoid this very problem. Lia sighed and asked Seb to show them the bottom of Owlette's foot. It said Seb. They had labeled the toys to avoid disputes just like this one.

Lia crouched down next to her angry sister. "This one's Seb's,"'she told her gently. "See his name? Where do you think yours is?"

"I don't know!!" She confessed, bursting into tears. How could life seem so dramatic at two? Stella collapsed to the floor and Lia pulled her into her lap. After watching her cry for a few moments, Seb walked over hesitantly and held out his Owlette to his sister.

"Here, Stewwa," he told her. "You can borrow mine."

Lia felt her heart melt at her brother's kindness. Stella calmed down and accepted the toy from his twin.

"Fank you," she told him softly.

Vanessa was finally able to hang up her call and huffed, feeling overwhelmed. At least the screaming had stopped.

"What happened?" She asked, her heels clicking on the hardwood floor.

"Stella couldn't find her Owlette so she tried to take Seb's," she explained. "But Seb was very nice by letting her borrow it since she was so upset."

Vanessa rubbed at her forehead in concern. Lia had never been this emotional as a kid. Stella seemed to run hot and cold in an instant. And poor Seb got the brunt of his sister's wrath.

"Thank you Seb," she told her son, "And thanks for jumping in Lia. Stella, I'm pretty sure your Owlette is hiding in your bed."

The toddler quickly scampered off and Seb followed behind. Vanessa turned her attention back to Lia. "Did you have a good day?"

"It was fine," she said, standing up. "Where's dad?"

She sighed and brushed some hair away. "He got called into a meeting for Fosse/Vernon. He might not be back til late."

Lia could tell when her mother was stressed and it was happening a lot lately. Both her mom and dad worked a lot, but especially her dad. He always had multiple projects going and many demands on his time. Her mother was a badass trooper, not willing to fall into old societal norms of staying home full time with the twins. She'd never done that when Lia was growing up either.

"I could help with bath and bedtime later if you need it," Lia offered, though she really didn't have time. She had hours of work to do.

Vanessa's face lit up with relief. "That would be amazing," she told her. "You're not too busy?"

"No, I'll be fine," she assured her and then headed to her bedroom with her heavy backpack. After changing into a pair of joggers and a shirt, she opened up her planner and started to prioritize. It was going to be a long night.

A few hours and a change of clothes later, courtesy of a bath time gone rouge, Lia was working on her Calculus homework in bed. She could hardly keep her head off of her book. Even with the hour she had had between getting home and dinner, between helping her mom wrangle the twins and finishing up her journalism article that was due, she still had at least three hours left of homework. It was past midnight, and everyone, sans Lin who had yet to return home, had been asleep for hours.

She had made the decision that the pills would only be used for emergency purposes. She had finals coming up that next month, plus she would be flying cross-country for her dad's 'Walk of Fame' ceremony. She didn't want to get hooked fast. For now she would survive off all coffee and energy drinks.

Lia took the last gulp of her monster and looked at the open textbooks and torn off pages of notebook paper.
She still had at least another hour of quadratic equations left, not to mention her outline she still had to start. She gave a deep sigh, shaking her hair out of the messy bun she had thrown it into.

Needing a break from derivatives and realizing she was quickly headed towards depletion without a caffeine refill, she rolled off her bed and headed towards the kitchen.

Not wanting to wake anyone up, she used the light of her phone to guide her. Before she turned into the kitchen, she immediately ducked down behind, nearly dropping her phone in the process, when she heard her mom's voice. She was judging herself - well aware of how ridiculous it was for a seventeen year old to be scared to get caught awake when it was barely past midnight. But her mom wasn't feared in the courtroom for no reason, and, by the tone of her voice, she didn't sound thrilled to be up.

"This is the third time in the past week you're coming home after midnight, Lin!"

Even through the closed door and her lowered voice, Vanessa's message was clear: she was pissed. Lia crept over towards the bedroom door, sliding herself onto the cold hardwood.

"I told you I had to meet with my team to go over the Mary Poppins press coming up and then I had a call about the Heights movie and because everything is based off California time, it just got screwed up," Her dad, who she realized in that moment she hadn't heard his voice in over a day, spoke up. His voice was more even toned than his partner's, but equally as exhausted.

"And you know I have a thousand things to finish before we leave on Thursday," The couple were going to an annual conference for attorneys in the Northeastern area and Vanessa had been asked to speak. Lin normally wouldn't go with her, but he was proud that she was being recognized for her accomplishments. It would also be some time for them to reconnect for a few days away, which was becoming more apparent that it was needed than ever. "And Carla is breathing down my neck about being available. I needed you here!" Vanessa continued on in frustration.

"I couldn't just take off in the middle of everything," Lia could hear the footsteps on the creaky floorboards moving throughout the room. "They needed me to sign off,"

"God, this is worse than Hamilton, except now we have three kids instead of one. You're the one that always gets a break! I can't do this on my own!" Lia's grimaced as she leaned against the baseboard, hearing the crack in her mother's voice. She hadn't realized her mom had been so stressed.

The room went silent. Lia could hear low murmuring between her parents, but not anything that she could make out. The sound of her mom crying, lowered due to the time, made the sensitive teen tear up. She leaned closer to the door, but still only heard whispers from her dad as the cries of her mother became clearer.

"You're not on your own," Lin remarked, "I'm here. I'll do better,"

Lia swallowed the lump in her throat she didn't know she was holding. Her mom was always so strong. Even if she couldn't see her, she knew her mom was being vulnerable in a way she didn't allow herself to be around her kids.

A loud chiming of an alarm suddenly started going off, spooking Lia in the process. She looked around for a few beats before realizing the noise was coming from the phone in her pocket that she had set as a reminder to take a study break.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Lia seethed under her breath, losing all sense of reason as she manicially pressed her homescreen to try to get the alarming sound to stop. She hurried away from the bedroom door, tucking the phone under her shirt as she quickly, but quietly, made it into the kitchen. She finally pressed the godforsaken button to cancel the alarm, looking at her phone with betrayal.

She waited a moment to make sure she didn't hear any cries from her siblings's bedroom, knowing the last thing anyone needed was for them to be woken up in the middle of the night. When she was met back with silence, she put her phone down on the counter and let out a breath. She hated hearing her mom so upset. She understood her dad lived a busy life - that had always been the case. Their lives seemed more stretched than ever before.

She shook off the thoughts, knowing she couldn't come up with a solution right now, and quickly wiped away at the tears that pooled in her eyes. She got back to her original intentions: get caffeine.

Lia turned on the Keurig and then opened the fridge to grab some creamer. When she turned around to place the creamer on the kitchen island, she nearly had a heart attack for the second time that night.

"Dad, what the hell?!" Lia hadn't even heard Lin come up behind her and, if it wasn't for the light of the fridge, wouldn't have seen him either.

"Shhh!" Lin's eyes immediately went towards the hallway that led to the twins' bedroom, hoping that they hadn't woken up.  When it seemed clear, he walked over to turn one of the kitchen lights on, "We heard all the noise. What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep," Lia said as her breathing calmed down from being scared half to death.

"And coffee is going to help that?" He asked sarcastically, gesturing towards the creamer on the counter as Lia turned back towards the Keurig. She didn't answer, knowing it would only lead to her annoyance. Lin's heavy sigh as she continued making her coffee was enough to almost elicit an eye roll from her. "And what was that alarm going off a few minutes ago?"

"It was to wake me up after I went to sleep for a few hours," Lia lied through her teeth as she poured some creamer into her mug before putting it back in the fridge. It wasn't the truth, but it would hopefully get her father off her back if he thought she had taken a nap, "I have homework to catch up,"

Lin rubbed his hand over his face, "Emilia, you can't keep doing this,"

Lia dismissed the accusation as she leaned against the stove, "You're one to talk; you just got home,"

"I had work. And I'm not a teenager who has school in less than eight hours," Lin pointed out, "Lia, you can't get used to this type of time management - "

"Like you know anything about time management," Lia interrupted, muttering the words under her breath.

Lin was taken aback, not only by his daughter's brazen attitude but what she obviously overheard, "You were listening to mine and mom's conversation?"

"The walls aren't exactly thick, dad," Lia replied coldly.

"Okay," Lin said moreso to himself as he closed his eyes for a few beats before responding. "I'm not arguing with you in the middle of the night. What we were talking about in our bedroom is between us, and you need to go to sleep."

"You're a hypocrite!" Lia spoke up, even surprising herself at her sudden anger with her father. The two almost never fought. "You're lecturing me about time management meanwhile mom has to deal with everything and you get to go out and play celebrity!"

He knew there was a point to what Lia was saying and he wasn't shocked that she was sticking up for Vanessa. He knew how close their bond was, but the way she said it was a cheap shot, and they both knew it. He tried to remind himself that it was almost one in the morning, he was exhausted, and he had to be the adult. " We're clearly both over tired and this isn't going to go anywhere now. I'm going to get ready for bed. If I come back out and you're still awake, you're grounded - which includes canceling whatever plans you have for Thursday and staying with your grandparents until we get back."

Before Lia could even say anything, Lin had already headed off down the hallway, leaving no room for discussion. She fiercely hit the kitchen light off and grabbed her mug and phone before storming off to her bedroom. She nearly slammed the door, before remembering it was still the middle of the night. She opted to lock her door instead.

She paced around the room in frustration. Who did her dad think he was? Going on and on like she was a child? It was patronizing!

She set her coffee mug on her desk and went into her backpack. It was obvious that things had to change. Her mother was stressed, her father was infuriating, and Lia was in over her head with classes. If a pill could help her get more stuff done and be the anchor that her family so clearly needed, so be it. She found the baggie at the bottom of her bag, and swallowed one with a gulp of her coffee. She turned back to her homework and dived back in, a wave of adrenaline overtook her body.