Morning in the Stevenson household is like morning anywhere else. Jenna and Tim wake up earlier than they'd like; they briefly squabble over who has to go grab the paper (Jenna loses the argument this time. Tim probably will tomorrow), and then they go wake the kids. Emily's easy -- seven years old isn't too bad. The oldest two, however, are much tougher. Brianna is 14 and Jake is 16, and neither one wakes up before noon willingly.
Still, it's not that bad. At least their schedules are reasonably in sync. Tim leaves around 7:30 for the office, followed by Jenna at 8:15 -- she drops Emily on the way in to work. The teens are both in high school now, and Jake can drive, so they take off at 8:30 -- not that Jake likes driving his sister into school, but since he'd lose his car if he didn't, he puts up with it.
And so they gather 'round the breakfast table, with the older teens sullen and sleep-deprived, Emily her usual bundle of energy, and Tim and Jenna trying to impose order on the day.
"So, what's going on after school?" Jenna asks, pouring milk on Emily's cereal.
"I have soccer practice," Brianna yawns.
"Great. Do I have to wait around for her?" complains Jake.
"No, I can pick her up. What are you doing, though, that it's an issue?" asks Tim.
"He's got a date tonight," says Brianna.
"It's just a...thing," mutters Jake.
The conversation continues on for a moment, until Tim has to go to work; he walks over to the shoes, bends down, and slips his foot into the first half of his pair of dress shoes. He looks down at the second, and slides that on, too. Straightening up, he opens up the door, and heads out to his car, yawning and quickly closing the door behind him.
***
"Bye Mom. I'm taking Twerp-anna to school," Jake calls from the doorway.
"Don't call me that, Jerkwad." The teenage girl angrily shoved her feet in her flats, storming away to the car before Jake could reply.
He watched after her. It was waaay too easy to set her off. He slipped his skate shoes on, not bothering with the laces. They were practically falling apart, anyways, with the sole peeling off and the fabric on the inside shredding freshly with every step. He'd been meaning to get new shoes for a while now, and with his date tonight... Maybe he'd stop at a shoe store on the way home from school.
Brianna was sitting in the passenger seat and looking out the window by the time he got there. "Ready to go, sis?"
"Don't talk to me."
Jake shook his head as the engine turned over.
***
"Kids," Jenna says, as her two oldest children depart. Walking over to the door, she spots a piece of lint on her pantyhose. Wrinkling her face, she flicks it off. It drifts slowly down, setting in her red pump. She can't help but feel for the lint, but her thoughts are interrupted as Emily rushes down the stairs. "Okay Mom, let's go."
The two are out the door and in the car before you could count to three. She drops Emily off at school, and watches as she skips through the schoolyard toward the door. Where do kids get that kind of energy?
Chuckling to herself, she heads off to work.
***
The house was empty of people, after each of the inhabitants passed through the hall and kitchen, not a single one so much as stepping into the living room. Should any tiny, shrunken people be inside the building (as if!) they'd have to pass the entire day free from the influence of giant humans, at the mercy of whatever other risks may exist, usually far beneath the notice of a normal...
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