*Adam's POV*

I tapped my pencil slow and steady to the beat of a song I had arranged in my head. I already had made a demo song of it, but wasn't quite satisfied.

I glanced at the clock, not surprised to see it blinking 3:52. My eyes were weary and dilated as I stared at my laptop once more. I had been up since 7 am, but still no lyrics had come to mind. I decided I'd try to get some rest before the sun came up, so I turned off my laptop and threw my pencil to the side.

As I attempted to pull my comforter all the way to my chin, I lost my grip and punched myself in the eye.

"Ahh! Man! Ouch..." I cried out in pain as I squinted my swollen eye.

I got up and flipped on the light. I adjusted my eyes to the bright light and turned my doorknob. I didn't have a mirror in my room, so I walked out into the hallway and headed toward the bathroom.

"Ooh..." I stood back and examined my eye in the dim light. There was a noticeable color change when I looked at the skin around my eye. It was very swollen and pinkish red.

I sighed and headed back down the hall to my room where I decided, at long last, I would get some sleep...

The next morning, my eye had gone from bad to worse! My eye was completely swollen shut and it looked black and blue.

I laughed as I thought about how funny it would have been to see myself punch myself in the eye.

"Ha," I laughed. I guess working out really payed off after all! I had been doing P96 for about three months now and could tell that I had gained a lot of muscle, especially in my biceps. Which, to be honest, when no one's around, I flex and like to see the bulging muscles in my arms and my back.

I decided that I'd take a trip to the nearby Wallgreens after I finished making myself two pieces of toast.

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*Crystal's POV*

I sighed as I looked at myself in the long, rectangular mirror sitting against the wall on the other side of the room. I sucked in my stomach until the air in my chest popped.

I ran over to my bed and collapsed in a heap on top of the unmade full-sized bed. My comforters were a dark blue with white little anchors sporadically placed on the bed spread. My sheets and pillows matched the nautical theme of my room.

I had always been so intrigued by the sea. It was my favorite pastime- thinking about the sea and the strong ocean currents that I wish sometimes, would pull me out to sea, away from all the struggles of life...

It had been two years since my mother had passed away, but I still couldn't believe it. Every day I would sit waiting for my mom after school, willing my imagination to play along. When my dad would come through the garage door, I would jump up expecting to see my mother standing there, bringing in loads of groceries apologizing for being late.

The thought played out in my head and a few tears streamed down my face just thinking of my beautiful mother.

She had straight blonde hair that fell just below her shoulders. She had a round face with beautiful features. But the thing I missed the most about my mother was her beautiful, crystal green eyes. They could search someone's whole soul- their whole being! She could tell what someone was thinking or feeling just by looking at them with a tilt of her head. My mom would come into my room and sit on the edge of my bed and just stare at me with her big green eyes until I gave in and told her what was wrong. Of course, then I hated it, but now I wished with my whole being that she would be there sitting on the edge of my bed just looking at me.

I always wondered what she was thinking when she looked at me like that, but I never did ask her. Now I would have to live my life never knowing...

I looked at my alarm clock that sat on my vanity on the other side of the room.

"Shoot!" I sat up and willed myself to get up. It was 9:43 and I had to make it to work by 10. The sun had been up for a while, but I didn't feel like going outside. I wiped away the black streaks from my running mascara and got my things together.

I grabbed my keys off the counter, wrote my dad a quick message on a post-it-note and ran out to my car. The time on my digital clock on the dashboard read 9:49. I had eleven minutes!