"Litten, wake up!"

"What?" Litten groggily said, rubbing his eyes.

"I let you sleep in," his mom explained. "But now I need to drive you to school. Get ready to leave in 10 minutes."

"What?" he said. "This is the one day I wanted to ride the bus!"

"I thought you were complaining about how much you didn't want to ride the bus," his mom told him.

"Yeah, but now I know Pokémon," Litten said. "Anyways, do we have football gear?"

"Football gear?" his mom said.

"Yeah, I'm going to try out for the school football team," he said.

"I thought you play badminton and lacrosse ultra-competitively," she said. "And besides, I thought you don't like football."

"But now I want to play," Litten said. "OK, I'm going to get ready for school."

Litten hopped out of bed went to the bathroom and brushed his teeth. He washed his fur and straightened it.

"Ready to go, Mom," Litten said.

Litten hopped his mom's BMW and opened his phone.

3 New Messages, it read.

7:08 AM - Cyn_da_real11: You riding the bus today?

7:15 AM - Cyn_da_real11: No?

7:16 AM - Cyn_da_real11: Well, see you at school

"Dang it," Litten said. "I haven't responded in almost an hour..."

Litten quickly typed a response back.

7:55 AM - Litt3n: "Sorry overslept"

7:55 AM - Litt3n: "My bad should have told you in the morning"

7:55 AM - Litt3n: "See you at school"

Litten sighed and put his phone away.

"Why do I have to blow everything?" he said.

Litten sat in the car while his mom drove, watching all the other cars go by.

I wonder how many of those people are feeling nervous, or insecure, or worried too, Litten thought. There must be at least ten people on this highway. There has to be.

When his mom dropped him of at school, Litten realized that there wasn't anyone in the parking lot.

"Shoot," Litten said. He sprinted towards the doors and raced in.

Litten slammed the door with a little too much force, because everyone looked at him.

"Sorry," he said. He went to the back corner and sat next to Rowlet.

"Overslept?" Rowlet asked.

"Yeah," Litten said.

Litten found the academics quite easy. He quickly breezed through his English assignment, finished his math sheets and annotated the history article.

I really hope that the academics get harder, he thought. But at least I'm making good friends here. Now I can catch up on some sleep.

Litten closed his eyes and everything faded to black.