Ah she screamed as she sat up clutching the misbehaving smartphone in her hands What is wrong with this thing She poked the screen She shook it and swiped the screen but the beeping and thrashing wouldn’t stop Emily her father shouted through the door What are you listening to in there at this hour It’s my phone Emily shouted back She thumped the phone’s screen with the side of her fist as her father thumped the locked door Turn it off this instant he shouted I’m trying Dad she wailed back at him But the phone wouldn’t stop In fact it seemed to be getting louder Emily her dad roared from the hallway Turn that thing off Emily rolled her eyes and flipped the phone over She popped off the back and knocked the battery onto the floor Finally there was quiet Emily dropped the phone on the bed and let her head fall back on her pillow She sighed as she sank into it wishing she could just go back to sleep Ugh she said It’s not even breakfast yet and
this day is already a mess Such a typical Tuesday Thank you her dad snapped through the still closed door Now get yourself dressed and come down for breakfast Emily sat up on the edge of her bed and glared at the door What’s his problem she muttered to herself Emily’s shower was cold That happened sometimes when you live with your parents and two older brothers the hot water doesn’t last very long But when Emily thumped down the stairs she passed her brother Liam still in his robe and carrying a towel his hair still dry You didn’t shower yet she asked stopping on the landing He knocked into her with his shoulder Out of the way squirt he said Emily snarled at him as he passed Well there’s no hot water left so have a fun cold shower she shouted as he reached the top of the stairs When he’d closed the bathroom door she added Moron Emily stepped into the kitchen feeling cranky
and honestly not very clean She never felt very clean after a shower with no hot water It didn’t help her mood that as soon as she walked into the kitchen her socks were soaked in a puddle of warm brown water that was spreading across the floor Ugh she said stepping back from the puddle What is with this day Something seems off Sorry sorry Mom said She was crouched on the kitchen floor frantically wiping at the huge spill with a wad of paper towels as big around as a loaf of bread What happened Emily asked She grabbed a dish towel and joined her mom on the kitchen floor I wish I knew Mom said I set it to make a pot of coffee went to get dressed for work and came back to this Together Emily and Mom wiped at and pushed around the little lake of coffee Several times they had to shoo away Tic Tac and Toe the family cats who bounced around the kitchen lapping at the puddles when they found a dry perch They’ll be fun today Mom said all jazzed up on my coffee Shoo you pests It took a few minutes and a lot of paper towels
but Emily and Mom got the spill all soaked up Mom threw out the wad of paper towels as Emily stood at the sink wringing out her dish towel watching the coffee waterfall stream off her hands and down the drain The towel which used to be white with a blue stripe was now an ugly faded brown Does coffee stain Emily asked Mom smirked and nodded Oops Sorry Emily said hanging the soggy towel over the faucet Mom shrugged It was a seventy-nine-cent towel she said I can live with that What I’m worried about is this coffee machine The machine was brand new Dad had given it to Mom for her birthday only a week before It was sleek black and gold It had settings for all the different coffee drinks Mom liked For the past week Mom had been making endless cappuccinos lattes mochas espressos It had her pretty wired most of the time and weird too This morning though Mom’s energy had a good target because the new machine had poured a whole day’s worth of coffee all over the kitchen floor
