Chapter Text
At exactly 5:30am, Tommy Shepherd's alarm went off. He pressed snooze and went back to bed.
At exactly 5:35am, Tommy Shepherd's alarm went off. Again, he pressed snooze, and went back to bed.
At exactly 5:40 am, Tommy Shepherd's alarm went off. And again, he pressed snooze, going back to sleep.
This routine continued until 6:30am when Tommy's mom, Mary Shepherd, came into the room. Mary was not happy.
"THOMAS SHEPHERD! WAKE UP!" Mary yelled at Tommy as she yanked off his blankets. He simply groaned and curled into a ball, which just fueled her anger. "I'm not driving you to school if you're running late."
And with that, she walked out of Tommy's room, slamming the door behind her.
Many moments later, Tommy groggily sat up. He rubbed his eyes, yawned, and stretched. He hated school and he hated mornings, but he new that he couldn't afford to be late again. He planned to sit for a couple of minutes, however one look at his phone told him that there wasn't enough time. The time was 6:47am.
After slowly climbing out of bed, Tommy made his way to the bathroom. He finished what he needed to do in there, yet something stopped him from leaving. He saw something shiny, like silver, standing out greatly on his dark brown hair in the mirror. He reached to grab it, thinking that it was probably just a trick of the light since he was so tired. But, upon actually grabbing what he saw, he discovered that it was a white strand of hair.
A white hair? he thought. Figuring it was from the stress that was being caused by school and his parents, Tommy plucked the hair from his head and went back to his room. The time was 6:51am.
Once he was back to his room, he picked out his clothes. A plain black shirt, a green-and-black flannel shirt, a pair of underwear, his binder, some gray jeans, a random pair of socks, and a random pair of Converse. Tommy got dressed as quickly as he could and ran out of his room right after, and made his way to the kitchen. The time was 6:57am.
In the kitchen, he grabbed a water bottle and a few random food items from the pantry. Tommy then ran to the front door, where his backpack was, and shoved the food and water in. The time was 6:59am.
"I'm leaving!" Tommy told no one in particular as he left his house to go to school.
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As Tommy speed walked to school, his thoughts drifted back to the white hair he found earlier. He's never heard of anyone his age getting white hair, even from stress, but Tommy figures anything is possible. The time is 7:05am.
So close, yet so far. Tommy makes it inside of his school right as the bell rings. His first period teacher would send him to the office if he went to class, so he just went to the office instead.
"Um... excuse me?" Tommy tried, and succeeded, to get the attention of the lady sitting at the front desk.
"Yes?"
"I was late."
"Name and grade?"
"Thomas Shepherd, 9th grade."
"Alright, dear. I'll print out a pass for you- oh. Thomas, you've been late 5 times now! I'm sorry, but you can't go to class. You'll have to see the guidance counselor first. I'll write you a pass for that."
"Oh, uh... Okay."
The lady at the front desk wrote a pass for Tommy and gave him directions to find the guidance counselor's office. Tommy thanked her and left the office.
When he was out of the office, he let out a sigh and thought This is going to be a long day...