The fact that summer was over seemed to mean nothing to her family. As summer neared its end, all Ally could think about was that it was back; the subconscious setting of the alarm on snooze, the resulted frantic and chaotic mornings, and the hours upon hours of homework, papers, tests and quizzes. For the first time in her life, she couldn’t be any less thrilled to head back to school. After what could have been labeled the best summer of her life, Ally was in no way ready to be “detained” once again. Endless summer nights were now crammed into two day weekends cut short at 11 PM curfew. Late night cram sessions, early morning starts, and ACT practice replaced sleeping, hanging out, and time to relax. However, Ally had no time to dwell on this now because before she knew it, it would be 5:30 AM and time to start what would soon become her grueling daily routine.
The familiar beeping sequence of her alarm prompts Ally to roll over to her side, as she lets out a grunt. Five minutes later she drags herself out of bed and trudges across the hall to begin her project of getting ready for the day. Makeup and hair products are strewn across the entire distance of the bathroom, making the counter hardly visible. If one thing is guaranteed, it’s that Ally is going to make a whole-hearted attempt to look semi-decent on the first day, no matter how much she’s dreading it.
What hope there once was for a good first day had vanished by the time that Ally stepped foot outside her house. Between the time that she biked to and from school, anything that could possibly go wrong surely did.
From the very start of the day, her untamable frizzy hair disagreed with the moist and humid blanket of warmth that sat inside of the school, making the hours she spent trying to style it, one huge waste. Not to mention her makeup, carefully and skillfully applied, which ends up half melted and worn completely off of her face. Nothing is going her way, including the two AP papers and what looks like at least three hours of homework, assigned to her on the very first day of school.
Frustrated and extremely tired, Ally is determined to get home as soon as possible in order to start her tremendous amount of homework. Caught up in her horrific day, she fails to notice a newspaper blowing down the street, and in fact, heading straight towards her. In a last second attempt to avoid collision, she swerves directly into a crack, and the newspaper proceeds to get caught up in her tires. Ally crumples up the newspaper and hastily shoves it into her backpack, half-laughing at how much of a “good citizen” she is, despite how treacherous her day has been. After what seemed like possibly the worst first day of school, ever, Ally arrives home safely and surprisingly in one piece, aside from a couple of minor cuts and bruises. Sighing, she plops down onto her designated chair in the family room and begins to sort through the mess of papers she had acquired throughout the day.
A couple of hours and several homework assignments later, Ally reaches into her backpack fumbling to find a calculator, and unexpectedly grabs a crumpled wad of paper. Confused for a couple minutes, Ally finally remembers her not-so-great encounter with the newspaper from earlier in her day. As she turns it over in her hands, something stands out in the text and catches her eye. “BABYSITTER NEEDED”.
Normally, Ally would not be one to jump at the chance to run around entertaining little kids. However, after such a dreary first day, something inside prompts her to keep on reading. It also gives her something else to do in order to avoid finding that calculator which allows her to start her ever confusing Trigonometry homework. Five minutes later, Ally is convinced that she needs this job; the average rate is triple minimum wage. She convinces herself that she can’t miss out on an opportunity like this, and grabs a spare post-it to scribble down the telephone number.
The next day, Ally is heading over to the house to meet the mother that is offering her the job. On her way out, she begins to question her judgment and asks herself “Will I have enough time in my day to babysit… Aaaaand finish my homework? What if I fall behind in school – Is the money worth it?” Determined not to talk herself out of the job, Ally pushes her worries out of her train of thought because she hasn’t even gotten offered the job yet.

“Macy, Alex, Sara…Macy, Alex, Sara…”, Ally repeats under her breath. Tomorrow, these will be the three toddlers that she will babysit every day after school. Although she could not really believe she accepted the job, Ally is convinced that she can handle it. After meeting the kids for the first time, her motives have also quite drastically changed. Yes, she will be making quite a large sum of money, but she’ll also be greeted everyday by three glowing, and somewhat toothless, adorable smiles. No matter what has happened at school, home, or in her social life that day, Ally can put everything aside and escape for a couple of hours. One day, one newspaper, and one call later, and the year is already looking a whole lot better than it did a short 24 hours ago.