Seriously, now?

After the recommended 20 minutes was over, Michael drained the tub before closing the curtain and diverting the water to the shower head. He then proceeded to scrub his body with a clean washcloth, rinse it out, and scrub the tub for any remaining residue. Once he was satisfied, he turned off the water, stepped out, and dried himself off. He put his clothes back on, stored the bag of salts in a cupboard, and took advantage of already being here to brush his teeth, then grabbed his empty glass and opened the door. Soon after he started heading down the stairs, he could hear small hurried footsteps rushing into the bathroom. Apparently someone had been waiting, he smiled. The fact that they hadn't bugged him while he was in there despite the unorthodox timing went to show the concern his little sisters had for him, which warmed his heart. He decided that he should do something nice for them this weekend, since they hadn't had much of a chance to hang out together since school started. Nothing immediately came to mind, though, so he put the thought aside for now and continued downstairs. After rinsing his glass, he moved the laundry from the washer to the dryer and hung all but one of his uniforms up to dry on the rack before heading to his room.

Looking at the time, he had just over an hour before he needed to sleep. He quickly turned on his computer and logged on to his bank's online portal to check the amount remaining in his account. He quickly closed down the usual offers for mortgages and credit cards that always popped up when he logged into his account - they were useless to him, as he didn't need and couldn't qualify for them if he wanted to. He then checked his remaining balance and sobbed internally.

<<Remaining Balance: $73.65. New component 'Finances' unlocked. Storing current value. Current finances will now be available upon request and inside status window.>>

Considering the loose change he still had from the grocery store, and what was left in his account, he currently had less than 80 dollars. It truly was enough to bring him to tears. He consoled himself that he'd get around 200 dollars tomorrow night, which he could use to start buying groceries for the new meal plan. He hadn't gone through the details with the system yet, but he was confident that it wouldn't be cheap, knowing the system.

Putting that aside for the time being, he spread out his Latin homework materials. He was about to activate his new fused reading and writing focus ability when he realized something.

"Hey, System?"

<<Awaiting Subject's query.>>

"Just how much does the enhanced focus improve, anyway?"

<<Subject's Level 1 Enhanced Focus ability improves his current reading and writing speed by 20 percent. When used in conjunction with various tiers of Enhanced Focus locations, this will increase.

Currently identified Enhanced Focus locations:

- School Library (0%)

- Home Study (5%)>>

"So this means that when I use it at school, I'll get the base 20%, but here I'll get 25%?"

<<Confirmed.>>

"Cool. Activate Enhanced Focus," he instructed, as he got to work.

---

Less than an hour later, he'd finished the work. As expected, he'd saved somewhere between 10-15 minutes from his initial estimate. It was now just after 9:15pm. He had planned to go to sleep at 9:30 in order to get his full 9 hours of sleep, and now had an awkward amount of time. Full of aches, brain a bit foggy from his enhanced work session, he was at a bit of a loss as to what to do. Normally this is where he'd fire up his game console and then end up going to bed way too late. Resisting the urge to do that, he decided just to give in to sleep and lay down on his bed, before activating the System-induced sleep. It had been a heck of a day, and he realized he was tired in more than one way, after all.

---

3:18 AM, September 5th, 2000 CE

Michael woke up abruptly, stretched and acknowledged the morning notification.

<<Subject has awoken. Displaying missed notifications:

Physique-??? => +0.01

Physique-??? => +0.005

Physique-??? => +0.005

Intellect-??? => +0.0005

Intellect-??? => +0.001

Existing Missions:

[Mission: Road to a Healthy Body (3/7)]

[Mission: English Homework]

[Mission: Latin Homework]

[Mission: Algebra Homework]

[Mission: Chemistry Homework]

[Mission: Regional Games]

[Mission: Upgrade Personal Territory - Bathroom]

[Mission: Empty your Bowl]

[Extra Credit: History of the World (on hold)]>>

Michael was shocked. His physical gains were twice what they had been the previous day! He was still felt a moderate amount of pain in his limbs, but not in any way debilitating. He made his way over to his exercise pad, but quickly stopped after he noticed the time on his alarm clock.

"...System?"

<<Awaiting Subject's query.>>

"...Why am I awake?"

<<...Subject is awake because Subject finished required sleep period.>>

"But it's not even 3:30 yet."

<<Subject only required 6 hours of sleep after upgrade of sleep ability.>>

"But... I thought more modifications were required?"

<<Modifications were related to temperature and ambient sound. Coincidentally, combination of change in weather and location of Subject's sleep facilities, as well as surprisingly quiet evening led to necessary conditions.>>

"...but it's not even 3:30 yet."

<<System congratulates Subject on an additional 3 hours available for Subject's day.>>

Michael gave up and continued on his way to the exercise area.

---

At 3:45, Michael went up to the kitchen. The coffee maker hadn't triggered it's morning run yet, and he was leery of messing with the settings and interfering with his parents' routine. He mixed himself a glass of the fast-release supplement and drank that instead, before rinsing his glass and heading upstairs to take his shower. Everything felt particularly still at 4 in the morning, and he was leery about waking anyone up. He knew his parents normally got up at 5, and they usually only went to bed at 11 or 12. He didn't want them losing out on the little sleep they were getting, so he took every step as lightly as possible, waiting a significant period between steps and transferring his weight as slowly as he could.

<<'Stealth' skill unlocked. Previous experience has been added to latest progress.>>

"Seriously? Now!?!" Michael practically screamed inside his head. He quickly calmed himself down and continued to tiptoe up the stairs. They still creaked once or twice, but he would wait an extra long amount of time after it happened just to make sure no one was rustling around. Eventually he reached his destination and slowly closed the door. Everything was oppressively quiet, the more so for focusing on it. Hesitantly, he removed his clothes and stepped into the tub, before drawing the curtain. He winced as the rings on the curtain scraped across the shower rod, then slowly reached down to the faucet. Making sure the diversion to the shower head was still set, he drew a deep breath. Finally, he closed his eyes and pulled.

The sudden rush of freezing water made Michael feel like he was standing under a waterfall, and he bit back a yelp as he jumped back out of the stream, waiting for it to warm up. Teeth chattering, he reasoned to himself that this 'probably' wasn't louder than a heavy rain, and shouldn't wake anyone up between multiple closed doors. He slowly washed himself off, still trying to be as quiet as possible.

---

A few minutes later, Michael slowly opened the door as quietly as possible. He then retraced his steps as slowly as possible. However, his heart dropped as the smell of fresh coffee reached his nose, and he trudged sadly into the kitchen.

"Good morning, sweetheart," Rowena chuckled.

"Morning, Mom. Sorry," he said sadly.

"Oh, don't worry about it," she said with a big grin on her face. "As luck would have it, I went to bed a bit earlier last night. If it's any consolation, you wouldn't have woken up anyone else - you all seem to have inherited your father's ability to sleep through anything. I'm more interested in why you're up so early."

Michael went over and poured himself a cup of coffee before returning to the table and responding. "Couldn't sleep. I went to bed pretty early myself last night, just before 9:30. I guess all the exercise really did me in."

Rowena nodded, "That'll happen. A change in your physical activity and body will definitely influence your sleep. It'll happen as you get older, too. But you should really make sure that you're getting enough sleep, and that you're eating enough. You haven't been eating as much this week, and that isn't good for you either."

"I know, Mom. I'm putting together a new nutrition plan with some help. But don't worry, I won't let it impact the family meals."

Rowena waved this off. "I'm not worried about that. We support you. As long as you're happy and healthy, that's all that matters to us. But it's very diligent of the school to offer an athletic diet!"

Michael smiled, not willing to correct her. "I'm gonna grab the laundry from the dryer and head downstairs to get some extra work done since I've got the time. I'll come up and say goodbye before you leave," he excused himself before making his way to the garage, coffee mug in tow. Rowena nodded, sipping from her own mug as she watched him fondly.