>"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.
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?"
"...Why am I awake?"
<...subject awake="" because="" finished="" is="" period.="" required="" sleep="" subject="">>
"But it"s not even 3:30 yet."
>"But... I thought more modifications were required?"
>"...but it"s not even 3:30 yet."
>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 gla.s.s of the fast-release supplement and drank that instead, before rinsing his gla.s.s 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.
>
"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 sc.r.a.ped 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.
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---
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.