Wake up, wake up! Hey, Princess, time to get up!"
Tasha stayed in bed, pretending to sleep. Her mum, Ariana, sounded firm but kind. Today was university move-in day, so it felt even more important.
Her mum tapped her back, gently at first, then a bit harder. "Hey, Mum, I'm sleeping," Tasha mumbled into her pillow. "I'm super tired from shopping yesterday. Can I have just thirty more minutes?"
Ariana sighed. "Seriously, Tasha? I knew you'd say that! I let you sleep until eight AM already! You want another thirty minutes?"
Tasha's eyes opened fast. "What?! It's eight AM?!" She sat up quickly, caught in her blankets. Her room felt like a bomb waiting to go off. "Why was the night so short today? Mum, please help me get ready, okay? I don't want people staring at me when I walk to the dorm."
Ariana raised an eyebrow. "Walk to the dorm? I thought I'd drop you at your dorm building."
"Mum, please, let's not start again," Tasha begged, looking for clothes. "We talked about this. Just help me pack the last few things."
"But I really—" Ariana started, but Tasha stopped her.
"Fine! You can drop me at the campus gate. That's my final offer, Mum."
Ariana's lips curved into a small smile. "Alright, that's fine. Go shower. I've put your outfit out and the bags in the hall. You have ten minutes to shower. Ten minutes, no more."
Tasha smiled big, feeling relieved. "Okay! Ten minutes, Madam Timekeeper, nothing more! I love you, Mum, so much! You're the best ever!"
"Nine minutes left!" Ariana called, walking to the door.
"Oh my God, Mum, you're impossible!" Tasha groaned, but she grinned as Ariana chuckled and left.
Fifteen minutes later, Tasha ran down the hall, hair still wet, to the dining table. It smelled like coffee and pancakes.
"Hey, Best Mum, I bet I wasn't too slow today?" Tasha said, sitting down.
Ariana drank her coffee, looking firm but with a kind sparkle in her eyes. "Hmm, what's with that look? I said ten minutes, and you took almost twenty! And now you're trying to sweet-talk me? You lose." She pointed to the food. "Come eat. Because you took fifteen minutes in the bathroom, you now have five minutes to finish breakfast."
Tasha's mouth dropped open. "What?! Mum? How can I eat this in five minutes? That's crazy! And your talking took almost ten minutes! I could have eaten then!"
Ariana raised an eyebrow again. "And with your talking, don't you know your five minutes is now four minutes and twenty seconds?"
"No way!" Tasha yelled, almost falling down the last steps to her seat.
"Please don't slip," Ariana warned, smiling. "Because that will take hours, maybe days, to fix."
"Mum, you're so impossible!" Tasha said, and they both laughed loudly.
"Did you call Sabrina yet?" Ariana asked, pushing the syrup closer to Tasha.
"Oh yeah, I did," Tasha replied, taking a big bite of pancake. "She went to campus yesterday for registration and checked out our dorm."
"I see, that's good," Ariana said softly. "Are you ready for this, my dear?"
Tasha swallowed, feeling both excited and a little scared. "As ready as I'll ever be."