I had woken up before the sun had even fully risen. Trying to fall asleep had since vanished as my eyes were wide open and my brain had geared to life rather quickly. The room was dim, with only the moody light of the streetlights outside to break through the opaque dark. It faintly hit Dream. He slept on his stomach with his face facing away from me and at his window. I could clearly see his figure, and his breathing was the only sound in the entire room aside from the white noise of the fan overhead.The sun should have been creeping up over the horizon sometime soon, even if it didn't look like it. I slipped out of bed and walked over to the door, carefully watching my step to make sure I didn't step on Patches. I pushed open the door, and I could hear Sapnap's snoring downstairs from here. Maybe it was good he slept on the couch.Stumbling through the dark hallway and down the stairs blindly, my hand was practically glued to the banister as I made my way down. Sapnap's snores only got louder the closer I got to the bottom.There was something peaceful about being the first one up, though. Even with Sapnap's obnoxious snoring in the background. I had the house to myself. It was a kind of tranquility you only got in either the latest hours of the night, or the earliest hours of the morning. It was like floating in one of those dark baths that were used to clear your mind.I flicked the lights on in the kitchen. I figured that as I was technically a resident of this house now, that I was granted permission to dig through Dream's food. The pantry was full of bags of chips and candy. Sour Patch Kids, Skittles, M&ms, he had them all. He almost had more sweets than actual food. But it was six in the morning and I was starving. What I ate was the least of my problems. I grabbed a box of cereal and poured it into a plastic bowl and followed it up with milk.I sat down at the marble island he had in the middle of his kitchen. It was the same color as his cat. He didn't seem to quite have a dining table. But at the same time, he lived alone. Did he really need one?After finishing eating, I ran out of things to do. Usually when I hit this point, I'd call my friends and play Minecraft with them. But, unfortunately, Minecraft was a bit too big to fit as a carry-on, and my two best friends were fast asleep.It was barely seven, the crack of dawn began to show. I had spent my entire morning listening to Sapnap's snoring and occasional toss and turn on the small couch. I scrolled aimlessly through Twitter at the island, liking whatever tweet popped up whether I actually read it or not. So when I heard the creaking of the stairs in the room next door, it was no surprise that my head would snap up as the tall boy in a plain white shirt and gray sweatpants shuffled into the kitchen.His hair stuck out in all directions. It was so fluffy and everywhere. His hair was always unkempt, but his morning bed-head was just the worst. It was like a giant tornado on top of his head. His hazel eyes squinted as he ran a hand through his tornado head.

"Mornin'," He mumbled, grabbing a stool and sitting next to me.

"What are you doing up this early?" I asked.

"I'm always up this early." He pulled out his phone. "Plus we have plans today."

"Do we?" I asked.

"Yeah," He said. His voice was low and croaky. It almost didn't sound like him. He shut off his phone after glancing at the time and looked at me. "We're taking you out to see America in person."

I raised an eyebrow, "Seriously? Where exactly?"

"Well we can't take you to Disney World or anything. Well..." He pondered for a moment before shaking his head. "Too far away. We're taking you down to the beach. Maybe walk around the pier." He shrugged. "And we'll go from there." 

"Why didn't you guys tell me?" I asked.

He smiled softly, and I could tell he was still half asleep. He still had squinty eyes. "It's a surprise. I accidentally slipped. Oops."

I laughed, "Your mouth is almost as big as your head."

He chuckled and pushed himself back up to his feet. "Did you have breakfast yet?"

"I had a bowl of cereal."

He reached the fridge. "You want eggs?"

"Yes please. Your cereal tastes like cardboard."

He laughed. "How'd you sleep last night?"

"Fine," I replied. "I hate how early I woke up, though. I usually sleep in till ten or eleven."

"Sleep warm?" He turned to me and looked at me with a tired gaze as he shut the fridge with his foot and two eggs in his hand.

"Yeah."

"Yeah, I bet you did, you absolute blanket hog!" His voice crescendoed and rattled my ears.

"What? I am not!" I said with a grin. I had never really slept in the same bed as anyone before, but I knew I was not a blanket hog. I wasn't trying to be one, anyway. "And why does it matter? It's so hot!"

He laughed, "It's only hot, George, because you're buried under the blankets we were supposed to share! I was so fucking cold last night."

He wanted to play that game. "Yeah? Well what's with the tossing and turning, huh? You can not stay in the same place! You kicked the blankets off."

"I did not. You're lying." He turned the stove on and cracked the eggs into the pan.

"The bruises I'm gonna have on the back of my legs by the end of the three months say otherwise."

"Why are you guys so loud?" A low drowsy voice mumbled in the room next door. From the darkness emerged a very sleepy Sapnap. His eyes were barely open as he came stumbling into the kitchen, and he had a thin throw blanket draped over his shoulders. He flopped on the stool next to me.

"Yeah George," Dream scoffed.

"You yelled first," I said.

"I was in the middle of a dream, dude," Sapnap said. I turned to Dream, and he smirked. We were thinking the same thing.

"You were in the middle of me?" He asked. Sapnap didn't even catch the joke as he rested his head down on the counter.

"Come on, Sappy Nappy, get up," Dream said, leaning over and shaking Sapnap by the shoulder. "We're going to the beach today."

"Can I sleep at the beach?" He mumbled from between his arms.

"No. We have to show George what America's all about."

"We can't do that later?"

"No. Get up. I'll cook you an egg."

Sapnap sat up. "Can it be sunny side up?"

"Sure, Sapnap. It can be however you want."

                                       ***

Looking back, maybe leaving my hot home with broken air conditioning in London to go to an equally hot country in the summer was not the wisest plan. Maybe leaving in the winter would have been a better choice. I would take millions of layers over burning to a crisp and being slathered with sunscreen all day.But Dream insisted on going outside when I was completely fine staying inside. Next thing I knew, I went from eating scrambled eggs at seven in the morning to walking down the pier that hovered over the sandy beach and cold ocean at nine.I had gone to the beach a few times in my life. It was a beautiful atmosphere; one where you could get lost in the perfect weather. And the beaches in Florida were no exception. As we walked down the pier, the salty smell of the ocean brushed past us, and the early morning brought on a cool breeze. However, despite it being nine in the morning when most everybody I knew was asleep, the beach was full. All around us I could hear children squealing from the ocean and music blaring as teenagers blasted rap music through their bluetooth speakers. At least the pier was roomy. We only saw a few dozen families out doing their own things, kids rushing to buy cotton candy, and couples sharing kettle corn.

"Watch out for the alligators, George," Dream said as we passed by a souvenir shop. "Last week a kid got inhaled by one."

I snickered, "You're lying."

He shrugged, "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not."

"You know, it's not all that far-fetched, George," Sapnap said. "Wild things happen all the time here. It seems like every week something happens somewhere in Florida that makes it on the news."( LIke: "man breaks into house to cook breakfast tells residents to go back to sleep" "man kidnaps people and forces them to play Yahtzee for 36 hours" "man bites off brothers cock after finding him sleeping with cousin")

"The people here are not that bad," Dream said.

"You can't talk Mr. I-almost-got-tased-by-the-police-at-fifteen. You are a typical Florida man."

He laughed, "Well if that's what you think, just go yeehaw your way back to Texas then."

He led us into an arcade. Retro sounds surrounded us like we were in the middle of a space war. Arcade machines lined the walls as well as racing and shooting games taking up the middle.

"Oh, I'm gonna destroy you guys," I said. "I am actually a master of arcades."....