I wake up to my alarm at 5 AM feeling like I've been hit by a truck.

Every muscle in my body screams in protest as I roll out of bed. My shoulders ache from yesterday's drills, my legs feel like jelly, and there's a bruise on my hip from where Logan checked me into the boards. But underneath the pain, there's this weird sense of satisfaction.

I earned this pain. I proved myself worthy of it.

Tyler is still dead to the world, snoring softly with his biochemistry textbook acting as a pillow ...