It's not that I normally can't wake up early in the mornings, I've done so plenty of times for work and school, prayer etc. But when I've been up 'til 3am trying to register for classes and figure out all sorts of other school details which has left me frazzled, I an not the person you want to drive you anywhere, let alone speak to anyone.

Such is what my brother learned last weekend.

While blissfully in a deep slumber, I'm awokened by a really annoying "Baji [meaning "sister" in Urdu]baji, baji,...baajiii...BAJI.....BAJI!"

My right eye slowly opens and sees my brothers tall figure looming in the doorway.

"Hmmm?"

"You need to drop me to work, we need to leave in about 10 minutes. BAJI!!!"

My right eye moves to the sidetable digital clock. It's bright red numbers show "6:19AM". HA, kid must be crazy. Must've gotten up an hour earlier and now thinks he'll get me to drive him all the way to work. HA! Just pretend you didn't hear anything...

Didn't work. He's now shaking my shoulder, "Baji, seriously. I need someone to drop me to work now"

I knew this - my parents had assigned this duty to me the night before but in that state of mind I thought that if I ignored him long enough he would magically *poof* away. But then my mind slowly realized the verbal bashing I would get had my brother decided to wake my dad up instead and I had to chuck my plan out and relent. "FINE. I. AM. UP. OKAY!? Why can't you get a normal-hour-of-the-day job like normal people?"

My grumbling went unnoticed as he was already out of the room.

I somehow made it out the door and into the chilly car with the right clothes on and started towards his workplace. The ride itself was uneventful. My sleepy state didn't fade away and during the ride I did find myself talking nonsense and laughing at myself.

Solution? Coffee. Tim Horton's coffee. I turn into the first drive-thru I see and pull up to the intercom.

"Can I help you?" comes a half-bored and annoyed voice.

"Uh yeah, can I get a - wait, what do you want?" I say turning to my brother

"What?" says the intercom voice

"What? No - wait..hold on..." I say, turning back and forth from the intercom to my brother

"Medium, one milk, one sweetner" says my brother

"What? Sweetner?" Eww..

"Sorry?" says the intercom, impatience growing in the static-ridden voice.

"One medium, one sweetner, one milk - no wait, what was it? One milk, one sweetner. Oh and a medium, no, large, double-double"

"Is that all?"

"Uhhh....no, I mean yes"

"Okay total is $2.65. Drive through."

Pulling out a $5 bill out of my purse I roll up to the window. The expression of the girl at the window matches the intercom voice exactly.

Now this is the point where the drama went down. Either I suddenly blacked out for a few milliseconds, or just plainly fell asleep, or it's everyone's else's fault. I maintain the latter.

I handed over my $5 bill and immediately received my change back in my hand. Huh? How did she know what I would give her...? I stared down at the palm of my hand trying will all my might to do the math in my head (did I mention my hatred for calculus - it pretty much extends to all math in general) it just didn't look like enough. I had $1.85 in my hand. Was this change meant for the car that had been ahead of me when I pulled up? HOW DID SHE KNOW WHAT I'D GIVE HER?!

When I looked up at her she was handing me a medium sized coffee cup which I took and handed to my brother. Then waited...

And she waited...

"Uh, can I get my coffee, please?" I say, trying to be nice

One eyebrow raised she responds "I gave you the other one"

"Um, no you didn't" I said, picking up her tone.

"Yes she did" spoke up my brother, already sipping on his own coffee and gesturing towards the car cup holder.

I looked at him, then at the coffee, back at him, and then at the girl. "But how...when did she...?"

From the time she gave me the change and I looked up to get my brother's coffee, somehow another one had appeared in the car. I do not remember taking that one from her. I did not, at that moment, see or remember her giving me my coffee. I started to drive away, unsure of what happened around me just then.

"Did you see her give me my coffee!?" I asked. I needed answers.

"I'm getting late for work" was the reply.

But for some reason, I was unsettled. This not-so-nice girl had ripped me off. She just randomly passed off some change on me and I was supposed to just take that? NO. No sir. 7am or not, it was the principle of the matter. The prin-ci-ple. She can't choose to give me a certain amount of change. I reserve the right to say "keep the change". MY right.

"NO!" I announced, "she ripped me off! Look! She didn't know I'd give her a $5! How could she?! NO! I want my change! She's owed me a dollar something...!"

I whipped the car around and made a sharp turn back into the drive-thru lane.

My brother started laughing and shaking his head at my suddenly resolute speech and actions, "baj, it's only $0.50!!"

"What?"

"$0.50! It's not worth it...hahahahahahahahahaha"

At this point I was paused right before the intercom, "really?" I said perplexed, and glanced down at my hand, still gripping the change, "oh."

I'd already lost a certain amount of integrity during my first round-a-bout through that drive thru. I couldn't face intercom-girl again. So I did the only thing I could do and sped past the window looking the other way, with my brother shaking his head and still laughing at me.

Once we got back on the road, I burst into a maniacal sort of laughter and just couldn't stop. Seriously folks, it was borderline take-me-to-the-asylum kind of laughter. And I could stop until I got to my brother's workplace a couple minutes further down (in my defense, he kept replaying the scene and laughing himself, causing me to laugh even more). It was only after he got out of the car that I was able to calm down and drive away.

In retrospect, now that I've told a couple people this story, I've just made myself look like an idiot to the world. And each time I get this strange look of half-amusement and half-pity. W'sup with that? It was funny! Really! And the change...I mean you'd go back too, wouldn't you??

Wouldn't you...?

You're giving me that look too, aren't you?