Doing chores

Ruby woke to the gentle beeping of her alarm. Letting out a small groan, she reached over and smacked it a few times until it turned off. Sitting up in her bed, Ruby looked over and saw sunlight streaming through the open shades in her bedroom.

"Why do I have to wake up in the morning?" Ruby thought aloud. "The morning is evil."

However, Ruby eventually got up out of her bed, walking out into the hall. Currently, Ruby was on a break in between school years. Having finished her first year at Beacon, she and Yang had come back home to Patch. Ruby did miss Weiss and Blake, but she couldn't deny it was nice to have a nice, calm break with just her family.

Walking towards the staircase, Ruby didn't hear any noises coming from downstairs. Curious, she descended the stairs and took a look around. Where she expected to see someone sitting on the couch watching TV, there was no one, the TV screen black.

"Hello?" Ruby called out, waking across the room and into the kitchen. Like the living room, she didn't see anyone at all, although Zwei did perk up at the sound of someone speaking, raising his head off of his bed in the corner of the room.

"Hey, buddy," Ruby said, walking over and giving Zwei some head scratches. Zwei wagged his tail and gave a small arf of appreciation. As she stood up, Ruby saw a hand-written note on the counter.

Ruby,

Yang and I will be in town for most of the day.
While we're out, please get your chores done. I'm tired of reminding you every day.

If they're not all done by the time I'm home, I'm taking away your video games for a week.

Love,
Dad <3

Ruby shook her head and set the note down. Her dad had been on her for a week now about doing her share of the cleaning around the house. When she was younger, she'd always eagerly help out however she could. In recent years, though, she'd been more hesitant to do them. Not out of disrespect for her father. She just forgot to do them.

Now, though, it sounded like Tai was being serious. He wouldn't threaten her video games unless that was the case.

Fortunately, Ruby didn't have to remember what her chores were. Tai also left a helpful list for her on the other side of the note. The chores were as follows:

• Laundry
• Vacuum the living room
• Empty the dishwasher
• Bring in the mail
• Mow the lawn

Ruby chuckled. Seeing it all written down like this, it actually didn't seem like that much.

"Why was I putting this off for so long?" Ruby asked Zwei, who just tilted his head in confusion.

Ruby sighed and walked over to the cupboard, making herself a quick bowl of cereal before she got to work. She cared about her video games, but not enough to work on an empty stomach.