Elaine Gravehouse sat up and rubbed her eyes. She couldn't see their alarm clock from the top bunk, but she thought it might be about nine. And it's the Fourth of July, she thought, Sweet! A grin split her face. She pumped her fist into the air, and almost forgot to pull back before punching the ceiling. We get to set off those huge fireworks that we got. Elaine wiggled around and jumped–fell off her bed. Her feet slammed into the ground, sending shooting pain up her shins. Elaine stumbled forward and tripped on a stuffed lion falling all the way to the ground. So much for being quiet. She shook her head.
She moved herself to a sitting position facing the bunk bed and saw that all of her suffering was in vain. Her twin sister Karen was already up. “Man,” she mumbled, “I wanted to run down to the high school and use their hurdles before everyone else got up. I bet Mom's already up, too and she'll make me pack. Urgh.” I'll just have to go running later when it's all hot and gross. Elaine pushed herself up off the ground wondering why Karen was up so early as she usually didn’t grace the world with her presence before noon.
Now officially standing and very awake, Elaine leaned down and picked up the stuffed animals on the floor that Karen had, obviously, ignored when she got up. Lion was not the only one that had fallen down in the night. A bunch of other animals, some Karen's, some Elaine's were also on the floor. Elaine threw her stuffed animals onto the top bunk, Karen’s onto the bottom, and all of the unwanted ones joined their new fellows on the bottom bunk. Now their room was slightly cleaner, there were still a bunch of dirty clothes on the floor, but Elaine ventured towards her door anyways. No point in cleaning more now. Mom'll make us pick everything else up later. She dodged the loud creak that was her door frame, and barely missed the sharp carpet nails on the edge of her carpet.
Successfully escaping her room without dying, Elaine... did lots of other stuff until the end of the book.