It’s a little after 7 a.m. on a Friday morning, and the ferry has just taken off from Vineyard Haven. A lively group of teens and preteens is seated around tables in one of the boat’s back corner rooms. The aisle is stacked high with backpacks, purses and lunchboxes, and the room is stifling hot from all the extra bodies. A few of the kids hold travel coffee mugs, but most are filled with water or hot chocolate — there is a surprising shortage of caffeine considering the energy the kids display, having been awake since 5:30.

Some seem slightly more subdued than others in the early morning hours, reclined with headphones stuck in their ears and eyes partially closed. Others hunch attentively over binders fat with paperwork, but most are chatting and laughing amongst themselves.

This is the typical morning commute to school — the bus ride, so to speak — for a group of 18 young Islanders. They are all students of the Island’s closest private middle and secondary school, Falmouth Academy.

“I got used to it really fast, but I was already kind of a morning person,” said seventh grader Aidan Huntington, of the early morning routine he adopted when he became a student at Falmouth this fall. “The first week was kind of tiring, because you’re waking up really early, but I got used to it. Actually sometimes I like getting up early because I don’t feel like I wasted my day.”

Others disagreed. Fellow seventh grader Caley Bennett said she covets the days when she is able to sleep in. Another prefers a cold splash of water to the face to jolt her into full alertness. And a few students who live closest to the Steamship Authority terminal don’t have to be such early risers — they get a little bonus sleep every morning because of their shorter travel time to the boat.

The unusual routine continues after school. The earliest boat home after their 2:25 p.m. dismissal is at 3:45, and students involved in an after-school activity such as the school play or athletics often leave even later. But they don’t spend much time dwelling on the hardship of getting up so early and returning home so late at night. To them, the sacrifice is worth it. “It’s a different kind of commitment, I guess,” said senior Lagan Trieschmann. “And even though it uses up some of your time, it’s really worth it, in the end. For me it was.”

“I think the longer they do it, they really can articulate that it’s an important part of their day,” said Falmouth Academy headmaster David C. Faus. “They are busy kids, and they’re doing a lot of things. And to have 45 minutes when they can just kind of chill a little bit I think is important for them ... Generally they are productive. They use the time either to socialize a little bit or to get work done.”

And it’s clear that these kids are truly invested in their own education. “It’s not like everybody hates learning,” said Caley. “Everybody wants to learn,” added seventh grader Eli Hanschka.

“It’s not that you’re super smart that makes you right for FA, it’s that you’re willing to work hard and you’re willing to learn,” said Lagan. “Going from sixth grade to seventh grade was a big shock because the homework increased,” he recalled of the shift from the Island to middle school at Falmouth.

In that sense, the boat ride to and from school every day has turned out to be a blessing. It’s like a study hall without the teachers. “If I’m lucky enough I won’t have any homework to do. Some boat rides are more productive than others. We used to play a lot more card games, but as the homework load has increased, that has stopped,” said Lagan. “On the afternoon boat we usually try to do homework because our minds are working better than in the morning.”

But the commute can take a toll on some kids. Sophomore Signe Baumhofer decided to transfer to the regional high school this year after three years at Falmouth Academy to spend more time on her favorite extracurricular activity. “I have a horse, so getting back so late, it was really hard,” she said. “She is still young, so she’s in really good training stages, and getting back at five isn’t the best because it’s dark.”

But the transition to the public high school wasn’t what she expected it to be. “The students didn’t really want to be there,” she said. “At Falmouth there’s just a sense of everyone wanting to do well.” And while it was nice to spend time with her Island friends — something she felt she missed out on while spending so much time in Falmouth — it actually turned out to be just as disruptive to her horse-training schedule. “I was still getting to the barn really late, because of going to people’s houses after school.”

She finally decided to return to Falmouth Academy. “It’s been a nice transition back,” said Signe. “In school, classes are actually enjoyable, you have really deep discussions. It’s really a lot of involvement because they are smaller classes.” And as for her horse? “I’ve been riding in the dark for the past month, but she has been doing good.”

The price tag for Falmouth Academy is $22,000 per year, and though director of admissions Michael J. Earley said that more than 40 per cent of students receive need-based financial aid, the Vineyard students seem well aware of the burden it places on their parents.

Lagan’s younger brother is just getting to the middle school age, and he wants to follow his brother’s footsteps to Falmouth Academy. “But it was really a stretch for my family personally to afford FA,” he said. “So there’s some doubt that he will be able to go.”

Even in eighth grade, Julia Guerin knows that her parents make sacrifices to send her to the private school. But she said that the results they’ve seen have made it worth the cost. “I don’t think my parents would want to pay a lot of money if I wasn’t happy or if I didn’t like my school,” she said.

Another challenge is that the ferry can be unreliable at times. If weather conditions force the boats to stop running, it’s possible that Vineyard kids can be stuck on the mainland overnight. But a strong network of administrators, friends and parents make sure that no one is left stranded. “We’ve tried to put some emergency plans into place to make sure that everybody had a place to stay if they needed to,” said Mr. Faus.

Jill Bernstein, mother of junior Jenna, and Kim Baumhofer, mother of Signe and senior Clea, said they were shocked at how quickly their children adjusted to the lifestyle change when they began to attend Falmouth Academy. Even in their preteens, the girls grew a strong sense of independence almost overnight. The sense of freedom, the mothers felt, was important to the girls at that transitional age.

“They’re amazingly self-sufficient,” said Mr. Faus of the Vineyard students. “The older kids do take on a leadership role . . . . And it really creates a supportive environment. The younger kids end up seeing how the older kids are acting and it just passes on.”

The steamship gives the school excellent reports about the behavior of the daily commuters, but though they are perhaps a bit more well behaved than other teens, on this morning ride they look just like anyone else. Jeans, tees, and sweatshirts seem to be the uniform; you won’t find the stuffy skirts and sport coats typical of more traditional private institutions. The tables they gather around are cluttered with iPhones, iPods, and loads of other electronic devices.

They seem to naturally divide by age; the group of middle schoolers generally sticks together in one booth while the upperclassman split themselves between two others, but there is no implication that they are shut out from the older crowd. In fact, most of the newer students already feel like a part of the Island-Falmouth Academy family.

“We tell each other almost everything,” said Julia. “If we didn’t like each other, it would be depressing. It would be a very sad boat ride every morning.”

“I barely knew you guys at the beginning of the year, and now it feels like we’re family,” added Caley.