Change The Tides

The Hardest Battle Yet

Third Person

As the VKs got their things together for their ultimate plan, Lonnie paced up and down the hideout as she did some casual stretches to prepare for the day ahead. As she paced, she repeatedly walked by the couch where she and Arlette had slept, and was still sleeping at that. Lonnie knew Arlette wasn't gonna really participate in a ton of any possible fighting down at the docks, so she decided to let the girl sleep a little bit longer as she knew that's what would ultimately benefit her most. But when the time came and Mal came walking around the couch, Lonnie decided to let her have a little go at waking Sleeping Beauty. Arlette's old friends such as Lonnie used to call her that all the time, not just because her mom actually was Sleeping Beauty, but because she is quite possibly the deepest sleeper on the face of the earth beside her own mother.

Arlette has slept through alarms, and not just clock alarms but fire alarms. She's slept through wind storms, parties happening next door from her dorm room, Audrey getting up and tripping and falling in the middle of the night, being slapped by her grandma, all of the above! Luckily there was a sure way to wake the girl, it just happened to be the most unorthodox method anyone would possibly think off the top of their head. So naturally, Lonnie had to pause and watch as Mal shoved Arlette's shoulder,

"Arlette, let's go"

Mal blandly spoke, about to walk off before pausing and looking back down at the sleeping girl who had her head buried in the pillow she was lent and was using Harry's jacket as a blanket. Arlette didn't even move, the only motion being made was the very slow rise and fall of her chest. She was curled into a tight ball while holding one of the sleeves to the jacket in her arms, peacefully sleeping happily as ever. Mal sighed and backed back up, shoving her shoulder even harder,

"Arlette, we gotta go wake up"

She spoke even louder, but once again, there wasn't a single movement. After two tries that grew progressively louder, her attempts began to grab the attention of her fellow VK friends. Carlos walked on over and looked over the back of the couch, snorting with a bit of laughter the moment he saw her,

"So... I don't mean to bring it up but... you do realize that that's Harry's jacket she's snuggling with right?"

Carlos said as Mal took a hold of Arlette's shoulder and shook her back and forth a bit now,

"Oh I know, I noticed the moment she came in here with it on, but the real issue here is she's not waking up"

Out of pure instinct, Carlos reached down in response to what Mal said and took two of his fingers and pressed them on Arlette's neck just under her jaw, pausing for a moment before giving her a good stare over,

"Well she's breathing and there's a heartbeat so... try harder?"

Carlos said, but seeing as Mal's last shake was a little rough, Lonnie decided to step in before she started giving the sleeping girl permanent brain damage. Lonnie stepped forward and in front of the couch, lightly sighing as she did,

"You're just going about it all wrong, Lettie doesn't respond well to roughness. You gotta be gentle, even when you're trying to wake her up"

Lonnie explained before slowly crouching down beside the couch. She slowly brought her hand onto Arlette's shoulder and just started out by slowly rubbing up and down her arm, and sure enough, after a moment or two, the girl slowly began to stir. It started out small with a light hum and a little shift as she rolled further onto her stomach,

"Arlette, it's time for the day to start. We're gonna go get Ben back and you get to see that Harry fellow you were telling me about last night, we have a big day ahead of us and we can't start it until you open your eyes"