Top Bunk

DAY 22

⌚ 6:00 AM ON THE DOT

Thud.

The horn comes shortly after that, but El opens her eyes as soon as she hears the first sound. She rolls over on her side to find Grace on the floor, kind of writhing in pain and groaning. El almost feels compelled to get up and make sure Grace is okay - it's become sort of a routine. At the same time, something is pulling at her, keeping her in bed. This something tells her that Grace has been blatantly disregarding El's presence for the past few days, so what obligation does El have to help Grace.

It's a childish way to think, El is very much aware, but she can't shake the feeling.

Grace rolls over, the hardwood floor creaking beneath her. It's at this moment that her pained gaze aligns with El's. A split second is all it takes for both girls to scowl at each other and snap their eyes away immediately. El pulls her blanket more tightly over herself. Grace takes way too long to get up, flinching every time she moves even slightly. El knows she's exaggerating because Grace has a body of steel and there's no way she'd be hurting after falling from the same place for almost the entirety of summer so far.

Still, El feels a nagging to get the fuck up and help Grace.

She doesn't mind it. El keeps one eye open slightly to watch as Grace lifts herself from the floor painstakingly slowly. Once she's finally standing upright, Grace stretches, her shoulder blades popping. El catches Grace glance at her for a split second - that one second is enough for El to shudder at how cold it was.

Grace is still somehow able to flounce to the bathroom. Her barely-nightgown seems to billow behind her, the silky pink fabric resembles a majestic cape. She squeezes in one last complaint about how absolutely painful her fall was before she steps into the bathroom and locks the door behind her.

El rolls her eyes. Oh, Grace, ever the drama queen.

But she might actually have been hurt by that fall.

No way. Grace was just exaggerating.

That thud was pretty loud, though.

It's always that loud.

She looked like she was in real pain.

Two words. Acting.

What?

What?

El groans and kicks the blanket off herself. What.

She is actually insane. No sane person would argue with herself in her own mind. No sane person would say acting is two words. No sane person would give two shits about another person who clearly doesn't give two shits about her.

⌚ 7:17 AM

El doesn't know what's happened between her and Louise, but she likes it. Seeing as today's breakfast is Canadian bacon and hash browns, and El doesn't like Canadian bacon (a bacon purist is what she likes to call herself), and Louise doesn't like hash browns (blasphemy), the two have exchanged their unwanted food items for the more desired food items.

El thinks she's found a new friend.

Granted, she and Louise were friends before, but they've gotten surprisingly close.

So El chews on her hash brown while Louise tells her about the insane dream she had last night.

"And you were there - " Louise says to her, spewing bits of Canadian bacon everywhere. "And you like, killed the dragon with a penis sword? Weird, right?"