The Stage Door (Camren/Norminah)

Early Morning Riser

Lauren POV

"Camila!"

Nothing.

"Jesus Christ, Camila! Wake up!

Nothing.

I audibly sighed, stepping back and running my hand through my hair. She wouldn't budge.

"Camila, seriously, it's the first day of classes, Normani and Dinah are going to be knocking on that door any minute expecting us to be ready to go and you aren't even awake." I didn't know who I was talking to, it was clear Camila wasn't listening. The girl slept like a rock, through all five of the alarms she had previously set for herself the morning before, through my getting ready, through my yelling, and through the pillows I had thrown across the room from my bed to hers.

It had been just over a week since move in day and Camila and I had fallen comfortably into a routine, I'd get up around 5 and take a bus into the heart of the city and have about 4 hours to try and piece my life together before I headed back to campus to wake Camila, which like today was never an easy job to do. I would wait for her to have a shower and place the Polaroids I had taken that morning into a photo album, hiding it as soon as I heard the shower turn off. We would make idle chatter as she got dressed and then we would head down the hall to pick up Normani and Dinah, the girl's we had met at the Glee Club booth the day of the student fair, the four of us spending our days doing whatever we wanted, living in our own bubble.

I heard a knock at the door and opened it to see Dinah and Normani, both wearing their school sweaters and a pair of cut off jean shorts. "Twinning today ladies?" I asked scanning their outfit choices.

"I was dressed first," Normani said cocking her head to Dinah who just shrugged her shoulders.

"What's The 1975?" Dinah asked me pointing at the t-shirt I was wearing.

"Only the best band in the world, I'll let you borrow a couple CD's," I said shaking my head in disbelief. "But only if you help me get Camila out of bed. She won't budge."

"We got this," the two girls chimed in unison as they dropped their backpacks to the floor and ran full speed to Camila's side of the room and began to jump up and down on the bed.

"Chancho!"

"Mila!"

"Bitch, get up!"

"I will cut you if you don't get your ass out of bed."

I stood in the doorway laughing, watching as the two girls settled themselves between the wall and Camila and gave a slight push, the smaller girl falling with a thud to the ground.

"Was that necessary?" I asked, feeling bad as I watched Camila groaning in pain on the ground.

"Yeah, was that necessary?" Camila asked as she gathered herself from the floor and rubbed her head. "Rude," she mumbled as she stomped her way into the bathroom, stopping to give Dinah and Normani a solid 30 second glare.

'If looks could kill,' I thought to myself.

"We're going to get coffee, meet us out front in 15 minutes," Dinah said to me as she stood up off the bed and grabbed her bag. "And bring the CD's!"

I shut the door behind them and pulled my pillows off Camila's bed and tossed them back over to mine, making a mental note not to use my pillows as a weapon ever again, as it only resulted in having to watch Camila throw her arms over them and fall back into a deep slumber.

"This one and this one," I said out loud as I shoved two CD's for Dinah in my bag.

"Do you always talk to yourself?" Camila asked as she reappeared from the bathroom. She was wearing a black dress with a white collar, her long hair falling in large curls over her shoulders, and a large black bow in her hair. 

'Perfection,' I thought to myself. She looked at me with a sly smile, her eyes meeting mine for just a moment.

"Sometimes. How's your head?" I asked as I stepped towards her and inspected for any bumps and bruises. "You hit the floor pretty hard. What time did you end up falling asleep? I mean it's always hard to get you out of bed, but today, that was damn near impossible, I thought I was going to have to leave you here."

"Around 4," Camila replied with a shrug. "Couldn't sleep, was worrying about today I guess. First day jitters or whatever."

"Nervous? Camila, you have nothing to be nervous about."

"I just-" Camila started, turning to the mirror and readjusting the bow in her hair. "I have only spent time with you, Normani, and Dinah since I got here and now I'm not complaining I like being around three of you, especially you, but now I have to go to classes with everyone else and what if they don't like me? What if someone pushes me and I trip in front of everyone, or someone slaps the books from my hands or-"

'Especially you,' the words lingered in my mind before I caught up to the rest of everything Camila had been saying.

"No one is going to touch you," I stated raising my eyebrows. "I don't know what happened at your last school Camz, but this is going to be different, I promise. Plus we have pretty much all the same classes and the few we don't have together, you'll have either Normani or Dinah."

"Camz?"

"Just trying something new."

"I like it."

"Good. Now seriously, you're going to be fine, let's go."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Well know so, no one is going to touch you."

"Did you get your stuff done this morning?" Camila asked making it clear she wanted a change of subject.

"What stuff?"

"You know whatever stuff it is you do every morning when you slip out of here as soon as the sun rises," Camila said, sending a shock through my body. "I've seen you leave, I'm not always asleep. You pack up your Polaroid camera and run out of here like you've seen a fire."

"You never said anything before."

"You'll tell me eventually," Camila shrugged.

"We should get going, the girl's are going to kill us if we make them wait any longer," I said grabbing Camila's backpack from her desk and passing it to her. "They went to get coffee, they said they would meet us downstairs."

"Coffee sounds good," Camila mumbled as she eyed me suspiciously. "I'm going to find out. You might as well just tell me," she said brushing past me and out into the hall.