beyond the monotonous city

twenty nine

TW: emotional scenes

They had school the following day. Lauren making sure to drink her sleeping pill at night to stop her restless nights and Xanax to lessen her anxiety. They were working so far but she felt like a toy that had been patched up, anytime still threatening to fall apart.

Ms. Campbell went over to her when class ended, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You received my email I'm sure?" Lauren nodded. The other students left the classroom, even Dinah though Lauren was sure she would be waiting for her outside.

"I saw Camila in my class earlier, and she looked a bit pale. You'll keep an eye out for her for me when I can't. And take care of yourself, Lauren." Ms. Campbell said with a gentle smile, concern laced in her voice.

Lauren joined Dinah outside who gave her a look. "Oh, Ms. Campbell just talked to me about Camila. It's nothing."

Dinah nodded. They made their way to the lunch room, seeing Shawn already sitting there with Ariana and Camila. Ms. Campbell was right as compared to the other people in the room, Camila stuck out as looking paler. Her usual golden glow was less vibrant and saturated. Camila looked up and smiled as she saw the pair walk over.

"Hey," she said.

"You alright?" Lauren asked, worried.

Camila sighed. "I'm fine Lauren, I hope you don't ask me that every time you see me." Her voice was sounded a lot disappointed and tired.

Lauren nodded. "Okay, sorry. Just being cautious."

Ariana looked bothered the entire time, Shawn's arm just hanging from her shoulder. Camila must have told her already.

Dinah seemed set to make it up to Camila. She was her usual goofy and sassy self. Even more exaggerated today, making Camila laugh here and there.

"Okay listen up y'all. I'll tell you the time me and Camila tried to sneak into school at night." Dinah said, holding her hands out. Camila started snickering as she heard it. Lauren listened attentively along with Shawn and Ariana.

"Okay so we were around eleven. It was night and I was sleeping over at Mila's house. We got bored after watching Spy Kids. Then we got an idea. We wanted to break into the school like the bonafide spy kids that we were. We packed two backpacks with our food, tools, flashlight and we even put some cheap face paint on. We sneaked from our house and walked all the way here. It was night and it was locked so me and Mila went over to the back and saw those grate thingys. We took out the screwdriver and tools and were able to pry it open. We finally did and we crawled through. We crawled for so long. When we finally saw the light of the other end of the grate, we pushed it open together. When we got out we found ourselves back outside the school."

Camila was laughing really hard, and so was Lauren and the couple.

"We ended up going to the kiddie playgrounds instead and played there even if we were too big for them, until we saw Mila's parents looking angrily at us." Dinah finished. "That's the end of that, but she was still my partner in crime."

Lauren smiled, imagining smaller versions of Dinah and Camila trying to bust inside the school. It was a fun thought. They ended their lunch in laughter.

Lauren waited for Camila after her classes ended for the day. Camila smiled when she saw her. "Guess I'm skipping practice." she said, with a hint of amusement.

Lauren shook her head. "You're impossible."

"My team knows though, they all knew from the start of the year. They're just happy that I was able to give them a good performance, and that I'm fine now. So all is well." Camila said as they started walking home. She didn't have that usual skip in her step but that was understandable, given her condition. It was just a sad thought to Lauren.