Perfect World

Chapter 6

The next day was not better. It wasn't necessarily worse, but it definitely wasn't any better. Lula had woken up late, for starters. She knew that would cause the rest of the day to be dreadful. By the time she woke, it was because Muriel stood above her, shaking her to go to breakfast. Lula shot up and let the room stop spinning before glancing at the watch on her bedside table: 8:30. Lula got up to shower and dressed quickly before walking with Muriel to breakfast.

"It's unusual to see you sleep in late. Are you feeling alright?" Muriel meant well, but the more Lula thought about it, the worse her mood got.

"Yes. Thank you for waking me." Thankfully, Muriel seemed to understand that Lula was frustrated and chose to walk in silence the rest of the way to the great hall. She relished the silence. Lula had an issue with misplaced anger and hated using it on others or having it used on her. So she took the time to rearrange her mood. Not exactly easy, but not impossible either.

It was packed by the time she reached the Great Hall with Muriel. Lula looked to the Ravenclaw table where Daffy was surrounded by her other friends. Her seat had long been taken, so she opted to wave and mouth "Talk later" to Daffy as she noticed her friend and sat at the Slytherin table with Muriel. Grabbing a steaming muffin, Lula quickly got to work buttering it and grabbed a vine of grapes. Her cup filled itself with apple juice, and Lula was once more glad the elves in the kitchen knew her preferences.

"So about the Hogsmeade trip," Muriel started. Lula sighed and set down her muffin before taking a sip of juice.

"I haven't talked it over with Daffy yet. I planned to this morning, but I overslept. I'll talk to her about it before lunch." Lula promised her other friend.

"Ok! I just... It's Isobel MacDougal. It's insanely huge she even wants to be seen with us. And to go to Hogsmeade together? I heard she makes a list of all her friends and distributes it at the beginning of the year, so they all know who goes with her and when." Lula refrained from pointing out that Muriel invited herself, and the invitation had only been extended to herself and Daffy. Muriel wasn't a bad person, and neither was Lula. It was just that she didn't have the patience nor want to be popular as Muriel did.

"That's excessive. Why?"

"Because she's so popular, and obviously, she can't favor anyone else above the rest, or it will get ugly." Which still didn't make sense to Lula, but she let it be, opting to take a bite of her muffin finally. She continued to silently listen to Muriel rant and rave about Isobel until she finished her grapes, and then she ran off using classes as an excuse.

She hadn't made it very far when someone called out to her. She peered over her shoulder to see Lee and the twins.

"Hi, Lee! Good morning Fred, good morning George." She greeted them in turn. Lee was able to put a smile on anyone's face, and Lula was not immune.

"Morning, Lula! Off to class? It's kind of early."

"I woke up late, so my internal clock is off." She told him with a slight frown. Lee frowned too. He quickly saw the telltale signs of OCD in the girl in his class. His father suffered from it, albeit a different string of it.

"Yeah, well, classes all start at the usual time today. And there aren't any other scheduled activities to interrupt classes, so it'll have time to reset itself." Lee said, coming over and throwing an arm over her shoulder.

"Yeah, I hope you're right." She nodded seriously. She did have to try and look towards something else. It was more routine, as Dr. Danvers had told her to do in their therapy sessions.

"Sleeping in isn't that bad!" Fred and George step up beside Lula, and she winces.

"Yeah! We do it all the time." She was used to people not understanding. Even Daffy had difficulty understanding since her brain was primarily set to rationality rather than empathy as her true Ravenclaw self, but she never downplayed any of Lula's weird antics. Lula had concluded that Lee was just used to dealing with someone else with her symptoms. She didn't ask and he never told, but he did the things her therapist told her mother and grandmother to do in such cases.