Sleeping Beauty

Darkness lurking

  I looked at the draft book laying in front of me, covered with Norse names no one could think of to give to a child. Although others, in a fantasy world called Middle-Earth, would.

  Fili, Kili, Oin, Gloin, Balin, Dwalin, Bifur, Bofur, Dombur, Dori, Nori, Ori, and the leader of our company: Thorin Oakenshield. A grin turned up on my face, whilst staring at the names. The majority of us teenage girls gossiped and checked out hot guys. Instead, I liked to read, and for now, tried to learn all Dwarf names from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”. It had always been fun to learn facts nobody would give a damn about, though this felt like crossing the line. It sounded reasonable to me as I tried for more than a million times to get to sleep. For one particular reason I never succeeded. Looking around, it seemed like none of my fellow classmates could either. The most important reason none of us could get to it was because of Mrs. Mustow, the infamous Drama teacher at Saint Arthur High. I don’t know how she does it, but every time a teacher’s absent, she’s there to keep an eye on us. She’s actually not that bad, really. Just picture a middle aged lady reading “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare out loud. Now imagine her having a really high-pitched voice. Now ten times louder. That’s Mrs. Mustow.

I poked a girl with a strange colour of blonde hair and a concentrated look in her grey eyes, which led to a loud squeak escaping her mouth. I was doing my very best not to burst out in laughter, when I pointed at list of the Norse names. Why the “and the leader of our company: Thorin Oakenshield”? I wrote down next to it. As response I got a simple because it's a quote, duh, followed by a look of my best - probably only - friend. A certain look that gave you the feeling you're trying your very best to fool her. A look I'd gotten a lot.

  The most important reason of all these sleepy heads mixed with the typical Monday feeling, was the absence of our English teacher. Miss Mustow was the only one, prepared for keeping an eye on us. It was not like we're the worst class in the history of Saint Arthur. Only, one full of girls can have its loud moments, filled with doubled up with laughter or constant giggles. Many teachers did their very best to calm us down, but then Pretty Boy arrived. Since then, we are what they like to call: "unbearable". This was just a typical Monday, if only I had something to eat for breakfast. The school bus had come too early, and as if everything was planned for me to become a bad day, I forgot my lunch.

  "Aurore!"

  I awoke from my daydream about Dwarves. My empty stomach was therefore giving me a hard time. Now I had to pay attention.

  'What?', I mouthed, so Mustow wouldn't get hysterical because of the sound of talking. By her rules, laughing and giggling was okay. Oh boy, if she heard someone talking.. I can imagine the last time she spoiled hot coffee over her leg because the sound scared her. Crazy old lady. I directed my attention back to Philippa, the best friend I mentioned earlier. She raised one eyebrow: another sign. This time it meant if something's wrong. I shook my head and tried to put my head on my scarf, hopefully to have got the result of getting back to sleep. "Aurore!", she whispered too loudly. Mustow woke up from her daydream and started yelling, asking who talked. As lucky as I am to be in this wonderful class, everyone was looking in our direction. Trying to get us an excuse seemed impossible, due to my hunger and sleepyness. I'm not that clever either to have gotten us a good one anyway.

  Philippa stood up, in order to take her chance. "Miss, I was talking because...", she paused, looking at me for a second with a worried expression on her face. Oh, no. "Aurore isn't feeling well, and-"

  "Philippa", I interrupted, "What are you saying?" I made a flick with my hand in order to let her know she wouldn't go there. How could she have known? It was never obvious, I got everything covered too well for that. Everyone else however, were following the discussion with huge interest. Quite logical, since there wasn't anything more 'exciting' going on. I sighed and turned towards her. "There's nothing. I'm fine, just tired. Let me sleep and I'll be okay."

  She arched an eyebrow and looked at me in disbelief. "No, you're not. I know when something's wrong, and now there's definitely something wrong", she said. She tood up and reached for my arm. "C'mon, let's take you to the secretariat."

  "Stop with all the noise!", Miss Mustow cried. "I'm already at scene four!"

  I jerked away before Philippa could grab me. "Let me go! God, you're not my mother." Standing on my feet, I felt the dizzyness slowly taking over when I managed to find a way to an empty chair. I bent over, placing one arm on my thigh while massaging my temples. This couldn't be happening. Philippa, on the other hand, pulled me back on my feet and put her mouth next to my ear.

  "Listen,", she started, "I know you haven't eaten much lately. I am the one who's always going with you when you forgot your lunch. Since weeks you're looking way too pale and way too skinny. If you won't eat something fast you will -'

  "Stop it'", I hissed. "There's nothing wrong." Frustration and especially anger filled my body. Who is she to command what to do? I clenched my fists and looked at the ground.  knew I wouldn't get away with my arguments. She was right, everything she'd said. Why would she care, I had to deal with my body. Not she. Besides anger, an unknown feeling suddenly went through me. I didn't know what to do anymore, when colourful dots appeared before my eyes. I stumbled back in surprise, hitting something sharp with my heel.

  "Aurore!"

 For a minute I thought the douts were going away. Everything would be fine. But then, when I still would not have seen it coming, the colourful dots dissapeared.

  Everything went black.