Breaking Barriers

Screw It

Jane Doxter:

Remember how we were all worried that the place might be a "little" too crowded with 3 more people, yeah, we were wrong. It wasn't a LITTLE crowded, it was HUGELY crowded. 2 more people in an "already cozy" girls' room (Masha called it cozy, Nastya and I prefer cramped.) After Peso's mother and sister moved in, there was some rearranging to be done.

They'd come on a Sunday when the registration offices below us were closed, so we had the liberty of moving all the beds and letting them creak around to their hearts' content.

It was only after we started moving the beds that we realized there wouldn't be enough room to line up the beds in neat little rows, and we tried. In the end, we ended up cramming the beds in long, snaking lines of 3 or 4 each with only a little sliver of light between each row.

That night, we all lay quietly in our new sleeping arrangement, packed like sardines in a tin inside of a room that probably wasn't made to sleep 10 people, whispering explanations on what the office would be like during the day and who'd come and go, the amount of time we needed to be silent and what "silence" exactly constituted.

Oh yeah, sleeping foot to head, head to foot came with problems. For one, no personal space, at all. Without fail, every morning, someone would start complaining that someone else's feet were in their face, arms were on their bodies, head was on their foot, the list goes on.

Second of all, being crammed in such a crowded space meant that tensions rose quickly, and fighting became all too common.

And lastly, the activity level in the room. No one was on the same sleep schedule, and since we were practically sleeping atop one another, we could hear every little thing going on in the room. Everyone's biggest complaint of all was either Dashi messing around with her camera at 5 the morning, Tweak fixing something at all hours of the night, and Nastya and I whispering and giggling into the wee hours of the morning.

During one of these late night sessions, I had an idea.

"This room is far too cramped and stuffy, and I'm not sure how much more of Ishka's ugly face I can take." Nastya was saying as we hid under her blanket.

"So what do we do? Sleep in the attic?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah, maybe for tonight." Nastya agreed. I was just being sarcastic, but honestly, compared to the bedroom, it would be heaven. Some people were already asleep at this point, but as I stepped over tot he door, I caught Masha peering owlishly at us from her spot under her covers.

At this point, I think that I've already established that Masha is probably the sweetest person in the whole state of Alaska at the moment, and Nastya and I trusted her enough not to tell on us.

"Wanna come?" Nastya asked casually looking over her shoulder at Masha.

"Oh, no thank you." Masha looked at us tiredly, "Please don't do anything crazy; it's like midnight."

"We won't." Out of all the times I've said that to either Masha or Koshi, this has to be the first time I was really telling the truth, which might be a little concerning. Nastya had gotten out of bed as well at this point, and began pushing the bed towards the door with a huge "CREAAAAK" noise as it scraped the floor and nearly stopped our three hearts from beating.

"Nastya, Jane, what?" Tatya sat up and stared at us uncomprehendingly. It must've been quite the sight to see the two of us at the mercy of a camp bed. With a lot of struggling and more noise than anyone has ever made in this hiding place, we got it to the door before it fell and made the whole room shudder. By now, every single occupant of the room was awake and all eyes were fixed on us.

"Do you need my help?" Masha asked, and I could've sworn I saw the hint of a smile.

"No." I shook my head, "We're fine." Nastya caught my eye and nodded as well, picking the end of her bed back up and carrying it to the door. As we left, I heard a few stifled giggles, but I just ignored it. Let them laugh, they probably haven't had the chance to in weeks. This time, Nastya and I got to the stairs leading up to the attic before we dropped her bed, cue the almighty crash and shuddering of the floors. All the boys and Mrs. Talia ran out of their rooms to, 1. make sure we weren't getting robbed, and 2. Yell at us.

"What on Earth!" Professor Inkling had yelled as Nastya and I began to offer some sort of explanation, our words mixing together like molten metals

"Too many people in the girls' room-"

"We're going to the attic." The professor couldn't argue against any of it, so he just put 2 of his tentacles up in defeat and another 2 to his temples, a position that he seemed to be in whenever Nastya or I were around. The Captain however, stepped forward with his silver eyes warm as a penguin chick's feathers and picked up the bed with ease.

"Jane, do you want me to bring yours up as well?" He asked kindly, cupping my cheek in his paw and pressing a kiss to my forehead.

"Oh no, it's alright, I can br-" I began.

"I'll bring it up for you then, dearie." He gave me a final kiss and patted Nastya's head before disappearing down the stairwell and returning a while later with my bed in his paws.

"And look who I've brought." The Captain said brightly to me after getting us both settled in a corner of the attic by a window. He was leaning by my bed, and discreetly reached into his pajama pants pocket and pulled Laika out. I immediately grabbed her out of his paws and sprung into his arms.

"Oof, I'm glad you're happy, sweetheart." The Captain chuckled.

"Where did you find her?" I asked; my voice was slightly muffled from the fabric of his pajamas.

"Buried under your bed. Try not to lose her again," He stroked my hair and softly pushed me back down onto my bed, "It's past midnight now; both of you should've been asleep hours ago."

"Alright, goodnight." Nastya called out from the other bed. The Captain only smiled and went over to her, "Goodnight, sleep well." and left the room.

Despite being dead-tired, I was still wide awake for hours after that. Who'd have thought it was possible to feel this happy while trapped? Even with the Puricians and war at our doorstep, it felt like no one could harm us, not while the Captain stayed with us, and I had full faith that he wasn't gonna leave, not for a million years.