Covert Affairs

People as Bright as You

I clamped my hand over my mouth to stop the scream from escaping. Looking around the still dark room I noticed my roommates were undisturbed by my sudden waking. I clenched onto my chest, willing my heart to stop beating so quickly. I laid back down hoping to calm my breathing down. The wet feeling of tears running down my face was very familiar. Wiping them away quickly, I grabbed my phone to see what time it was. It was 6 a.m. which isn't that bad. My nightmares recently have been waking me up at 3 or 4 a.m. so I should be grateful for any extra hours I get. They've been nearly constant since finding out that my dad's been taken, some days are better than others. But then I'll have weeks like this where I have a nightmare about it every night in a week. The nightmares are always basically the same. Something dealing with my dad being tortured by the circle and me not making it to him in time.

However, after a week of these abrupt wakings I am beyond exhausted. I don't know how I'm going to get through the day. We have a long day of preparing for our ball ahead of us. The whole day is devoted to it. We don't have any classes at all, just practice. From dance practice, to getting fitted for last minute adjustments to our ball gowns. I threw my head against my pillow, stifling a groan. I'm too tired to deal with this.

I looked back at my phone and realized I got a text message from Tyler. It was a picture of us at the arcade after he won me Dopey. He had his arm around me and I was pressed up against him, holding up Dopey in front of the camera. The smiles on both our faces were so bright, we looked so happy. That melted away any previous feelings of frustration or anxiety I woke up feeling. There was a message that accompanied the picture.

Forgot to send this to you last week. Thought you'd want the pic with our kid ;)

Our kid... our kid... our kid.

I hearted the message before putting the picture as the screensaver on my phone. Placing my phone back on the charger, I put on a nightgown and some slippers, because even at the crack of dawn is still needed to be in period appropriate attire if I was going to be seen, and went down to the kitchen early to see if they'd be willing to give me some coffee. The workers were bustling about getting ready for the breakfast rush they'd be dealing with in a little over an hour. One of my favorite kitchen staff workers, Magdalene, or Maggie, came up to me. They also had to follow the time period rules, and so she was dawned in her best kitchen maid attire.

"You've risen early this morning, My lady." Maggie greeted me, throwing a kitchen towel over her shoulder.

"Might I bother you for a cup of coffee?" I asked, leaning up against the counter. She nodded before walking off to get it. She returned with a mug full of coffee, just the way I like it.

"Are you unwell? M'lady looks sleep ridden." She asked, crossing her arms. I took a long sip before answering.

"I couldn't catch but a wink. However, I am well, miss. No need to worry." I assured her, she nodded satisfied and I finished my coffee in the Grand Hall, taking time to watch the sun rise. I remembered for a second just how beautiful Gallagher Academy is. I carried the empty mug back to the kitchen before heading back upstairs to get dressed. I picked out the most simple dress I could find. I laid on my bed watching my friends as they scrambled to get ready for school. I closed my eyes for a second, desperately trying to regain any second of sleep I could get.

"Ela, we're leaving." Bri called out. I rolled out of bed and headed after them. During breakfast I drank 3 more cups of coffee and could barely stomach a single bite of anything. I forced down my eggs, but couldn't eat anything else. Breakfast ended and we went upstairs to Madame Dabney's class. We went to the dance practice room she had in the back of her classroom, because that's where we're going to be spending a majority of the day today. Our day was split up into multiple practices. Obviously these are things we've been learning over semester, but now this was the last time we'd be practicing them before the ball tonight and we had to get it perfect because, like most things we did at this school, we were being graded on our performance.