The Switch

Sarah: Survival for Dummies [Part TWO]

“Why don’t you go dress up?” Kenny had suggested “I wanna take you somewhere before…”

He didn’t have to complete his sentence. I knew what he was going to say:

Before Sharon gets here.

I nodded “Sure. I’ll be back here in a bit” I headed out his dorm and down the staircase, towards the girl’s dorms.

My father wasn’t anywhere in sight. I left him a text, saying that I would be at my dorm.

Kenny wanted to take me out. Maybe if we could fix this thing with Sharon, he and I could get somewhere?

I shook my head, trying to clear out the tension to be able to focus in the now.

What am I going to wear?

Involuntarily, a name escaped my mouth “Dina!”

I had her number on speed dial.

“Well, hello, Miss Nightingale” she said on the other end.

“Dina. I need something to wear…on a date”

Was it a date?

“Where are you going?” she inquired.

“I have no idea” I sighed “Kenny just said he wanted to take me somewhere…and well, I was thinking, since he’s the leader of the Sirens and stuff, his date ought to look like someone worth it”

Dina laughed “How about a sundress?”

“In the middle of the night?” It sounded rather odd.

“Oh…is the date now?”

“Yeah. We’ll be leaving as soon as I’m done.”

“Then I suppose an evening dress should do.”

“No, I don’t want to look overdone” I decided “I don’t even know if it’s a party. He just said somewhere.”

She sighed “I’ll be there in a bit”

Dina probably lived with the other housekeeping staff, in their chambers in the south facing part of the campus. So that was probably the reason why it took her only eight minutes to reach my room.

It was the first time I saw her in her night clothes. I realized then, that she must’ve been asleep earlier.

“All right” she put her hands on her waist, with her hair tied up in a bun “Let’s go through your closet”

And she got to work.

“Sorry about waking you up this late” I switched off my phone, because it was out of battery, and my charger was in some random corner of the wardrobe.

“That’s not an issue” she said casually over her shoulder “I wasn’t asleep anyway.”

“Well, what were you doing then?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“I was talking to my son. He’s overseas and he was having some trouble adjusting to the place.”

Well, of course Dina had a kid.

It was just that I hadn’t known about it earlier.

She was in her late forties…maybe.

I found it very surprising; how little I knew about Dina.

“Oh” Was my only reply.

She grinned at my reaction, and then pulled out a pair of my jeans “Here we go. Since we have no idea where it is you’re going, you might as well dress up casually.”