To Know Love

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

“Ugh.”

I woke up to the rambunctious sound of the semidiurnal bell tower in the distance. Jerking my head up, I slowly began to untangle the massive knot of hair in my head from the night before. I tried blinking my eyes continuously, but it was no use. My river of tears from last night had caused them to be dreary and unwilling to open. My cheeks felt sticky and raw due to my immense amount of sobbing. Lovely night, it was.

I once again placed my heavy head onto my hands, laying in despair of what went on between Derek and I. I sat in denial with myself for quite some time, recounting the horrible events I had to endure, when suddenly, a piercing, bloodcurdling shriek interrupted my thoughts.

Startled, I whipped my head from my hand, finding myself staring at a figure who looked like the world was just about to end for her.

There, right in plain view, was Sky, drenched from head to toe in brown slime.

*************

“Just look at me.” Sky lowered her head in shame as I messily attempted to pluck out any twigs, leaves, pieces of dirt, and any other woodland pieces of muck from her soiled hair.

“Don’t you worry yourself for one second, Sky.” I gritted my teeth. “I will get to the bottom of this, even if it takes all summer.”

She let out a vehement sneeze (or rather, what sounded like a sneeze) and wrapped the towel around her tighter. “T-Thanks.”

“I swear, if you get sick from this...” I angrily shook my head. “The consequences are going to get messy.” She attempted to laugh but just shivered in response.

Apparently somebody (Hmmm...Derek, perhaps?) thought it would be funny to place a bucket of ice cold water (emphasis on the “cold”) filled with dirt, leaves, twigs, basically whatever other form of woodland substance you could find, and left it dangling on top of the bathroom door for the next unfortunate victim. What resulted was a sickening crash, water and dirt all over my carpet, and a very drenched Sky.

“Ow! Take it easy, would ya?” Sky yanked the back of her head from my scouring hands.

“Look, if you ever want your hair cleaned out,” I paused as my hands carefully dragged out a tangled twig, “then you’re going to have to hold still.”

She remained silent. “It was Derek, wasn’t it?”

I sighed. “You think?”

“Something really bad must of happened last night to make him go from Prince Charming to royal moron.” I couldn’t see her expression, but I knew by her tone it was a mixture of curiosity and rage. “Care to elaborate?”

“First of all, you shouldn’t be surprised. He does stuff like this all the time.” Despite how angry I was at Derek, I calmed down a bit, realizing this was one of many encounters of sinister practical jokes. Probably even more to come. “Second, I think it would be better for the both of us if I didn’t remind myself of what happened.” I shuddered, thinking of the unexpected insults he threw at Sky. Like I wanted to tell her that.

“No, I understand...” she muttered, not wanting to repeat our little “episode” from last night. I fished through her tangled blond hair as I spotted the last leaf entwined in her locks. Pulling it out, I almost died when I saw something moving crawl onto my finger.

“Oh my gosh!” I shrieked as I flung a microscopic worm into the metal bucket next to me. I saw the poor thing trying to wriggle out of the flood of muck, but I had no mercy.