Grace

Chapter 51

In the morning I woke up on the sofa under a thick blanket. Clara was sat in the corner of the sofa with a blanket around her shoulders. The TV was on, but it was a low volume. She was watching a play. I slowly sat up and stretched.

"Morning," she said.

"Morning," I yawned and rubbed my eyes. "What time is it?"

"Seven fifteen. You're still on an Eton time table."

I sighed. "I kind of want to go back to sleep on principle. But I'm hungry.

"Breakfast does sound like a good idea. I've been up for ages."

I got us bowls of cereal and we ate them at the kitchen table. For a few minutes we were quiet. Eating breakfast together was a pretty normal affair, we did it almost every day before the attack.

"I'm sorry we didn't get to talk last night," I said.

"It's ok. I went to bed straight after dinner. I'm still really tired, but I'm glad I went yesterday."

I smiled. "Me too. When you were sleeping in the car I read the messages everyone sent. They're all so glad you're better than you were before. They'd all like you to call or message them."

"I want to," she said. "I just... I don't know what to say."

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and brought up Facebook because along with Twitter, she and Chi had secretly set me up a Facebook profile. I barely even used it, but right now it was turning out to be useful.

"Simeon's apparently on an Eton schedule too. Want to talk to him?"

She ducked her head, stuck a spoon full of cereal in her mouth and spoke around it. "I don't know what to say."

I sent him a message anyway telling him that she was here and wanted to talk, but didn't know what to say. I got a phone call from him not a moment later.

"Hello," I answered.

"Hey," he said sounding relieved and impatient at the same time. "Put her on?"

"Sure." I held the phone out. "Clara, Simeon wants to talk to you."

Her head snapped up and she looked at the phone for a moment in fright. Then she reached out for it and put it to her ear.

"H-hello?" I'd never heard her hesitate over anything before. Hearing her do so now killed me on the inside a little, but I was glad she was speaking to him. "Yeah," she said. "I'm... I'm ok.... Yeah.... No. I live here now... Yes, with Grace... How are you?" She leaned back against the chair and slouched, a soft smile on her face. A moment later she laughed at something.

I smiled and went back to my food happy that she was doing something so normal. I didn't know how to help her, but I guessed this was a good thing for her to do that would help her. Normality could only be a good thing right now. They didn't speak long before she put the phone down.

"He ok?" I asked.

She nodded. "Going on holiday for a few days. They were just about to leave." She smiled. "Explains why he was up."

Simeon was better than all of us combined at getting off the Eton schedule. I still wasn't a morning person – I could be cheery enough on the outside but I always wanted to crawl back into bed until about half ten – but I still got up when my Eton day started. Simeon seemed to be able to flick a switch between 'Eton' and 'home' as easily as you turn a light on and off.

"Do you mind if I call everyone else?" she asked.

"Go for it."