Silent

Chapter 20

I walk through the dark halls quiet and exhausted, every inch of me aches and my eyes are fighting to stay open. I actually finished early because I didn't have to help with dinner tonight but sitting through the long lecture took the entire extra and a little more time. I wish I could enjoy that I can finally go to sleep, but lunch didn't go over very well and nothing could get me over that crushing moment right now.

I did my best just to do what I was supposed to but even then I kept making mistakes. Not anything very bad, just tiny mistakes that no one would even notice if they weren't trying, but of course Mr. Otoroka did and subtly pointed out every single one of them, although never directly blaming me in front of his guest.

The very last thing I remember was when I was serving dessert. The fancy cake plate was so heavy that Mr. Shakitai had to carry it for me, I didn't want him to, but I didn't stop him either, when he saw me struggling with it he insisted and took it from me, which Mr. Otoroka, although he hid it a lot better that time, didn't like.

"I think tonight, to celebrate; we should go down to the Royakoto Lounge for dinner." He suggested as calmly as possible. "Doesn't Dussel have something planned?" Mr. Shakitai questioned, deeply contemplating the invitation. "He was waiting until this afternoon to make up a menu so nothing is set yet, and besides clearly dinner here would not be half as relaxing, Desiree is new, and she clearly needs reeducating." He bluntly states.

The words although seemingly going right over Mr. Shakitai's head hit me in the face. Reeducation was not uncommon, especially for new staff, but it is rare that a member of the household's family would be the one to assign it. In my family it was seen as the greatest dishonor, and anyone my father assigned to reeducation would end up just getting fired.

Mr. Shakitai, not understanding the insult, quickly agreed to the request and they began to make plans. I got this really weird blurred feeling, it was like a haze was set over me for the rest of the evening I felt all overheated and dizzy.

I only have one more chance, I'm lucky all I had to do was sit through an hour long reeducation class with Mrs. Tomskee, who was very irritable with me the entire time she droned on about everything from the curtsey to appropriate meal serving etiquette, but still, next mistake I make I'll probably be out on the streets. I think I'll be fine as long as I do my best to avoid Mr. Otoroka until he stops hating me, which I hope he does soon.

I get into bed but can't get to sleep straight away, finally, after tossing and turning about an hour I slowly lose consciousness.

The next day I wake up, shower, get into my casual uniform and go straight to the service room, not wasting any time today and walking at an acceptable speed. Other girls rush around, thankfully not having enough time to talk.

I seem to wake up earlier than them, at 5:00 I walked out of my room, unexpectedly, to a dark, deserted, corridor and lounge, no line for the bathroom or anything. By 5:30 everyone was just starting to appear, I have a feeling its different when the rest of the staff is here too, I would imagine it takes a lot longer with so many people around.

I am the first one to enter the room, it's very quiet, the sound of washer and dryers are not even audible this morning, and I suppose that would be because no one was awake to do any laundry yet. I read over my task list, not seeing anything new, and go to wait patiently on the bench until everyone else arrives.

The clock strikes 5:55 and on queue Mrs. Tomskee walks through the door. She doesn't say anything or even look in my direction; I begin to wonder if she even knows I'm here.

Immediately, she walks to the whiteboards and begins to fill in a few of the ones that had been blank, carefully but swiftly glancing back and forth from her clip board to her marker easily forming delicate cursive letters.