The Upper-Class

Chapter 5: The First Storm

Damian had no idea that it was supposed to storm as bad as it did that night. The crackle of loud thunder woke him up. It had started storming around one that morning which woke him up only for a few minutes. It was now six and still storming.

Damian figured that, since it was a Monday and he was going to have to get up in half an hour anyways, he could just wake up now and spare his alarm clock the trouble of going off. He pushed himself out of bed. It was cold in his room. It was already midway through March and unseasonably cold this year, but by a force of habit, he had turned on his celling fan. The air in his room felt like ice.

Damian sleepily stood up and walked over to the door. What better to do than go ahead and get ready for school? It’s not like there was any point in going back to sleep now anyways. He turned the cold door knob and opened the door.

It was still dark out. It usually was sort of dark out at this time of the morning, but the storm made it still look like it was the middle of the night out. Only the faint outlines of the objects around him were able to be seen.

A small thud came from underneath Damian. He looked down to the ground. He could see the outline of something round, almost like a giant cocoon. It had apparently been leaning against his bedroom door for some time and when he had opened the door, it had fallen over. Wha...? he thought confused. What the...?

Damian softly kicked the cocoon. He found it was plush and soft. He could tell it was something he had felt before, but he just couldn’t put his finger on it. Damian gave the cocoon a harder kick. He could feel that the inside of the cocoon was harder and solid, but wrapped up in the plush stuff thickly. Is it a... futon? he wondered.

The futon gave a groan as Damian gave it another kick. It sat upright. Damian jumped back. Please let me still be asleep! he thought frantically.

Damian reached for the light switch and turned on the light in the hallway. It was in fact a futon that he had kicked. There were feet sticking out of the bottom of it. Huh? he wondered. Feet? What is this?

He noticed some blonde hair sticking out of the top of the futon roll. The top part of a head emerged, soon followed by the top part of a face, revealing a set of sleepy lilac eyes. They blinked in the bright light.

“Kamiko?” Damian asked. “What are you doing out here wrapped in a futon?”

“It got cold, so I took the futon from my living room,” Kamiko replied, her voice muffled by the futon that was blocking her mouth.

“Okay... Why were you outside of my room though?”

“I got scared...”

“Scared? What for?”

“I’m scared of thunder and lightning and it stormed all night...”

“Oh, right.  But, why come to my room?”

“Being closer to you made me feel safer, but I didn’t want to go in and wake you up because you have school.”

Damian stared at Kamiko for a moment. She looked tired, like she hadn’t gotten much sleep at all, even being near his room. Her hair was a mess. He could only guess that her neck was sore; sleeping in a futon propped up against a door all night can’t feel that great. He smiled at her.

“If you were scared, you should’ve just come in and woken me up,” he said happily after a moment. “I wouldn’t have minded, really. Next time, just come in and wake me up, alright?”

“But, I don’t wanna wake you up just because I’m scared!” Kamiko replied. “Then you would be losing sleep too and you’re already doing so much for me... I don’t want to be any more of a burden!”