Beauty in Cinders

CHAPTER 5

"Rise and shine!"

Heather's blue eyes fluttered open. She squinted her sleepy sensitive eyes and as they slowly adjusted to the sudden brightness that filled her dorm room, she saw her best friend Katia Mendoza pulling the drapes apart from the last window.

"You are incredibly energetic for this early of a time," Heather said groggily. She sat up in bed and saw that Katia was already dressed and combing her long brown ombre hair with urgency. "Jeez, Kat, already dressed? You that excited for waffle Fridays?"

"Of course I'm dressed, it's ten o'clock! We overslept!" Katia replied going over to her backpack and shoving books inside, "And uh... who wouldn't be excited for waffle Fridays?"

"Ten o'clock?" Heather's eyes widened, "I missed my first class."

"And I'm late for mine, thanks to you," Katia smiled at her. "Why do I let you convince me to stay up late? I don't' like going to bed at one in the morning, you know this, I'm a grandma like that."

Heather snickered as she got out of bed. "You think that's late? I stayed up another two hours after you zonked out."

Katia turned to her friend, "You're a vampire. You must be."

Heather laughed, "Perhaps I am. Anyway, I don't know ... I just couldn't really sleep. I had so much energy."

"Energy we could both use this morning," Katia said miserably.

"Aw, I'm sorry," Heather grinned and put an arm around Katia. "At least we have that masquerade party tonight!"

Katia sighed with exaggerated relief, "Thank God! This semester is driving me off the walls. I can barely see the light at the end of the tunnel."

Heather nodded, completely getting her friend. Truth was they really did welcome the distraction of going to the masquerade party later that night. Both girls were in the middle of their junior year of college. Heather was majoring in public relations while Katia's focus was in business administration. They both met during their freshman year when they took a required course they both had in common in their curriculum. When they were placed to work together in a group project, they immediately hit it off. Coincidentally it turned out that Katia's family was from the city Heather grew up in and they've been inseparable ever since. Both of their majors consisted of a lot of heavy course work and occasionally one had to console the other whenever one of them was overwhelmed with the amount of work.

Heather felt lucky to have a friend like Katia there with her, especially when Heather felt homesick. She missed her father, her step sisters Gina and Sonya, and her stepmother Beatrice, who she grew up calling "Aunt Beatrice". Katia said she found it odd how she later went on to marry her best friend's husband, but Heather explained that it wasn't odd at all. Her father and Beatrice became close during a time when they were both very alone. It had been years since her father had lost Heather's mother and Beatrice's first marriage had just ended tragically.

"They sort of found hope in each other for a new beginning," Heather said to her friend to which Katia shrugged, making a face.

"If you say so! I'm no one to judge, my mom found love with her gardener and if it hadn't been because of that, you wouldn't have a best friend today."

"The horror!" Heather said with a terrified look.

Yes, going away for college was something Heather had to do. Her father had graduated from this very place and she wanted to please him by doing the same. It was also a welcoming experience to get out of her comfort zone and go somewhere she had never been to before.