Survival

5. Bittersweet Confrontations

 Light managed to break through a crack in the black out curtains the hotel issued in every room, a blinding bar sliding across Stephanie's face. Blearily, she blinked the sleep out of her eyes and groaned. She felt drained in every way possible, and perhaps more. All night she'd been strung on a wire, unable to sleep, unable to quiet her racing mind.

Stephanie's mind had been a minefield; one thought set off another, and another- until she felt like her brain might actually tear itself to pieces.

A deep throbbing in the back of her head told her that it might have just done that. The sheets felt so soft and warm around her, persuading her to stay with them. Stephanie was so tempted to sink back into sleep, but she needed to go to school. She had things to do.

Reluctantly, Stephanie rolled out of bed and trudged into the bathroom, ignoring the train wreck in the mirror. Hopefully a shower could clean up most of that.

Even hot jets of water weren't enough to get her blood pumping; her lethargy was on a whole other level. At least she didn't feel so disgusting anymore. After getting dressed and picking up her backpack, Stephanie spared a longing glance at her unmade bed.

What she wouldn't give...

Shaking her head and laughing at her wistful thoughts, Stephanie headed out of the hotel through the side door, as usual.

She just didn't know what she'd do if she couldn't settle down and stay here. For some reason, she'd taken an instant like to the simplicity and clarity of everything here. Moving again just couldn't happen. She was tired of it. So tired of not having somewhere to call home.

Okay, so she'd only been here for a day or two, but something about the small town- barring stares and judgment- felt like home, whether or not she had a family to go with it. The thought left a bitter pain in her chest, duller than ever, but still there. When had her memories of her family stopped being comforting, and started being painful?

For whatever reason, there was nothing reassuring about it now. Stifling a yawn, Stephanie brushed the damp strands of her hair out of her face and headed resolutely down the road.

She turned left, away from the school and toward the little café that she'd taken an instant like to. The waitress was friendly and the food was good. Anything to make this town seem even more impossible to leave, of course.

Steph knew that she had a deadline, and that deadline was this Sunday. Roughly five days to find somewhere more permanent to stay. Life seemed like a constant cycle of deadlines, one after the other, and humans thought their schedules were bad.

Pushing the door open, Stephanie ignored the looks she got from some adults and children alike in the busy café. Her arrival was still something of a novelty, and she didn't expect anything less for at least the next few days. She'd been a new girl enough to know what this was like and how to deal with it.

Keeping her chin up and her body language calm, mainly because she was too tired to care anymore, Stephanie proceeded to the counter, where an elderly woman was commandeering the shop.

"Good morning Stephanie," she greeted in her serious tone, even as light and life sparkled in her eyes.

Stephanie grinned back at her, surprised that she remembered her name, even though she supposed that she shouldn't have been in a town like this. "Good morning Mrs. King."

"What will you be having today?"

"A chocolate chip muffin and some hot chocolate, please."

Helen King quirked a wrinkled eyebrow and gave Stephanie a stern look through her brown eyes. "A young girl like you should be eating more than that for breakfast, it's the most important meal of the day, you know," she scolded, tapping in an order into the cashier stubbornly. "It'll be ready in ten minutes."