Forty-One After Midnight (Completed)

Chapter Three

I woke up the next morning to this obnoxious squawking sound coming from Laney's alarm. Of course she'd be sleeping through it, even though it was so ear shatteringly loud that I could not even begin to understand how that was possible.

I got out of bed as fast as I could. It didn't work too well, because I seemed to be tangled up in my blanket, but when I finally broke free of its grasp I stood up, ran over to her alarm, and searched all over it for some kind of off button. At least I was awake. That was the only good thing about it.

I went over and kicked Laney's bed to wake her up. She groaned a little and rolled over to look at me. She had to squint in the bright sunlight that shone down on her through the window.

"What?" she asked sounding both sleepy and irritated.

"Time to get up. Your stupid alarm went off a minute ago," I replied grumpily.

"It's not stupid," she shot back in a defensive tone before sitting up. "It reminds me of the large bird my dad used to own when I was a little girl and that comforts me okay?"

"Whatever. It's still obnoxious."

All I did was walk over to get my uniform and when I turned around Laney was already in the bathroom. It was like she realized where I'd be going next and sprang out of bed to make sure she got there first. I sighed and sat down on my bed, waiting patiently for her to get out.

Sadly, she took so long that when she did finally come out we only had ten minutes left before classes began. She didn't even care when I complained about her not giving me enough time. She just shrugged and continued gathering her things before she took off.

I had to take a shower and cut it down to five minutes. The warm water felt great against my sore feet from the tour I took with Kyle and it tempted me to stay longer and relax instead of getting out into the cold bathroom. I decided to set a timer for myself so I knew exactly when five minutes had gone by, just to make sure I didn't accidentally overdo it.

When I heard it buzz I shut the water off and stepped out, wrapping my towel tightly around my body. Somehow, within the next five minutes, I was going to have to brush my teeth, get dressed, put on make-up, and do my hair. Hopefully, if I hurried enough, I'd only be a couple minutes late. After all, I wasn't going to go to my second day of classes looking like I just rolled out of bed. I had to at least attempt to look nice, even if it cost me a few minutes of class.

Paying attention in English was too much to ask for, even if the teacher was attractive. The majority of the things we were going over I learned already in three of my previous schools. If Oak Ridge was such a phenomenal school then why was their curriculum behind so far? Oh well. Guess that meant an easy A for me. I couldn't complain too much about that.

I ignored whatever it was that Ms. Langley was saying and thought more about the dream I had the night before. It wasn't like I was trying to think about it either, which was annoying me in a small way. It was almost like it was just stuck in my brain somehow, like someone was forcing me to think about it for some reason. I picked up a book and started to flip through the pages thinking that if I was actively reading, then I wouldn't be able to think about the dream anymore.

That day in history we began our group work. It was, to say the least, extremely awkward. I guess Laney had a problem with Kyle being gay, or at least that's what I assumed her problem was. I kind of guessed that by the way she mentioned him the other day, but still, she stayed clear of him and kept her eyes on him at all times. I had to wonder if she actually thought that being gay was something you could catch from somebody, like it was an infectious disease that she could get by being near him or touching him.