Altered Futures

Chapter 9 - Breakfast

Monday, January 9 --- 7:29a.m.

Waking up in a nervous sweat, Grace bolted upright in her bed, her breathing deep and measured. The whole incident felt like it had happened only yesterday. In reality, she knew it was a long time ago but that didn't make the event any less horrific for her.

Grace knew the responsible thing to do was to not tell Nafratearie. Sure, Naf always told Grace that she could tell her anything, but Naf was just rescued and now wouldn't be the best time to tell her about her bad memory. If anything, she should be making sure Naf was emotionally okay first. Her memory would have to wait.

Slipping out of bed, Grace peeled off her long sleeved, navy shirt from the night before. Checking her drawers, she pulled out a light blue shirt that flowed loosely around her figure, with a heart shaped wreath of flowers, complete with brown stems and green leaves, on her chest. Her jeans the day before were replaced with purple leggings that matched the flowers on her shirt.

Not bothering to brush her hair, Grace jabbed some bobby pins in her hair and stumbled downstairs into the kitchen. She didn't know why, she just had a feeling she should wear them for some reason. To her dismay, there was no readily accessible breakfast she could easily see. Groaning, Grace grabbed the toaster and decided to make Nafratearie's favorite breakfast when she got up. Undoubtedly, she'd still be traumatized after everything she experienced the day before, so it was the least she could do in return for her friend.

Inside the freezer was the box of strawberry Toaster Strudels. It wasn't opened yet, but Naf would have no problem with Grace opening it. Naf didn't complain too often when Toaster Strudels were involved. Opening the drawer in the kitchen that held the butter knives and dull knives, Grace took out a particularly dull knife. With the dull kitchen knife, she sliced open the packaging and the fruit filled pastries and icing packets fell onto the counter. Grace left four of the six pastries and icing packets out while putting the remaining two back in the freezer and throwing the empty box into the trash can.

Fetching the toaster and plugging it into a nearby electrical outlet, she dropped two of the pastries inside the slots and lowered the handle to start warming them up. While the food heated, Grace looked for plates. After locating two suitable ones, she set them on the table. Just then the toaster popped up. Handling the food carefully because it was still hot, Grace flipped both pastries onto her plate.

Putting the other two cold, rectangular items into the toaster, they started cooking while Grace grabbed one of the nearby frosting packets and opened it, spreading the frosting on top of one side. With the second frosting packet, she spread the frosting onto the other pastry using the plastic packet to help her spread the frosting evenly.

The toaster suddenly sprang up again. With no hesitation, Grace got the second batch of Toaster Strudels onto the other plate. It could have been just her imagination, but she thought she heard a hand slamming down on another surface and it wasn't hers. Quickly setting the plate down, Grace raced up the stairs. A thud sounded in Naf's room and Grace grew even more afraid.

Swinging the door wide open, Grace saw it was Nafratearie laying on the floor, her blanket tangled around her. Grace guessed what had happened was that Naf heard her alarm blaring and tried to turn it off, but missed her attempts to swing at it and missed by so much that she fell off her bed and got tangled up in her blanket. That would certainly explain why she was on the floor with her blanket messily laying on top of her and the noises coming from Nafratearie's room.

Yanking the blanket off of her friend and tossing it carelessly on top of Naf's bed, Grace bent down to her level on the floor.

"Naf, are you okay?"