A Darker Reality

To Trust In a Monster

"Cecily. Cecily Connar, wake up."

Cecily jolted awake and saw the teacher watching her with a disapproving face. The other students in the classroom were staring at her, and some of them snickered. Cecily blushed as she quickly wiped a bit of drool from her face. 

"Sorry," she said quietly.

The teacher sighed. "As I was saying, you all need to make sure you cite the resources for your paper correctly. I will not tolerate any form of plagiarism whatsoever. And don't forget that you need at least five academic resources."

The teacher continued and Cecily looked down at her desk. That was the second time this week she had fallen asleep in class, and it never got any less embarrassing. 

After the bell rang Cecily left her history class and walked down the hall to go to lunch. As she walked into the cafeteria to go to lunch. As she walked in, she saw her friend, Justin, already sitting at a table reading a book. Cecily walked to the table and sat down across from him. He looked up from his book and smiled at her.

"What are you reading?" she asked.

"A Wrinkle in Time," he answered.

"Didn't you read that already? Like, when you were nine?"

"Yeah, but my sister watched the movie the other day and it made me want to read it again."

"Ah," Cecily said.

Justin had been one of her best friends ever since elementary school. Ever since they got together at PE to play games of make-believe when they were kids, they had been nearly inseparable. One of the things they had in common was that they both loved fantasy and horror. When they got older, they both created many schemes to sneak into the movie theatre to see R rated horror movies, (which almost never worked, but there were a couple of occasions where they did). Justin loved writing and story telling, and at one point, they even made an agreement that Cecily would be his illustrator for all of his books.

Justin marked his page and closed the book. "So how was history?"

Cecily shrugged.

"Did you fall asleep again?"

She groaned and put her face in her hands.

Justin laughed. "Oh my god, I was just joking. Did you really?"

"Yes, and the teacher called me out in front of everybody. They said next time I do it I'll have detention."

"So now I guess you'll stop staying up late to draw now, right?"

"For your information, I haven't been staying up to draw. I've been doing research."

"Oh yeah? On what?"

Cecily hesitated, then said "Obviously I'm doing research for my paper."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're bad at lying?"

Cecily scowled. "I'm not lying."

"Come on, Cecily. You get a look on your face that practically screams it. And I don't believe you're staying up till two AM every morning to do research on that history paper. What is it?"

Cecily scowled. "What does it matter to you?"

Justin shrugged. "It doesn't. I'm just messing with you."

"I don't appreciate it."

"I'm not doing it for your appreciation," he said with a laugh. Cecily stuck her tongue out at him. "So, uh, you know what's for lunch?"