Fateful beginning of vacations

Chapter 62: Decreasing aversion

Sarah still felt exhausted despite her triumph. Helen had made sure that she had at least a week's rest after her conference. In her opinion, Sarah had more than earned it. Kathi had long been at school when Sarah finally woke up. She stretched and pushed her hands against the bars of her bed. She had felt the need to sleep in her and Kathi's secret nursery the last few nights. A few nights Kathi had slept here as well, but not every night. Sarah sat down and undid the latch and pushed the bars aside. Since everyone was out of the house she went to the kitchen in her onesie and made herself some coffee. She was about to light a cigarette when she suddenly heard noises coming from Leonie and Tom's area. She dropped the cigarettes and lighter in a panic and hurried into her room, closing the door behind her. She leaned against the door and heard footsteps coming closer then someone knocked on her door.

"Hey Sarah are you awake?" asked Tom at the other end of the door.

Sarah was still startled and answered uncertainly, "Y...aa..."

"Did you put the coffee on in the kitchen?" he asked.

"Yes I just wanted to change quickly and then have breakfast." Sarah talked herself out of it.

"Well then. By the way, your cigarettes fell off the table and spread all over the floor. I took the liberty of picking them up and taking one of them." he told her.

"That's all right, thanks. What are you doing here anyway?" asked Sarah.

"Oh I can explain that in a minute. I don't like talking to doors. Go get changed in peace and come into the kitchen." he said, seemingly disappearing towards the kitchen. Sarah breathed a sigh of relief and put on something neutral. She also took off her diaper as a precaution, it wouldn't last long anyway. A short time later she entered the kitchen and met Tom, who was sitting at the table with a coffee cup in front of him. Across from him was another cup, which he had apparently already set out for Sarah.

"Morning." he greeted her again.

"Hi sorry didn't expect you to be here." said Sarah and sat down.

"Well I guess I can thank you and Leonie." he explained.

"Why is that?" asked Sarah.

"Well, I guess the principal didn't think it was so cool that I stole the janitor's keys and then we broke into the school. He was probably pissed." told Tom.

"What were you doing there?" asked Sarah.

"I saved your ass because Leonie asked me to," he replied.

"What do you mean? Leonie was the one who blew up the conference, not you," Sarah stated.

"Well we got to have some fun with Commissioner Schmitz in the meantime. We were just leaving school and ran right into the janitor. " Tom explained.

"Who is we?" asked Sarah.

"Well the usual suspects Kathi, Sandra and me and of course Leonie. She hid in the school and then blew up the conference." he continued.

"Yeah I remember mom talking to the principal about you guys," Sarah recalled.

"You must have been pretty messed up if you didn't catch that." he commented with a laugh.

"Um...honestly I kind of feel like I just woke up from a pretty long and intense nightmare. I think a lot of it I just kind of repressed or just don't want to think about it right now. I think I was pretty nasty to Kathi even though she was just trying to help me," Sarah explained.

"Well, she didn't complain about you to me. How often did you actually see her while you were holed up in your room?" he asked.

"Um she brought me food every day, but mostly I didn't talk to her. The last time I talked to her was when you were writing the article, or rather trying to write it." Sarah reported.