With No Warning (Romance/Inspirational)(Complete)

CHAPTER 22: Sleep Away

CHAPTER 22: Sleep Away

Sleep seemed Dakota’s only peace during her own hard time. For a veteran insomniac, she found it remarkably easy these days to sleep. Sleep in the afternoon after class, instead of hanging around with Kelli and Lora. Sleep in the evening, instead of supper or grading papers. 'Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care...'

That particular quote stuck often in her mind these days.  In Macbeth, sleep was to repair life's stress, but she wasn't finding that to be true. It didn't repair problems; it temporarily removed them. Now if Shakesphere had said, 'Sleep that veils up,'...Oh, what did she know, she was not an English Lit teacher.  In fact she was barely a History teacher these days. 

Paperless homework and review sheets had been slowly integrated into a lot of her classes, and during the next week, she pulled the disc that had come with the Civilization textbook, and uploaded assignments to her academic page on the school's website. This, she knew, was slacking.  It took a lot of her own input away from the assignments. It also limited the work to multiple choice, hence taking away some of the student input. On the other hand, the program provided the grading, allowing her to sleep more.

Jolee called waking her up on Thursday afternoon, after Dakota missed Pilates class again. She hadn’t been to the class since returning from Spring Break over a week ago.

“I’m still sick.” Dakota informed her.  Pushing the hair from her eyes, she shifted more comfortably into the mattress.

“Have you been to the doctor?”

“No.”  Pulling the quilt up, she blocked what little sun filtered through the blinds, from filtering through her eyelids.

“I’m in the car, just got to your dorm. I’m coming up.”

Flinging the quilt back away from her face, she stared in mild panic at the shadows on the celing.  “Don’t Jolee. I could have mono. You might carry it home to the baby.”

“So? I won’t kiss you,” Jolee replied dryly. “I’m coming up. Ring down and tell somebody to open--  Wait!  There’s Bretni.  Bretni!”

Dakota stared in annoyance at the dead phone in her hand. It couldn’t have been even a minute later that the knock came to her door. Surrendering to the inevitable, she twisted her disarrayed hair into a clip, as she admitted her friend.

Jolee stared in obvious distraction around the room, as Dakota pushed the door closed. “Wow, this takes me back. I went to SFU for two years.  That’s where I met Mark. This is so much like my dorm room, only maybe messier even...”

Thoroughly embarrassed, Dakota grabbed up some of the trash, and stacked the scattered clothes onto the foot of the bed, so that Jolee could have the comfortable chair. “I’m usually a neat person, I’ve just been...”

“Sick.” Jolee finished the sentence as she crossed to the chair. “Our dorm mother had an efficiency apartment.”

“I think I will next year.” Dakota went on to mention the remodeling plans that the school planned for over the summer months. “If I stay on.” Now why had she said that?! Mentally, she kicked herself a good one.

Jolee’s wandering eyes skittered immediately to Dakota’s face. “I guess I just assumed you were here for good. You mean next year you might not be back?”

“Of course I will. I love it here.” Dakota hastened to reassure, even though she wasn’t sure. “I don’t know why I said that. I’ve just been...”

“Sick.” Jolee supplied, narrowing her eyes when Dakota stopped short of the word, feeling like a broken record.

“I’ve just been so tired, really. Sleeping all of the time. And that’s weird for me. If anything, I usually can’t sleep  when I’m upset.”