Top Bunk

DAY 10

⌚ 6:18 AM (BECAUSE EL TOOK A FEW MORE MINUTES TO SLEEP IN)

When El finally throws her blanket off herself and gets out of bed, she realizes she's spent eighteen extra minutes in bed and her and Grace's schedule is way off and she might be late for breakfast, then consequently be late for everything else. She nearly gets a heart attack when Grace - who always insists on getting ready first ("I don't want stepping into a puddle full of your leg hair, Elizabeth") - is still fast asleep. Grace is snoring; El wishes she could be sleeping like that right now but she wishes even more to ruin the experience for Grace as well.

El puts her flip-flops on, stretches a bit, clears her throat. "Grace," she hisses. Grace doesn't stop snoring. "Grace," she says louder. Grace doesn't budge. "Grace!" she shrills, having had enough of this. Finally, Grace wakes up and this time, ungracefully so.

She flinches - one could even call it a spasm - then her crusty eyes pop open. Then, because she flinched slash spasmed, Grace nearly falls off top bunk (again) if not only for El holding her flailing body to keep her from falling off.

"Grace," and after three times of saying her name at various volumes, El just sounds done. "Grace Upland, stay still."

"Let me go!" Grace is still flailing. El notices her voice isn't as shrill as it usually is - more like she's in a trance. "Stop! I need - I need to - "

"Grace!" El screams, shifting her hands in the dips of Grace's shoulder and hip to get a better grip on her.

She stops flailing. Grace blinks four times, takes four deep breaths. "Elizabeth," she says slowly, "why are you holding me up to my bunk?"

"How about you get back up to your bunk and then we'll talk," El says. She gives Grace a push and she's relieved to have her weight off her arms. Grace wipes the tears that El didn't even notice at first then gets off the top bunk.

Grace sniffs and checks the time on her phone. "Shit," she mutters. "I'm running late."

"Just you?" El grunts.

"You could've gotten ready before I woke up."

El feels a shiver run down her spine at the harshness in Grace's voice. "You're the one who said - "

Grace sighs as she changes out of her nightgown and into her pink Camp Ashwood tank top and denim shorts. El's eyes nearly pop out of her head then she realizes she's staring so like, ew, she snaps her gaze away. "Look," Grace zips up, "all I'm saying is you should've been rational and just gotten ready before I woke up."

El looks up from the shirt she's sniffing. "And get you all angry? No thanks."

"You're," Grace sprays her deodorant on herself (which makes her smell like strawberries. Do they even make strawberry-scented deodorant?), "scared of me?"

El throws her Overly Large Tee Shirt Reserved Exclusively For Sleeping (trademark pending) on the ground. "No."

Dry shampoo goes in Grace's hair. "You need this." She tosses the can to El. "With that mess on your head, I'm getting scared."

Dry shampoo goes in El's hair. "Thanks for noticing."

"Honey," Grace smears lipgloss on, "it's impossible not to notice."

El switches her flip-flops for her hiking boots and she's done. "Stop pretending, Grace," she spits. "You love me."

Grace is the first out the door, her Prada sneakers squeaking against the hardwood floor and then abruptly padding against the grass. "There's no harm in dreaming, El!"