Chapter 18: Sleep

When she approached the common room, she heard a few quiet voices and what sounded like giggles coming from there. Just as she reached the doorway, there was a shuffling of paper. Looking in, she saw Victoria and some of the other girls looking a bit too innocent. She looked a question at Victoria, who tried to keep a straight face for a few seconds, but gave up and smiled. The others started quietly humming "We're off to see the Wizard", while she held up copies of the cartoons. Linda gave her a tired smile, then gestured toward the dorms. The two of them made their way to the room, with the chorus a short distance behind. When asked where she had been, she tried to exude an air of mystery as she said she had been in a meeting.

When she went to take her shower, she almost turned back. Once she was well away from her door, the hallway was quickly lined with grinning, humming girls. She glanced back, and found the way blocked by some of the girls. Even as tired as she was, she blushed fiercely at the experience of walking naked down that living corridor, with every eye on her. Somehow, the cartoon didn't seem as good an idea any more. Victoria, on the other hand, seemed undisturbed. When they reached the showers, they had them to themselves. The others who wanted to had showered earlier.

When they returned to their room, cleaned, powdered, and refreshed, they did not have an audience. Linda was profoundly grateful. She was also happy to note that nothing of hers seemed to have been disturbed in their absence. She quickly put things away, and crawled in bed. It seemed to Victoria that she was asleep before she even finished doing that.