Chapter 23: Dwarfs and Shits

I woke when daylight started to creep its way past, and through, the closed blinds. I lay in bed and looked around the room, my eyes picking out details I hadn’t noticed the night before. I was quite comfortable in the bed. The mattress was firm and not lumpy, the sheets were clean, the doona was warm. The pillow was firmer than I was used to, but not uncomfortably so. The sheets were sort of average in quality, but they weren’t threadbare like my sheets at home had been. If it weren’t for a bit of cramping from my period, and the need to use the bathroom, I would have happily stayed there for hours.

There was a digital clock on the wall, and even without moving my head too much, I could see that it was 6:42am. I remembered Max saying something about when breakfast would be available but I couldn’t remember the times he’d said. I was pretty sure it wasn’t as early as 6:42 though.

I slid out of bed and made my way silently across the carpeted floor to the door. I tried to open the door and slip out into the hallway without making any noise because I was fairly sure the other two girls were still sleeping. Once I’d eased the door closed, I made my way down to the bathroom. There were dim lights along the hallway, enough to see by, but not enough to hurt your eyes in the middle of the night. There was a window at the end of the hallway, looking out over the rooftops of the surrounding suburb, all glowing in the early morning light. At that end of the hallway, the nightlights were completely overpowered by the sunlight coming through the window.

There was no actual door to the bathroom, its entrance faced a blocking wall so that people couldn’t see in from the hallway. You simply had to walk in and then around the blocking wall. The lights in the bathroom were on dim, so I left them there. There was someone having a shower. I don’t know who it was, all I could hear was the splashing of the shower and the occasional snatches of her humming to herself.

I dug into the cupboards under the long bench of basins (I had to open three cupboard doors before I found the right one) and grabbed a tampon, then went and used one of the toilets. The catch on the cubicle door actually worked, so that was nice. There was a piece of amateur artwork on the back of the cubicle door, a picture of a farm with cows and a barn and someone driving a tractor. It looked like something from art class at school, but drawn by someone who could actually draw. There was a scrawled signature, but I couldn’t make out the actual name. It was coated with plastic film to protect it.

When I was done, I washed my hands at one of the basins, and use the hot air hand dryer. About the time I had my hands dry, the person having their shower turned the water off. I heard her step into the dry area and the faint sounds of rubbing as she dried herself with a towel. She was still humming. I left her to it and went back back to the bedroom.

I crept back into the room as silently as I had left it, and quietly got back into bed. I lay back and pulled the doona up to my chin. As I lay there, I was looking up at the bottom of the upper bunk above me. At some point, someone had put stickers on the wooden slats that held the upper mattress. There were several Disney characters, and a few anime characters. There was also one with a daisy in the middle that said, “Smile, you live longer.” There was a butterfly, and a couple of unicorns, and one from the Adelaide Wildlife Sanctuary showing a koala nibbling on some gum leaves. And there was a yellow sticker with a smiley face that said, “Great Work!”

The clock on the wall was saying 7:35am when I heard a phone alarm beeping from the bed above me. Valentina muttered something and the alarm was switched off. A moment later, she climbed down the ladder near my feet. She was wearing the same style of pyjama as me, except hers were probably one or two sizes larger than mine. She was a tall girl, though not overly heavy. Unlike my green pyjamas, hers had navy blue bottoms and a pale blue top. Her top was pushed out by a significant pair of tits. She had jet black hair that was probably usually straight but was mussed up from sleeping. It looked like her hair would drop to about the bottom of her wing bones on her back, once it was brushed.

She looked half asleep, but she saw me watching her. “Hey Jacinta. Did you get some sleep?”

I nodded.

“Good. Breakfast is on whenever you’re ready. I need to hit the bathroom and brush my hair. I’ll go down with you if you want to wait for me. We tend to go down to breakfast in our pjs on weekends, but it’s not a rule. Do you need the bathroom?”

I shook my head.

She shrugged. “Okay.” She opened her cabinet and pulled a hair brush from one of the drawers. “Be back soon. If you want to come down to breakfast with me, you’re welcome.”

She left and it was quiet again. Over on the other bed, Aubrey hadn’t moved through all of that. I lay there and tried to process what I was feeling. I decided I was still mostly numb. I had a vague memory of Valentina saying that she went to my school but I couldn’t remember seeing her.

It was about 20 minutes before she came back. Her hair was now brushed and pinned back off her face, but otherwise hung loosely down her back. The hair style rang a bell and I thought that maybe I’d seen her around the school a few times.

Valentina put her brush away and then looked at me. “Are you coming down with me, or do you want to lie there for a bit longer.”

“I’m coming,” I said. I rolled out of bed and stood up.

“Whoa, girl,” said Valentina. “Where’s that hair brush of yours?”

I went to my cabinet and hunted around inside the garbage bag to find my hairbrush. Valentina waited patiently while I quickly brushed my hair out, then put my hairbrush into the top drawer of my cabinet. It rattled around in there on its own.

Valentina walked over and reached up to slap a lump under the doona that was probably Aubrey’s ass. There was a muffled, “Ow.”

“Wake up, sleepyhead,” said Valentina. “It’s already eight. If you don’t get moving soon you’ll miss breakfast, again.”

Aubrey’s voice was muffled, but what she said next was clear enough to be understood. “Fuck off, bitch. It’s Sunday, and the sun isn’t even up.”

Valentina grinned at me. “Don’t even try to talk to her until lunchtime. She’s seriously not a morning person.”

We walked down the stairs side by side and made our way into the seating area outside the kitchen. There were already about eight teens in the area, a mix of girls and boys. The girls were all in various styles of long pyjamas. The boys were all wearing some variation of sleep shorts and a loose tshirt. A number of the teens were at the tables eating. The rest were lined up at the serving hatch that led into the kitchen. There was a quiet buzz of conversation in the room.

Valentina pointed to a whiteboard beside the serving hatch that said, ‘Breakfast today: Waffles or Fried Eggs on Toast.’ Beside the serving hatch was a table holding bowls and plates and dispensers for three different types of cereal plus a pile of bread and a toaster and some spreads to put on the toast. A second table had a choice of tea, coffee and juice.

Behind the hatch, Max, and a woman about the same age, were cooking industriously as each teen gave their order, then stepped aside to wait.

“I’m going for the eggs,” said Valentina. “But you do you. If all you want is some cereal or toast, just grab what you want. That table is self-serve. There’s the makings for tea and coffee over there. It’s only instant coffee, so don’t get your hopes up. Or you can have juice.”

I didn’t think I could face either waffles or eggs this morning, so I sidled over to the table and put a slice of bread into the toaster. I picked up a plate off the pile and then watched the activity in the kitchen as the pair of adults worked quickly and efficiently to fill the orders that they were being given. More teens were drifting down the stairs as I watched. My toast popped, and I spread some butter and some strawberry jam on it.