Louella

Louella had never much liked lying on a stony mattress, covered in damp, very flowery sheets. Nevertheless, she lie there, head buried in her pillow, as she willed her limbs to relax into sleep. This was made annoyingly difficult by her roommate, Donna Hamilton, who was chattering away on the phone.1

“…And then she said,” Donna was babbling in a loud whisper, “that the deal was off! And just like that the whole thing was over and now they’re not even speaking! Yeah,” she continued after a short pause as her friend on the other line responded, “it’s so-o dumb of her to dump such a cu-u-te guy. I mean…” And the meaningless prattle continued, punctuated by a fit of giggles every few minutes. 2

Rolling onto her back, Louella considered telling Donna to shut up, but thought better of it. After all, they were stuck together for at least another month or so. Still, she needed to sleep.3

“Donna,” she called in what she hoped was a kind, appealing tone rather than one of impatient anger, “Could you please be a bit quieter? I’m trying to sleep.” The last part came out more on edge than she’d meant it to, but she had no regrets when, a few minutes later, her roommate finally flipped her pone closed and flopped into bed. Mercifully, the phone call seemed to have drained the desperately obsessive need she usually had for conversation from her, and soon thereafter, light snores issued from across the room.4

“Donna was on the phone for ages last night,” Louella complained to Regina the following morning, punctuating her statement with a yawn. 5

“Too bad we can’t be roommates,” Louella’s friend sighed wistfully as they took adjacent seats in Mr. Jones’ history class. “Donna and Tanya would get on well, dontcha think?”6

Grinning dazedly at the thought of the two most talkative girls she knew occupying the same room, Louella shook her head. “They’d talk each other to death,” she murmured in mock-horror as Mr. Jones began the class with an irritable grunt and a wave of his hand, indicating his will for the class to be silent. 7

“Today,” he grumbled, frowning at them all in what Louella thought was undeserved dislike, “you’ll be learning about the many great technical innovations of the early Chinese…”8

“Notice how he’s managed to never teach us anything,” Regina muttered to Louella who was beginning to doze off on her open textbook. 9

“Yeah,” Louella agreed with a start as she awoke from her few seconds of stolen rest. Wiping drool from her cheek, she turned guiltily back to the head of the class where her history professor was regarding her with annoyance, as if she had just justified his detestation of all children. 10

“Turn to page sixty and begin reading,” Mr. Jones instructed, leaning back in his chair and pulling out a boating magazine as he always did during his classes. He had a great fascination with boats; someday, when he had scrounged up enough money, he planned to sail away on one. 11

Although Louella was normally one of the very few students who was actually interested in History, today the words on the page before her were completely meaningless, blurring in and out of focus as her eyelids drooped. Frowning, she propped her chin up on her crossed arms, attempting to ward off unconsciousness with pure determination. From this vantage point, the lesson was fairly legible. 12

Unfortunately, the