Cheers,
Lisa
Evensong
Part Two:
The War of Roses
by L. J. Smith
“A flower unplucked is but left to the falling,
And nothing is gained by not gathering roses.”
? Robert Frost
Bonnie was headed for Biology 101, her first class of the day. She had given up trying to convince Meredith to stop following her, even though she knew that Meredith was going to miss her own classes. Bonnie’s pride was injured—as if she couldn’t take care of herself in the sunlight, with ordinary students streaming all around her!
She walked as fast as she could, but the tac-tac of Meredith’s shoes still kept up by her side. Of course, Meredith had longer legs, which was another injustice.
It was insanely cold for the end of September and the watery sun in the sky did nothing at all to warm the morning air. Bonnie shivered inside her thick wool sweater.
The good thing about Dalcrest College was that it was quite small, which made it easy to walk from one place to another on campus. Bonnie reached Lerner Hall before her nose was completely frozen, and she turned for the first time to look at Meredith.
“Are you really going to follow me in?” she asked piteously.
“Of course,” Meredith said, with grim determination in her dark gray eyes. “I’m going to sit in Biology with you, too.”
“Dr. Reichard is going to be mad at you,” Bonnie said feebly.
“Let her. I’m auditing the class—just because I’m dying to learn about the insides of a fetal pig.”
Bonnie turned back in frustration. She knew that under that determination Meredith was no happier about shadowing her than she was about being shadowed. It was ridiculous, but Damon really wanted it, and neither of them was good at refusing Damon. He was always so thoughtful and reasonable—and really, really good looking. Bonnie wished she’d had a chance to speak to Elena this morning, but somehow . . . things had been too rushed.
Elena should be all right now, though, she told herself. Damon won’t let anything bad happen to her.
Meredith made a sound of impatience. A dozen students had just walked into the building in front of them.
“Are we going inside or not?”
“We are,” Bonnie said resignedly. She hurried up the steps and into the open double doors—
Ouch!
She’d bumped into solid wood. Bonnie blinked and blinked again.
The doors were closed.
But that was impossible.
It had to be—was she so late that they had closed the whole building? And how had they done it while she was climbing the steps?
Bonnie rattled the doors once more to find that they were definitely locked, and turned around to ask Meredith what was going on.
Meredith had vanished. Bonnie shivered violently. She opened her mouth to call, but no sound came out. Worst of all, something had dimmed the sun. She could hardly see.
I must be having one of those trance-things, Bonnie thought desperately. But why am I so cold? And what’s going on in the real world? And why—why can’t I remember having breakfast or choosing my clothes this morning?
Bonnie shivered again violently . . . and woke up.
It was the middle of the night. She’d been dreaming—but, oh, God, there was Lerner Hall, all right! The big double doors were closed and locked. The sky was dark with no moon and about a billion stars and Bonnie was in her calf-length white cotton nightgown. Her bare feet were freezing.
Meredith wasn’t in sight.
In her place, there was a large and beautiful white dog standing on the steps.
Bonnie automatically put a hand on its head. “Good boy, good boy,” she murmured vaguely.
Oh, my God, oh, my God! she was thinking. I sleepwalked! I really did it! In my nightgown! I’ve got to get back to my room.
Meredith is going to be furious.
Bonnie was still looking at herself in bewilderment. It was so cold. The wind made it even colder, slicing through her thin nightgown as if it wasn’t there. How could she not have felt that? How could she have walked barefoot all this way and never felt the concrete?
But there was no point in standing here any longer and wondering. Other people were bound to be up and around campus. They might see her at any minute. In her nightgown!