Chapter 25

Aélita dropped onto her bed a little harder then she had meant to. It felt like it had been a really long day and all she wanted to do was stay in the flopped position she had fallen in. Until she realized the first person to walk into the bedroom would be able to see her underwear. Telling herself she needed to move, she laid staring up at the ceiling. The slopping wall made contact with the ceiling a bit passed where her head was now, a cut out making space for the window. At the sound of footsteps in the hall, she forced herself into a sitting position and checked the helm of her night gown.

"Aélita?" Michel asked, getting her attention to the man standing in the doorway. "Has all the cots in here been sat on?"

'Uh, I think so," Aélita said, truly not sure.

"Crud," Michel cursed under his breath, looking back down the hall.

"Why? Is something wrong?"

Michel turned back to her and admitted, "There was a reason for why, when the family was here, we only had nine cots set up and I had forgot. The tenth one's broken but I don't know who ended up with it."

"Sounds like cot lottery tonight," Aélita said, a smile on her face.

"Cot lottery?" Michel let out a laugh. "Yeah, as long as Mr. Stern or Mom doesn't end up with it."

"I'll let them know when they get back in here," Aélita offered.

"Thanks," Michel said before walking away, passing Ulrich as he came into the room.

Ulrich tossed his cloths under his bed as he asked, "What was that about cot lottery?"

Kiwi's scampering paws on the hardwood floor alerted Aélita of Odd walking back into the room as she explained, "There's a missing broken cot."

"I heard when he was telling Adele and Pauline," Odd admitted, pulling the cloths off his bed to make a space for himself.

"I hope my dad didn't end up with it," Ulrich admitted.

"Mr. Belpois said the same," Aélita said with a smile. She turned to the door as Jérémie and Yumi walked in, Yumi letting out a laugh as Jérémie just gave her an embarrassed smile.

"What'd we miss?" Odd asked, putting Kiwi up on his bed.

"I made the mistake of asking what he'd gotten for Christmas," Yumi admitted, a smile still on her face as she walked over to Aélita and knelt down to put her cloths away. She turned to look over at Jérémie, "I didn't mean to laugh, it's not even all that funny."

"It's just all the stress we've been through today," Jérémie said with a shrug as he sat down on his bed.

"Well we all need a stupid laugh, what was it?" Ulrich asked.

"Grandmére has a tradition of getting everyone in the family underwear as a present and Aélita got included in the everyone," Jérémie offered, his cheeks turning red.

"Mrs. Myriam trying to make you a Belpois already?" Odd asked, laughter in his voice.

Aélita gave him a shrug, it not sounding like a bad idea to her. One day she would be happy to be a Belpois.

"Then I'm guessing you haven't been sleep talking anymore, huh?" Ulrich asked, throwing his thumb over to the far corner of the room as Yumi got to her feet.

"What? No!" Jérémie said quickly.

"Sleep talk? I didn't know you talked in your sleep," Aélita said, curious as to what he might have to say in his dreams.

"Great, so between Jérémie talking and Odd's snoring, we'll never get any sleep," Yumi said, leaning a hand against the cot.

"It's not that loud," Odd defended.

"Yes, it is, Odd," Ulrich said.

"It woke me up!" Yumi exclaimed.

"When?" Odd asked.

"When we were swapped," Yumi reminded. "Every time I started going to sleep," she let out a loud snoring sound, making Aélita let out a laugh. "You sound like a cow!"

"I don't sound like a cow," Odd mumbled.

"Knock knock, kids. Time for bed," Béa said as she poked her head in the doorway. "Try and get some sleep, tomorrow we're planning on everyone getting out for some fun. Oh, and if anyone ends up finding the broken cot, Michel owes them breakfast in the morning."

"Now that's a loto I can get behind," Odd said.

As she turned to leave, Aélita called out, "Night Mrs. Belpois," in a chorus of similar sounds from her friends. She turned to Yumi and said, "I've gotten used to the edge, you can have the wall."

"Okay, oh, I've gotta warn you. I have a habit of stretching out in my sleep," Yumi said, pulling back the blankets.

"Just don't kick me out and we'll be fine," Aélita said, smiling.

Aélita waited for Yumi to into the cot before getting into the cot herself, wrapping herself in the blankets.

"Everybody good?" Odd asked, shutting the door.

"Yeah," Ulrich said.

Odd clicked the lights off, leaving Aélita's eyes to try and adjust to the dark as she tried to watch him get into bed.

"Oh, you want Mr. Pück?" Yumi asked, passing the doll over.

Aélita grabbed for the doll, feeling his feet, only to hear a loud crash from where Odd's bed was. Quickly she sat up as Jérémie clicked on his lamp to see Odd's cot had fallen, head end to the ground with him still in it. He laid, one hand holding onto Kiwi while the other held onto his blankets, frozen for a moment.

"Odd! Are you okay?" Yumi exclaimed as she sat up.

He looked over at them as a smile started to pull at his cheeks. "Well, it looks like I won the cot loto," he said, laughing as he let go of Kiwi so he could roll himself out of what had become of his bed.

Aélita found herself laughing, hearing a similar sound from around the room.

"Is everybody okay?" Carole asked as the woman jerked open the door.

Aélita looked up at her, seeing Ulrich's mother dressed in a set of silk pajamas, and tried to curb her laughter.

"I, uh, found the broken cot," Odd said, his laughter still evident as he sat on the floor beside his lopsided cot.

Carole gave him a smile as more of the adults appeared behind her. Her smile quickly turned into a laugh, getting Aélita to laugh again.

AN: The end of a stressful day, everyone needs a laugh.

ODD: That's why I'm here.

AN: At least you get a big breakfast out of it all.

ODD: Not complaining about that.