Chapter Four: Baths, Breakfast and other things beginning with B

Dorothea opened her eyes. She hadn't just woken up- oh no. she'd been awake for at least the last hour, thinking happy thoughts and trying to will herself back to New Zealand. You see, as soon as she'd woken up she'd realised that she had forgotten her toothbrush. It was a brilliantly bright blue toothbrush, bought especially for her trip, and Dorothea could have kicked herself for forgetting it.

She did, and all the sheets and blankets on her bed fell onto the floor.

This was fantastic. Utterly, completely, I-would-rather-take-a-bath-in-a-pit-full-of-huhu-grubs-ly WONDERFUL. Perhaps fuzzy teeth were fashionable in Ireland.

Ireland! The Emerald Isle! Leprechaun Land! Home of Guinness! And… home of that boy…

Oh, cripes. Him.

Well, Dorothea wasn't going to give that snobby -person- the satisfaction of taking up her thoughts. Very quickly she thought about little brown kiwis, albatrosses, beetles, cats, scissors, octopi, croissants, Freedom Fries (snort), sunflowers and hot air balloons. Having thus removed the pale git from her mind, Dorothea set about finding out where she was.

A large, spacious room that would have been light if the curtains had been open. Well, that was simple. Now for some more detail-

She was lying down on, no, sitting up on (to get a better view of the room) an extremely comfortable bed with no bedclothes on it. They were on the floor, and were a pleasant peachy colour. The duvet was less peachy and more reddish, which matched the frills on the three pillows.

Oh, for god's sake, not frills, thought Dorothea. That's the type of thing Maria… She stopped herself. This was a holiday; she would not think about her sister. Not at all.

Definitely not.

Especially not the way she always-

SHEEP BANANAS FROGS HATS CASTLES SCOTLAND BROKEN GLASS ART CLASS TEACHERS CHICKENS BUFFALO, she thought severely. And that took care of that.

"Hey, hello? Helloo-oo? You awake in there?" A blonde head erupted through the doorway behind Dorothea, followed rapidly by a shorts-and-singlet-top clad, athletically toned body. Dorothea's over-enthusiastic SkankRadar went haywire. "Just got in from training with big bro," the older girl continued. "Bit whoofy so I'll stay back, but here's your breakfast. Bathroom's through that door. See you in, what, an hour?" With that, Juliet Butler ran back out the door, horrified with herself. She'd probably scared the girl senseless. They probably didn't have glitter mascara in New…New Sea-land, or whatever it was.

…

Dorothea gaped. Then she quickly stopped, and attacked the meal that the strange girl had left her.

Croissants, camembert, check. Orange juice, check. Napkin- Napkin! This was like being at a restaurant!- check. Dorothea munched away at her favourite meal in bliss, then corrected herself. This was not like being in a restaurant. She had never been in a restaurant in her pyjamas.

Pyjamas!

How had she gotten into her pyjamas!

The last thing she remembered was falling asleep in the car… no, best not to think about it. Repress the memory. Repress the memory. Don't think about pink hippopotami wearing tutus.

Now, there was a disturbing thought.

To clear her mind- or at least, to clutter it up so that a few disturbing thoughts would get pushed back into oblivion- Dorothea went into the bathroom. Even after the subtle, stylish sophistication of her bedroom, she was flabbergasted.

The room was decorated to match the connecting bed chamber, but creamier. Dorothea wriggled her toes in the deep rug, gaping again. She couldn't take it all in. She felt like Beauty exploring the Beast's castle- except she couldn't remember there being any bathrooms in that movie. But here… here, there was an enormous sea-shell of a bath with bottled fragrances lined up along its edge, a sparkling white sink underneath a huge mirror, a toilet (necessary in any bathroom), a shower, and when she looked inside a cupboard she found rows of scented soaps, shampoos, conditioners, facial cleansers… but no toothbrushes.

Dorothea did the only thing that seemed proper in the circumstances. She had a bath.

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24.04.06 Reloaded. Gosh, took me a while to figure out I was doing things incorrectly, didn't it?