Chapter 7: Unknown Truth

It was seven o´ clock when I was sitting on my bed without being able to find sleep again. The dream I had had been my only connection to my Vladislaus. The idea of this dream being my last with him made tears come into my eyes. Quickly I wiped them away as I saw Marianne awake. Her eyes were half-open, half-closed as she looked at me sleepily. "I hope you aren´t angry at me anymore for waking you up", she said, rubbing her eyes.

I forced a smile on my lips at the thought of the last night. In one hour our first lesson would start. On Wednesdays lessons always started earlier with some sports. Once again a subject they could have thrown out of the schedule in my opinion. This week was one which contained climbing up ropes. And I... well,... wasn´t the strongest nor the sport-obsessedest girl. If this was even a word. I watched Marianne crawl out of her cave of cushions she had built in her bed and open the drapes. The sun was up already and made me blink. I tried to keep looking out of the window to watch a bird on the outer windowsill to find it impossible. After almost one minute I held my hand in front of my eyes.

"You must be more tired than I thought, sleepy head", Marianne giggled. "You better go to the bathroom and splash some water into your face. I´ll make your bed today." I nodded thankfully and did as recommended.

After I was able to see again I looked into the mirror that hung over the wash-basin. There in the lighter bathroom I could see my own eyes. They were red and bloodshot as if I had wept the whole night. But of course I hadn´t done so. I couldn´t understand what was going on. I reached up to touch my eyelids. They felt sore and heavy. I look like a monster, I thought. Suddenly it felt as if something sharp pierced my eyes. I clenched them shut in pain, pressing my hands to to the skin where now blood trickled out.

Finally after a few seconds that seemed like eternity the pain decreased and I could open my eyes. Gasping for breath I looked down at my hands. Thick red blood was stuck to them. As I looked in the mirror again I found my eyes as they were always.

I jumped under the shower right after this painful experience, washing all the blood and tiredness away. I then dried and combed my hair and got dressed. Before I left the bathroom I looked again in the mirror, checking if everything was still okay. My eyes still looked normal but I also still couldn´t imagine why they had bled so heavily. Marianne had made the beds and prepared our bags for school as I walked into our room. She noticed the expression on my face immediately. Putting her "Are-you-sure-that-everything´s-alright?-face" on, she asked: "Do you want to tell me?" I knew she was worried about me but I just couldn´t act different but to spit back: "No, I won´t tell you!"

Clutching my mouth in realization I turned my look towards the dark red carpet in shame. "Sorry", I whispered. I was worried about my behaviour and my eyes myself but I couldn´t explain what was happening inside my body.

Marianne put a comforting hand on my shoulder and with soft force we walked outside. She probably thought it was my time of month but that wasn´t posibble because it had went away just a few days ago. I decided to tell her about my eyes later but forgot about this as we entered the gym.

Sabrina and Kate were standing on a bench and trying to push each other from it. Marianna and I shared a look that said everything and walked on. Our gym had mostly light brown shades, the walls as the floor. A few green mats lay under the ropes we would have to climb on.

"Kate, stop attacking Sabrina! We want to start our lesson!", a demanding voice behind us called. I probably haven´t mentioned yet that Ms. Klump was also our sports teacher. But this was a fact I would have liked to forget. Kate had stopped protesting long ago. It was useless to argue with Ms. Klump about her favourite student. Each girl found her place in a queue that built up in front of the rope. To my luck I wasn´t the first to start. I let out a sigh of relief as I lined up almost at the end of it.

As everyone expected my sport clothes were also in black and made up of a tank top and long trousers, not short ones as the most of my class had. I didn´t like showing the knock-knees that I had in my opinion. Once again I didn´t listen to my teacher who told us some new things we had to do on the rope then. I didn´t care much about that. I often imagined the Van Helsing characters going to school together. So I did at this moment. At least it was almost true now with Mr. Vankovic and our principal.

"Rachel, it´s your turn now to show your exercise to the class!" I jumped as I heard Ms. Klump say that. I hadn´t even noticed that I was on the beginning of the queue now. I nodded hastily and put my hands on the rope as I heard our teacher whisper: "Daydreamer!"

I smiled my innocent smile at her and jumped a bit in the air before putting my feet to the rope. Holding onto it like a monkey I pulled myself up until the middle. Strangely it wasn´t as difficult as I had been used to it. Almost with ease I reached the hook which held the rope. And that for the first time of my life! It was an awesome feeling to see all the other students look up at me. Suddenly I had an idea...