Rosa was now breathing heavily as she was sitting up in bed. Her clothes were drenched in sweat as she held her forehead with one hand.
"Damn it." Rosa kept gasping for air. "I thought I was done with these damn nightmares."
Suddenly, there were light cries from the room as Maria was starting to wake up.
"Maria!" Rosa jumped out of bed and rushed over to the crib with tears in her eyes. She looked down and saw Maria crying as she was flailing her limbs. Rosa quickly grabbed her and started rocking her. "It's okay, Mama's here."
Rosa continued rocking her with tears in her eyes. She had nightmares like this occasionally, and it scared her to the point she worried they were real. Thankfully, Maria just seemed to be cranky from waking up, so she could relax knowing Maria was fine. Eventually, Maria started to calm down.
"You finally calmed down?" Rosa looked down at Maria, who still had tears in her eyes. Rosa smiled with tears in her eyes as well. "I'm sorry if Mama woke you up. She just had a little nightmare."
Rosa hugged Maria as she went to look over at the clock. It was 6:30 A.M., and the sun was shining. She opened the curtains fully and saw people outside starting their day. Rosa sighed as she looked back at Maria.
"How about we get ready and get some breakfast? Rosa smiled. "Mama needs to see about getting something to help her stay asleep."
"Rena." Maria looked back up at her.
"Rena's probably getting ready for school." Rosa giggled. "But I'm sure we'll see her later. Knowing her, she'll try spoiling you today."
Rosa tickled Maria as she went to the bathroom to run a bath for the both of them. At the same time, Satoko and Rika had woken up earlier than usual and got ready for school. However, that wasn't the only thing weird about starting the day, at least to Satoko.
"Rika," Satoko whined. "Why did you wake me up so early?"
"I'm sorry." Rika frowned. "I didn't mean to wake you up, too."
"You were the one yelling, though." Satoko groaned. "How bad was that nightmare?"
"It was just a regular nightmare." Rika sighed. She didn't want to go into detail, but she had a nightmare related to what Hanyuu had told her about Rosa and Maria. "I'm sorry I woke you up so early."
"It's fine," Satoko yawned. "Just don't make it a habit."
"I'll try my best." Rika smiled. Satoko just shook her head as she smiled.
As Satoko and Rika walked to school, they noticed a familiar redhead wearing jeans and a blue shirt walking the opposite way.
"Oh, Rosa!" Satoko smiled, now fully awake, as she waved and ran over. Riksa followed behind her.
"Rika, Satoko?" Rosa looked down at them as they came up to her. "I figured you were in school, but isn't this a bit early? It's only a little after 7."
"Rika woke me up," Satoko whined. "I wanted to sleep in a little longer."
"I understand that." Rosa giggled as she patted Satoko's head, making her blush again. "The same thing happened to me this morning."
"Maria woke you up?" Rika looked up at Rosa, frowning.
"No, I just had a nightmare." Rosa sighed as she took her hand back to keep carrying Maria. "I think I may have accidentally woke her up though."
Rika was now looking over Maria to see if anything was wrong with her. Thankfully, she seemed okay, as Hanyuu had promised.
"Is everything okay, Rika?" Rosa looked down at her.
"Oh."Rika snapped back to her senses. "I just saw how cute Maria looked in her pink dress. It's adorable."
"She does look cute in pink." Rosa smiled as she switched to looking at Maria in her arms. "I hope I'm not overdoing it with all the pink, though."
"Overdoing it?" Satoko raised an eyebrow.
"I bought her a bunch of pink outfits." Rosa scratched the back of her head.
"I say it's fine." Rika smiled. "Don't you think so, Maria?"
"Rena." Maria looked at Rika.
"Rena would say it's fine too." Rika giggled.
"That is weird that you say that about waking up early." Satoko chimed in. "Rika also had a nightmare, which woke me up."
"Oh, sorry to hear that, Rika." Rosa frowned.
"It's fine." Rika smiled. "What are you doing up so early, though? Why not go back to sleep?"
"I thought that would be impossible now that Maria was awake." Rosa sighed. "Plus, I wanted to see if I could pick up something to help if I had trouble sleeping after that nightmare."
"Why not stop at the clinic and see if Coach could prescribe something?" Satoko smiled.
"Coach?" Rosa raised an eyebrow.
"Dr. Irie." Rika smiled. "He also coaches the baseball team here."
"I don't know if it needs to be something like that." Rosa placed her hand on her forehead. "I was just going to buy something over the counter."
"But Coach would love to help." Satoko smiled. "Maybe he could find out what's causing your nightmares, too."
"I don't know about…" Rosa tried to interrupt as she lowered her hand to her side.
"That sounds like a wonderful idea." Rika smiled as she grabbed her free hand. "He'll be able to help."
"Wait, I didn't agree to," Rosa tried to interrupt as Rika dragged her along.
"Off to the clinic." Satoko smiled as she followed the both of them.
"Why do these kids always drag me around?" Rosa sighed as she let Rika lead the way.