She slowly opened her eyes, hardly finding the energy to move. She rolled over, looking at the time on the cat-shaped clock on her wall. It read near the afternoon. She assumed it was wrong, but got up anyway. She grabbed the clock and smacked the side of it a few times.
"Work...This thing keeps breaking, I swear to Grambi..." She rubbed her eyes in annoyance, then decided to take it to Light Fang, who usually fixed the clock.
He was curled, sound asleep in his room. He loved to sleep on the chains hanging from the roof. She turned on the light, making Light Fang stir slightly.
"Fang? I need the clock fixed again. I might need to get it some new batteries..."
Fang looked at her, flicking his tongue.
"What do you mean, 'no?'"
He nodded once, then curled back to sleep.
"You feel tired? Odd...No matter. I will get my Sour Bunch to fix it for me."
She went into the kitchen, only to find it empty. She looked around. Not even Seth was anywhere to be seen. She went to the training grounds to see the Sour Bunch already on their daily exercise.
"Hm? When did I tell you that you needed to get onto your training? And why aren't you at breakfast?"
Matthew came to her, still doing his warm-up stretches. "Afternoon, Madame Grape! Sleep well?"
"Afternoon? So my clock isn't broken?"
"Nope. You seemed pretty tired, so we agreed to let you sleep. You've been doing paperwork and interviews all day, every day, since Peach beat you. We thought you needed the break."
Rodrick joined Matthew's side. "Speaking of which, you look pretty rough. Maybe you should go back to sleep?"
She scoffed. "Sleep? SLEEP?! How can I sleep when it's the middle of the day? Why didn't you wake me like you're supposed to? Now I'm extremely behind schedule, have yet to eat, and feel exhausted!"
There was complete silence from the Sour Bunch.
"Well? Answer me when I speak to you!"
"Madame Grape, are you feeling alright?" Matthew asked.
"Of course not, since you failed to do the duty I specifically asked of you! But...you are remaining on schedule...I'm so far behind, I cannot spare to waste another moment. Keep with your duties."
"Have a good day!" Bartholomew said from a small pool off to the left, where he and the rest of the mermaids were to do a few laps to keep their strength up.
Grape went to her office and sat in her chair. There they were again, asking if she was alright. She never felt better!...Well, she has felt better. She actually felt worse than when Peach destroyed her in Sparkle Theater.
She pulled over a small mirror on her desk and looked at her reflection. Her hair was worse than before, and her core was actually visible in her compressed form for once. She tried to fix it, then realized she'd forgotten her hat.
"Oh, of all times to forget it...And my Sour Bunch said nothing? They must be distracted today."
She got from her seat, put up a sign that said "Be Back in a Moment!" and went back to her room. She grabbed her hat.
"There. I cannot believe I neglected my outfit today. And my dress is all out-of-place as well..." She fluffed the ribbon on the bottom back to its proper style.
The gems on her dress faded to match her brooch.
"Oh? That's not supposed to happen."
She snapped, fixing the color; which only stayed for a second before turning fuchsia again.
"..."
She sighed. "It seems I'm the one out-of-place today...But back to work I have to go. I'm already behind too much."