Simone woke up, and the first thing she did wasn’t stretch or yawn, but she instead merely reached over and touched her hand to Annabelle’s arm. It was real, and she wanted to hold onto that as long as she could. However, there wasn’t much time for any of that because the clock was madly flashing the time; it was past noon. Mother Immaculata would surely have noticed that she was gone by then, and there was a good chance that someone would have noticed Annabelle’s absence at lunch as well. “Annabelle, wake up.” The other girl stirred faintly. “Annabelle!”

    Annabelle woke up roughly when she heard the slight alarm in Simone’s voice. “What?” She had woken up, but she wasn’t quite all that alert yet.

    “It’s past twelve o’clock. She’ll be here soon.” Neither woman needed mention who ‘She’ was.

    The situation started to sink in with Annabelle as well. Everyone knew that Mother Immaculata wouldn’t waste any time knocking on doors or waiting to see if someone would show up for lunch…She’d simply go find them herself if need be. “Should I hide?” Annabelle glanced at any possible hiding places in the room. It seemed like a cliché, but she was willing to hide in a closet or under a bed or…whatever was needed.

    “No,” Simone had glanced around the room once too, but she wasn’t going to make anyone hide because of her. She’d accept the consequences of her actions, but Annabelle didn’t need to be there when said consequences were dealt out to her. “You need to get back to your room, but there isn’t time…”

    Annabelle had already pulled her dress back on and opened up the door a bit; she glanced into the hallway. There wasn’t any sign of her quite yet. “Stall her.”

    “Annabelle,” Simone warned warily.

    “Just stall her,” and with that Annabelle slipped out of the door, leaving Simone alone to try to tidy up the room a bit. She threw on a red sweater and jeans and tried to make the bed, as if she hoped that would make things look less suspicious.

    The clock was flashing twenty-three minutes past twelve by the time Mother Immaculata opened the door. It was ten minutes past when Annabelle and Simone had first woken up. Mother Immaculata didn’t bother with knocking; she simply barged in. Simone wasn’t quite sure what to expect; she had cleaned the room a bit and made sure that no clothes were lying about, but she was still late to lunch, and Mother Immaculata was a stickler for promptness. “Mother Immaculata,” Simone forced a smile. “Good afternoon,” she had to catch herself, for she had almost said, ‘Good morning.’