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Nightfall

     2-Angels & Demons-

Everyone got a six drawer bureau and a desk at Solomon School, a far cry from the weathered shelf I’d gotten so many splinters from as a child, but I couldn’t help thinking I was made for the shelf. Drawers 3-6 were completely empty, and the only thing in my desk was the intake folder Professor Peabody had given me. I was done unpacking. Rolling the beat up suitcases that were all I had left to remember under my bed a scrap of gray caught my eye and I pulled at it. My blanket slipped easily out of the empty suitcase as it settled into its new position. Getting up I gripped it in both hands, taking a seat on the dark green plush comforter the school had provided for me, and hugging it to me before I could stop myself. The fabric scratched at my face as I breathed in all the memories that already seemed so far away. It smelled of government soap, of sweet sweat, and that metallic hand sanitizer the caretakers were constantly drowning us in…like Papi, like those fumbling confused nights we’d spent in my bed, like my life…

“…you still have a baby blanket?” Jenny’s whispery voice floated up from her bed and I started, shoving the blanket under my bed and turning around. I tried to think of something to say but it was pointless. As quickly as she’d emerged from it, my roommate was back into her trance-like state furiously writing, my existence forgotten. Alice swung into the room then, dripping shaving cream but giggling incessantly. Tasha came up behind her, handing her a towel and shaking her head before taking off back down the hall.

“Those crazy Leche’s, I got attacked!”

“Uh…what?” I asked as Alice attempted to swipe off all the foamy white streaks cutting across her in a remarkably accurate zebra impression. She giggled again as Jenny gave her a look that clearly suggested she wished her a very painful death.