<<Sleepless.Nights]

[antehya]

Antehya slipped through the doorway of the art room, her usual array of sketchbooks and drawing materials in a bag swung over her shoulder. She flopped down on a seat in the far corner laying her head in the desk for a moment, feeling faintly light-headed. After a moment however she sat back up and pulled paper from her bag along with a brush and ink.

She set to work depicting a butterfly flitting across the page with vague vines and flowers brushed faintly in with very watery ink, making the butterfly stand out in black while the rest was greyish and pale. This didn't take long but she soon found her eyelids drooping and her vision blurring and noticed a few seconds later that her hands were shaking.

She dropped the brush to the tabletop and laid her head back on the table with her eyes closed. Her breathing was slightly uneaven now and she recognised what she felt as the onset of what felt like a claustrophobic attack only she had a mass of space around her and couldn't work out why.

A few minutes passed in a vague blur and she glanced, nauseous, at the clock on the wall, staring at it for a few moments before she could focus. I have to sleep sometime, she thought to herself, hurriedly laying her head back on the table before she felt she'd pass out completely. I can't keep this up.

[cat]

Anita sighed. It was another day of tiresome events that she should not have been involved in. Fantasia was chasing her for something incomprehensible to be done again. And Mrs Gibson was asking about the Opening Day presentations. AND some idiot accidentally took her Biology report so she could not hand it in today. Frustrated and somewhat indignant, she made her way down the corridor towards the Art Room. Her footsteps were brisk as she manoeuvred through the crowd of students, who they themselves were rushing with their own agendas. She hated crowds like this. It felt like there was hardly any room to breathe.

The door made a high-pitched creak as she gently pushed it open. She put her head through and checked for any sign of students. She hoped there would be people today. Recruitment for the Opening Day decoration team was part of her job and she prayed for any student; especially the ones who had an eye for all things artistic, to show up. Not to her surprise, however, she only saw one person there. Her eyes lit up as she recognized the girl. She sauntered in though her footsteps suddenly quicken as she sensed that something was wrong.

“Hey…” she said calmly, even though that was far from what she felt, to Antehya as she placed her hand on her back, “Take deep breaths now. Relax.” She felt that she was breathing rather quickly. Was she having an asthma attack? “We better get you to the infirmary.”

[antehya]

Antehya tried hard to breathe properly, gasping for the much-needed air and making her head feel as if it were spinning.
"I - I don't n-need th-the infirmary," she managed to force out then went back to concentrating on breathing. After a minute or so she found she could breathe without having to think about it so much and she sat up carefully, a weak smile on her face.

"Uh, thanks." Her voice sounded rather husky. She twisted out from under the girl's hand, hating contact with other people, and stood unhurriedly. Walking slowly to the door she pulled it open but shut it almost immediately with a bang as she saw the stream of people thundering past.

With the same weak smile over her features she looked up at the girl Anita properly.
"Don't worry, really. It's - nothing."

She turned away and bit her lip as she went back to her table and sat, looking down at her picture. Maybe she should tell her...but did she really want the world to know about it? Besides the school nurse wouldn't be happy to know she had refused professional help after something like that. It was the worst attack she'd had she could ever remember - good thing Anita had come or she might have passed out.
"Thanks again though...it was just, um, claustrophobia. I get bad attacks of it sometimes. It's not serious though."

Liar. said the voice in her head and she looked up at the girl, pain clearly showing through in their green depths, reflected outwards in her gaze unlike their usual mask of coldness and blankness.

[cat]

Anita backed away from the girl as she stood up and moved towards the door. She thought that Antehya was really going to the infirmary, despite what she had said, or rather, gasped out, earlier. She wanted to go with her but stopped herself when Antehya opened that rusty old door and just stood there for a moment. The sound of footsteps and people talking boomed through the opening. Is she going to pass out?

It truly surprised her when Antehya quickly shut the door. The loud bang made Anita jump. As Antehya walked back to the table, Anita just stood at the exact same spot and watched. Well, that was strange... The glass of water on the table shook a little from the movement. Her next sentence just added to the surprise like a big chunk of fudge after an ice cream sundae. “Not serious?” she said, trying to control her voice. Antehya may be telling a lie. Anita’s guesses were usually right but it wasn’t any of her business because one, she didn’t know anything about claustrophobia and two, she it wasn't the right time to ask.

The Art Room seemed dustier than usual. Shelves and cupboards that held the art equipment had layers of dust, accumulated from the absence of the Art teacher. Sunlight pierced through the windows, making the fragments of dust in the air visible. Anita held the girl’s gaze for just a moment before rummaging through her backpack. “Here,” she said as she offered Antehya a half filled water bottle, “Get up. We’re going to see someone," she paused for a moment before adding, "Don't worry. We're not going to the infirmary.”

[antehya]

Antehya raised one eyebrow inquisitively.
"Going to see someone?" Her voice was soft but sceptical however she knew she couldn't just sit inside all day - she would go crazy. Besides she didn't want to face the crowd outside by herself as simple as that may well be.

She bundled her belongings into her bag save for the ink pictue which she left to dry after signing it roughly in a lead pencil in the bottom lefthand corner, her hand still shaking slightly. She smiled properly as the girl offered her the water.
"I'm alright. Really." She held up her own bottle of water from her bag. "I already have water anyway."

Antehya hated feeling as if everyone had to do something or give her something in order for her to blunder through life the way she did. She always felt as if there were someone behind her offering to hold her hand and sometimes she just snapped from all the supposed help that people thought she needed. She was not as weak as many believed.

"Mkay then," she muttered absentmindedly as she was still thinking. "So where are we going?"
She looked up then, directing her question at Anita who was still standing there with a slightly-worried expression over her face.