Sleepless

Nova walks into school and flops her bag down next to her locker. The dark circles under her eye are significantly less impressive thanks to the make-up she's used to cover them up. She sinks down to a sitting position with her head resting on her locker. 

"No sleep?" Melanie asks, sitting down next to her.

"Not really." Nova opens her right eye and looks at Melanie. She's wearing her yellow sweater again.

"Oh, right. You like, never sleep." Melanie smiles and pulls Nova into a hug. 

"But it's okay," she promises. "We have a substitute today. You can just sleep in class."

Nova finds it easy to remind herself that in 8 hours, she'll be able to sleep again. 

Lately, she's been on a sleeping schedule of every other night. And sometimes even less. If she didn't already miss enough school, she'd have time to get her sleeping back to normal. 

But oddly enough, not even sleeping pills were helping. 

Melanie stopped hugging her and kissed her on the forehead before standing up. 

"Guess I'll see you in class," she said.

Nova waited until Melanie was gone, then smiled. 

Girls certainly are the most caring...