Hungover & Tired

Your head is tortured by the screeching of the alarm clock, and none of the other girls are happy about it in the slightest either. Claire was the earliest to leave, and even she seems to be quite affected by her drinking. At least she got a relatively normal amount of sleep. Lydia shouts out that she is taking a sick day, and Robin speaks at a much lower volume, "Shut. Up".

Taking a sick day definitely crosses your mind, but there is no way at all that Mrs. Juniper would let you get away with it. You just have to buckle down, act like you're not still a little drunk, and discreetly sleep through all of your classes. Pretty much a regular Monday, now that you think about it. You didn't take your jeans off when you went to sleep yesterday, due to the danger of your cage being exposed, and you just decide to throw a new shirt over, since you don't have the energy to go through the whole morning routine. You and all the girls leave the room together, except Lydia, who sleeps in due to her "sickness".

Your schedule today is thankfully pretty easy. Your days are made up of three modules of one and half hour lessons, each with a twenty minute break in between. Today you only have two lessons, art with Mrs. Mucow, a long break, then finally; literature with Mrs. Juniper herself. You make your way to the art classroom, where you see Charlie sitting at the back of the room, apparently having shown up early. You make your way over to her and sit next to her, watching her pencil scratch at the page she is focusing so much on.

It looks like she started to draw a bear or something, but at this point she is just filling the page with dark lead. You are about to ask her why, but you see her head drop, then quickly whip back, and she looks up at you and yawns. She was sleep-drawing. You laugh a little, "Didn't get much sleep?". She shakes her head and yawns again, "I couldn't get any". She closes the book she's drawing in and lays her head down so she would be looking at you if she could keep her eyes open. You follow her lead, and lay your own head down on the table, looking in her direction. You catch about five minutes of sleep before the room is filled, and Mrs. Mucow wakes you both up when she begins loudly presenting whatever the fuck she's talking about.

You and Charlie spend most of the lesson in your own bubbles, just trying to look like you are interested in the least, but towards the end of the lesson, Mrs. Mucow passes around lumps of clay to everyone, and you decide it would be good to listen in for a bit. "So, with this clay, I want you all to create your own interpretations of feminine beauty". You look up at the projector, hoping to find out how the lesson got to this point, and you see a sculpture of a very voluptuous woman, with special emphasis on her breasts. Her head is comparatively less detailed, her entire head just covered in little nubs. The text above the picture reveals the name of the sculpture, the Venus of Willendorf.

"Whatever that may be for your individual selves; you will have until tomorrow's lesson, so take your time. That's all for today!" she beams. You wrap the clay up and shove it into your bag. You look over to Charlie and see that she has fallen completely asleep. You quickly tap her on her shoulders, and she whips her body up straight. "Lesson's over," you whisper, "We have an assignment for tomorrow". She leans towards you and asks what it is, "Interpret feminine beauty with that clay". You point to it, and she begins to pack things into her bag. "Thanks." she says, exhausted. She begins to walk out of the class, but she freezes and turns back towards you, shuffling awkwardly in front of you for a moment, before she steps forward and throws her arms around you. She nuzzles her head into the nook of your neck, and you would like to reciprocate her hug, but she caught you off guard, so she's trapped your arms. You resolve just to enjoy the warmth of her breath on your neck and shoulders, however little time it lasted.

When she eventually relaxes her grip, you notice Mrs. Mucow standing behind her and smiling at you. Charlie turns to leave and almost walks into her. "Sorry!" she almost shouts. Mucow just steps out of the way and smiles at Charlie, who waves to you and leaves. "Alex. I have always planned my lessons knowing that everybody in the class is a woman, so I am a little bit out of my comfort zone to be honest," you laugh softly, and shrug, hoping to convey your sympathy. "So for this assignment, I would be fine with you doing your clay sculpture on masculine beauty, if you would prefer?". You shake your head, "That's okay, ma'am, I would be more comfortable doing the same assignment as everyone else." you smile, trying to be as nice as possible. A common theme since you've started at this school is that a lot of the women here seem to be... uncomfortable or at the very least inexperienced around men, which does make sense, but it's a little jarring that you're treated so differently.