[For Ray]

[shareofdevils]

There were a lot of reasons why waking up that morning should have been strange for Marissa. As if being back in Newport wasn't weird enough, there was the fact that she'd apparently gone back in time -- The bed she woke up in wasn't at Caleb's or tucked into the lovingly-decorated room at her dad's, it was in her old room, the one in the house

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[whiskytango_rto]

Instead of answering outright, if he even really heard the question, Ray stretched an arm to better smash his face into the pile of stuffed animals, knowing his girlfriend was the type to ask legitimate questions but wondering what the hell could possibly be important this early.

Well, the fact that his pillow had buttons was kind of pressing, especially the part where they were pressing into his eye and cheek. "Why does my pillow hurt," he asked muzzily, finally lifting his head to squint at the sea of pink and fluff. "Did I forget to separate the whites again?"

[shareofdevils]

That was about the time that Julie Cooper's unmistakable voice came echoing down the hall in a sing-song of Marissa's name. It was also about the time that Marissa had a stroke.

"Oh my God," she blurted, momentarily frozen in place. "Oh my- Crap. Oh crap." She whirled on Ray, who was still staring groggily up from where he'd been molesting her teddy bear. "Hide!" she hissed, frantically waving her hands. "Under the bed! Go!" she added, and swearing she could hear her mother's footsteps drawing closer, gave Ray a shove that sent him falling out of the bed with a thump.

Wide-eyed, Marissa peered over the edge of the mattress. "Are you okay?"

[whiskytango_rto]

"No," he groaned, laying on a strange floor in nothing but the shorts he'd gone to sleep in--in a different bed, he recalled--and a nasty blow to his tailbone first thing in the morning.

He really, really, really wanted to go back to sleep, and hey, if he had to hide to get his girlfriend to stop assaulting him, by all means. Rolling over onto his front, he crawled over the sudden expanse of carpet to hide under the bed, planning to just close his eyes and wait until whatever the hell this was to slow down or be over before he came out.

That's weird, he thinks, hiding his face in his elbow and curling up by the wall--was he really hearing the click of heels outside?

[shareofdevils]

"Under the bed!" Marissa hissed, pointing emphatically. "Under! Now! Before my mom-" The doorknob jiggled, and before she could finish, Marissa flopped back onto the mattress in a flurry of pink sheets.

"Marissa, honey," Julie began as she pushed the door open, "You're going to be late for school. I'm not writing you another note just because you're lazy." She paused to inspect her manicure and then glanced to the closet, where a blue sun dress was hanging from the door. "I hope you're not thinking of wearing that," she continued, and swung her gaze back to where Marissa was staring wide-eyed from the bed. "It's not very flattering, sweetheart, makes you look flat as a board- What?" Julie blinked at her daughter and then down at herself. "Do I have something in my teeth?"

"No!" Marissa blurted, and then after Julie's startled reaction tried again. "No. I just- I don't know, weird dreams, you know. I'll be down in a minute."