Saving Professor (Part 9)

“Petra.”
Collier kneeled at the couch, shaking his sister’s shoulder.
“Petra.”
Petra rolled over and opened her eyes.
“I’m leaving now,” Collier whispered.
“Okay,” Petra said in a full voice. Then she rolled back around and fell right asleep.
When she woke up two hours later, the sun was shining in her eyes. She rolled over to check on Collier. His sleeping bag was empty.
Rubbing her eyes, Petra remembered him waking her up earlier. She swung her legs off the couch and stumbled a bookshelf that served as her drawer. She took a navy blue t-shirt and khaki shorts off the top of her clothes pile. She grabbed her toothbrush and comb, and then made her way out the door and into the bathroom down the hall. A tall lady greeted her; she only nodded and looked down.
Well, that was embarrassing, Petra thought. I wish we had a bathroom in that room. Then no one would see me right after I wake up.
She closed the bathroom door behind her.
As she ran the comb through her short hair, she thought about Collier. What was he doing? Was he okay?
She brushed her teeth with mint toothpaste. It was the same kind she had back at the boarding school.
She splashed water on her face and wiped it dry with a towel.
After changing her clothes, she opened the door and walked back down to her room. She looked at the clock. It was 9:14. She still had about fifteen more minutes before Mr. Murphy came.
To pass the time, she started reading about wildlife. By the prices on the back of the books, she had figured that the books had just been bought for decorating purposes. But they were books, and that was all she really needed.
Someone knocked on the door.
She looked up.
A tall man was standing in the open doorway.
“May I come in?” he asked.
Petra quickly closed the book and stood up.
“Yes,” she answered.
The man walked in.
“I’m Mr. Murphy. And you are—“
“I’m Petra.”
“Ah. So Collier is with Alexander.”
“Yes. I mean, I guess.”
“So. We will being our studies.”