The Fitted Sheet

Ages 15-18

Rena's fitted sheet is too small for the bed, and she has been fighting it for ten minutes.

It is a dorm bed, narrow, with a mattress as thick as her arm. Her mother bought the sheet in the shop, and it said the right size on the package. She pulls the corner over the top left, and the elastic holds. She pulls the bottom left over, and the top left pings off.

She does the top right. The bottom left pings off again.

She sits on the edge of the bed with the sheet in her lap. Down the hall, other doors are opening and closing, and someone laughs.

She looks at the sheet. She turns it round in her hands, and finds the tag. It is longer one way than the other.

She turns it a quarter, so the long side lies along the long side of the mattress. She puts the first corner on, and the second. They hold. The third, and the fourth, and she smooths the middle.

The bed is flat, with the sheet tight to all four corners. She puts the pillow at the head of it. She lifts her bag from the floor, and sets it on the pillow, and sits down next to it.