Ender sat down on his bed, exhausted from that evenings practice. His body ached in a hundred different places and he felt the tug of sleep pulling at his eyelids, but he just couldn't close his eyes. He'd felt this way before; not being able to sleep because he had so much on his mind, eventually managing to doze off as time passed by. However, this case was different-- Ender felt restless and anxious, both caused by his recent lack of sleep. He knew that he had to sleep, or else he wouldn't make it through the next day. The new morning would surely bring him another surprise battle, maybe two, although they didn't necessarily count as a surprise anymore.
Closing his eyes, Ender desperately tried to obtain even a wink of sleep. Whenever he came close, he found that a horrific image would disrupt his slumber. Sometimes that image was of Peter staring back at him through the mirror at the End of the World, and sometimes the image of Bonzo lying unconscious upon the bathroom floor flashed across his mind. Ender tossed and turned, finally giving up.
He sat down in front of his desk, turning it on to check the time. It was already 5:30 in the morning. All energy had been drained from him, yet he still couldn't manage even a few minutes of quality sleep. He was absolutely sick of being so tense all the time. Ender understood that this was a Battle School developed for training the elitist of soldiers, but it was frustrating that his army got battles every day; it simply wasn't fair. All that was needed, for both the benefit of him and his soldiers, was a day to catch up. They were all behind on their studies and desperately needed a day of studying and review. He'd be fine with the battle schedule continuing, they'd never had a problem with it, but he knew that a one day break from the game would be more than enough to quench his restlessness. So he decided that before the battle began that morning, he would visit Colonel Graff with an inquiry over the subject.
Graff was almost never in his office, and even less so in the afternoon, so the morning tended to be the best time to reach him. Also, if Ender and the rest of Dragon Army had any hope in passing the several tests they had been assigned tomorrow, it'd be best to get a break to study then. Ender wondered if Graff purposely avoided seeing people except in the mornings when Ender was busy getting ready for battle, but he dismissed the thought. Ender had to be of some worth to Graff, or else he wouldn't have promoted him to Commander at such a young age.
Standing up, Ender walked over to the door with his desk in hand. He stepped outside into the pitch black hallways, illuminating his path with his desk as he went. Through the darkness he found his way to the room filled with his snoring soldiers. He slid inside, cranking the brightness of his desk as far up as it could go. Navigating through the rows of bunk beds, Ender spotted Bean and went over to him. He sat down on Bean's bed and placed the desk on his lap.
"Bean," Ender whispered as he gingerly shook Bean awake. "Bean, wake up."
"Who is it?" Bean asked groggily, looking into the darkness. Ender brought the desk up to his face which illuminated it, causing Bean to perk up a bit. "What is it, Ender? We already got our battle assignment?"
"No, not yet," Ender replied. "We will soon though, so I want everyone to be ready early. I need you to wake up everyone and tell them to start getting ready without injuring themselves in the dark. Shake them awake, yell in their ear, I don't care. If they ask any questions, tell them I ordered it. Alright?"
Bean nodded uneasily and opened his mouth to speak, but instead bit down on his tongue and continued nodding again. It was odd even for Ender to get everyone up before the lights even came on, but Bean had the better sense than to question it.
"Good." Ender said, walking back out of the room.
He went back into his room and placed the desk in the center of the room like a floor lamp. Sure enough when he checked around on the floor there was already a slip of paper that was just barely readable in the darkness; their battle was with Rat Army at 0630. Perfect timing-- they must have known he's awake. He took off his uniform and put on his flash suit, just as the lights of the Battle School came to life. He turned off his desk and jogged down the hallway, entering the barracks that contained his army at 0601 to find them already dressed in their suits and ready to go.
