CHAPTER FIVE HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN – THE NEW STUDIO

As they prepared for bed, the close quarters led to more tension. "Ian, your easel is blocking the bathroom door," Kendra complained. "Well, where else am I supposed to put it?" Ian snapped back. "This place is barely big enough to turn around in!" Jasmine tried to tune out the bickering as she made up her bed – a thin mattress on the floor of the smaller bedroom, which she was sharing with Molly. The springs creaked ominously as she lay down, and she could feel every lump and bump through the worn fabric. Sleep, however, proved elusive. The unfamiliar sounds of the city filtered through the thin walls – car horns, distant music, the occasional shout or laugh from the street below. The apartment was stiflingly hot, the single fan they had found doing little to circulate the stuffy air. Jasmine tossed and turned, her mind racing. This wasn't at all how she had imagined her first night in Lima. Where was the excitement, the sense of new beginnings? Instead, she felt a gnawing anxiet