“I’m not sure how, but, yea, I was able to pull it off.” Matt replied, forcing himself not to turn away from the brightness of the window. “Although I’ll never hear the end of it…he had to cash in a favor with Terrus himself to get it to happen.”
“But…yea, we’re going.” Matt stated, smiling. “And, it’s good to know you can come to. I would’ve missed ya.”
«A favour with Terrus himself? And how the hell could you make it happening, young Matt? Who are you?»
«On the contrary, I wont miss the two of you, when youll disappear for this damned trip of yours! At least, Ill finally have the chance to enjoy a bit of rest!» groaned the third student, still hiding under his blankets.
Chuckling, Arian De Corde shook his head. It was definitely a pity. The guy wasnt so bad, but he was definitely unable to relax. Homework and studying, studying and homework. Nothing else. Never. Ignoring him, the Cadet nodded to the young FPSian.
«You know I simply couldnt miss the chance to see you in the middle of an official ceremony or whatever well attend to, Matt. Im sure it will be a priceless show. But now what about reaching the commons? Considering once again youve not had the chance to enjoy enough rest, Starcraft Commander » he smiled « Im sure youll need your coffee very soon»
“Very funny.” Anna did not sound amused. “Karen, you know I’m hypersensitive! That could have been serious! Would you want to be the one stuck explaining me to an ambulance crew?” She sat down on the bed and began tying her shoes. “Sorry. Maybe I’m overreacting. But I am checking that valve every morning from now on.”
“Anyway, we’d better get going. If this is anything like last time the plane leaves at some horrible hour.”
“I promise. Should I ever have to call an ambulance crew, I’ll accept full responsibility. I’ll also let them check out your clock. It seems to go off at odd hours.” Karen was trying to stop laughing, suspecting it was annoying Anna even more, but succeeding miserably at it.
“And trust me, I’ve been ready for HOURS. I was just waiting for you to wake up, sleeping beauty!”
Karen hopped down from the top bunk, Cheshire Cat grin back in place, and picked up her suitcase.
“Shall we go, Madame “I’ll never trust you again as long as I live!”?”
“Sure.” Anna picked up her pack and box. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. But be warned.” She dropped the pack to wave a finger in as overdramatic a way as possible. “Someday, I will enact a terrible vengeance. And I’m not squeamish.”
“But I am! Surely you wouldn’t want to be the one explaining my heart attack to an ambulance crew would you? At my young age?”
Batting her eyes innocently, and still grinning that enormous grin, Karen held the door open and, putting down her suitcase for a moment, waved her arm with a flourish.
“After you, my non-squeamish, can’t be explained to a paramedic, “Sleeping Beauty”!”
Picking up her suitcase after Anna sailed through, she pulled the door tightly closed and locked it.
As they waited for the tea to brew, Nee’la thumbed through a diary.
“You think you’ll be going on this trip to Liberty City?” she asked Sha’la.
“No can do I’m afraid. If I see Matt later I’ll tell him. I would like to but for two reasons. One, the cops might not be happy to see me again, although I can’t think why they wouldn’t be pleased to be graced by my fine presence,” she sneered, “Two, I’ve made other plans.”
“And what would those be? Stay here?” Nee’la seemed annoyed.
“Pretty much. I have several phone calls to make back home.”
“I guess I can’t say much either. I have to stay here on campus as well. My parents, well, one of them is wanting to visit.”
“Know if those pretty boys are going to be around?” Sha’la gave a predatory grin.
“Pretty boys?..Oh…Kah’lad and Li…” Nee’la shrugged, they didn’t say, “I think Kah’lad said something about his sister appearing as well.”
“Well, maybe I should arrange us a dinner for all of us!” Sha’la said enthusiastically in her sing-song tone.
“Dunno. We’ll see what they are up to first.”
The commons
“Coffee’s done.” Anna waved to the coffeemaker to get Karen’s attention. This wasn’t really necessary, as it beeped quite loudly. She turned back to the newspaper and her breakfast, which was a small pile of waffles and a glass of eggnog. The Dannistrians were chattering to each other in the corner, and didn’t appear to want to be disturbed.
The headlines were, of course, filled with the usual news from the various wars, famines, and assorted and sundry pits of the world. As if I don’t have enough to worry about? Undaunted, Anna turned to the one section she could trust: the comics.
Still grinning, Karen poured herself a cup of coffee adding the requisite amount of milk and sugar. Looking over at Anna’s plate, she could feel herself starting to drool, so fixed herself a plate of waffles as well.
Sitting down beside Anna, she deliberately ignored the paper as she took her first sip of coffee and sighed. Those who’d already been up for hours and hours and hours reading certainly didn’t feel like reading any more, whether it was of major importance or not.
Noticing the new arrivals, Sha’la waved.
“Good morning,” she said, “And how are things?”
Nee’la also waved, though in a less over the top cheery manner than Sha’la.
Anna waved in a manner implying iffiness. “Good enough. Karen is plotting to assassinate me while I sleep, but that’s okay. What’s a little assassination between friends? Um…anyone seen Matt? Is he still on the phone?”
Karen nearly choked on a mouthful of waffles as she stifled a laugh, but turned and grinned at both Sha’la and Nee’la. She simply nodded “good morning” to both of them, pointed to Anna and drew little circles in the air parallel to the side of her head out of Anna’s sight.
Sha’la smirked slightly at the shenanigans of the two.
“Heh…with friends like that, who needs enemies?” she joked. Sha’la then reached over and patted Nee’la’s shoulder.
“Someone set the alarm clock too early or snored too loud eh? Or was it something else? Well no matter, me and Nakamura-sama here have been long time friends and haven’t had any of those mishaps. Usually because we would both verify the time on any alarms set…”
Nee’la sighed.
“That didn’t help when you would stumble in while drunk and start singing bawdy songs at the top of your lungs, waking up the whole barracks at the military academy.”
“Eh? I did not!” Sha’la protested, albeit in a mock tone.
“You wouldn’t be able to remember anyway. Alcohol affects the memory you know. Excessive doses even more so. And that’s not mentioning any impact on your liver, which will be totally trashed when you keep it up.”
“So? I like drinking parties! Anyway, at least I never tried the cold shower treatment on you.”
“That’s because the weather back home is mostly hot and humid, so you need a cold shower anyway. Not to mention the problems that could come about from hypothermic shock that can be triggered by a suddent burst of cold water…”
Sha’la sighed.
“You are a bit too serious, you know that?”
“Being around you, someone has to be more serious,” Nee’la winked at Anna and Karen, “You were once nicknamed ‘Wildcat’ for a reason.”
“Heh! And I’m proud of that.”
Sha’la turned to Anna and Karen.
“So where is Matt anyway? We both need to speak to him. It appears unfortunately we can’t take up his offer to Liberty city.”
Katara expected to only get her hair and nails done but when Lyndale spoke up to the salon ladies, they immediately started to tell Lyndale that Katara would also need a pedicure, a facial and a good make up job. Katara felt extremely uncomfortable with all of this but went along with it, staring coldly at Lyndale for having her go through this torture so early in the morning and without breakfast. By the time the ladies were done with Katara, she did not even recognize herself. Her eyebrows were trimmed, her hair was beautifully done along with her make up and her nails were French manicured. Lyndale smiled when he saw the finished work, “You look just like your mother, you should treat yourself like this more often Miss Katara.”
Katara just blushed, “I didn’t see much point in doing that when you would just make me get all sweaty and dirty in the first place. I need to get back to school, I’m starving.”
Lyndale brought Katara back to school, he even opened the door for her and then took off in flight, “I’ll be back in time for departure.” Katara waved to him and then dashed toward the dorm room but it was locked so she ran toward the smell of food. She went over to grab a waffle and some juice and then sat down near Karen and Anna. “Good morning, I hope you guys slept well. I’m going to need the dorm key to grab my stuff later or I could just go through the window.” Katara smiled as she sipped on some juice and then waved to Sha’lah and Nee’la.
OOC: Eek, I thought I’d already posted this?
IC:
Matt laughed. “Well, someone has to protect mankind from the Zerg, and if it isn’t me, who will it be?”
The third roommate again groaned, trying to curl up into a ball in his corner of the room. Sighing, Matt looked at Arian. “You know, maybe we should head out, let him get some sleep. Besides, I’m sure everyone else is up by now.”
Vincent looked around at the others, still sitting in the same chair.
… And to think I’m going on a trip to FPS with these people…
Vincent sat in the chair and waited for someone to address him, getting tired of this fake act of relative normalcy.
“Dorm key? I, um…hang on, let me check.” Anna rummaged through all her pockets for a keycard, but found only lint, crumpled-up slips of paper, and the horribly washing machined remains of an assignment whose fate was up until now a mystery. “Sorry, Kat. I must have left it back in the room. Happens. Don’t you have your own card?”
— Begin quote from ____
Matt laughed. “Well, someone has to protect mankind from the Zerg, and if it isn’t me, who will it be?”
The third roommate again groaned, trying to curl up into a ball in his corner of the room. Sighing, Matt looked at Arian. “You know, maybe we should head out, let him get some sleep. Besides, I’m sure everyone else is up by now.”
— End quote
Chuckling, Arian nodded. “Come on, Protector of all Mankind. I’m sure you’re right on both counts. This poor guy needs away from us as fast as possible, and the others are probably waiting for you in the commons.”
Holding open the door, Arian let Matt leave first, following him with a last look and grin at their roommate who was unsuccessfully groping for the open blinds.
Reaching the lounge, Matt looked around for a minute at all of the different trip-goers before finally clearing his throat and speaking. “Good morning, everyone. We’ve got about fifteen minutes until the bus arrives, at which point we’ll set off for the…uh…plane. I’d suggest you all eat before then, since there is no in-flight meal, considering the nature of our tickets, we won’t be able to stop in the airport for food.”
With that, Terrus made his way over to the counter, getting out some cereal to eat.
“Got it. Thanks.” I didn’t think it’d be that soon. Her breakfast already done, Anna set about washing the handful of dishes she’d left. It wasn’t like anyone else would do them while they were gone, after all, and coming back to a pile of weeks-old dishes was a prospect that made even Anna queasy. She turned to Matt, who was filling a bowl down the counter from the sink. “I’m all packed. So’s Karen and I think Kat, so there shouldn’t be too much herding.”