Conductive (Scenes from a WIP)

This Reconnoiter Tactic Is Not Recommended

  Nissa turned down the hallway of the girl’s dorm just in time to see a male figure in red boxers disappear behind the nearest window curtains with a yelp.

  “Hoookay!” Nissa stopped short, dropping her armful of books. “Random guy in underwear, loose in the girl’s dorm. What’s wrong with this picture?”

  A head with ruffled brown hair and panic-widened eyes popped out from behind the curtains. “Nissa?”

  Her jaw dropped. “Alec? What… you’re wearing… how?”

  Alec put a hand to his forehead. “Sorry. This… is awful. In so many ways. My gosh, this is so awkward. Oh, gosh… oh gosh…”

  “What… are you doing here like… that?”

  “I was just – oh, wait. Nissa, you’ll never believe this. I saw – “

  “I don’t want to hear what you saw while I’m still in danger of seeing a lot of what I don’t want to see.” Nissa said pointedly, quirking an eyebrow at him. “If you catch my drift. Are your clothes anywhere around?” She quickly scanned the hallway, but could see nothing aside from the potted plants and the wooden floor.

  “No, that’s part of what I wanted to tell – “

  “I don’t want to hear how you lost your pants!”

  “Then just get me something I can wear while I run away from here, will you?” Red was rapidly seeping over Alec’s face. “Please, Nissa!”

  “I will gladly get you something to cover with.” Nissa turned on her heel and ran a few doors down to her room.

  She grabbed the nearest blanket, a manga-patterned fleece from Paisley’s bed, and rushed back to thrust it at Alec. “Here.”

  Though he still looked like his head had been dunked in beet juice, Alec wrinkled his nose. “There are huge fluffy kittens with goo-goo eyes all over that.”

  “Put the dumb thing on, you streak! If you’re found down here, we’re both going to get in huge trouble, especially if you’re found with nothing but your underwear!”

  “But –“

  “And might I also point out that you’re hiding behind a window curtain?”

  Realization dawned on Alec’s face, and he snatched the blanket. “Gimme that!”

  He flung it over himself toga-style, and emerged from behind the curtain only to flatten himself against the wall as if trying to blend in like a chameleon by sheer willpower. Hands on hips, Nissa stared at him with her eyebrows raised.

  “What are you doing down here?”

  “Okay, I swear, I seriously did not mean for this to happen.”

  “Ok…?”

Alec glanced up and down the hallway as if he expected to every one of their instructors to appear and give them both detentions for the rest of the year. “See, we were having our phasing class upstairs, only I went through the floor by accident, and left my clothes in the ceiling because going down instead of over threw off my concentration.”

  Nissa chewed her lip. “Right.”

  “No, I’m serious! They’re right there.” Alec pointed upwards and down the hall to Nissa’s right, and she turned to see half a t-shirt and the leg of a pair of jeans dangling from the otherwise perfectly normal white surface of the ceiling. “So not fair. Couldn’t keep the pants on, nope, had to keep the stupid sock.”