Courthouse

Dorm Distribution

“Always a dramatic little punk.” Ava grins and turns back to my shocked face. “So, who in your group fights?”

“Its not my group we are-”

“Shh, I know I know, your all friends. Its clear they follow you, I saw when you came in Tess.” She looks at me without a hint of emotion on her face, “Now, who fights.”

“Well-”

“No wait! I wanna guess!” She smiles brightly. ” Ok, so Nova! I don't think you fight. Am I right?”
“Not unless I have to.” Nova looks down, last time she got in a fight was four weeks ago, someone was bullying her brother, the kid is in a cast now.

“Called it! Ok, so what about you Thomas?” She grins at Thomas as he looks down at his lap.
“No, Thomas doesn't fight.” Paul looks at Ava as if he wants to rip her head off.

“Ok then Paul, what about you?”

“You wanna find out?” 

“Yep definitely an Orange.” She girns even though Paul just threatened her. “Alex, you clearly fight, if not you wouldn't be a Yellow” She laughs “You too Luke, oranges are always violent.” Her eyes shine with something I can't quite make out, humor maybe? 

“Tess?” She looks at me, her unspoken question hitting me in the gut, even if I saw it coming.

Nova tries to come to my rescue “Well you see, Tess is sorta-”

“Why can’t Tess speak for herself?” Ava looks angrily at Nova, “Go on Tess, do you fight?”

How do I answer that? ‘Yeppers I'm a big fighter, you know, only when I get really angry and snap but I'm never there when the cops get there so it’s not on my record?’ No, I don’t think so. “Well you know, sometimes, or whatever.”

“That's not a question you answer ‘whatever’ to.” 

We nearly jump out of our skins as the person speaks from behind us. Before we turn, Ava is up and over the table while she hugs the newcomer.

“New friends this is me brother Cole! Cole this is my new friends! We have two new Reds, can you believe it, two!” Ava jumps up and down happily as her brother, Cole, looks down at her with a ghost of a smile.

“That’s cool Ava bug.” He looks at us with a frown. “Ava’s new friends, it’s wonderful meeting you.” He spits with sarcasm.

I’ve got to say, his sarcasm isn't the best, I can still hear it in his voice.

“Cole, you should sit with us, I'm just getting to know them! You should meet Tess, she is a really hard nut to crack!” Ava smiles, then squeals as Cole begins to sit at the table

“So, Terry, give me your papers.” he frowns like he is talking about the weather and not my papers.

“First off it’s Tess, not Terry. Secondly, No.” I raise an eyebrow at him, did he really think I would just hand over my papers? Lost in thought I didn't notice him reach over and snatch the papers from me.

Shocked I sit there and wonder what all is in that pile of papers.

His face morphs into one similar to a smile, just more haunted,  “You threw a bomb into a crowd of innocents?” he asked

“Would you believe me if I said it was fake? And a Social experiment?” I laugh at the time my friends and I made a fake bomb and tossed it into the gym full of people, just to see who would run or freeze. “I took all the blame after telling my friends to high-tail it out of there.”

“No, your words were “Run. Run, and don't look back.’ I remember them well because that was the day I decided you were completely crazy” Alex laughs, he always did think I was crazy, even before that day.