A Different Virus - Laura's Story

Chapter 42

I jumped as the morning bell went off and my eyes darted to the small handheld baby monitor screen in Diane's hand. It had a video feed and I could see Trish in it perfectly.

The screen was showing a picture of Trish rolling over in bed. She looked up and froze at the poster above her. Diane hit a button on a different remote with a grin.

A blood curdling scream echoed down the hallway. A few people in pjs came out of their rooms and looked around to see what was wrong, a few looked surprised to see us at the end of the hallway and started chuckling before heading back into their rooms. A few lingered in the hallway in hopes of something more happening.

Trish lunged out of bed heading for the door. Diane swiftly pocketed both devices. Trish's door flew open and she looked around wildly before spotting us, "Diane! You are so dead!" Her eyes were wide and her sleep messed hair was sticking up all over the place and made her look half-crazed.

Diane jumped to her feet holding me in her arms, "And that is our cue to leave! See you later Trish!"

I started laughing as Diane darted for the stairs. I heard several people snickering or laughing before Trish's voice once more pierced the hallway, "Get your butt back here!"

Diane quickly took evasion action and took a different path. We decided to be fashionably late for breakfast to allow Trish some time to drink some coffee. This was Trish though, I wasn't sure just one cup of coffee would be enough.

We slowly took seats on the far side of the table from Trish. Matthew was wearing a studiously blank expression while the others at the table sported grins or had looks of anticipation. Several people at other nearby tables were also giving us a lot of attention.

Trish seemed to blame Diane more than me and narrowed her eyes at Diane, "First questions first, how on earth did you manage to get into my room? The chain lock was still locked."

Time for my distraction. I grinned, "You left the window unlocked."

Trish turned to me with a confused frown, "No, I locked it shortly after Diane left."

I giggled mischievously, "Was it locked this morning?"

John was snickering at the look on Trish's face. She obviously had not checked the window the last few days. Being on the second floor had not stopped Diane from sneaking along the half roof in front of the window. Others at nearby tables were listening in shamelessly to what was probably the most entertaining thing to happen for days.

Trish shook her head and glared at Diane, "How on earth did you even set all of that up? You must have had help to pull this one off."

Diane grinned unrepentantly, "I just happened to stumble across some things that several people wanted really badly. I was the only one who went into your room, but they helped me prep a lot of it."

Trish narrowed her eyes, "Who all helped you?"

Diane shrugged, "About a dozen different people. Some of them were really hard to bribe by the way, you should be more appreciative of the effort that we went to."

She growled some words under breath that even I couldn't make out, "Names. Positions."

I grinned, that would be a pretty big list. Diane and a couple dozen others had been in on this one in some fashion or other. Diane grinned at Trish, "Part of the bargain was that I would allow them to remain anonymous unless they came forward on their own."

Trish sighed as she mostly gave up, "A dozen people knew about it and didn't warn me. You won't give out any clues. Somehow you climbed into the window and hung all those hundreds of things and that funky poster. Although I have to admit that it is a neat poster, I will have to hang it on my wall later. Thanks for the cats too."