Silas Confidential

Chapter 1

I needed to study.  I needed to do well on this quiz if I wanted to stay on top of the class.  This disturbance was just another in a long string of them, and I was pretty much over it.  I’d paid extra money to live by myself, because a roommate would have been utterly distracting.  I hadn’t counted on a bad neighbor hampering my ability to concentrate and rise up the academic ranks of this school.

The worst part of it was that while we knew each other in passing, we weren’t friends and we didn’t hang out.  I had been friends, or really occasional party buddies, with her roommate Betty. (It hadn’t been a particularly deep friendship)

Or rather, I was friends with Betty, right up until she just up and disappeared a few weeks ago without as much as a fairtheewell.  I did receive a note from the university just after she left. It was a bit odd with its multiple choice selection as to reasons why Betty had left school, like “experienced a psychological ‘event’ that left him/her unfit for student life”.  I wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean, but at least the school administration had cared enough to send me a card to let me know where she went.  I didn’t question the Dean or the faculty, having read the student handbook I knew better than to do something so foolish.

 After Betty left, Laura was almost immediately assigned a new roommate, and was really not thrilled with the new addition to her tiny dorm space. The new roommate was called Carmilla and I had to admit I had a bit of a crush on her. She was all kinds of awesome and pretty hot to boot.  Definitely a Katniss more than a Bella.  But I didn’t see her much.  Not during the day anyway.  At night though. Yeah, she had a pull about her.  I saw it first-hand at the one and only party I attended.  She was a bit of a free spirit, so it didn’t surprise me when I heard she and Laura didn’t get a long at all.  Laura was totally uptight about everything.  .  Besides I’d heard them argue through the wall many, many times.  The dorm walls weren’t that insulated.  I couldn’t really hear words, but I could definitely read tone, all full of annoyance and irritation over perceived slights.

Bang.

I stuck my assignment paper into my book and got to my feet.  The noises were at it again, this time louder than before.  Something major must be going down.

There was another loud thump.  Enough was enough!  I had to do something about it.  I couldn’t concentrate on my studies and I definitely couldn’t sleep.  Ear plugs weren’t working.

I was going to go over there and confront Laura and to tell her to keep it down. Nothing else seemed to be a viable option at this point, and I hate confrontation. I had approached Perry, the Hall Don, about the noise the other day. She was really a good don, I’d never had a problem with her before, but she seemed really out of sorts. Not her normal, perky herself.  She’d fed me some line about speaking to Laura, but evidently that hadn’t happened. I opened my door and headed to the left, towards Laura’s door. I stood in front of the door and raised my hand to knock.  I lowered it again. What was I going to say?  I wasn’t really good at confrontation. What if she sugar raged all over me?  I had no self-defense training and wasn’t a particularly fast runner.  She was really tiny, though, so maybe I stood a fighting chance.  I somehow doubted it. She had that fierce little spit-fire look in her eyes some days.

Taking in a deep breath, I knocked.  There was some shuffling and scuffling from inside, then the door opened just a crack.  LaFontaine, another of Laura’s friends, smiled at me.  “Yes?”

“Ah, is Carmilla, here?”  It was the only thing I could think to say, flustered at not getting Laura at the door.  I tried to peer around LaFontaine’s frame into the room.  I could hear several other people breathing loudly.

“Nope. Sorry.  She’s out, think she went to that Goethe talk.” LaFontaine shut the door before I could say anything else.

I marched back into my room and slammed the door shut, kicking my slippers off and flopping onto my bed.  I pulled my pillow over my face and let out a frustrated scream.  I had to get to the bottom of this.  I refused to let the rude neighbors next door ruin with my experience at Silas.  There had to be something I could do.  Maybe there was something in the university charter that could help me get Laura transferred to another dorm.  Yes, that was it.   I sat up and set my pillow aside, picking up my textbook.  Tonight I would study as best as I could, and tomorrow I was going to library to do some research.   No one was going to stop me from getting perfect grades.