An awkward feeling jarred me awake in the morning, and I breathed in the unfamiliar smell of the sheets. The events of the last two days came back to me slowly and I groaned, realizing I was probably still in Leon's spare bed. There was a shuffle across the room, and I tensed; Kellen was still there.
"Hey. Morning." He sounded wide awake. Sitting in the cozy armchair in the corner of the room he wore the exact same thing as yesterday, unrumpled by sleep as I was.
"Is that my bag?" I questioned as I noticed my overstuffed backpack at his feet; how and when had he gotten it? "Did you sleep?"
"Yes and No."
I ran a hand through my hair as I sat up, and glanced at the clock, almost 5:00 am. Breakfast started at 7:00, and classes at 9:00; why in the world was I awake now? Why hadn't he slept?
"I used Jacks' spare key to get into your room a little while ago," he explained. "Sorry if I woke you. Your uniform and stuff are in your bag." That was nice of him. He paused uncomfortably, a slight pinking tinge gracing his face. "I warn you now, I may have messed up your... things... I also got your toothbrush, I hope. Leon usually leaves around 6:30 and doesn't come back till after his first class, you can get ready then."
Things? Had he gone through my underwear drawer? I was in the middle of a full blown mental panic attack when his quiet voice broke through my thoughts again. "Jess is fine, I checked on her while I was there."
"I thought you said they got her?"
"Actually, I said I thought it was possible, but I was right." His lips tugged upwards, amused. "I assume Ashley rescued her, because they were cuddled together when I got there."
I smirked. "So they lost two of us in one night."
"Yeah, and I only had to rescue one of you."
"You wouldn't have had to rescue me, if you guys didn't teach them the trick about doors that only lock from the outside."
He laughed, a low gravelly sound and raised a brow, pointing into the closet.
"I didn't know about that," I snapped. "And did you not notice the closet door was locked, too?"
Kellen laughed again; not the obnoxious laugh I was used to hearing when he was with the guys. I kind of liked this one, but was irritated that it was directed at me. "I'm just kidding, Hero. And I wasn't complaining about having to rescue you."
I smiled, despite wanting to stay mad at him, and glanced at the clock when he yawned. "Why don't you sleep for a bit and I'll wake you up before class?"
He shook his head, but still threw himself across the bottom of the bed, just below where my feet were. After a long time, in which I thought he had fallen asleep, he cleared his throat. "What'd you say to Katia to make her so angry?"
"Um..." Fidgeting with the edge of the blanket, I wondered what I should say. "I'd rather not..."
"She called me last night."
I felt a dread course through me; had she repeated my words? Because some of my rant was directed at him. "Uh huh?" I sounded strange and high pitched to myself, but I really hoped what he heard was faked interest.
"I asked her why she took you. She said she figured she'd be able to get info out of you, but it was useless because you clearly hate both of us and she's done with you, so whatever."
My mouth dropped open as he mimicked her tone; what in the world? I flushed as he turned onto his side and finally looked at me, expecting an answer. "I didn't say that."
The pressure of him waiting for me to elaborate built too much and I dropped back down onto the bed, pulling the covers over my head once again.
"Cole?"
"I kind of went on a rant and I guess maybe she took it as me saying I hated her."
"And me," he deadpanned. Even under the sheets, I felt a little like he was evaluating why he'd bothered getting me out of there. Suddenly the bed shook, Kellen's limbs causing the mattress to tilt as he moved, and his body dropped down beside me. He yanked the corner of the covers down so I couldn't hide anymore and held my gaze, a hint of teasing on his face. "Explain."
I didn't reply right away―I couldn't―too startled by his sudden appearance in my personal space bubble, and the unexpected goosebumps that rose on my arms, to formulate an answer.
"That's an order, Private." His voice was serious and hard edged, like he usually sounded outside of his dorm room, but his pretty, hazel eyes danced with a laugh. No. Nope. Look away, Nicole.
"Fine, but could you move back?"
"Why? Does this make you uncomfortable?"
"No, but from this close, I can see how awful your skin is, and it's a real turn off!" I quipped.
He rolled his eyes and shifted back as much as he could on the twin sized bed.
"I was trying to be nice, really I was," I said with a sigh. "But, honestly, I can't even promise I'll be nice now, so there's that."
"Quit stalling."
"I guess it comes down to that fact that I'm over this whole war thing of yours. Or I'm over the hierarchy. I kind of dumped it all on her—it wasn't fair really." Fiddling with the sheets, I waited for him to say something, anything.
The silence stretched for what felt like 20 minutes to me, driving me near insane and I fidgeted incessantly, eventually freeing myself from the covers and laying on top of them like he did. His hand came crashing down on my arm suddenly, making me jump and, I'm sad to admit, squeak.
"Stop that! I'm trying to sleep, and that's really annoying. And, that wasn't much of an explanation, Hero."
I growled at him, and watched his grin grow, as his eyes drifted closed again. "I dunno," my voice was low and as quiet as I could talk, and I let my hair fall over my face so I could hide under it. "Sometimes I feel like you guys in charge of everything don't even notice us. It kind of bothers me."
I paused, frowning. "No, that's a lie. It really bothers me. Those awesome pranks that you guys come up with and we pull off? They take time; that means cancelled dates, missing T.V. shows we want to watch, not being able to study for tests. It's fun, don't get me wrong, but a lot of us feel like we don't have a choice in participating."
I didn't look to see what his reaction was, or if he was even listening. It felt good to be getting it off my chest, out loud, and in a decent, less ranting way than I'd done with Katia; he could have been sleeping for all I cared.
"So that's why she's mad. I called her out on not giving a shit about anyone but herself and her stupid vendetta against you. I told her I think you guys treat the rest of us like we're just a bunch of skills at your disposal. You guys tell us what to do and you don't even know our names sometimes."
Finished with what I had to say, what he'd asked me to explain, I brushed my hair aside and looked at him. He hadn't moved at all, not even a twitch, and his hand was still on my arm from when he grabbed me to stop my fidgeting. Sleeping? The idiot was sleeping?
"Dammit! Katia's right," he drawled in his sleep and pulled me closer to him.
Trapped with my face against Kellen-freaking-Hotness-Fitzpatrick's chest, my mind and heart raced. Right? Right about what? Me? And why the dojo is my face so damn hot?
-.-
The blurb was accented by the picture of the blowup doll that Ashley left behind in place of Jess. I laughed at it as I made my way back to residence. It was just after first period, which had been disturbingly empty, when a freshman stopped me in the halls; Jess wanted to see me in our room right away. I was more than happy to skip on second period to meet her. I was careful as I left, not to pass my class or be seen by any replacement teachers with detention slips.
Jess practically jumped on me when I opened the door, and we collapsed into a giggling heap on the floor. "So, how'd you get out, Nic?"
I shrugged as I got up; I had the distinct feeling that Kellen had done the mission solo because he didn't really want anyone knowing that he'd rescued me. If he wanted to say something about it, he could. "Magic."
"Fine, don't tell us." Ashley rolled her eyes.
"So." I smiled as I eyed Jess and Ashley's hands, still clasped together after Ashley helped her up. "Anything new the past couple days?"
They flushed and bit back smiles as they looked down at their entwined fingers, but didn't answer my lighthearted question. Instead, they dropped heavily onto the end of Jess' bed, both of their expressions turning serious.
"Detentions haven't stopped." Jess deadpanned. "There were more people in detention yesterday than in class. Both sides put out orders yesterday for us to stay in line and not do anything to catch attention. They said it would be better if we tried to stay in our rooms."
"What?" I couldn't believe Kellen hadn't bothered to mention that. Then again, he probably hadn't wanted me to bludgeon him with whatever was closest; it was such a stupid idea.
"They don't seem to care if we stay in our rooms. We don't get detentions at Rez. They leave us alone." Ashley shrugged.
"Also, we're pretty well cut off now," Jess added with a frown.
"Cut off?" I didn't like the implication.
Jess' expression was grave. "No more delivery."
"See! I told them! The warden's will just make it so we have to eat the food here and they'll drug us with it."
Jess shook her head vigorously, the look on her face sobering. "No more delivery because we have no more service. No fucking phone service. No calls, no texts, no emails, no internet. Nothing goes out."
"There are, like, blockers, or some shit. We don't know how it works," Ashley said in response to my confusion.
"But everyone just got a text?"
"That was through the hijINKs app. It's some kind of local thing... Eddie explained it, but it's a load of techie mumbo jumbo! He said something about how Korea does it? Either way, who knows when that's gonna be gone too."
I yanked my laptop from where it was on the floor by my bed and began typing out the plans I'd made while locked up.