Bold and Simful

Monica Drysdale felt the exultation of freedom as she exited Wingate Hall on her way to class. Surprisingly, drama class was a relief from acting. The strain of constantly playing the part of a spoiled rich girl was getting tiresome and it was still only freshman year, but she couldn’t let the facade slip or she was sure that she would loose her new friends.

So far she had worked up a story about her father dying when his private jet crashed and her mother being away at a Swiss health spa to account for her parent’s absence from her life. She had made sure to place her high school in a remote enough location that none of the girls had ever heard of it, much less been there and in her free time she surfed the net for info about the latest designers, vacation spots and clubs. It was exhausting keeping it all straight and she was glad to get out of the dorm for a few hours.

Despite how often Jodie and Elizabeth played chess, he had yet to get her involved in a real conversation. “I said, how did finals go?” he asked again in answer to her blank stare.

“Oh, good. Your move.” was all he got in response.

This was getting frustrating, but in a way more intriguing. Veronica, Maleena and Monica were always talking but Elizabeth barely ever said two words and he had gotten four out of her. Things were definately improving

‘A few more games and I might get a sentence out of her,’ Jodie thought. But it was not to be, their games continued almost daily and Jodie learned to become comfortable with silence.

“Hey, ya wanna go over to Center Court?” Xavier asked, slapping Jodie’s arm. His sudden friendliness did not go unnoticed by those present.

Kitty Cwik, who was busy studying as usual, was stunned enough to pull her nose out of her book and stare at Xavier. Everyone knew he didn’t like Jodie.

“What’s he up to?” Kitty asked as soon as the boys had left.

“Not too sure yet…” Veronica mused slowly, she knew her boyfriend well enough to know that he had an ulterior motive, she just couldn’t see what it was yet.

“So, what’s up with your sister?” Jodie asked, holding the ball and eying up his shot. Xavier was already ahead with H-O-R and he wasn’t about to loose. “Is she dating anyone?”

Xavier stared straight ahead, he was surprised to say the least, no one had ever shown any interest in his sister, well except that one guy but that was long over. “Not that I know of, but she doesn’t tell me everything.”

“No kidding, she doesn’t tell anyone anything, that’s cool, she’s like a mystery,” Jodie no longer sounded casual, he sounded interested and that was something Xavier realized he could use to his own advantage.

Their game over, Xavier proposed his mutually beneficial idea, “You get me in to Lamda Chi and I’ll get you a date with Elizabeth.”

Jodie took a moment to consider the proposal and an additional moment to be grossed out by Xavier, then rejected it diplomatically, “I’ll get the brothers to interview you, but that’s ok about Lizzie, I’ll win her over,” he said with more confidence than he felt.

Jodie made sure to be nearby whenever Elizabeth was around. ‘maybe she likes jocks,‘ he thought, making sure to lower the radio enough to over hear the conversation going on in front of him.

“So I’ll meet you at the diner after class?” Monica caught Elizabeth before she left for class.

“Yeah, I’ll be starving by then. I overslept again,” Elizabeth confirmed. “Oh, did you want to stop to get a new phone while we’re out?”

“Nah, I’ll suffer with the dorm phone ’til I find it, I don’t know what I did with it,” Monica laughed. She was never going to find her phone because she didn’t have one, but everyone had a mobile these days.

Jodie watched Elizabeth hurry down the stairs and he and Monica exchanged smiles when he finally looked away. He knew she had caught him staring after Elizabeth, but he really didn’t care.

Heartened by Elizabeth’s seeming interest in coming out of her shell, Jodie worked up the nerve to finally ask her out but her response was less than spectacular, “Me? Not Veronica?” Elizabeth’s shock was clearly evident, as was Maleena’s, who could barely stifle a giggle.

“Veronica? What?” Jodie was just as stunned by her response as she was by his question, “No, not Veronica, I’m asking you.”

“I’ll…umm…well…I’ll need to think about it,” Elizabeth stuttered her answer, unsure why Jodie would be interested in her considering how beautiful the other girls in the house were.

“You do that,” Jodie wished desperately that Maleena had not been present to witness his humiliation. ‘I should have waited, I should have let her beat me at chess,‘ he thought walking away.

“Why not? You might have fun in spite of yourself,” Monica half joked as she glanced at her friend. She felt more comfortable with Elizabeth than with the other girls and tonight with the dorm quite and her friend finally opening up to her, Monica considered telling her the truth about her family, but before she could speak Elizabeth did.

“No. I’m not going. I can’t be distracted right now, classes are only going to get harder and I still have my paper to write and Professor Hunter is tough,” the decision had the air of finality so Monica didn’t press the issue.

“He did not just say that!” Kitty gasped, her mouth gaping open.

Veronica stared after her boyfriend, “he’s been getting quite a ‘tude lately,” she said, an uncomfortable smile creasing her lips. Xavier wasn’t as under her thumb as he used to be, her homework still sat undone on the table in front of her, and she wasn’t too pleased with the change.

Xavier grinned at Veronica’s words. He had to admit it, he had been getting an attitude. He and Veronica had been together since high school and he still liked her, he liked her a lot, who wouldn’t? but he was beginning to see that there were other fish in the sea, fish that might not require that he write their term papers so his attitude had grown.

‘Who the hell is that?‘ Veronica stared after the guy in the dingy jacket, ‘Where are all these weird people coming from?‘

Veronica spent most of her time upstairs and since the main staircase led directly to the front door she had never noticed that their were other rooms on either side of the dining room. Apparently there were people living in these mysterious rooms.

Veronica wasn’t the only one discovering that the lower level of the dorm held other residents. Maleena had run into Mary Hamilton in the dining room and was now standing in her fellow student’s small, cramped room.

“So, like, we had a maid back home and he didn’t smell…” she hinted. When Mary didn’t respond immediately, Maleena continued. “So, like, what I’m saying is you should shower and definately go shopping. The angst filled goth look is sooo last century.”

Maleena had barely ducked in time, but she was smart enough to take a hint but not smart enough to keep her mouth shut, as she exited the room she shot over her shoulder, “Sheesh, I try to help someone!”

Jodie greeted his brothers, “I need him to get in but don’t make it too easy on him. Cool?” Randal Winfield glanced to see Turner’s reaction, it wasn’t customary to approve a new pledge before even meeting them so he was surprised to see Turner already nodding in agreement.

Xavier glanced over his sunglasses and laughed to himself when he saw the toga clad Lamda Chi, ‘so he went for the deal, I thought he might. I wonder how long I’ll have to spend as a pledge?‘

He wasn’t thrilled that his future brother was hitting on his girlfriend, but Veronica could more than handle herself and she wasn’t being too subtle about her lack of interest.

Fingers in her ears couldn’t drown out the wail of the smoke detector.

“Oh my god, did she just leave? You can’t start a fire and bail,” Veronica screamed after the cook who was hightailing it out the door.

“Put it out, for god’s sake, someone HELP!” Kitty shrieked, shielding her face from the heat.

Just then the overhead sprinklers came on, putting an end to the danger, Xavier’s chances of getting in to Lamda Chi and the semester.

 

Posted on May 28th, 2008 under Wingate Hall. Tags: elizabeth, jodie, kitty, maleena, monica, veronica, Wingate Hall, xavier. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.