Carson Beckett stomped down the stairs towards the security office, extremely irritated by his current situation.
Swiping an I.D card, he wrenched open the door and stepped inside the office. Carson took a moment to glance around the small room. There were a few faded and cracked faux-leather chairs along one wall, an empty water cooler in the opposite corner, and a scuffed up coffee table covered in five-year-old magazines. It looked more like a rundown doctors office than the security head quarters for a college.
Carson hurried past the dusty front desk, empty except for an old Macintosh and a stack of "Report Suspicious Activity" posters. He sighed and pushed open the door labeled "Authorized Personnel Only."
He jogged past a couple of offices, slowing down just enough to watch as some poor freshmen got grilled for having a bottle of Jack Daniels in the dry dorms. When he reached the end of the hallway he swiped the I.D again and pulled open a black door marked "Cameras."
The dim lights from the hallway leaked into the small room and a groan emanate from the previously darkened space. Carson sighed once more and flicked on the light, he watched the light grow brighter and spread across the room now illuminating a single chair and a desk stacked high with rows of what appeared to be small TV screens.
"What the hell?" A voice called.
"I am sick an' tired of you stealin' my cafeteria card Rodney!" Carson yelled at the figure slumped over in the big leather chair. He stalked forward and spun the chair to face him and held out his hand.
"Give it back!" he demanded.
The boy in the chair, Rodney, sighed and began digging in his pockets. He pulled a face and began to search his other pocket.
"Rodney!" Carson demanded again.
"Okay, okay!" Rodney sighed. "I must have left it in my jacket! Just give me a minute to go grab it." he replied, standing up and starting towards the door. He paused just under the jam.
"How did you get in here anyway?" He asked.
Carson pulled the I.D card from his pocket, waving in Rodney's face. "You took my card, so I took yours."
"I haven't been able to find that for weeks!" Rodney yelled, reaching out for the I.D. "I had to beg Mr. Anderson to make me another one!"
Carson raised his eyebrows and yanked the card back from Rodney's reach. "You get this back when I get my caf card back!"
Rodney narrowed his eyes and sputtered, but finally turned and continued out the door.
Carson rolled his eyes and turned to face the wall of TV's. They all displayed different parts of the campus: the main ballroom, all the computer labs, the cafeteria, and other high traffic areas of the campus.
Suddenly bored, Carson sat down and ran his hands over the small keyboard on the desk. Out of curiosity he hit a button marked "Residences."
The computers whirred and the cameras changed. They were now organized by small digital labels in the corners of the screens, and displayed hallways and front doors. He leaned forward and glanced around the different screens; the top corner had a group of six labeled "Lakewood 1-5."Carson then realized that every dorm must have cameras installed on each floor.
His curiosity got the best of him and he began looking for his own dorm. He found a group of cameras in the lower left corner of the display labeled "McFrack 1-4." Carson eyed the cameras and noticed a couple of, what appeared to be people shaped blobs, running up and down the first floor hallway.
He glanced at the door, hoping Rodney would take a little bit longer to find his card, and quickly scanned over the keyboard again, this time hitting a button marked "enlarge section." A small pop-up appeared on the screen directly in front of the keyboard. Quickly he typed "McFrack 1" in the small search bar and hit enter.
The screens previously displaying four different images of McFrack now played one, the image spread across all four screens.
Carson watched with a small smile, as it turned out he was right. The screen displayed a group of five boys; all playing a game of keep way with a football.
"Bloody Idiots" he murmured. He was about to hit the "clear" button when the boy in the middle of the group, hopping up and down the middle of the hallway desperately trying to grab the ball, caught Carson's eye.
The boy was tall, lean and muscular. Carson guessed he actually did play for the schools football team.
For reasons unbeknownst to him, Carson found himself staring at the boy and actually feeling happy when the boy finally leapt up at the right moment and caught the ball; Rodney suddenly barging back into the room cut off his moment of borrowed joy.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" he demanded, yanking Carson out of the chair and setting the cameras back to their original settings.
"I was just foolin' around with the camera's Rodney." Carson held up his hands in surrender. "Watchin' some guys play keep-away in the halls."
"They were doing what?!" Rodney gapped.
"Just playing with a football, McKay." Carson snapped, he found himself irrationally pissed off at Rodney's sudden return to the room.
Rodney huffed and sat down at the computer, bringing back the image of the boys playing in he hallway.
"Dammit." he mumbled.
"'Dammit'?" Carson questioned.
"Now I have to fill out a report and call security." He replied scrubbing a hand over his face.
"But you are security."
"No, no I just watch the cameras." Rodney explained. "I didn't even want the damn job, it's sort of a community service. You know for the whole physics lab thing? You accidently blow up one fume hood and you get stuck with a job a monkey could do. It wasn't even my idea! If that damn Czech kid had just done the assignment I wouldn't of had to-"
Carson cut him off. "Rodney, I don't really care. Besides, I've heard the story before."
"Ah, yes. Right." He turned back to the desk and pulled a form out of one of the drawers.
"Rodney, what on earth are you doing now?"
"I have to fill out a form and get security to go stop them."
Carson felt a bizarre shiver of panic. "Will they, uh, get in trouble?"
Rodney shrugged and continued to fill out the form. "I don't know, probably."
"Why don't we just go to dinner?" Carson blurted out. He didn't exactly know why but he really didn't want to get the athlete in trouble. "My treat." He added hastily.
Rodney paused. "Really after all the fuss about me stealing your card, you're going to take me to dinner?" He turned around, a skeptical look plastered on his face.
"I'm just sick of being here and I don't want to wait for you to fill out that stupid form. And I want dinner before I have to go on EMT duty." Carson lied.
Rodney threw a glance at the form and shrugged. He crumpled the paper and tossed it in the trashcan.
"You're such a great friend." he commented, clapping Carson on the shoulder before grabbing his backpack and walking happily out of the room.
Carson smiled back the camera one last time and shut the door behind him.
