Note: This is an entry for the winter contest. It includes a whole lotta spoilers. Oopsie.
The hall was only slightly louder than usual, given the fact that mornings in Accommodation Block 7 were generally deafening. This particular morning began Christmas Day, and though the students couldn't actually give normal gifts to one another, holidays were always celebrated nonetheless.
Suddenly the hallway went quiet. Then there was a loud whoop as Penny Richards came shooting through the passersby on sleek black-and-pink roller blades.
"Oh, for the love of-" Tom began, before his partner in crime knocked him flat on his butt. Penny stood laughing until Shelby came out of her room.
"What's going on?" She asked. "And who got me these?" She held up a large box of high quality colored pencils. She looked at Wing who raised an eyebrow and shook his head.
"I dunno," Tom said, "But I found my old trumpet on my desk this morning. I left it at St. Sebastian's, and haven't seen it since until today."
The conversation was cut off by Franz, trailed by Nigel, barging into the little circle. "I am finding this on my desk when I am waking up, and I am wondering why. 'Rosetta Stone English'? I am not understanding. I am already speaking English perfectly, ja?"
Everyone remained silent.
Penny started zipping up and down the hallways again, and Tom warned them: "Stand back. She can actually pick your pockets while she's doing that. She used to do it all the time and it actually gets extremely irritating."
As if to illustrate his point, a sharp gasp came from the end of the hallway, and the group looked to see that Penny was holding a brand new Nikon just out of the reach of none other than Lucy Dexter. The pink-haired con artist fled back down the corridor, giggling.
"STOP!" Lucy hissed, and movement in the hallway ceased. "Well, uh, you guys can move but not you, Penny. Yep. Now give me back my camera. Thank you." The young Jedi stalked over to where the rest of her companions were gathered. "Hey, we're missing the nerds."
"Yeah, they came down with some sort of flu and since it's a Sunday Blue said they could sleep in," Shelby explained. "I see you got... something as well." She gestured to the camera.
"Yep. It was on my desk this morning. My roommate didn't get anything, though." One by one the Alphas shared the items that had shown up in the night. Down the hall, Raven could be seen holding up a pair of frilly pink socks with a confused, slightly disgusted expression.
"Well, you guys go on to breakfast, I'm going to go check on Otto," Lucy said, and the group parted ways.
I guess there's something about waking up to find your dead girlfriend sitting on the foot of your bed that kind of throws your whole day off-kilter.
"You didn't tell me Wing and Shelby were dating," she said.
"Hey, um, Miss Nurse Lady in the Infirmary?" Otto said into his Blackbox, still staring at Lucy. "I've had a bit of a cold lately and now I'm a bit worried because I'm hallucinating."
Lucy leapt across the small room and closed the PDA, placing it on the nightstand just out of his reach. "Look, I'm not a hallucination. You're not dreaming. I'm here, just for today."
He blinked, looking for logic in the current situation.
"But don't get too excited," she said. "I'm not here for you."
My Blackbox was beeping incessantly, just as it did every morning at precisely seven o'clock.
I'd been hitting snooze for the past half hour.
"Hey, Blue, " I said sleepily. "Merry Christmas."
"A cheerful holiday to you too, Miss Brand," the AI replied. "I must ask you to remain in your dormitory for a short time this morning."
"What?" I exclaimed, instantly awake. This wasn't a prison(or so they claimed), so why on earth was I being held in a confined space?
"I must explain something to you first, so that you will not be alarmed when you go out to breakfast." He waited for me to nod my slight understanding before he continued.
"When you exit your quarters this morning, you will find that Lucy Dexter is amongst your peers today. The others have no recollection of her death, they only believe she was able to receive medical attention after the incident at the Advanced Weapons Project Facility, and has made a full recovery. You will find that even Ms Richards and Mr Ransom are familiar with both her and her abilities. This morning each of your friends save Mr Malpense and yourself received gifts for Christmas. Your gift is the opportunity to come to terms with Ms Sinistre, as I realize you feel troubled by your treatment towards her preceding her demise. Your peers believe she and Mr Malpense ended their romantic involvement a few days after her injury due to an agreement to remain friends. She will be here until midnight tonight, at which time she will disappear, and the rest of your classmates will become aware of the situation. Good luck." He disappeared.
I sat for a moment, staring at my now blank PDA. I slapped myself a few times, splashed my face with water, and still didn't wake up. So I slowly changed out of my pajamas and into my uniform, and stepped out of my room, nearly forgetting my shoes. Standing outside my door was Lucy. I saw a flash of white hair descending in the glass elevator for breakfast.
"Hey," she said.
"Hey."