"This is nice, Kenny." Kat smiled, taking a seat on a thin blanket at the edge of the candle lit duck pond. The spring weather was just perfect for a night outside. "I feel like we never do anything like this anymore. We always hang out with the ducks."

"And company." Ken laughed, referring to her friends.

"It's fun it's just not..."

"Romantic?" He asked.

Kat smiled one of those smiles that Ken loved to see. The candles that he had placed at the edge of the lake lit her face perfectly. There was no sign of imperfection. It was quiet, and everything seemed perfect.

"I'm glad hockey season's over. It'll give us more time to be together."

"Yeah. I will miss watching though." Kat hinted.

"There's always next season." Kenny shrugged, taking a bite of on of the sandwiches that Kat had prepared for the evening.

"Anyway, did you hear about the new girl? The girl that knows the dean? Yeah. Sharon, Susan, or-"

"Shannon. She's got the single room next to us. Buckley asked Maryann and me to make sure that she gets settled okay."

"I wonder how she lucked out with a single room. I'm stuck sharing with Russ. I love the guy, but honestly, how long can you go without doing laundry?"

"I heard that the record for Eden Hall was two days short of a quarter. At my old school, this one kid went a full semester!"

"Yeah well, I'm sure that by the time we graduate, Russ will have broken that record." Ken shook his head.

"It's okay. You can always come bug me." Kat joked, laying back on the blanket to look up at the stars. Ken did the same. He couldn't help letting his thoughts drift back to Adam, who he had left alone in the lobby of the dorm, studying. He had looked particularly melancholy for some reason that day.

"Kat, do you think she's up there?"

"Who?" Kat asked.

"Star..."

Kat bit her cherry red bottom lip. She came from a firm, religious background, and knew better than to say what she was about to. "She was a good person, Ken, of course she is." she whispered.

"Adam looked so sad earlier today." He explained. "It made me thankful...that I have someone as special as you."

Kat smiled, turning her head to look into Kenny's chocolate brown eyes. Little did those two know that just a few miles away from their peaceful serenity, back at the dorms, things were crazier than ever.

Adam had been in the lobby of the girls' dorm, escaping the fumes of the freshly painted male dorms when Guy and Connie came running up to him, they were both dripping wet, and laughing like hyenas.

"What's going on?" Adam asked, looking up from the book he had been studying.

"We just thought that you could use a little fun." Guy laughed, chunking a water balloon right at Adam's chest. The sandy blonde haired boy couldn't help but laugh.

"Come on, be on our team!" Connie giggled, pulling him up out of his seat.

The three friends ran up the stairs where a full fledged water balloon fight was already raging on the girls' floor. Everyone and everything was soaking wet.

"How did this start?" Adam asked Guy, from behind an overturned bed. Guy, Charlie, and Fulton had been using it for protection from the enemy. Across the hall, Nicci, Maryann, Portman, and Kayla had done the same.

"We were bored so we decided to use all of those old balloons left over from the last dace that we stole It was Fulton's idea." Guy explained quickly, just as he nailed Kayla right in the head with a huge water balloon.

Kayla had been fitting in well since the earlier events of that year. She and Dwayne were still together, and Adam had become good friends with her, as the rest of the ducks had.

Everyone was running around, wet, and happy, and having a great time when Dean Buckley stepped out of the elevator and onto the floor, followed by a tall girl, dressed mostly in black.

"Stop, all of you- this second!" He bellowed, just as Charlie tossed a small, pink, water balloon, at Julie, who had been standing just in front of the elevator door. However, to everyone's dismay, the balloon hit the dean square in the face. With that, everything stopped, and everyone, although wet, and still giggly, faced Dean Buckley. "This is Shannon. Her parents are friends of mine, I want you to make her feel....welcome." He paused to remove the broken piece of pink plastic from his bow tie. "And I want this mess cleaned up and dried off by morning. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir." Charlie answered for the group.

"Good." He said.

A few moments after that, Dean Buckley left, just as suddenly as he arrived, leaving the blonde haired girl, dressed in black standing in front of the elevators. "Water balloons, huh? How old are all of you?" She asked, coldly, turning back to her room. She left the ducks, completely confused.

"What or- who was that?" Portman asked.

"My new buddy!" Maryann told her boyfriend, sarcastically.

"He's sort of cute."

"You sort of have a death wish don't you?" She pushed him lightly in the ribs, then muttered "This is going to suck."

"What? Having to put up with her, or cleaning up this mess all alone?" Averman asked from a few feet away.

"Yeah!" Goldberg seconded his friend. "You know we'd love to stay and help but, we've got stuff to do. Have fun girls!"

Connie, Julie, Kayla, Nicci, and Maryann just stared at each other blankly as the boy ducks filed out of the hall.

"Jerks." Julie shook her head. "This was all their fault, and they are going to leave us to clean this up!"

"And not to mention the devil child in room 207." Nicci grumbled.

A few moments later, the elevator door opened again and Connie's breath caught in her throat. She was sure that it was Dean Buckley again. But, there stood Kat, dressed in jeans and a white button down shirt.

"What happened here?" She asked innocently, her green eyes wide.

"I'm not exactly sure." Kayla sighed. "But I do know one thing. You are entirely too dry."

With that, she grinned, and picked up the remaining bucket of water balloons and dumped the whole thing over Kat's head.

"I guess duck girls get soaked together." She shrugged.

Connie tossed her a towel and everyone began cleaning up the mess......