Author's Note: Sorry this is delayed! I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Knight Rider. I DO own the OC characters however, since they came from my own imagination! There will be more swearing in this story, now that she is older. Sorry about that.
Chapter 1
No…it was happening again.
Just as it did every night
She ran…hoping and praying that she would get out alive as dark, shadowy figures chased her in the frightening blood red background.
"N-no… STAY BACK!"
Hands reached out to grab her from the shadows--
A strangled scream escaped her throat, as a thrashing Brittany Johnson, finally woke up. The 18 year old, sat up shivering and panting for air. This occurrence was nothing new. She always had nightmares…for as long as she could remember. For some reason, in her high school years, she was able to remember every single one of her dreams with crystal clarity. Every year, it seemed to get more and more intense. Of course she had gone to counseling and talked to some psychiatrist about it but they related her nightmares with the stress of her first year in college, living away from home. Some help they were.
The shrill beeping brought her back to the present moment and she glared at the accursed alarm clock with a look that could melt steel.
It was another Monday…
"Why me…I hate my life…"
Of course she didn't really hate her life. Just the fact that it was an early Monday morning, with a long day ahead of her…
College life sucked eggs… if you happened to be one of the A-B students that actually did their homework and went to class on time. Brittany avoided parties and social events like the plague, preferring solitude as opposed to mingling with all of the socialites on campus. She took her academics seriously and was often labeled a 'nerd' or 'geek' at times because of it. Then again, the morons who called her that happened to be the students with the D's, and F's. At least she was actually going somewhere in the next three years. Wherever that happened to be…Brittany was still unsure. The problem of the matter was choosing her major. Fortunately, she didn't have to declare a major for another year and a half.
She dragged herself out of bed and got dressed, glancing every now and then at her cell phone clock. She ran to the bathroom and combed her short brown hair and brushed her teeth before rushing back to her room to grab her backpack for her first class. On the way out, she grabbed her ID and an apple, closing the door behind her. After pulling her keys out, she made sure to lock it and then left to begin her fun-filled day with five boring lecturers and then enjoy suffocating on sawdust at her part-time job in the local wood-shop.
It paid well enough, at least enough for her to pay half of her term bill this semester. It was better than working at McDonalds on the far side of town. She shivered at the thought, having worked in a fast food restaurant once in high school…a most frightening experience that would forever scar her memory. She vowed never to eat Wendy's food ever again.
Brittany left the dorm building and headed towards the nearby four-way crosswalk that led to the college square, where one side was lined with the bookstore, coffee shop, hotel, and other tourist oriented souvenir shops.
She took a left, heading away from the tempting, allure of freshly brewed coffee and stood at the corner. After looking both ways and deeming it was safe, began to cross confidently. One of her friends, Mary Sanders, smiled and waved at her from the other side.
"Hey Brittany… we still gonna' watch season 1 of Knight Rider tonight?!"
"Yeah, definitely!"
"See you then!"
"Later!"
She watched her friend run off to catch the next crosswalk light. A shiny, black mustang sat parked on the side of the street across from the coffee shop, catching her admiring eye. Mustangs were her favorite car, for whatever reason she couldn't fathom. The fact that she was currently drooling at the sight of it, had to make some sort of statement to her taste in cars.
Just then an angry horn blasted the air a couple of feet from where she had been crossing as some young punk, in a sports car screeched around the corner, nearly hitting her. She turned in his direction and screamed profanities at the guy.
"You…asshole-- I had the right of way! If you want, you can actually reverse and hit me, so I can SUE your ass!!"
The punk driver slowed down enough so he could flip her off with an arrogant smile before racing off with squealing tires. She continued to rant and rave in his general direction, uncaring if she was making a scene in public. Some tourists who had been enjoying the beauty of the campus, blanched at her crude language and whispered amongst themselves before walking the other way.
"IF I HAD A ROCK I'D THROW IT AT YOUR PIECE OF CRAP YOU CALL A CAR…AND BREAK THE WINDSHIELD!! Rude-ass…"
She took another deep breath and vented skywards, announcing her grief to the whole world.
"I HATE RUDE PEOPLE!!!"
Her left eye was twitching in anger at this point and she growled as she panted for air after the last echoes of her tirade faded away.
She sighed and finished crossing the street, holding one hand to her forehead as if a headache was coming on. The black mustang rolled out of its parking spot and drove right past her.
"Miss…I need you to come with me."
She looked up and her eyes narrowed suspiciously at the campus safety officer. He had both hands casually resting on his utility belt that came equipped with a walkie-talkie, whistle, keys, and miniscule can of pepper spray. The golden badge with the college name engraved on it reflected some of the sunlight into her eyes.
"Why? I didn't do anything wrong."
He raised an eyebrow in question.
"Scaring tourists and nearly giving one elderly woman a heart attack, isn't wrong?"
Brittany rolled her eyes, not backing down.
"Listen here, Sir, I apologize if I disturbed the peace…but this JERK tried to run me over in the middle of the crosswalk! And last time I checked, this is America…freedom of speech and all that."
He half smiled and shook his head and then had the audacity to address her like she was some misbehaving child.
"I saw everything. I reported his license number to the local police department for reckless driving. You however, need to come with me."
This was most definitely…a Monday morning. No doubt about it. If this campus safety officer had tried to jump her from the bushes on, let's say…a Friday morning, her weird-shit-o-meter would have gone off the charts. At this point, all Mondays SUCKED. It was typical. Especially for a small, Kentucky College like this one.
"What are the charges?"
"No charges. There was an incident in your dormitory that occurred early this morning and we would just like to ask you a few questions."
"So…where are your handcuffs? Or do you criminalize every student you pass on the street?"
She couldn't resist. It was a bad morning so far. Normally she would never disrespect a figure of authority, even one so small as this police-wannabe. All she wanted to do…was get to class and get through her day, so that Mishap Monday would be over.
"I don't have to tolerate your disrespect girl… you are coming with me right now."
The officer roughly grabbed her arm and began to lead her down the sidewalk, biting back all of the snide retorts he had rearing to go on the tip of his tongue. He had to be professional…calling the young lady a 'girl' was probably as far as he could go unless he had a desire to lose his job.
Brittany snickered as a movie quote came to mind from Monty Python and the Black Knight and just as they were passing an odd assortment of students she screamed out to them, while animatedly pointing at the officer escorting her.
"Help, HELP…I'm being repressed!! See the violence inherent in the system!!"
A few of the students, familiar with the film chuckled and smiled in her direction, as the tight-lipped campus safety officer's grip on her arm tightened painfully.
The officer was not in the best of moods it would seem. The way he was glaring at her right now, Brittany was sure that if he did have one of the police issued night-sticks…he would be beating the crap out of her with one right now. She caught his dangerous expression and shrugged, looking innocently back at him.
"What? I like movie quotes…"
He grumbled something unintelligible, not that she cared anyway now that her entire day was thrown out of whack by this highly unforeseen event.
A few minutes later and they were sitting in the office of the head of campus security, the scowling officer that escorted her in, left to go on patrol.
Good riddance, Officer Fun-Sucker.
Another long suffering sigh escaped her lips as the minutes ticked slowly away on the clock face hanging on the back wall.
Fifteen minutes later, another officer entered and took a seat behind the desk, Brittany's dormitory collegium taking a seat nearby.
The officer cleared her throat and folded her hands on top of the desk and looked seriously at her.
"This morning between the hours of 6-8 am, a theft was reported in your suite. We would like to ask you a few questions, if that's okay."
Brittany nodded her head dumbly, clearly taken by surprise by this rather stunning encounter.
"Where were you this morning?"
"Sleeping…in my room."
The officer had a notepad out and was scribbling things down as she answered questions, occasionally glancing up at her. The collegium, remained quiet, simply observing as a silent witness.
"Do you have a roommate?"
"She moved out last month…so I have the room to myself now."
"I need to hear in as much detail as possible, what exactly you did this morning up to the present moment. Can you do that for me?"
"Uh…sure. I have nothing to hide."
Brittany took a deep breath and then recounted everything she did, including leaving her room to go to the bathroom at 7:11 am to get ready for the day. At last she was finished and the officer finished scribbling the last few notes down. She glanced up at her with a critical eye, making Brittany shiver involuntarily. It was the kind of predatory look a hawk had when it spotted its prey.
"Do you keep to-do-lists?"
The question caught her off guard. What the hell did a to-do-list have to do with a theft? And for that matter…who didn't keep a to-do-list?
"Of course, I mean…who doesn't keep a to-do-list? I write down lists for everything. Even lists for important events during a busy day so I don't forget anything. Why?"
"It's just a standard question we ask everyone involved with this case. Thank you for your time, you are free to go," the Officer woman forced a tight smile.
Brittany did her best to remain civil and smiled back before leaving.
Well…that was definitely weird. Not a normal Monday.
She glanced down at the watch on her wrist and swore, running for the crosswalk. She only had five minutes to get to her second class which was on the other side of campus.
The rest of the day passed quickly, without incident, although the weird event with campus safety pulling her in for questioning constantly plagued her mind. Something set off her internal warning buzzer whenever her thoughts looped back to the 'to-do-list'.
Hours later…
Brittany and Mary sat laughing in the suite lounge, watching episodes of Knight Rider 2008 from the first season. Her friend had been most sympathetic about the incident and told her to just forget about it since she was innocent.
"So…nothing else happened today?"
"As if getting dragged in to campus safety like some criminal wasn't enough?"
"I'm just asking…"
"No…not really…"
They ate some popcorn and sipped on cans of pepsi in companionable silence, while Brittany organized her frazzled thoughts.
"I just hate Mondays…"
TO BE CONTINUED!!
A/N: Please review! Actually, parts of this story really happened to me. I have had nightmares about bad guys chasing me since I was like three and a jerk in a sports car did try to run me over in the middle of a crosswalk on my way to class. It's like college students have invisible "HIT ME" signs flashing in bright neon colors above their heads!! I swear…it's like the community believes they will get 1,000 bonus points or something if they hit one.
Campus safety actually DID drag me in for questioning concerning a theft a couple months ago.
They treated me like a criminal and once the second theft happened, immediately pointed fingers at me even though I was innocent!! When that happened I felt like I was stuck in the twilight zone, since I've always been one of those 'good kids/teacher's pets' who has never made a trip to the principal's office, LOL.
As for Brittany/Mikah's feisty attitude…she is saying all the stuff I THOUGHT about saying…but never did. XD