AN: I wrote this a longggg time ago... It might've been my first fic actually. I just decided to post it now, but I'm not sure how far I'll be going with it. I want to see if people like it.
The lights were dim, the posters on the walls were dull and full of clichés, and she was sure she heard a scream coming from somewhere. She turned her head slightly to the left and saw Ben. The look on his face didn't seem much more excited than hers.
"Here we are Benjamin," the teacher said, stopping in front of room 108. "This is your room." As the Ben edged closer to the door, the teacher put out a hand to stop him. "You'd better let me do this," she said, a flicker of concern coming across her face. She rapped on the door, and a boy answered it. He was fairly tall and muscular, with closely-cut brown hair, and a bit of stubble. He was wearing a plain blue t-shirt over jeans, and his hazel eyes flickered briefly in the hall light. The teacher, Ms. Goodspeed, she thought it was, tilted her head towards Ben, and they boy nodded in understanding, as Ben stepped inside, Ms. Goodspeed following after telling her to remain where she was. Her eyes locked briefly with the boy's before he closed the door, and he gave her a slight smile.
Juliet was left alone in the hallway. Muffled noises came from inside the rooms, and her eyes found a poster on the bulletin board beside her.
'Medicine major?,' it read. 'Need some help? Willing to tutor in exchange for lunch as many times a week as needed. Contact Jack Shephard for more information.'
At least I'm not the only medicine major, thought Juliet. After a few minutes of examining more posters on the bulletin board, Ms. Goodspeed reappeared from room 108, beckoning Juliet to follow her. They arrived at room 815, and once again, Ms. Goodspeed knocked. A girl answered the door. She was quite pretty, with brown hair pulled into a loose ponytail, and brown eyes.
"Ms. Goodspeed. Hi!" the girl said in an overly-sweet tone. "Oh is this?... come on in!" she said, noticing Juliet.
Juliet followed Ms. Goodspeed into a room full of girls. It was quite neat considering the number of them, but quite messy considering how her room usually looked. "I'm Kate," the girl who had answered the door said.
"Juliet," she introduced herself.
They exchanged small smiles, and after Ms. Goodspeed had introduced her to the other girls and left, they all crowded around her, giving her more names to remember than she ever could. There were 9 girls including her and Kate. They seemed nice enough, but whether or not Juliet could stand rooming with them all was yet to be seen.
No sooner had she found her bed, which was in the back corner of the room, but right next to the window, which was nice, than a knock was heard at the door.
"It's open!" Called an Australian blonde Juliet remembered as Claire.
The door opened and in peeked a boy. He was average height, average size, and had long, scruffy blonde hair.
"Sawyer! Hey!" Kate greeted. She likes him, Juliet immediately analyzed. She was good at analyzing people, and recognizing flirting was the easiest thing to analyze.
She locked eyes with the boy as he spoke in a Southern accent. "Hello ladies. I'm come bearing news of a meeting our dorm would like to have with yours," he said, with a not-so-subtle hint of sarcasm. "In the lounge. 5 minutes. Bring the newbie," he said, pointing at her. The boy, Sawyer, Kate had called him, left, and the girls all turned to Juliet.
"They probably just want to meet you, get to know you," reassured a blonde girl Juliet was pretty sure was called Libby, after seeing her worried expression.
They stood there in awkward silence for a few seconds before a bossy Hispanic girl, Ana Lucia, was it? Piped up. "Come on, let's go! They're going to be waiting!"
The girls all filed out of their dorm, and wandered through the dim hallway. At the end, they came to a room with large bay windows, and lots of fluffy armchairs, with magazines, laptops, textbooks and notes strewn all over tables. The lounge.
The boys were already there. Juliet spotted Sawyer; the guy who had answered the door, Jack; and Ben sitting in a corner shyly, along with 5 other boys. One of them, who had been strumming a guitar before they entered, got up from his seat and went immediately to Claire. They began to shyly greet each other, as did Libby and another boy, who had long curly brown hair, and who looked like he deeply enjoyed food. The Asian girl in her dorm, Sun was it? Who was an ESL student ran into the arms of an Asian boy, and they began conversing in Korean. Kate and Ana Lucia walked over to Sawyer, and the three of them began having a flirty conversation, with Kate and Ana fighting for control. Another girl in her dorm, whose name she remembered as Shannon, also seemed to have a boyfriend. Juliet was left with the redhead (Charlotte?) and the girl she remembered as Nikki, who were talking about some guys named Paulo and Dan in dorm 23.
Wow, everyone seems pretty into dating, Juliet thought. How fun for me. She was left standing awkwardly in the middle of the room with Ben and Jack. Ben and her had never gotten along, he had this sort of obsessive crush on her, so she chose to just remain alone. Apparently, this plan wasn't going to last for long.
"It's a bit overwhelming at first, but you'll get used to it," she heard from behind her. She turned to see Jack, standing awkwardly behind her. "I'm Jack," he said, holding out his hand.
"Juliet," she replied, shaking it.
"Welcome to Oceanic, Juliet."
Juliet smiled in response, and a long silence passed between them before Jack spoke again. "So, what major are you in?"
"Medicine, like you," seeing the surprised look on his face, she added "I saw your name on a poster for tutoring. Shephard, right?"
Jack chuckled, "yep, that's me."
Before they could talk any more, Kate's voice rang across the room. "Why the hell are we here anyways?"
A couple of the boys chuckled. "To initiate, the newbies, that's why!" Sawyer yelled. The girls giggled, and Juliet and Ben were pushed into the middle of the room, frightened expressions on their faces.
"Which one this time?" Charlotte asked, with a slightly evil twinge. Even the nicer girls like Libby and Claire seemed to be enjoying this, Juliet noticed sadly.
"3 dares and a truth!" Yelled the guy who had been flirting with Claire and playing the guitar.
A murmur of consent swept throughout the room, and everyone sat down in a circle around Ben and Juliet.
"Alright, here's how it works," said Sawyer smugly. "It's like truth or dare, except we just ask you 2. You each do 3 dares and a truth. Capiche? Ladies first," he said, turning to Juliet.
Juliet was sure the expression on her face betrayed how horrified she was. She hated truth or dare, and even when she did play, she never chose dare. It always ended badly.
"Let's do the obvious truth," Shannon suggested.
Everyone agreed, and Ana Lucia turned to Juliet. "Who's the hottest guy here?" She asked, obviously enjoying every moment of this torture.
Juliet sat aghast for a few seconds before answering the only person she had talked to properly. "Jack," she said softly, almost a whisper.
Everyone started oohing and ahhing and singing little rhymes, and Charlotte yelled out "sit on his lap!"
"Good dare!" guitar guy congratulated Charlotte. "Do it Juliet!"
"Guys, don't you think this is a little harsh-" Jack tried, but Sawyer interrupted.
"What you don't like the pretty lady? Come on blondie, do it!"
Juliet reluctantly went and sat cross-legged on Jack's legs. He looked down at her apologetically, and she averted her eyes.
"Come on!" Nikki shouted. "Okay, for you second dare, you do whatever I make you do!" she said, taking charge and walking over to Jack and Juliet.
Nikki started moving parts of Juliet's body into different positions. She told her to uncross her legs, and then she pushed her back into Jack, so that her head ended up resting on his shoulder. She moved her left arm so that it wrapped around Jack's neck, and told her to hold Jack's hand with her right. Although it was probably one of the most embarrassing moments of her life, the position Nikki had her in was actually quite comfortable. Juliet found herself relaxing a bit, although she was sure her cheeks were fiery rid. Jack rested his free hand on her stomach, and their gazes locked for a second.
Satisfied, Nikki sat back down. They all started talking about what the 3rd "ultimate" dare would be, and Juliet was straining to hear when she was interrupted by Jack, who was taking advantage of the others being distracted.
"I'm sorry about this. The initiation."
Juliet chuckled. "I feel sorrier for you, having some random girl suddenly on your lap."
Jack also chuckled. "It's fine, it really is. It's... a good way for us to get to know each other," he suggested.
Juliet giggled. At least she had chosen a nice boy.
The group seemed to have decided her final torture, because they had reassembled in a circle.
"Alright, for your final dare, you've got to streak down this hallway," Sawyer said matter-of-factly.
There were some giggles among most people, but Jack squeezed her hand as he started to speak. "Guys that is way out of line! No way! Come on, don't torture the poor girl anymore! Come on Juliet, let's go." He pressed his free hand on her hip, telling her to get up, and never letting go of her hand, pulled her out of the lounge and into a courtyard nearby.