Daria had not made more than a few steps outside her door before a gruff voice called out her attention.
"Excuse me, Ms. Morgendeffer, we need to have a word about your conduct today" a small woman with a chip on her shoulder and a wry expression "My name is Mary Simons, your RA; this is an unfortunate part of my duties as RA. I imagine you have a good idea what type of conversation we are going to have about what topic."
Daria quickly turns around, caught unawares by the harshness of her addresser and a bit perturbed the accusatory insinuation. Maintaining a neutral expression in spite of her frustration, "Oh, and what type of conversation are we going to have."
A small half smile forms on the RA's face "Well, I'm quite impressed with your poker face, but if you wish to play coy, I will be blunt about it. Believe me, I'm not comfortable with this either, and I'll assume you are not familiar with the rules in the freshman dorms, so I'm willing to leave this as an informal warning. A particular individual, Nick Carter, a distant relative of mine; you were 'entertaining' him in your dorm. Strictly speaking, you are not allowed to entertain in such a way in the freshman female dorms. You are allowed to visit guys you like in their dorms I will add. This rule is in place to ensure this area remains a safe space for all the girls here, your floormates, during their first formative year."
Daria freezes, stunned as she comes to understand what it is she is being accused of. Still, shy on manners of intimacy, and not wanting to start her college days as a snitch, looks at her feet and quietly states "I didn't do anything of the sort." To this, the RA's smile disappears, and her own neutral expression, rivaling Daria's when she is annoyed, appears.
"Look, Daria, I have your file here, I'm willing to leave it blank for now, but I'm not too impressed with such a blatant lie. You were not very, discrete. For Christsakes you didn't even close the door, adding to this fact, you are quite loud and vocal about it. My cousin came out, with his shirt on wrong, so I stopped him. As he is terrible with names, I asked him if he was on the odd-numbered side of the room or the even numbered side; Nick might be terrible with names but my cousin is quite gifted with numbers, the only reason, other than hockey, he was able to come to school in the first place. He was on your side of the room. I checked the register, that is your bed. I had multiple complaints from girls about the racket you made, your neighbor across the hall had her family helping her move in."
Daria sees out of the corner of her vision several young women watching this unfold. A couple appeared quite hostile, including the one whose parents and little brothers were helping her move in; as well as a couple quite bemused by the spectacle. Daria's skin starts to break out from anxiety, with a visible blush due to the intimate nature of the allegations. Quickly Daria adds "that's wasn't me". Mary's neutral expression is quickly replaced by a frown.
"Look, you're caught; I get it, it's embarrassing, believe me, loads of people do embarrassing things in college. In retrospect I probably should have called you into my office and gave you this dressing down privately, that would have been more professional. That said, that will be the last blatant lie I let you get away with on the manner. He even remembered your name, I asked him what he was doing here, and I quote 'oh, you know, having fun, See you, Mary, oh, that Daria is a cool chick'. I have to admit though, I'm quite impressed with you on that issue, Nick isn't known for remembering anyone's name. " Daria blushes quite furiously at this and is flustered to the point she can no longer speak.
Mary, her frustration with her personal life egging on a cortisol rush, goes on to drive the point home. "Then within minutes of my conversation with my hockey playing cousin, here you are leaving your room in fresh clothes, not quite the clothes you left your dorm this morning in. Now, as you denied this twice, I can give you two options. You stop denying, perhaps apologize to these girls to whom you disrespected by bringing him in, we let this manner drop, and it never comes up. The second option, is we schedule a formal hearing to the disciplinary board; a mark is made on your permanent record as to what happened, and you have to explain to every person who interviews you for a job what exactly happened here. As well, the likelihood of your family learning about this unfortunate incident becomes quite likely with this option. I am not enjoying this Daria, please, just take the informal verbal warning, and let me begin the school year happy go lucky."
Daria is stunned, in normal circumstances perhaps she would have held herself together, probably returned a return volley of sharp wit; but as her day has been going so badly, starting with a fight with Helen in the morning, to the madness in the bookstore, to this, her reserves of mental fortitude were finally depleted. Both blushing and with an anxiety rash, in spite of the dutiful taking of her anti-anxiety medication doses, rushes into the women's restroom. Mary can hear the sound of retching and realizes she crossed a line. The fact is Mary was dealing with bad news from home, boyfriend troubles, a job prospect falling through, all put her in a foul mood and Daria was merely the victim of Mary's sometimes cruel wit. Having angry parents asking if they were paying tens of thousands of dollars to send their daughter to a bordello set Mary off as the honor of her school was allegedly called into question by this freshman. One of the girls who witnessed the situation is absolutely livid with Mary's handling of such a minor issue. Chelsea Bowers, a fifth-generation Raft student, knows for a fact Mary was required to be discrete and stares daggers at Mary as she goes in to talk to this girl she can clearly see is having an anxiety attack. She quickly shoes the others away.
~~end scene~~