Five


"Give me half an hour," Nicole said. "And I can tell you exactly where this guy lives."

"What good is that going to do me?" Ami asked.

"Well don't you want to beat his ass? The jerk deserves it, he probably really is some old pervert!"

"No, I don't want to beat his ass, I just want to talk to him. I want to find out why he doesn't want to meet me, I mean… what's wrong?"

"Oh no, do not start the self doubt thing! There is nothing wrong with you sweetie, this is not your fault at all. This is all his doing, not yours. Look, I'm going to go hunt this guy down for you and once I've figured it out you can use the information however you'd like, okay?"

Ami managed a weak smile. "Okay. Thanks Nicole."

"Anything for you babe."

Nicole dashed off to her room leaving Ami alone and feeling like crap. She knew inside that it wasn't her fault, but she felt like it was. And though her e-mail sounded angry, it was all just a cover up to disguise how hurt she was. Right now she just felt really, really stupid.

A few minutes later Tanya popped her head into the room. "Hey Ami," she said timidly from the doorway. "How are you feeling?"

"As well as to be expected, I just realized I've wasted the past four months of my life."

"Yeah, Nicole said you weren't in that great of a mood. What exactly is she doing anyway?"

"Trying to find out where he lives. She seems to think she's some elite hacker genius or something."

Tanya laughed. "She is pretty good, you never know, she might find something."

"Well even if she does-" Ami's words were cut short by a loud triumphant cry from the other end of the house.

"Brilliant! " Nicole ran into the room, doing a little victory dance on her way. "That was too easy! I mean come on girl, give me a challenge!"

Ami couldn't help but laugh at her roommate. It was true, she'd been gone for not even fifteen minutes.

"Xavier's School for Gifted Youngster's, which as far as I can tell is not actually a state recognized school at all. It seems more like a boarding house really."

"How the hell did you figure that out?" Tanya asked in a complete state of awe.

Nicole beamed. "Well I had his name, which did next to no good. But I knew he lived at a school, and being an adult you would assume that the teachers would live there as well. So it would have to be a boarding school, and I couldn't help but figure it was some shady deal as opposed to an uppity white bread place. All too easy really." She was still dancing as she turned towards Ami. "So, is all my work in vain or are we going to head on out to Xavier's and kick some jerk's ass?"

It actually seemed that Ami's spirits had lifted, even if it was just a tiny bit. "No, your work wasn't in vain, but there's no we and as I said before there will be no ass kicking. I'm going to go there and I'm going to talk to him… and then I'll decide if there will be ass kicking."

Nicole and Tanya laughed as their suddenly rejuvenated roommate began going through her closet. "You can't confront the man who practically broke your heart looking like crap you know!"