Chapter 3: Sparks and Killer Bunnies
Notes: Yes! Aisha is a Mary Sue, and she's proud! She's pretty, and sweet and smart… and nobody likes her for it *grins big* Although she only gets 1 point on my Mary Sue test *shrugs*
Big shout-out to Quimby aka Cake Eater, who I keep forgetting to mention. I adore you. *sniggers* Even more so now I've read Harry Pothead. Update soon or I'll give Terri eight cans of coke (I would give her Lilt but I think Vic is the only American who knows what that is!) and send her to you for some 'quiet time'.
Also, thanks for the reviews. It's a big relief to hear that I'm 'in character' something I was worried about. Anyone who takes time to read this rocks my world.
Luis glanced around the cafeteria, looking for a place to sit. The Ducks table was filled with Terri and her crowd – and after dealing with her 'subtle' questions last night, he couldn't face her again. He spotted Averman sitting across the dining hall and started to make his way over.
"Hey," Averman greeted him cheerfully. "And how has life treated you in the past forty minutes since I last saw you?"
"Could've been worse," Luis replied.
"You're right about that," Averman snorted, looking over Luis' shoulder.
"What do you mean?" Luis turned, following Averman's line of sight. Heading their way was Terri, and behind her was an exceptionally pretty black girl with long dark curly hair. Luis vaguely recognised her, but didn't think she was in any of his classes.
"I'm assuming that's the famous Aisha," Averman commented. "Why don't I have a stalker?"
"Because your crimes in a previous life were not so terrible as mine," Luis replied in a low tone as the girls approached. "Yours only resulted in a tiny dorm room, mine were so horrific that Terri's friend likes me."
"She might be nice," Averman ventured. "It might not be her fault that she's friends with Terri."
"Well, we're about to find out."
"Hey guys!" Terri said cheerily, grabbing a free seat and shoving the girl they presumed to be Aisha down next to Luis. "You guys know, Aisha, right?"
The guys gave her a polite "hey" with a smile and silence reigned over the table. A minor miracle, given Terri's presence. "So, what were you guys talking about before we interrupted?"
Luis and Averman exchanged looks, discussing the potential stalkiness of your friend didn't seem a very polite answer, especially in front of the friend in question. "Drama," Averman replied. "Luis was asking what he had to look forward to on Thursday."
"You take drama?" Aisha asked Luis in a tone that exuded forced casualness.
"No, but Averman was telling me that he did, and it sounded interesting, so I asked him if I could come and watch him rehearse," he replied, then supposing he'd better make some form of conversation, he added, "What about you? Any extra-curricular activities?"
"I'm a cheerleader, I finally got on the squad this year. It only took three years of trying out to get there." Aisha said with a smile.
"Oh, so you know Annie then?" Luis asked.
"Yeah, she seems cool."
"She's very cool. She's my best friend."
Once more silence took over the table, which was eventually broken by Averman putting forth suggestions as to what actually qualified as "beef" in a cafeteria beef burger. Suggestions included a duck-billed platypus, nuclear waste and the pencil shavings from the classroom bins.
The rest of the lunch period was filled with awkward silences and pieces of halting conversation, Averman and Luis were greatly relieved when the bell rang, signalling the end of lunch.
"So," Averman said, as they ditched their trays and began to walk to their next class. "What was the verdict?"
Luis shrugged. "I don't know. She seems nice, and she's very pretty."
"But?"
As they walked, Luis realised that school had only been in session for just over a week, but he was growing increasingly comfortable around Averman, even enough to have conversations that he would only usually have with Annie. "I don't know. There's no spark."
"I get that. I'm also spark-less." Averman nodded wisely.
"What, never?" Luis asked with genuine interest.
Averman shrugged. "That's weird, right?"
"No, it's not weird. Better no spark, than a spark with a girl everyone hates," Luis replied.
"I never said I hated Terri." Averman protested. "I just would rather she went back to Ireland. Forever. Preferably under house-arrest."
Luis laughed as they made their way into the classroom. "Actually, I meant Mindy. It's no secret that the whole team hated her because she went out with Riley before me. It made us really uncomfortable to have the Ducks around. You have no idea how many fights it caused."
Averman contemplated this. "Nope, I think I'd still rather be sparky."
Luis took his seat, and reconsidered. Yeah, he'd probably prefer the spark too.
"Hey guys!" Annie said cheerfully as she let herself room thirteen, she glanced around. "Or guy, singular, not plural. No Luis?"
"Nope, our speedster is on AWOL. But do feel free to come in and wait – or at least make polite conversation for a few minutes," Averman replied with a grin. He had never hung out with Annie before rooming with Luis, but so far, she seemed good company. Plus, he figured with Luis being his roommate for the rest of the year, he might as well get to know Annie, because he'd be seeing a lot of her.
"Cool, but I can't stop, this was going to be a high-speed visit, I have practice to get to," she said, shutting the door. "Wow, did you know there's a great big hole behind your door?"
"Uh-huh," Averman nodded. "It's our link to Wonderland. We got a real-life rabbit to make that hole."
"Yeah? How'd you sneak it past Mr Stiles? I'd love to know, because I have real difficulty sneaking past him." Annie asked, leaning back against the door.
"I could tell you, but then the Bunny would kill you."
"So it was the Holy Grail Bunny from Monty Python then?" Annie nodded wisely. "Say no more." She glanced at the clock. "Look, I've got to go, can you just tell Luis that I've met someone and I want to tell him all the gory details?"
"Will do," Averman replied as Annie let herself out. He then turned his attention to the hole in the wall. He and Luis had considered reporting it to Mr Stiles, but then decided that he would probably put them on detention for the damage. The only logical course of action would be to fix it themselves.
Which was all fine and well, but Luis still hadn't turned up and that left Averman to fight with the hole. He had some gooey stuff, some sort of plaster, that Terri assured him would fix everything just fine – he hadn't wanted to talk to her, but if there was an expert at repairing damage to dorm rooms at Eden Hall, it was Terri. She had even gone and stolen it for him, in return for him putting a good word in for Aisha with Luis.
He sighed and set to work filling up the hole. The plaster smelt very strange, he noted as he started plugging up the hole with it. Halfway through he had to get up and open the window to let some fresh air in. When he was done, he used his chemistry folder to smooth it off. A second glance told him that it wasn't his chemistry folder, it was Mendoza's. He shrugged and tossed in under a pile of clothes. "That's the price you pay, buddy, for skipping out on me when we're on repair detail."
On finishing the task at hand, he decided he was rather bored, and the room had an extremely funky smell. He wondered who he could go and annoy. Averman quickly went through his list of friends, Charlie was out, he and Adam were fighting again, and things had gotten so bad that they had divided the entire room up equally with duct tape – according to Goldberg anyway. Adam was also out, for the same reasons. Connie and Guy were out, because they were ConnieandGuy, very hard to separate from each other. Ken, Russ and Dwayne all had girlfriends and would undoubtedly be with them.
So that either left the Bash Brothers, Goldberg or Julie. He didn't feel comfortable just walking to the Bashes dorm room and asking to hang out. Despite the many years on the team, Averman had really not built any kind of comfortable friendship with any of his team-mates. He always got on well with whoever he roomed with (Adam, Goldberg and Sean – the latter being a fellow drama nerd), but that was it. He'd just passed time with them, he hadn't been friends with them. He realised this wasn't exactly normal, and his mind filed it away to taunt him about later when he couldn't sleep.
So far, Luis had come the closest to being a friend. "Ok, that changes now," he decided. He was going to visit Goldberg and hang out with him, and if Goldie wasn't around, he'd try Julie, and if Julie was also AWOL he would inflict himself upon the Bashes. And so on until he found someone to hang out with.
He considered leaving a note for Luis about the wall, but decided that the smell of the plaster would tip him off. He then left the room and set off to find Goldie.
He didn't actually get that far. He got to the second floor, where Goldberg's room was located, but stopped in curiosity outside the Bash Brothers' room. There were alarming crashes and thumps coming through the partially opened door, followed by the triumphant cry of "Die, bitch! Die!" from Portman.
He knocked lightly on the door and pushed it fully open. Fulton and Portman were sitting on one of the beds, armed with school books, apparently aiming at a plant. "Hey, man," Fulton said amiably
"Hey," Averman replied. "I heard thumps, and was wondering if you were killing each other. I figured if you were, I could watch. I've always wanted to go into the Witness Protection Programme. I'd change my name to something exotic and silly like Umberto or Eduardo."
"Unless this plant gives up the ghost, there will be no killing today," Portman replied. "Grab a book and have a seat." He patted the space beside him, then let fly with another book. It missed the plant by a good seven inches, but managed to destroy a pen pot spectacularly.
Averman did as he was told, arming himself with the nearest textbook (Deutsch Heute!). "So, why are we killing the plant?"
"Bitch won't die," Portman replied moodily.
"His Mom gave us this plant weeks ago when I went to stay with them for a few weeks in the summer. We've been trying to kill it ever since. We asked for a Venus Fly Trap, we get a flowering fern," Fulton explained. "We tried dropping it out of Portman's bedroom window, but his Mom saw and, thinking it was an accident, went and collected it and nursed it back to life."
"We've fed it beer, vodka and Jack Daniels, but it just won't die," Portman added.
"Ah," Averman replied, wondering why they didn't just leave it in the closet, without water and light surely it would wither and die? He took careful aim and hurled the German textbook at the fern. He managed to knock a few leaves off. "What happens if you run out of books before you kill the plant?"
"Then the bitch lives yet another day." Portman flung another book at the plant, it was close enough to make the leaves quiver, but not enough to do any damage.
"The score is 42-1 to the plant so far," Fulton added. "The one being the day we threw it out the window. Ok, so it lived, but only because Mrs P patched it up." He hurled another book, it completely missed and slid down the back of the desk that the plant was sitting on.
"So why not throw it out the window again?" Averman asked, as he hurled another book (Romeo and Juliet), it also missed and joined Fulton's behind the desk. "Or leave it in a cupboard and forget about it, or even give it away?"
"Because that wouldn't be playing fair," Fulton replied.
"Ah. So three armed humans against one defenceless plant is fair?"
Portman clapped him on the shoulder. "That's it exactly. This plant has the life-force. It must die."
Averman picked up another book and threw it. It lopped the top inch of the leafy fronds off.
Notes: Short and rather pointless chapter, my apologies. I want to get to the story, but I can't seem to get away from the build-up. I just get the feeling that if I jumped in right away with the 'argh! I'm crushing on a guy' part, it would seem… *shrugs* Too soon, too crude, and not well told. Sorry, bear with me, I'll get there.