New characters this chapter:
Susie Johnson, submitted by Vyctori
Tabby, submitted by Lady Skysong
Chapter 4:
The Wrath of Roommates and Minis
"It's not fair!" Karrie huffed. "You got to listen to Isaac! My Isaac spoke, and you listened to him, and that stupid Alex knocked me out!"
Tammi sighed. "Don't call Alex stupid! Besides, it was you who tried to stampede Isaac, so it's only fitting that you're the one who got knocked out."
"It's still not fair." Karrie let out a few huffy breaths.
The group was being herded toward the dormitories by a group of rather plain-looking townspeople who called themselves the GTs. Tammi didn't like them much. For one thing, none of them were half as pretty as Alex or Picard. And they all seemed rather dull.
Tammi glanced up to see how much further the dormitories were, just to see that the lead GTs had come to a stop. A few bleeding girls were limping toward the dorms.
"What do you think happened?" one GT asked the one beside him.
"Looks like the Minis got to stop their first stampede," the other responded. "I imagine those authors are some of the ones who got off lucky. Poor Mia and Alex are probably swamped with injured students to heal."
"Injured fangirl students, no less. I feel sorry for Alex."
"Umm, I hate to be rude, but what are you talking about?" Tammi asked. "What stampede? And what's a Mini?"
The two GTs glanced at each other and grinned. "You'll find out soon enough!" they chorused before turning back around and starting toward the dormitories again. They soon caught up with a few of the straggling authors from the stampede, and Tammi grabbed one by the shoulder.
"Don't touch that! It hurts!" The girl let out a shriek as she pushed Tammi's hand off of her shoulder.
"We just want to know what happened," Karrie said. "The GTs were saying something about a stampede."
The author, who had curly brown hair and light blue eyes, got a dreamy look on her face. "Yeah," she said. "It was worth it, though. I got a piece of the clothes he left on the shore!" She held out a scrap of purple fabric.
Karrie and Tammi glanced at each other, both raising their eyebrows. "I beg your pardon, but I don't understand what you mean," Tammi said at last. "What was all worth it? Whose clothes did you rip?"
The other girl let out a lovesick sigh. "Why, Picard of course! He's just so . . . so . . . oh! He's just . . . I can't help it. I saw him head toward the river while I was walking to the dormitories, and I thought it wouldn't hurt to just take a little detour and get an autograph! And I got there, and saw him swimming—shirtless!" She let out a little squeal. "I couldn't help it! I pounced on him!"
"Picard was swimming, shirtless, and I missed it!" Tammi groaned, bringing a hand to her forehead.
"I know!" Karrie sighed. "He's not as sexy as Isaac, but still . . . ! Had I only been there!"
"Well, the problem is that at the same time I tackled, so did every Picard-luster within a 200-foot radius," the girl said. "And then Miss Jen came, and she had these horrible things with her."
"What kind of things?"
"She had an army of miniature Dullahans with her!" the girl said. She whimpered as she touched her shoulder wound. "I'm lucky to be alive!"
Tammi's eyes might have fallen out of her head if they were not properly held in. "Dullahans? An army of them? But how . . . ?"
"She called them Minis," the girl said. "And they all had really weird names, like Ivn and Merdani and such."
Tammi shuddered. Dullahans. This was not good. The real thing was bad enough, but an army of tiny ones?
"Don't believe we've met," the girl said at last. "My name's Tabby. Who are you?"
"I'm Karrie, and this is Tammi," Karrie said. "So, are you sure you'll be all right?"
"Yeah. I didn't get caught, luckily, and I'm not like those poor students who got Downed and teleported to the Sanctum. I don't even want to think of what trouble they'll get in once they're Revived."
Tammi realized something. "There aren't any rivers in the crater! Where were you at?"
Tabby winced. "Well, maybe saying I took a bit of a detour was an understatement."
"You went off-campus? But there are monsters out there! You could have been killed!" Karrie interrupted.
"I ran from every monster I found. It's not a big deal." Tabby got that dreamy expression again. "And besides, it was all worth it to get to see Picard shirtless!"
"Yes, I think you said that already," Karrie replied. "Though I can admit I'm more than a bit jealous. What I wouldn't give to see Isaac without a shirt!"
"Or Alex!" Tammi added. All three girls sighed, content in their own warped fantasies.
It took them a few minutes to realize that the group of other students and GTs had left them behind. As soon as they did notice, they hurried to catch up.
"The room assignments are listed on the door of the building, right?" Tabby asked. "I hope I didn't get shoved in a room with a Felix-hater. They annoy me."
"I hate Felix," Tammi muttered under her breath, hoping that Tabby didn't hear. She wasn't quite that lucky, though, and she had to plug her ears to block out Tabby's shriek.
"You-hate-Felix-how-can-you-hate-Felix-I-can't-believe-you-you-Felix-hater-you-how-could-you-possibly-hate-Felix-it-makes-no-sense—"
"Is there any way to shut her up?" Karrie muttered, covering her own ears as well.
"What?" Tammi asked, unable to hear over Tabby's voice.
Karrie rolled her eyes, then turned to Tabby, who was still ranting. "So, Tabby, how'd you fill out the form?"
Tabby calmed almost instantly. "As a Lemurian, of course."
Tammi raised one eyebrow. "You don't look Lemurian."
"Yeah, well, at least I don't look like a Mary Sue!" Tabby replied, drawing her lips into a snarl.
"How dare you call Vynna a Mary Sue! She is not!"
"Prove it!"
"She loves Alex!"
"That just means she is a Mary Sue, moron!"
"Well, she's shy! And she hates fighting! And she doesn't want to admit she loves Alex!"
"Oh, great, one of those Sues!"
"Quit calling Vynna a Sue!"
Karrie had closed her eyes for a moment, but now opened them and blinked as she stopped walking. "Ummm, guys . . ."
They paid her no heed and kept walking, glaring at each other as they did.
"I suppose she's some stupid half-breed or something as well?" Tabby demanded.
"Guys . . ." Karrie tried again.
"Look, just because Vynna is half-lycanthrope-half-angel doesn't mean she's a Sue!"
"Guys! Hey!"
"And since when did—oof!"
Both Tabby and Tammi ran into the wall of the dormitory at the same time. They had been so distracted talking to each other that they hadn't been watching where they were going.
"I tried to warn you." Karrie shook her head.
"Owwww." Tammi stepped back and rubbed her forehead. "That really hurt!"
Tabby winced. "Great, now I'm going to have bruises on my head to accompany all the other ones all over my body. Good to know." She sighed. "Look, let's make a truce. At least we can agree that Picard is sexy, right?"
"Right!" Tammi nodded and held out a hand. "So a truce it is, then!"
Tabby took her hand and shook it rather hesitantly, her lips drawing back slightly as if she would make a run for it at any second. "Well, I guess we'd better find out where we're rooming at." She turned and walked toward the dormitory's large glass doors, which had pieces of parchment tied to the wall beside them. A cluster of students was already gathered around the parchment, talking loudly to one another and exchanging room numbers.
Karrie jumped, trying to get a peek over the crowd. "I can't see anything!"
"If you'll just hold on, we can push our way to the front," Tabby said. "Just calm down. It's not like it'll be the end of the world if you don't find out your room number right away."
Sure enough, they had soon found their way to the front of the crowd and were gazing at the list.
"Tabby, room 317," Tabby said. "Tammi Holmes, room 322. Karrie, room 303."
"I wonder what she's like," Karrie muttered. "I hope she likes Isaac! Then we can compare fanarts of him!" She squealed.
"I hope mine likes Picard, too," Tabby said. "Then again, I don't know how anyone could not like Picard . . ." She got that dreamlike expression once again and let out a sigh.
"Well, I guess we'd better go meet our roommates, huh?" Tammi said after a pause. "It looks like we're all on the same floor, so at the very least, we can visit one another from time to time!"
"It looks like all the boys are on the second floor," Karrie said. "That's fine, I guess. After all, guys don't get how dreamy Isaac is!" She squealed a second time.
"I'm going to my room now," Tammi said. "I'll come visit you guys later." She waved at them and walked into the building, where she was made to climb a few flights of stairs to reach the third floor. She pushed open the door of room 322.
She was absolutely paralyzed for an instant before she dropped to her knees in amazement and horror.
Fanarts of a blue-skinned Proxan covered one of the walls, many of them portraying him in rather compromising positions. It was painfully obvious that Tammi's roommate was a Saturos fan.
What truly horrified Tammi was one of the smaller pictures on the wall, which was a drawing of Alex with a large red X covering him. "Die, Alex, die!" was scribbled in the corner of the picture.
"I'm rooming with an Alex-hater!" she cried. "And she likes Saturos, of all people!"
"You got a problem with it?" a voice behind her asked. Tammi sniffed and glanced over one shoulder to see a girl with blonde hair that nearly dragged the floor and blue eyes. The girl had apparently heard Tammi's outburst and did not appear to be very happy with what had been said.
"You must be Tammi Holmes, my roommate," the girl snorted. It was then that Tammi took a closer look at her. She was wearing a sleeveless dress, revealing odd scale-like formations on her shoulders. Her skin was a faint pink color, and masklike markings were on her face. Her ears were swept into sharp points.
"You're a Proxan!" Tammi said, her eyes widening.
The girl grinned. "I know, isn't it great? I never thought that claiming I was Proxan on that form would have worked!"
"Tabby did say she was Lemurian, though she didn't really look the part," Tammi muttered to herself. She halfway wished that she had written down Vynna's half-lycanthrope-half-angel as her race, but it was a bit late for that now. She was stuck as a human.
"Anyway, I guess introductions are in order. I'm Susan Johnson, the Lady of the Flaxen Tresses," the girl said, rubbing one of her scaled shoulders with her right hand. "And you are?"
"Tammi Holmes, as you've guessed." Tammi debated on whether or not to tell the other girl her penname, then decided that the truth would come out eventually anyway. "Also known as alexluvr4eva."
Susie raised her eyebrows, and her mouth moved silently for a few moments. She finally found her voice and said," Great. An Alex-luster. Just what I always wanted in a roommate." Her voice was streaked through with sarcasm.
"It's not like I asked to be rooming with a Saturos-luster, either." Tammi got to her feet and folded her arms, wrinkling her nose in Susie's direction. "How can you possibly lust after him?" She waved a hand at the pictures on Susie's side of the room. "He's evil!"
"You know, I could say the same thing for Alex!" Susie replied, narrowing her eyes. "I mean, who was it that manipulated everyone else in the entire game? At least Saturos had his reasons for doing what he did!"
"So did Alex!" Tammi shouted, unfolding her arms and putting her hands on her hips. She snarled at Susie.
"I'll argue that point until the day I die!"
"And I'll argue my side until the day I die!"
"Forget it. I don't even see why I'm wasting my time talking to an Alex-luster." Susie tossed her hair—or rather, attempted to toss her hair. Tossing hair is very difficult when it reaches the floor. "I have better things to do. Like figure out how to find my dear Satty-chan and have him declare his love for me!" Susie's face got a look similar to Tabby's when Picard was mentioned.
Tammi sighed and walked into the room. The words "sardine can" would have flattered it as far as size went. She couldn't imagine living and sleeping so close to a Saturos-lover. One that hated Alex, no less. But there was little that could be done. Miss Jen had said that there would be no switching of rooms, or the Minis would punish the students. After hearing Tabby talk about the Minis, Tammi had decided that it was best to avoid that situation.
Susie had walked off down the hallway, and Tammi, much to her relief, was alone in the room. She opened her tiny closet to find her luggage crammed within it.
"I might as well unpack," she sighed. "It looks like I'm going to be here for quite a while."
With that, she pulled her luggage out of the closet and began putting her things away.