It was a long and excruciating day at the site, as usual. The heat was intense and the sweat poured off each of their brows, but changing at this point was not an option. They were all late for a meeting with President Davidson about on campus housing.
"God, Nick," Julie said, nudging him away. "Move over, you stink."
"Like you're some bed of roses." Nick said. "Stop complaining."
"Both of you stop complaining." Riley said. "Can we just find out why we're here without killing eachother... please."
"I would agree with Riley" Viki entered the office. "Especially seeing that the news I have for the eight of you may not be very good."
"We're not going to be able to extend the project..." Marcie said. "We're all going to fail..."
"No, Marcie," Viki said. "The Love Project has received extra funding. It will be allowed to continue." All eight breathed a sigh of relief. "However... resident services never received any of your dorm requests."
"I guess we were all just so preoccupied with the project..." Mark said.
"So we have nowhere to live?" Julie said. "What are we supposed to do with nowhere to go?"
"Well" Viki said. "I know that this mostly affects just five of you. Jen, Marcie, Hudson... I do know that you have already gotten off campus housing, but I have come up with a solution that could be beneficial to all of you."
"We can live in the lecture hall" Nick shook his head.
"Well, Nick... you are more than welcome to find an empty area on campus to set up your things. Or, you can leave them right where you are now." She paused. "The eight of you are being provided the cottage for dorming purposes for the academic year."
"We have to live there for the whole year?!"
"No, Nick. You don't have to do anything. But I must tell you... there are no available dorm rooms." Viki paused again. "You're free to come and go as you please, and it will be no cost to you."
"No cost?" Riley said. "Where do I sign?"
"You know... it might be easier if we're all in the same place." Hudson said. "I can sublet my place for the extra cash."
"We do need a place to stay," Julie said.
"Yeah" added Shannon. "I don't really wanna move back in with Aunt Eve."
"And me heading back home now is not an option." Mark said. "I'm in."
Marcie looked at Jen in silent agreement. "I guess we could rent the place out for the year. We'll do it."
They all turned and looked at Nick who had his arms folded across his chest. "Alright. Alright I'm in."
Wonderful," Viki said. "I hope that you are able to get the building completed."
"We will" Jen said. "We definitely will. Thank you."
Michael was still having a hard time getting around. His cast was seeming to be more and more of an inconvenience, especially now that he knew keeping it on for a bit longer was just for precautionary measures.
"You're still here?" Danielle Majors asked. She had joined the hospital staff as a nurse right around the time Michael began his residency. "I thought you'd be home already."
"It takes me a little longer these days." Michael smiled a bit. "I'm off now."
"Home to your girlfriend?" she poked at him.
"Home to my roommate."
"Ohh" Danielle leaned forward. "Sounds like trouble in paradise. What happened?"
"Conflict of interest. I'm working on it. I'm trying to... I'm trying to work on it." he said, looking over, growing silent as he saw Marcie standing in the corridor.
Danielle pat him on the back. "Good luck."
Michael pursed his lips, going over to where Marcie stood. "Hi." he said
"Hi," Marcie said softly.
"How's... the project going?"
"It got extended."
"Oh that's..." Michael paused, shaking his head. "We need to stop this, Marcie. We need to stop dancing around this and talk to eachother."
"I agree" she said. "I want to talk, Michael. I don't want to fight with you."
"We agree on that" Michael said. "So umm... how about an early dinner?" We could... we could just talk. How's that sound?" Marcie nodded. "Yeah?"
"Yeah" she smiled softly.
"Great. Great I... I just have to hobble on out of here. You wanna go..."
"Yeah. I'm up for anything. I'll give you a hand."