A/N: Pay very closeattention to the author's note at the end of the chapter!
Thursday night there is absolutely nothing to do. Dutchy is studying for a science test, Jack and David are God-knows-where doing God-knows-what, and Spot – ha ha, Nathaniel – is in his bunk, snoring like a fucking freight train. So I'm sitting on my bed with my headphones on, pretending to read one of my textbooks while really just tapping the rhythm to the song on my pillow. I'm trying my hardest to be quiet, so I don't wake Spot up (I fear he will make me eat my own face if I do), but it's kind of difficult when you're listening to ska and you want to dance.
My door swings open, and Racetrack strolls in, looking cocky. I'm not quite sure why I say that, exactly, because he always looks cocky, but right now I suppose more so than usual. I take my headphones off. "Hey, Race."
"Heya, Specs!" He grins, leaning against the door frame.
"What're you so happy about this evening?"
Racetrack laughs. "Got laid." He shrugs. "Wanna come over to my room and play some video games? I'm kinda bored."
"I thought you just got laid. How can you be bored?"
"Well, that was like twenty minutes ago. Seriously, come over. My stupid roommates are at study group and I'm bored out of my fucking skull."
The snoring stops. Spot's gruff voice comes down from the bunk above mine. "God, would the two o' you shut the hell up? I'm tryin' to sleep here!"
Race and I snicker. I get up and head across the hall to his room, which is a complete disaster area. Like a nuclear fallout zone.
"Jesus, Race, what happened in here?" I look around at the clothes strewn about everywhere, and books and magazines and food wrappers covering the floor. "You sure as hell aren't much into housekeeping."
"Hey!" Race laughs, kicking aside some stuff and throwing down two pillows in front of the television. "I'm a great housekeeper... every time I leave a man, I keep his house!"
"And you say you're straight..." I sit down with a laugh and pick up a controller.
Friday morning I am dragging. I have got to learn not to indulge every one of Racetrack's insomnia-inspired fancies. Last night we ended up sitting on the roof of the dormitory in the rain, listening to the Dropkick Murphys on Race's CD player. I got back to my room, soaking wet, at five-thirty this morning, and I had to be up and at breakfast at quarter to eight.
Sometimes, I really hate that kid.
Right now, I'm trudging, zombie-like, from the library where I spent my lunch break "studying" (also known as "napping") to English, when along comes Dutchy, bouncing through the hallway happily and singing "Put on a Happy Face" at the top of his lungs. Straight. Yeah. Straight like George Michael.
"Hey, Specs," he chirps. "How come I didn't see you at breakfast?"
"I got some coffee and went to take a late shower."
"Jeeze, what happened to you? You look like you got hit by a truck or something."
"Racetrack happened to me." I slump against the wall outside Mr. Denton's classroom.
"Oh, he tell you he got bored?" I nod. "Man, don't ever hang out with him past eight-thirty. Especially not on a weeknight. It always ends badly."
"No kidding." I give him a look like I'm about to punch him if he gives me any more too-late advice.
He laughs. "So, we still on for tonight?"
"Uh... on for what?"
"You said you'd go into the city with me and we'd go see that new movie... the one with Johnny Depp."
Oh, shit! My head snaps up from staring sleepily at my shoes. "God. I totally forgot... yeah, we're still on. What time?"
"How about after dinner... seven-thirtyish? We can catch a late show."
"Sounds good."
The warning bell sounds, and we head into class. My day has just gotten so much better, now that I've been reminded that I have a semi-non-date with Dutchy.
A/N: I got bored and decided to entertain myself. So I'm holding a little contest. This fic seems to be pretty popular, and people keep telling me to update faster because they want to read more... so I'm giving you, my beloved readers, the chance to do just that. See the quote from Racetrack, in bold, up there? The first person who replies to the chapter and correctly tells me who originally said that quote, gets Chapter Eighteen of AVTL delivered to their e-mail inbox twenty-four hours before it gets posted here on FFnet. So, answer the trivia correctly, and you get to read the chapterBEFORE EVERYBODY ELSE. Exciting, yes? Oh, and please don't leave me just the name of the person who said it. Leave a normal review, just add that on to it. You guys are the bestest! -Layne