Wow. I've been trying to get my plot together over the last couple of weeks. I had to change everything I was gonna do because what I had before just wound up sounding stupid. Luckily the first 2 chapters work for the new plot, and let me tell y'all, its gonna be awesome! Oh yeah! Go me with my little murder mystery/romance fanfic. Don't worry though, Dilly and Jim won't die. That would just be really dumb.
Anyway it took me 2 hotpockets and a few runs to get this chappie up so you all better like it.
And if you wanna go see movies this summer go see the Devil wears prada. I Know it looks like a super chick flick but its pretty funny. I love Nigel "do you know that cellulite is a main ingredient in corn chowder?" okay on with the fic!
Disclaimer: all the stuff that I don't own I don't own.
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Jim was getting impatient. Where was she?
He looked at his watch and frowned. 3:26 PM. The last bell had wrung over 20 minutes ago.
Jim was standing alone on the shooting range waiting for his tutor to show up. It wasn't like Dilly to blow him off.
Since they had begun these sessions Dilly had showed up on time for everyone. Bagdonnas had made it perfectly clear that she would throw her back in detention if she didn't.
Plus, the two of them always had fun together. Jim was disappointed this was the last one. He liked spending time alone with Dilly. Did he maybe, sort of, like her? Nah... they were just friends. He liked spending time with his friend.
He looked back down at his watch. 3:29. Tired of waiting Jim decided to go see what was up.
He trudged over to the supply shed and set the guns he had taken out earlier back on their hooks. He didn't want to leave them out in case someone tampered with them. The last thing he needed was for some first year to shoot himself and them get blamed for that to.
Jim stopped after he had shut the shed door and looked around the courtyard.
The academy was shaped like a giant triangle. The shooting range, where Jim stood, was located in the west corner. Directly across from the dinning hall. In between was a large stretch of gardens filled with winding pathways, monuments, and fountains.
Deciding Dilly might be in the dining hall Jim started the walk towards the furthest building. To get there faster he ignored the zigzagging walkways and instead stomped through the grasses and flowers. After all he didn't see any professors around to yell at him.
Jim did, however, trample past a group of first year girls who were giggling loudly at a holo-magazine. The giggled even louder when they saw Jim look at them strangely. He vaguely wondered if he had been like that when he was a first year. He hoped not...
After a few minutes of unintentionally destroying the Academy's manicured gardens, Jim finally reached the entrance to the Dinning Hall. He pulled one of the heavy oak doors open and stuck his head in, looking about the room.
Various students of different ages and species filled the room. Some where doing homework, some where simply chatting, others were merely pouring them selves glasses of purp juice from the pitchers set on each table.
One thing Jim had always loved about the Academy was its food. It wasn't as good as his mother's, but it was a very close second. Plus it was made fresh every night and was free with tuition, or in Jim's case, scholarship.
Scanning the room Jim found no trace of his tutor, though he did spot Melusina and JJ. They were seated at the end of the last of the 12 long tables that filled the hall, near a group of second years, chatting.
Well JJ was chatting. Melusina was immersed in a large textbook. Jim wouldn't have even know it was her (her face was hidden) except for the neat, greenish-blond ponytail that stuck over the top of the book.
Jim walked over and slumped down next to her.
"Jim?" She said putting down her book so that she could look at him. "How come your here? I thought you had tutoring with Dilly."
"Yeah so did I."
Both Melusina and JJ looked at him confused.
"She never showed. I waited for like 20 minutes. You guys know where she is?"
Melusina shook her head. JJ was halfway through shaking his when he stopped.
"Oh wait, Yeah I do."
Jim raised a dark eyebrow at his friend. "Well?"
"I almost forgot."
"We know that."
"Last period she got called out for some space-gram or something. Lucky kid got to miss the last 15 minutes of Bah's lecture," he added enviously.
JJ and Dilly had last period Galactic History together. According to them the Cremation who taught it, Professor Bah, could put you in a coma from boredom.
"Alright," said Jim getting up again, "I guess I'll go check her dorm then."
He said goodbye to his friends, telling them he'd see them later at dinner, and exited the dinning hall.
He really hoped Dilly was in her dorm as he made his way across the school once more. After this he didn't know where else to look.
&
Luckily, in her dorm, is where Jim found her. Well, most of her anyway.
Only her lower body from the waist down was visible when Jim walked in through the open door and closed it softly behind him. The top half of her was forced interlay under one of the beds. Jim could hear rummaging sounds and figured she must be looking for something.
Crouching down on the floor he grabbed her ankles and pulled her out. He heard a muffled "what the-" before her face appeared. He hair was messy and hung wildly around her face, but she smiled brightly up at him when she saw who had dragged her out.
"Oh. Hi Jim."
"Hullo, brilliant day outside. Not much of a day to spend holed up under beds, as fun as that may be. I myself was just about to head over to the shooting range. Care to join me?" He asked, lathering his words with boyish charm.
"Well I'd love to, but I can't." She smiled as she watched Jim frown slightly. "You see there's this guy. And he seems to be pinning me to the ground at the moment. See, look." She wiggled her body up a bit from the floor until her noise brushed Jim's. "Can't hardly move," she said letting herself plop back down.
"Aww, that's to bad," Jim whispered with mock sadness. He leaned in closer to Dilly, locking his blue eyes on her green ones. Their faces were only an inch apart now. "I would have really liked to-"
WAM! The door flew open with incredible speed. "OUT OF ALL THE NO-GOOD, STNKING, LOWLIFE THINGS- whoa."
Dilly's roommate stood in the open doorway staring at the scene in front of her. She smirked as the two sprang away from each other as if their loins were on fire. "Getting a little close aren't we?"
At first Jim thought the older girl was wearing a piloting helmet. Then he realized it was her hair. He didn't even want to estimate how much gel and hairspray it took to make it stay that slick and round. (a/n; does that sound wrong to you?)
She seemed to have altered her uniform so that the shirt and jacket fit very snugly and the skirt was quite a few inches shorter then normal.
Jim felt himself go red. Ignoring her question he stared at what was in her hand. "Your not suppose to be smoking in here," he said lamely.
"I'm Eighteen." –puff- "I'm legal." Even under all the make-up Jim could read the smug expression on her face.
"Your still not suppose to smoking on Academy grounds." He didn't care how stupid he sounded. At this moment her hated the girl standing in the doorway.
"And your not suppose to be climbing all over my roommate" -puff- "on Academy grounds."
"Oh shut the hell up Etta," Dilly huffed. "I can do whatever I want in my dorm room. And whatever I choose to do" – she straitened herself and took a couple of menacing steps toward Etta- "is my own business. Whether that includes eating, sleeping, doing my homework, or having Jim sit on top of me, it's my own business. Not yours. Mine. So you can stop pretending like you something you can hold against me because you don't."
For a second Jim thought Etta was going to punch Dilly. Thankfully she didn't, but instead elbowed past her and was about to make her way to the bathroom in the corner of the dorm.
"Oh and Etta?" The helmet-haired girl turned back to Dilly. "Yes, I did empty you mascara in you book bag. That's why you came storming in here, no? Let it be a warning. Keep. Your. Crap. Out. Of. My. Sink. Now," Dilly continued as she grabbed Jim's wrist and pulled him toward the door. "Jim and I gotta go shoot stuff. So I'll see you later. Buh-bye!"
Before Jim walked out of the room he turned back to Etta. "It was fabulous meeting you," he said giving her a mock bow. "Have a smashing day!"
&
"At last" Jim thought as he and Dilly reached the doors that lead out of the dorm hallway. After the scene they had all made back in the room people had been poking their heads out and staring at them as the walked by, trying desperately to get a look. Dilly had reacted by yelling (what the hell are you people looking at?) but Jim just wanted to get out of there.
After what seemed like an eternity the two made it outside into the garden. And to Jim's dislike were walking on the stupid winding path. For a while they were silent. Just thinking about what had happened, or better yet Jim thought bitterly, what almost happened. Would he have another chance? Another chance with what he told him self. They were just friends right? Then why did he want to be so close to her?
Ugh. To confusing. Better think about something else.
Finally he broke the silence. "Umm... Dill?"
"Yeah." It was nice to see that she was smiling.
"JJ said you got a space-gram?" Her face fell so fast he wasn't sure if she had ever been smiling at all. She dug into her jacket pocket and produced a crumpled piece of paper. "Here." She said handing it over to Jim.
Jim silently read it as he walked in the late afternoon light.
TO: MISS DELILAH DURNS,
INTERSTELLOR ACADEMY, THANATOS, ERATO GALLAXY
FROM: MR. OTTO STERLING,
POST STATION 118734, CERBERUS, ERATO GALLAXY
DILLY. LOST APARTMENT. RENT OVERDUE. LANDLADY IS AN ASS. LOOKING FOR INN TO STAY AT. DO NOT WORRY. PLEASE SEND YOUR COPY OF MURDER THROUGH ITS TEETH. MISPLACED MINE. KEEP SAFE. LOVE YOU. U.OTTO.
Dilly had been watching Jim as he read the note. "I love the 'not to worry part'," she said bitterly. "I'm getting thrown out of our apartment, but oh please! Don't worry!"
"So you were looking for "Murder through its teeth" when I came in?"
"Yeah. Never found it either."
"Well that makes sense." Dilly looked up at him. Jim just shook his head laughed. "You lent it to me remember? A couple of weeks ago. You said it was one of the best books you uncle ever wrote."
"So was I right?"
"Yup, how come he wants you to send it to him?"
"He probably just wants to review the plot," she said as they walked around a monument to the old spacer Tomas Morgan who discovered the Clio galaxy. "You know to see if he left anything untied at the end that would make a nice sequel."
"Oh." Was all Jim could say. The book had been really good. It was about a guy who killed his victims with snakes, but he would hide them in all kinds of impossible places and then lead people to their unsuspecting deaths. Jim had stayed up all night to figure out how Inspector Shy, the hero detective, would solve the case, thus earning himself a D on his navigation test the next morning.
Dilly's voice brought him back to reality. –"I don't know what he's gonna do about staying in a Inn, though. I mean, he doesn't have any money. How's he gonna afford it? And he can't stay with my grandparents; they live in the next galaxy over. How's he gonna pay for a ride over there? And we really don't have many family friends. I mean I guess we-"
"Dilly, DILLY!" Finally she stopped babbling and looked at him. "Its okay. I have the solution."
"Really."
"That's right."
"Well?"
"He could stay at mom's inn. Free of charge. No, don't look at me like that, I'm serious. She's read most of his books, I'm sure she'd love to have him."
"You're sure?"
"Positive. I'll see if I can Space-gram her tonight. Plus," he looked at the piece of paper still in his hand, "He's on Cerberus, one of Montressor's moons right?" Dilly nodded. Well Captain Doppler"-
"Who?"
"She's a family friend. She's been doing some work over on Cerberus ever since she had kids. She can probably even give him a lift over to the Benbow. Then he wouldn't even have to pay for a transport."
Jim looked down at Dilly. It was hard to read the expression on her face. She seemed to be thinking it over as she chewed her bottom lip.
"Plus, school lets out in a few days for fall break." He continued. "I have to take the early morning transport to Nemesis then the afternoon one to Dionysus where I think my mom is making B.E.N. meet me, then that one will take me all the way to Montressor. Your welcome to come along."
"Jim." She stopped walking and looked straight into his eyes. "Thanks. I really, really mean it."
&
Okay. Wow it really took me FOREVER to belt out that chapter so there better be people out there reading this.
WHAHAHAHA! Little Jim/dilly action going on in there for you. Trying to show you all that this was correctly classified as a Romance/Mystery fic. As for the Mystery I already added a little bit in there. It Very Very important that Dilly is Staying with Jim over Fall break. All goes along with my new an improved plot that I've been thinking about so much. While I'm thinking about the plot let me just share one little thing with you: You will NOT know why this story has this particular name until the very last chapters.
One last little note: All the planets Ijust named are from Greek mythology. You can read about them here if your interested http/edweb. why did I do this? Well our planet names (mars, Jupiter) are named after Roman gods, so I kinda just went with the theme. Plus Greek mythology has some awesome names!
Now r&r. I beg of you!
