Rex vs. Room Inspections
I do not own.
"Room inspection!" Someone knocked on the door to Rex and Noah's dorm.
"Huh? What?" Rex snorted awake. He groggily looked around. Sunlight was streaming through the slots in the blinds but Rex who had a late night studying didn't even notice.
The knock was louder this time. "Room inspection!"
"Okay, okay." Rex rolled out of bed and hit the floor. Pushing himself up, he made his way to the door, carefully avoiding stepping on any of the obstacles on the floor. He opened the door a crack. A stern looking teen glared back. "Oh hey, Jack, what's up?"
Jack, the resident assistant, pushed the door wider. "Don't what's up me, Salazar. I've been getting complaints about you."
"Me?" Rex woke up. "What did I do?"
"People on the floor have been complaining about odd smells coming from your room and loud noises that keep everyone up." Jack walked around the room lifting things up with a pencil disdainfully.
"That's next door!" Rex protested. "You can ask Noah. We're good college students."
"Salazar, when was the last time your side of the room has been cleaned?" Jack asked.
Rex took a glance at the room. There was almost a clear demarcation of the room. On one side, it was pristine with a neat desk and made up bed. On the other, there was almost a literal cloud of dust rising from the bed and trash scattered around the floor.
"Last week." Rex lied.
"Whose dumbbells are these?" He pointed to some weights poking from under a pile of t-shirts.
"Um, a friend?" Rex pushed the pile to cover them.
"You know weights are not allowed in the rooms." The RA started writing on his clipboard.
"Why not?" Rex challenged. "It's not bothering anyone!"
"Those are the rules." He answered as he wandered around the room some more. He stepped on a pile of paper and was suddenly thrown in the air. Before them, a surfboard-like piece of plastic floated in midair.
"Is that a real… hoverboard?" Jack asked in awe.
"Yup." Rex answered proudly. "All Providence agents are issued one."
"Those are illegal too." Jack scribbled some more,
"Are you kidding?" Rex was getting annoyed. "Next you'll be telling me plants are illegal."
"They are." Jack bent over his clipboard.
"Well, ha! I don't have any… because they all died." Rex ended sheepishly. "So you can't write me up for that."
"Occupant admitted to flagrantly disobeying the rules." Jack said as he wrote it down. "And you can't have those decals on the wall. They have to go."
"Dude, you need to chill." Rex growled.
Jack tore the sheet off the clipboard. "You have 24 hours to correct these infractions or you're going to be thrown out."
"Quewha?" Rex looked disbelievingly at the ticket.
"24 hours!" Jack said as he slammed the door.
0o0
"Wow Rex, you must have really ticked off Jack." Noah studied the list of infractions. "He usually looks the other way. What did you do?"
"I don't know!" Rex raised his arms in frustration.
"Well, let's get this stuff taken care of." Noah got off his bed.
"No!" Rex said stubbornly. "I will not stand for this… this injustice!"
"What are you talking about Rex?" Noah sighed. "These are rules you broke… even if it is dumb."
"I don't have to stand for this." Rex paced the room. "I'm going to find a place off campus."
"What?" Noah said shocked. "How are you going to find a place now? Every good place is taken."
"I know. But I'll find a place. By hook or by crook... whatever that means." Rex said determinedly. With that he walked out of the room. Noah shook his head and looked at Rex's side of the room.
0o0
Rex rang the doorbell. A man wearing boxers and a t-shirt answered the door.
"Um, hi. It says that you have a room for rent?" Rex asked uncertainly.
"Oh yeah." He motioned for Rex to come in. Rex walked in and stumbled over something. It was a body on the floor.
"Hey, is he okay?" Rex asked.
"What Joe? Yeah, he's fine. Just sleeping off last night." The man waved for Rex to follow him. They went to the door. As soon as the door was opened, it hit something. It was the bed. They squeezed in. Rex stood uncomfortably close to the man. "Whatcha think?" The man asked.
"This barely qualifies as a closet." Rex looked around. "I can literally touch all four walls if I turn around."
"You have a bed and a desk." The man ignored his comment.
"Where's the bathroom?" Rex asked.
"Down the hall." He squeezed by Rex. Rex walked after him. He turned the light on. Rex looked inside.
"I've never seen a black bath tub before." He gulped.
"Huh? Naw, it use to be white. By the way, I'd shower with my sandals on." He added.
"Yeah, right." Rex backed away. "I thought Bobo was bad." He muttered. "Uh, kitchen?"
"Right here." They walked back to the front of the apartment.
"This isn't a kitchen." Rex pointed out. "There's no refrigerator, stove, or sink."
"We have a cooler, a microwave, and a bucket." The man said.
"Well, I've seen enough. Thank you for your time." Rex turned to leave and tripped over Joe.
Joe stirred and looked up. "Is it morning already?" He mumbled.
"No, go back to sleep." Rex said exiting the premises. Joe rolled over and went back to sleep.
0o0
As Rex walked up to a house, he heard a muffled thumping noise through the door. He rang the door bell several times before it finally opened.
Loud music blasted in his face when it did.
"Hey! It's Rex." It was Leon from the Trendbenders.
"Leon! Long time no see!' Rex yelled above the din. "You're renting a room?"
"What?" Leon yelled.
"I said… are you renting a room!" Rex yelled louder.
"Yeah, we are! We're a little down on money so we decided to rent out Beau's room!" Leon shouted.
"Wait, Beau's room? Where's he going to sleep?" Rex asked loudly.
"Oh, he'll sleep on the couch! We won't be sleeping much anyway! We're going to be practicing for the next tour!" Leon screamed.
"So it's going to be this loud…" Rex asked.
"For at least two weeks." Leon confirmed.
"Well, it's nice seeing you. Laters, man." Rex quickly backed away.
Leon watched him leave. He shrugged and went back inside. "Hey fellas, I think we need to turn it up. I can barely hear it from the outside."
20 apartments later…
The last address on the list was a beige house with a green roof surrounded by a white picket fence. The garden was nicely groomed and the cobble stone pathway was well-maintained.
"This actually looks like a nice place." Rex said with surprise. After seeing dilapidated place after place he was starting to give up hope. Now this place looked like somewhere he could live. He walked to the front door and rang the door bell.
As soon as the door opened, a cat leapt onto his face.
"Auughhh! Get it off." He screamed trying to pry the cat off.
"Oh, Mr. Kitty likes you!" A little old lady exclaimed as she walked out holding another orange tabby. Several more cats came out around her. "Mr. Kitty just wants to play."
Rex held the hissing, spitting, and scratching animal at arms length.
"No, thanks." He dropped the cat, formed his Rex Ride, and bolted away.
0o0
Rex sat in the school cafeteria as Circe dabbed iodine on his cuts.
"Seriously Rex, why don't you just take care of the infractions? Circe asked as Rex tried to dodge the cotton balls.
"It's the principle." Rex said sullenly.
"What principle? You broke the rules." Claire pointed out.
"Yeah, but other people break rules." Rex argued.
"That doesn't make it right." Noah said. "You just happened to get caught."
"And all the places you looked at were duds." Circe said. "You're pretty lucky to live where you live."
"I guess." Rex grumbled.
"Come on, let's go back. We'll help you fix your room." Claire said.
Rex sighed. They went back to their dorm. When he opened the door he gaped at the room.
"Surprise!" Claire cried.
Rex stared at his side of the room. It was as neat as Noah's side. In fact, it was impossible to tell which side belonged to which boy.
"While you've been out, Noah cleaned your side of the room." Circe explained.
Rex looked at Noah, who shrugged.
"I had a feeling you'd have a hard time finding another place." Noah said nonchalantly.
"Thanks, buddy." He gave him a fist bump.
"No problem." Noah returned it.
"Room inspection." They all jumped and spun around. Jack stood behind them holding his clipboard.
They stepped aside as Jack walked into the room.
"I think you'll find everything in order." Rex said confidently.
Jack walked around and inspected the room.
"Everything looks in order." Jack said reluctantly.
"Because it is." Rex said smugly.
"This time Salazar. But I'm keeping an eye on you." He said as he left.
"Geesh, what did you do to him Rex?" Circe asked.
"I don't know. I'm a model student." Rex said. Everyone rolled their eyes.
Earlier in the year…
Rex was doing his laundry for the first time. He "talked" the vending machine into giving him the laundry detergent. As he walked away, the vending machine started spitting out its products. One of them smacked Jack straight in the head. He fell to the floor unconscious. When he came to, it was dark. "My interview!" He ran to the door but he was locked in. "I missed my interview for the teaching assistant position!" He glowered. It was that kid with the red jacket's fault. He's seen him in his building before. Well, he was going to take care of him before the year was through. So help him.
Rex: 1 Room Inspections: 0
Looks like Rex made an enemy… inadvertently. Anyone interested in seeing how this plays out?
Guest: I don't have anyway of talking to you except through these ANs. I avoid using curse words. It I think that a person would curse, I just say they cursed. I don't think I need to be explicit about it. I also don't write lemons or limes. (Mature situations are avoided as well unless it's rated M.) I might write some violent stories but they're usually not too gory.
I will continue to write but I won't write as much. I'm just feeling blah lately. Maybe things will change for the better and I'll write more or maybe things will get worse and I will write less. I don't know about the future. But I hope you enjoy whatever stories are there.