A/N: Seventh chapter, coming in for landing...3...2...1...LANDED!
Okay, well, I'm gonna post the seventh chapter before I post chapter six in Tom's POV. Why am I doing this, you ask? Because this one's done, and the other one's taking forever. When it's done, I'll replace chapter seven with chapter 6 in Tom's POV and this will be after. Alrighty then, without further ado, the seventh chapter!
Cassie lay listlessly across her bed, the soft sheets tangled in her short legs and her ruffled pillow lying under her head horizontally. Her hair messy black hair was splayed all around her, and one foot hung out of her bed. She stared blankly at the ceiling of her emerald hangings, the moon splashing cold white light onto her face as she sighed and turned her head to the rusty little alarm clock to check the time.
Okay, well, I'm gonna post the seventh chapter before I post chapter six in Tom's POV. Why am I doing this, you ask? Because this one's done, and the other one's taking forever. When it's done, I'll replace chapter seven with chapter 6 in Tom's POV and this will be after. Alrighty then, without further ado, the seventh chapter!
12:00 AM, midnight.
Like a zombie rising from the dead, she sat up, surveying the room with a sweep of her eyes. The other girls around her were fast asleep, off in their own little dreamlands. Cassie felt a little put out as she gazed on their sleeping faces, longing to feel tired. But for some reason, she simply wasn't. And so, making up her mind, she swung her feet round the side of her bed and placed them on the floor.
The stone floor was cold, sending goose bumps crawling over legs. Her pyjamas, a two-pieced flannel pants-and-shirt did little to help the cold. It didn't surprise her though. They were nearly as old as she was, being given to her when she was four. They were huge for her then, and even now they were a little on the big side. They were her favourite, and she never ever found a pair just like them.
They were styled as a newspaper that was titled 'The Daily Banana'. The articles held pictures of giant bananas with captions like 'giant banana takes over San Francisco' and the like. When she was bored, she liked to read the articles, being full-fledged bologna stories that made no real sense and made her giggle.
She lifted herself from the warm recesses of her bed and began to pad softly across the cold floor, her bare feet making the tiniest of slapping noises against the ancient stone. With great care, she slowly opened the dormitory door. It made little creaks but opened otherwise noiselessly. She looked down to the dark spiralling stairs that headed down to the common room. No noise met her ears at all, which told her that no one was present in the room.
With slow steps, she made her way down the staircase. The fake enchanted windows let the moonlight spill onto her pale skin and illuminated her way. She breathed softly, ever so softly, as she passed the closed dormitory doors of other years as not to alert them of her presence or wake them up.
When she finally reached the bottom she stopped. Shadows flitted across the walls and furniture, everything illuminated by the dark red glow of dying embers in the grate. It was colder down here, much colder. She looked around the room, taking everything in at the late hour. It was so quiet. It seemed
unnatural; the room should always have some sort of commotion going on. She spotted a couch right next to the fire that had a crumpled blanket sprawled across it, and made her way over.
She sat down at the end, lifting the blanket slightly to crawl under it.
Skin brushed skin.
She immediately retracted her feet from underneath the covers as though stunned, stifling a startled scream with her hand. With the other, she yanked off the blanket and let it fall to the side, her heart beating madly.
She heard a tiny groan, and her eyes scanned the couch before her.
There, lying dressed fully in his school uniform, was Tom.
She let out a breath, taking the hand from her mouth and placing it over her chest to steady her heart. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting herself settle before she opened them again.
"Tom", she asked irritably, "why are you lying there in your uniform?"
One onyx coloured eye opened and rose slowly up to greet hers. He looked at her for a moment, his eyes seeming slightly unfocused and misty before looking away and closing them. He took his lightly shaking hand and grasped the blanket she'd thrown off, pulling it onto himself and curling back into it, shivering the tiniest bit.
Cassie paused, and furrowed her brow slightly.
This wasn't like him.
She crept off of the couch and padded over, kneeling in front of him. She peered quizzically into his face, judging whether or not he was going to snap at her for disrupting his beauty sleep. He did no further movements, seemingly asleep. She placed her hand beneath her cheek, debating whether it was worth her time to wake him.
His face was pale and drawn, dark circles beneath his closed lids, his hair in disarray and splaying across the couch cushions. Beads of sweat ran down his face, his cheeks flushed unhealthily.
Sleep having completely deserted her; she decided to take her small hand and gently shake his shoulder, easing him out of slumber.
He opened his onyx eyes slowly. They were brimmed with red from fitful sleep and were misted over and unfocused. She bit her lip, and moved her hand from his shoulder to his forehead. His eyes widened
and he looked vaguely angry at her touch. His skin was hot to the touch, though he shivered.
"You're sick", she told him ever so softly.
He glared indigently, but his gaze was vague and half-hearted.
"You should get changed from your uniform..." she told him, her voice never reaching above a soft whisper.
He continued to attempt to glare at her.
"I don't need your help", he told her, his voice croaky and weak.
He sat up, but immediately fell down again, dizziness taking over completely.
He tried to stifle the groan of pain that escaped his lips, but it was too late. She'd heard it.
Cassie stayed stationed beside him, biting her lip as though she were thinking on something. With a tiny sigh of finality, she got his attention.
"Tom...I could go get your clothes..."
He looked at her with a peculiar look on his face. With one half-hearted raise of an eyebrow, he shook his head.
"You're willing to go into a room full of teenage males a lot larger than you in the dead of night just to retrieve the clothes for somebody you don't even like that much?" he quirked.
She gave a despairing sigh.
"I'm a weirdo, okay?"
He raised his other eyebrow.
"No arguments there."
With that she rose into a standing position. She crossed her arms, trying to pry any heat that could be found in her body. She turned slightly to him and asked him which bed was his, and which set of drawers.
He told her, and cautioned mockingly to watch out for the horny sixteen-year olds.
She scowled at him and bit out "The only horny sixteen-year old I need to worry about is you."
She turned on her heel and started on the stairs up to the boy's dorms.
It felt odd to be going up these stairs, having always taken a right when she got to the far end of the room. It was exactly like the girls dorms, only most of the dorms doors' weren't closed. She giggled quietly as she saw the seventh year boy's dorm. They were all piled on the floor in a fright of a mess, snoring loudly. Finally, at the very top, hung the sign that read 'Sixth Years'.
The door was slightly open, and she peered inside, her apprehension growing. As silently as she could manage, she swung the door fully open. Inside, the boys slept quietly, only one snoring softly. A little breath of relief escaped her, and she made her way to Tom's bed by the left-hand wall. She had just placed a hand on his dresser when another hand, heavier, lay on her shoulder. She spun around, a defiant edge cutting itself into her bright eyes.
Five boys stared down at her, lounging at bed posts and looking down on her with arrogant smirks.
"Looks like a little mouse lost its way", said one of them mockingly, pinching her cheek.
"Yeah...Say, she's pretty cute for a mouse", one of them told his buddy.
"Leave me alone", she told them angrily.
One of them roughly grabbed her hand.
"Well, how can we deny a little mouse what she came to get when she wanders so willingly into our midst?" he stared at her hungrily, licking his lips. He went to stroke her cheek, but Cassie shied away, grimacing her disgust.
"Yeah, I think we should give her a little gift..." suggested one of them, to a round of arrogant smirks and laughs.
"Leave her alone" commanded a cold, strong voice.
They all turned to look at the speaker.
Tom leered at them with a disgusted look on his face.
"She was up here getting something for me, you dolts. If you had asked her, you would've thought twice in your decision of harming her, yes?" his eyes were as cold as ice.
They all looked uncomfortable, and noticeably scared.
Cassie's eyebrow furrowed, not really understanding.
Tom walked up to her, his usual confident swagger in place. He grabbed his drawer handle and took out a few items, motioning for Cassie to follow him as he left the dormitory. She did so with haste, giving the group of boy's one last angry, disgusted look before closing the door smartly. Tom made his way down the stairs, but as soon as he got to the bottom, he let out a small groan and quickly went to the couch, falling onto it.
He swallowed a couple of times, as though trying to get rid of a lump in his throat. She made her way over to him, taking the clothes from his grasp and kneeling again on the floor. She licked her lips and smiled a little.
"Thanks..." she mumbled gratefully.
"I told you to watch out for the horny teenage boys" he whispered out, his voice failing.
"Um...Here's your clothes..." he handed them to him, biting her lip again.
He took them, his hand shaking slightly. Cassie played with the hem of her flannel pyjama pants, off in thought land. When she shifted her eyes back to him, he was in the middle of pulling off his shirt. She immediately went crimson in the face, unable to help her blushing tendencies. He didn't look half bad...Skinny though. Though, other than that he looked quite nice. Muscles he did have, but not to a point where it was body builder. She hated body-builder's bodies. They looked like mouldy cheese.
"You checkin' me out?" he asked her, having been sitting shirtless for at least half a minute now, watching her scan his body.
She gave a small squawk and nearly fell over, her face being nearly devoured by crimson.
"No I was not!", she squeaked, protesting her innocence.
He raised an eyebrow and began taking off his pants.
Okay, that's enough of him I want to see ever again, I'd rather not see the hip-area, she thought as she turned around. Her face became even more red (if that was possible) as a sudden urge to turn around washed over her.
"I'm done", he told her.
She heard him fall back onto the cushions, and she turned around. He was still shirtless, but it was covered by the blanket. She tottered over to him, shimmying on her knees. She placed a hand on his
forehead. He was still hot. She told him she'd be right back, and fetched a facecloth in her rooms, wetting it with cold water in the girls' shared bathroom. When she was back downstairs, she placed it onto his forehead.
"There's nothing you can do except...sleep it out, I guess", she said softly.
She pulled the cushions and blankets off of the other couches in the room and placed them on the floor around the place where he lay, making herself a comfortable little sitting place. She lied down, her hand propping her chin up, watching him as he slept. After awhile she felt her eyelids slowly close, and she fell into a dreamless sleep.
A/N: Wowee, I'm getting good at these long juicy chapters! Hope you enjoyed it, and like I said before, the 6th chapter in Tom's POV will be posted soonish.
Thanks to kalabangsilver, Silvercatclaws, Noriko Takahara, SharkMaiden, Owl Emporium, HarryHermione3, xXxemilyxXx, and Terra106 for your reviews on my story so far.
Your encouragement is much appreciated.
Now...Push that little blueish button and review. Or I'll eat you and your family. D8