11. The eleventh chapter
You leave them alone for ten minutes and they're tearing each other apart! At least, that's how things appeared to Miss Pauling. She'd left dinner, had a calm relaxing evening doing what work she could from one of the computers, got a good nights sleep, and when she woke up she found the scout had the crap beaten out of him, Chloe had been the one beating the crap out of him, and the female heavy had been strangled. Seriously? No one bothered to let her know any of this when it was going on?!
" Did someone take care of the body?" She sighed as she was scarfing down the leftover potato salad for breakfast. People were wandering in the cafeteria, aimlessly munching. Grim nods from the female members in attendance confirmed it had been dealt with. Oh, this… yeah. 'I need to be more sensitive about this' she chastised herself. This had been their heavy; if she had to bury the heavy she knew, it wouldn't leave her ready to talk about it. The fact that the death of strangers was nothing new to her desensitized Miss Pauling to the effects it could have on those who were still alive.
" I'm sorry for your loss." Was awkwardly tagged on at the end. Decent enough for now, 'I can make cookies or something later.' Food was how normal people dealt with death, right?
She tossed her dishes into the kitchen sink, and scooched out. The cafeteria atmosphere was grim enough to kill somebody in and of itself.
Wandering through the halls, she bumped into Chloe leaned against a stairwell.
" Oh, sorry Chloe didn't notice you."
" It's cool." Chloe flexed her shoulder, wincing. " Pulled something last night is all."
"While you were pummeling the scout's face in?"
" Probably." Chloe chuckled to herself. Obviously, she'd enjoyed it. ' And I surround myself with these people?'
" You probably shouldn't have done that."
" No shit." Chloe spat, the globule landing just near Miss Pauling's shoes. Classy.
" What was that all about anyway?" That made her pause. She saw Chloe's face contort as she tried to formulate a reply.
" Settling a score." Was all that came out. 'Okay, just be as vague and nonspecific as possible. Totally not irksome.'
" Score?" Miss Pauling tried not to sound too annoyed.
" Yeah. But it doesn't matter now. He was here first, an'I was more into bothering him than actually… uh, whatever. Anyway, now that I've kicked the crap out of him I really don' care anymore."
" So...okay then…" That made no sense. Apparently everyone loved to play the " let's keep Miss Pauling in the dark" game.
"Yeah. See ya' round Miss P."
" Miss Pauling."
" Whatever. I'm still going to say I love your ass." Chloe winked, and strode off.
" That's totally unrelated to the current topic!" She called after her, both flattered and vexed.
" It's closer than you think!" Smirked Chloe.
What the hell? It seems no matter what universe they're from scouts are totally and completely nuts.
" I need to go check on the teleporter." She murmured angrily. Things are definitely bad when you want to see medic for some sanity.
…
'God, he was here first? Man, you really know how to explain things.' Chloe was mentally kicking herself as she strode away from Miss Pauling.
She had gotten satisfaction from beating the crap out of the scout, that was true, and he had been here first as well, but no way in hell did that mean she wasn't interested. Chloe just knew when the odds were against her ( unlike that douche striding up to the fight like his cock meant he could win), and that Miss Pauling seemed to have her standards. Her week in this universe, a little less than that now, would not be enough time to win Pauling and she didn't want to sink too much time into somebody who she was going to have to pull away from. Just wasn't worth it.
It had been fun to rile the scout with it however. Watching him get his little hackles raised because he had a threat in the vicinity was fun, tons of fun. Okay, okay, maybe she'd been a little hard on him but firstly he'd started it; no one could tell her otherwise. Also, Pauling had been cute and he immediately decided she wouldn't go for Chloe because she was in his class. That had rubbed her the wrong way.
Damn, Pauling could do better than that guy. Sweet ass, nice brain, the bit right where her shoulders curve into her neck… Chloe would not say giving that up didn't sting.
Her steps echoed through the empty hall as she stalked her way back to the empty bunk she'd claimed. There wasn't much in it, bed with scratchy blankets, cement walls painted a dingy brown-grey, wooden chest to chuck your stuff in, but it was the closest in size and shape to her bunk back home.
She drew closer to the door, and saw the texan's slim form leaning against the wall.
" Well, there's my favorite she-hulk."
" Shut up." She-hulk wasn't an insult, it was more of a joke between them. The texan did have a tendency to "hulk out" with her short fuse, but it was only a playful torment to point it out to her." I'm just checking up on you." The texan sighed.
" Why?"
" You seemed pretty stressed last night."
" And you care why, exactly?"
The texan shrugged. She wasn't as evenly proportioned as Miss Pauling. Her legs were much longer than normal compared to the rest of her, her arms almost gawkily so, but she had petite breasts that always reminded Chloe of plums. Perfectly round, and nestled on there like plums in a pack. That, plus her stunningly blue eyes and honey blonde hair did not make the texan anything close to an eyesore.
" Well, whatever. Thanks."
" That chick in purple shut you down?" The texan asked. Oh… oooooh. That explains a lot. Hmm, maybe a texan with plum boobs was just what Chloe needed right now.
" Why're you asking?"
" Because maybe you need rebound sex. And maybe I need someone who's stressed out and needs rebound sex right about now." Oh, thank god for people who don't like to beat around the bush. They could have been here all day awkwardly trading innuendos if the texan was shy about it like a normal person.
" Horny or do you like me?"
" Mostly horny. But, hey you've got a great personality too."
" Smart aleck. Anything I should know about like STD's or weird growths?"
" Nope."
" You understand this is just me using you as a way to get over the disappointment of giving up a fine piece of ass?"
" Duh. Why else would I be here?"
" Okay." She creaked open the door to her bunk. " Step into my office," She chuckled.
" Oh lord you're not going to say anything like that during, are you? Because I may be making a worse mistake than a deer freezing in headlights." Chloe laughed, and pulled the texan inside.
" I won't say anything awkward if you do one thing."
" What's that?" Sidling the door shut, the tex an moved close enough where chloe could feel the heat radiating off her. There was more than a slight height difference, Chloe came to maybe he chin. Whatever, Chloe like fucking tall people.
" Lose the goddam hat." She laughed, flicking the cowboy hat so it slipped off the texan's head. It was always a stupid hat in her opinion.
And then their tongues were too engaged slipping between each other's mouths to do much talking.
…
" Somebody's gettin' laid." The male sniper grumbled, listening to effeminate pantings and moanings coming from upstairs. Cement walls, sure totally paid for. Nobody had the foresight to make sure he ceilings were equally thick.
An especially loud groan, and he felt the ceiling vibrate. The dingy light bulb hanging in the center of the room flickered. Geezus, what were they doing, using a bulldozer?
" Where the hell are my earplugs?" He muttered, frantically digging through his chest. Listening to this was not his idea of a good time.
" Ah, god I pulled a muscle there watch it. Whoah, what are you- ah, ah ah. Sweet holy mother of god can you work your tongue! Yes, yeeeessss, keep doing that-"
Ear. Plugs. Mother. Fucking. Where. Were. His. God. Damn. .
" I didn't know you were this bendy, can you really-"
EAR PLUGS EAR PLUGS EAR PLUGS.
" Oh, ohh! I never knew you could use those things like this, oh oh oh Oh!"
EARPLUGSGODDAMEARPLUGSMOTHERFUCKINGEARPLUGS.
In the end he ended up fleeing the room, hands shoved in his ears and aggressively humming God Save the Queen. Hopefully SHE'S never inconvenienced anyone like this. People these days just have no sense of decency.