A/N: Enjooooooy! Let's see how Nero deals with all the Christmas preparations… :D
Shelby and Laura went into the elevator with a couple of other students to go down to the atrium of Accommodation Block 7, where they found Otto with a somewhat reluctant looking Wing standing beside him.
The white-haired boy was holding a standard brown clipboard on which a long paper was clipped, long enough to roll off the clipboard and end in a heap by his feet. He studied it carefully, tapping a wooden 2B pencil against his chin occasionally.
When they reached the accommodation block atrium, the doors of the elevator hissed open. Wing pressed a button on the panel to keep the doors open and Otto, situated directly next to the doors, finally looked up from his clipboard. He gestured for a first-year in a SciTech uniform to move forward.
Hesitantly, the first-year made to walk out of the lift but Wing held out an arm, barring him from stepping out. Otto looked at the first-year.
"Name?" he ordered.
The first-year stared confusedly at Otto. "Timothy Mckoy…"
"Timothy, hmm? Ok. You can go." Otto said, nodding to Wing, who lifted his arm and let Timothy go, who beat a hasty retreat. Otto scribbled down something on the paper as Wing re-barred the exit.
Laura and Shelby watched as the same procedure was used for the next student who walked up to the pair, leaving only the four of them in the elevator.
Laura stalked, with Shelby right behind her, up to Otto, who asked for her name.
She rolled her eyes. "You know."
"You know…?" Otto said, baffled. Then he looked up from his clipboard and noticed that it was Laura. "Oh hey Laura."
"What're you doing?"
"Compiling a list to make it easier for Santa."
She moved to stand beside him and peered over his shoulder at the paper. What she saw was … perplexing. There was name after name on one end, one below each other on one end of the paper and on the other, a heading of Naughty and Nice. Below the headings were boxes with little ticks in either one. Needless to say, they were all in one column.
Shelby, who was peeking at the list over Otto's other shoulder, snorted. "You know Otto, we go to a school for future megalomaniacs of the world. There shouldn't even be a 'nice'."
Laura chimed in. "Aye, I mean who would you even put under it?"
Otto gathered the papers up in his arms and showed them the very beginning of the list.
Otto Malpense, NICE
Wing Fanchu, NICE
Laura Brand, NICE
Shelby Trinity, NAUGHTY
"Wha— HEY!" Shelby punched Otto in the arm furiously.
"Ow!" Otto yelled back, wincing.
"I'm nice!" Shelby adopted a pouty innocent face.
"Well you could start proving that by not smacking me," Otto grumbled, but submissively erased the tick under the Naughty column and moved it to the Nice.
"That's better," Shelby said cheerfully. Then linking her arm through Wing's she walked out of the lift, Otto and Laura just behind them.
Laura bit her lip. "The thing is Otto… Santa isn't real," she pointed out.
Otto glared at her. "Sshhhh! Don't say that," he whispered, then in a louder voice: "Santa Claus is totally real."
"Yeah right," Laura muttered sarcastically under her breath.
And thus, bantering about the existence of Father Christmas, the geeks made their way to breakfast behind a blonde and a tall guy.
Laura walked out of the library carrying her laptop and was almost knocked down by a yellow and black blur.
Bees, she instinctively thought, shielding her face behind her matte black laptop.
Then the swarm of bees stopped moving and Shelby materialized from the blur in front of her. "Laura!" she exclaimed, "Lauralauralauralauralaura! I need your help – quick! Help me paste all this-" she shoved rolls of wallpaper into Laura's arms, "up on all the main hallways! Before Otto gets his side done!"
Laura studied the wallpaper that had so recently been thrust into her arms. It was red and green with little Santa men and reindeer and presents scattered on it. She hesitantly walked back into the library and put her laptop down behind the books on the shelves so it would be hidden on both sides. Then walking back out, she unfolded the wallpaper and noticed that Shelby had covered the hallways' walls with glue. She let out an explosive sigh and began to slowly paste the wallpaper.
The Scottie later regretted being roped in to help put up the wallpaper, because apparently it also included putting up decorations. Like hanging Christmas baubles from the ceiling. And putting up Christmas lights along the walls.
Otto zoomed by on the opposite side of the corridor; mini potted Christmas trees in his arms and at equal intervals, set them down on the ground with a thunk.
The intervals were very equal.
Shelby zipped by next, down the middle of the hall, placing models of reindeer down at random places, almost like an obstacle course, but far enough apart so the students wouldn't have too much trouble walking.
Maximilian Nero was not having a good day. First his coffee making machine had broken down and he'd had to resort to tea, then Trinity had been doodling elaborate Santa Clauses on her notepad and constantly not paying attention in class and Malpense had interrupted him three times too many.
Speaking of the devil… Nero rounded the corner and found Malpense busy nailing a wreath to his office door.
"Mr Malpense," Nero growled, narrowing his eyes, "what do you think you're doing?"
Otto smiled cheerfully back at him. "Spreading the Christmas cheer, Dr Nero!"
Suddenly his Blackbox bleeped, causing both to look at his pocket. Otto retrieved it from his jumpsuit and flipped it open. "Oh," he said, looking at the screen's contents, "sorry sir. I have to go now. My friends are looking for me."
He gave the wreath's nail one more whack with his hammer; yelped when it missed and his thumb and then he was off.
Nero watched the boy head off down the hall and then with a frustrated sigh, attempted to yank the festive wreath off his door. All that came off were several bristles and he shook them off his hand, resolving to get someone, anyone, to remove that thing.
As he settled down in his chair at his desk inside, Nero opened his Blackbox to speak to HIVEmind. "Hello Dr Nero, how may I be of assistance?" HIVEmind questioned politely.
"Ah – er," Nero's eyes fairly bulged out of his head when he saw the AI. He was wearing a Santa hat and a colorful scarf was wrapped around his blue wire-frame neck. "HIVEmind," he said, "who did this to you?"
"Who did what, Dr Nero?" HIVEmind said pleasantly, supposedly oblivious to the hat and scarf.
"The hat, HIVEmind. Who put the…Santa hat on you and gave you the scarf?"
"Oh that." HIVEmind practically grinned. "Otto. I think it's rather nice he thought to include me in his Christmas preparations."
Nero frowned. Of course. He should have expected it. The boy was the only one who would be able to alter HIVEmind's image. And apparently HIVEmind appreciated it. He closed his eyes briefly then opened them and looked at HIVEmind, who was still waiting patiently for Nero to reply.
"HIVEmind, could you please remove them?" he asked through gritted teeth.
HIVEmind gave him a small nod. "As you wish," he said somewhat sadly, and the Santa hat dropped off his head and the scarf unwound itself from his neck, falling off. "Is there anything else for which I am needed?" HIVEmind asked when the process was done.
Nero nodded briskly. "Yes, thank you HIVEmind. Could you please send Raven up here?"
"Yes, of course."
Raven pushed open the door of Nero's office, poking her head in. She saw Nero sitting at his desk, head in his hands. She walked in silently and sat down in a chair on the other side of Nero's desk.
Nero finally looked up and smiled tiredly at Raven. "Natalya," he said simply.
"It's Otto and co. isn't it?" Raven replied.
"You've seen the halls, haven't you?"
"Well yes. But the halls I walked through were devoid of the foursome. It was, however, quite full of model snowmen and Father Christmases."
Nero groaned. "It's worse than I thought. Raven, could you please go deal out some suitable punishments? I need to order a new coffee machine."
Nodding, Raven stood up from her seat. "Is that all then Max?"
"Yes, Natalya."
While Nero was starting to attempt to take the wreath off of his door...
Laura sat glumly on Wing's bed, watching as the popcorn chains crept closer and closer.
The evil masterminds behind the popcorn henchmen were none other than Otto and Shelby. Otto was seated on his bed while Shelby was on the floor near the door. Wing was sitting on the bed next to her, calmly threading popcorn through the string, which, Laura remembered with a start, was what she was supposed to be doing too, not watching the invading army of popcorn on a string slinking nearer and nearer to her.
With a suppressed sigh, she poked a needle through the popcorn and shifted it towards the rest already looped on the string. Even if she were allowed to leave the Popcorn Chaining Party, she couldn't. Webs of popcorn chains were all over the floor, making it impossible to walk without crushing a popcorn. Which would inevitably cause either Shelby or Otto to be furious. Laura didn't know which would be worse – to have an angry Shelby/Otto on your hands or to have to endure perhaps hours of popcorn chaining.
She decided on the former. Usually it would be the latter, but seeing as it was Christmastime, it just might tip the two Alphas over the edge the teensiest bit more.
Resignedly, the Scottie added one more popcorn to the line, hoping she would at least be able to leave before lock-down. Otherwise she would possibly have to spend the whole night threading popcorn.
The thought was almost too unbearable to think...