A/N: Okay, here is the next chapter. Sorry I was so late getting it out, but I went home over break and was thoroughly distracted!! But anyways, I finally finished this chapter and I hope you enjoy it. Oh, and as I stated in the last chapter-- if you ever have the chance to see the drama Hana Kimi-- please, please do. I draw a bit inspiration for this story from that drama-- plus, it is my favorite show =) haha. Okay, enough of my ramblings, here's the story...
Chapter 3
Sam was quite impressed by her new dorm room. Artemis wasn't there when she first came in, so she had a few moments to survey her surroundings uninterrupted. The room wasn't extremely large, but it could be considered very spacious for a dorm room. There were two full size desks, two picture windows on the furthest wall, a bookshelf, a very comfortable looking couch underneath the windows, a large bathroom, and a bunk bed on the wall opposite of the door.
"We have to sleep in bunk beds?" Sam asked, slightly surprised. It wasn't all too odd, seeing as how bunk beds allowed more space, plus bunk beds were technically pretty common in all male prep schools—but still. The thought of having to sleep in a bunk bed was a little unnerving. Sam knew that keeping her identity a secret from Artemis would be difficult, but having to sleep in such close proximity to him would make it even more difficult.
The other thing that surprised Sam was the lack of decorating or personal items in the room. Jin had showed her around his room before leading her here—and the whole place was full of things. There were soccer posters on the wall, odd lamps cluttering the floor, a large TV, beanbags, and clothes and food wrappers everywhere. It was a typical male room. This room however, was perfectly neat and minimally decorated. The windows had heavy drapes that seemed to be made out of some sort of navy velvet. The couch had a matching navy throw and the floor had a plain, dark rug. Artemis's desk had nothing but a computer, a simple, plain lamp, a few notebooks, and a pen canister. The walls were bare; there were no added accessories anywhere except for a coatrack near the door and a small lamp next to the bottom bunk—which Sam assumed that Artemis slept in. The sheets on his bed were the same as everything, plain and simple. The only thing even slightly interesting in the room was the bookshelf next to the bunk, which was crammed with countless amounts of books, so much so that it looked a though it was going to burst if any other book was added. Sam went over and looked at the books. Most of them were in a foreign language, and the ones that were in English had titles so complicated that they might as well have been in a foreign language as well.
"No books on faeries, it looks like" Sam muttered, running her fingers down a row of books.
Suddenly she heard someone insert a key into the door. She immediately moved away from the bookshelf and to the bunk. The door opened and Artemis sauntered inside. He looked at Sam for a minute before taking off his coat, neatly hanging in on the rack and going over to his desk. Sam stood there for a moment, slightly shocked by the fact that he didn't even acknowledge her presence. She assumed he was still a little frightened by her aggressive actions earlier in the day.
Bucking up and summoning her courage, Sam decided to apologize to Artemis for her odd behavior. They were going to be roommates, after all—and he was the person who she had traveled all this way to talk to and get to know. Slowly, she approached Artemis. He was sitting as his desk, notebook open, writing down long strings of what seemed to be some sort of math equation.
"Hello" Sam said lamely. He didn't even look up.
"I am sorry for scaring you earlier" she continued, her fingers drumming patterns against the side of her legs, as they always did when she was nervous "I didn't mean to be creepy or awkward anything. I was just very new and you were the first person that talked to me, and I wanted to be your friend. And now that we are roommates I hope that we can get along. I still really would like to be your friend…"
Sam noticed that she was just babbling on, and getting more awkward as she babbled, so she stopped, looking at Artemis hopefully. The boy stopped writing in his notebook and put his pen down neatly. He slowly turned his head towards her and suddenly stuck four fingers in front of her face.
"Since we are now roommates, there are four rules you need to know about. One, I abhor messiness, so always make sure to clean up your belongings. If you invite any friends over to our room, make sure that they clean up after themselves as well. Messes make me upset. Two, my bodyguard Butler is always nearby; he shows up in the room often, he might even spend the night if need be. You must never get in his way and always do anything he tells you. Three, I get up at 6:30, take a shower and get ready and am out of the room by 7:10. Plan your schedule accordingly; I don't like to be disturbed in the mornings. And four, though we have been forced to be roommates I under no circumstance have any desire to be your friend or get to know you any better. Stay out of my business and I will stay out of yours."
And with that, Artemis turned back around and started writing in his notebook once more. Sam quietly scooted away from him, speechless. She had heard that Artemis was a bit antisocial, but she never knew that he was this cold as well. Finding out anything from him would be very difficult.
Before Sam had the chance to say anything, there was a knock on the door. Artemis just stayed seating, still writing, so Sam went to go answer it. She opened to door to find an extremely good-looking boy in front of her. He was a bit taller than she was, with shaggy brown hair that almost reached his shoulders. His eyes were a smoky, seductive sea-green color, and his mouth was curved in a wholly sexy smile. He was wearing a typical school uniform, but had a baby blue sweater tied around his neck, the sleeves dangling down the front of his shirt.
"Hello" the boy said, extending an arm out to her. Even his voice was seductive, deep and lazy "My name is Patrick. I am the head of Dorm 2"
"Oh, hi!" Sam said, quickly shaking the boy's hand, hoping he didn't realize how distracted she had been by his appearance. Patrick firmly shook her hand and let go, looking her over once and smiling.
"They didn't lie" he said slowly "you really do have quite the androgynous look. I even mistook you for a girl at first"
Sam chuckled nervously, "Yeah, a lot of people have said that. But I am actually very tough and manly"
"I am sure you are" Patrick said, "now come on, let me give you a proper tour of the dorms".
"Oh, okay" Sam said, carefully shutting the door and following Patrick out. He led her down the hall and to the stairwell.
"You are on the third floor of the dorm," Patrick said conversationally, "The fourth floor just consists of study rooms and also has a fully furnished kitchen, though god knows why"
Sam was about to interject and say that she enjoyed cooking, but she remembered who she was masquerading as. Cooking wasn't really a common hobby for boys, and Patrick already thought she was effeminate, she didn't need this as well.
"The dining hall is on the first floor," Patrick continued as they walked down the stairwell "it is the only part of the residential areas that all three dorms share."
"Patrick, can you tell me more about the inter-dorm competitions?" Sam asked "I know that they are a big deal around here"
"They are incredibly important at SB" Patrick said
"Wait, SB?" Sam interrupted.
"It is what we call Saint Bartlby's. Saying the full name is a pain sometimes. So we shorten it" Patrick explained as they came into the dining hall. There were still a few people sitting around, eating or just chatting with one another, some wearing sports uniforms, some wearing capes, and others just wearing their normal school uniforms.
"And about the inter-dorm competitions." Patrick continued "they are a most serious matter—at least to us in Dorm 2. They are usually very varied, range from sports competitions to beauty shows and anything in between"
"beauty shows?" Sam asked, thoroughly confused
"Oh yes, we always win at those" Patrick said, smiling "it would be a shame if we didn't, seeing our dorm's reputation"
"Our reputation? What is it?" Sam asked. Patrick smiled lazily at her and leaned against one of he dining hall walls.
"Well, Dorm 1 has a reputation for being the sports dorm, dorm 3 has a reputation for being the artistic dorm. Us in Dorm 2…we are known as the best looking dorm on campus" he said, leaning in closely and looking Sam up and down once more. Sam backed away nervously.
"The best looking dorm. Oh" she said, backing away.
"You will fit in well here" Patrick said. Suddenly Jin entered the dining hall.
"Hi, Sam!" he cried out, before noticing who was standing next to her, "woah, wait—what are you doing with him?"
"Now is that any way to talk about your dorm leader?" Patrick asked, slowly turning around and facing Jin. Jin walked over to the pair.
"Don't fall for any of Patrick's smooth talking, Sam" Jin said "he is known to everybody as the prince of seduction—seduces men and women alike"
"Oh please, I don't try to seduce men" Patrick said lightly "I just can't help being so utterly charming"
"All the girls in our sister school have a rumor that he can girl pregnant just by talking to her" Jin said, laughing.
"PREGNANT?" Sam cried, jumping away from Patrick and subconsciously pulling her jacket close to her.
"No need to be so scared" Jin said "you're a boy"
"Oh yes" Sam said, laughing heartily, mentally chastising herself "I am a boy—no way for me to get pregnant"
"Of course" Patrick said offhandedly "but for the record—I have never actually gotten a girl pregnant before"
"We know you haven't, Pat. I was just joshing around with you" Jin said.
"No need to scare the new boy yet" Patrick mumbled, "but if you are all set here, I have a date that I need to get to"
"Oh yes, please go" Sam said quickly, "thank you very much for the tour!"
"No problem" Patrick said, winking at her and Jin and walking out of the dining hall.
"Don't mind him, Sam" Jin said, "he might be a playboy, but he's our dorm leader and we all respect him immensely. You'll warm up to him after a while".
"Oh, I wasn't worried about Patrick at all" Sam said quickly, "he seems like a nice guy"
"A bit flaky, but a decent bloke when it comes down to it" Jin said, nodding, "but you seem a little flustered. If it isn't Patrick, then what is it?"
"Nothing really" Sam said, kicking the floor
"It's Artemis, isn't it?" Jin asked. Sam shrugged. She was still pretty upset over the boy's cold behavior.
"He's always been a hard one to get along with. I don't think he really likes other people," Jin said.
"But that's impossible" Sam argued, "a person can't hate everyone else in the world. He has to have some friends"
"Well he has that bodyguard of his—they seem to be good buddies. And trust me, everybody in this school is dying to be his friend" Jin said
"Really, why?" Sam asked, noting that she had asked more questions today than she probably had in her entire life. She didn't know why she was suddenly so inquisitive.
"Well, for some reason all the girls at our sister school seem to be in love with him" Jin said, "it is probably the whole, aloof, brooding mood he gives off. I bet they all fancy him to be their own person Mr. Darcy or something ridiculous of that sort"
"They probably just don't know him. I wonder if they would like him once they get to know his personality" Sam grumbled.
"It's because of his cold personality that girls find him so mysterious and apparently desirable" Jin said, shaking his head "bloody crazy, all of them. Just be thankful that you aren't a girl though, or else Artemis would be even worse"
"How so?" Sam asked.
"Well Artemis hates girls" Jin answered.
"Hates girls…do you mean that he's…you know...gay?" Sam asked. Jin just laughed.
"Oh gods no…well, at least I don't think so. He just always complains about how all the girls he meets are incredible annoying and so vain and on and on like that"
Then I guess I have to be sure to never reveal myself to Artemis, Sam thought resolutely, or else I will fail in my final goal.
But there was still the other goal that had been in the back of Sam's mind. After reading pages after pages of the boy's writings, Sam had found herself becoming strangely attached to him. She knew it was absolutely impossible for someone to be in love with another person just based on their writings, but she couldn't help but admire his writings greatly. Plus, after seeing him she had to admit that he was rather easy on the eyes. Maybe a little to thin for his tall frame, but still a wholly attractive specimen of man.
Okay, Sam, she thought to herself. Two goals. One, don't ever reveal your identity to any of the students. And two—don't ever fall in love with Artemis Fowl.
A/N: Alright, there it is. Hope you enjoyed it! Please, please review. Your thoughts and comments mean are always so helpful and they certainly put me in the mood to write more!!