A/N: Hey guys, I'm alive! Sorry it's been so stupidly long since I've updated, life just took a turn towards the busy train and it would NOT let me off! But as an apology I will be posting two chapters today! So, yay! So this takes place their sophomore year, I hope the added characters don't seem too stereotypical... That's about all, please enjoy!
December 23rd
"Oh shit." Foggy's surprised tone drew Matt's attention.
"What?" He asked, stretching and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. 8 a.m.'s could be a bitch, especially 8 a.m. exams, and they often required a nap to be taken later in the day.
The room was silent for a moment before a heavy, dismayed sigh from across the room drove Matt's eyebrows together. "What?" He asked again, this time slightly more confused.
"I was about to say look out the window." Foggy replied warily.
Matt scoffed incredulously, "You serious?"
"Yeah." Foggy groaned.
"Well, if I was capable of seeing, and I happened to glance out the window, what might I observe?"
"Snow." Foggy replied simply.
"Well yes Foggy, it is winter, snow is a common occurrence."
"Like a shit-load of it you smart-ass!" Foggy yelled with a smile. "There's a mountain out there."
"How much is a mountain?"
"It's already probably a third of the way up the front doors and it's still coming down."
Matt paused, trying to remember if he'd heard anything about a snowstorm within the past week but he was coming up blank.
Apparently Foggy was as well, "Did you hear about a storm?"
"Not that I recall, no."
"Huh." Foggy paused a moment, "Dude, what if this doesn't let up before Christmas?"
Matt was about to assure Foggy that there was no way the snow would continue until Christmas when he really considered things. It was the twenty-third, because Matt and Foggy had been unfortunate enough to have a final at 8 a.m. that morning. So even if the snow did stop before Christmas, with how much had already piled up, it was unlikely they would be going anywhere anytime soon.
"We're gonna be stuck here, aren't we?" Foggy questioned sadly.
Matt just nodded, "Hate to say it, but most likely."
Foggy flopped onto his bed with an almighty groan. "Dammit, and here I was looking forward to a home-cooked meal."
"Foggy, we're not going to be snowed in for all of winter break." Matt stated with a chuckle. "You'll get a home-cooked meal."
"Yeah, but not Christmas dinner! I'll be lucky to get any leftovers!"
"Ask your mom to postpone Christmas dinner." Matt replied.
"Yeah right, like she'd do that for me." Foggy scoffed, then his whole demeanor changed as an idea came to him. "Dude, she would totally do that for you!"
"Oh no, don't you bring me into this!"
But Foggy wasn't listening. He raced over to his desk and quickly snatched up his phone, dialing his mom's number. "She has to know we won't be in tonight anyway." Foggy said in response to Matt's disbelieving expression.
Matt sighed heavily in exasperation, curling back up under his blanket to continue his nap.
"Hey mom, how's it going?" Foggy greeted, far too chipper. "No I don't need money." Foggy paused, "Mom! No I am not in jail!"
Matt snickered at that, listening to the one-ended conversation fondly.
"Well okay, yes I'm in a bit of a predicament, but it is not, in any way, my fault! We're snowed in, so we won't make it home tonight." Another pause. "Yeah, we're not sure when we'll be able to get home."
"I think we'll be able to handle ourselves," Foggy replied to his mother's worries. "But speaking of food, Matt was wondering if you'd consider postponing Christmas dinner for him. He's super crushed that he's gonna miss it."
Matt sighed heavily and shook his head in exasperation.
"Oh, you wanna talk to him? Okay, here he is. Matt, phone." Foggy held out the device, tapping Matt's searching hand gently.
"Hello?" He said as he brought the phone to his ear.
"Hey honey, how are you?" Rosalind's kind voice flittered from the other end, warm and smooth like milk.
"Good aside from being snowed in."
"Yeah that's what I heard. I also heard that you were 'super crushed' you wouldn't be getting to enjoy my Christmas dinner."
"Oh yeah, super crushed." Matt replied sarcastically, smiling when he heard Foggy's sigh of dismay from across the room.
"Let me guess, Franklin?"
"Yep."
"And he just used you to pull at my heartstrings?"
"Correct again."
"That boy." Rosalind laughed.
"He's a piece of work." Matt responded, ignoring Foggy's indignant huff. "Anyway, I should let you get going."
"Alright sweetie, you boys stay warm and let Foggy know I'll cook him something special when you finally get home. Or don't, make him squirm for a little bit."
"You got it, thanks Mrs. Nelson."
"Rosalind." She reminded.
"Have a nice day." Matt responded, waiting to hear her goodbye before hanging up the phone.
"So?" Foggy asked eagerly.
"Dude she was totally onto you."
Foggy sighed heavily in dismay. "Dammit, I thought I played that so perfectly too!"
"Foggy, you couldn't have been more obvious if you'd used a flashing neon sign."
"Damn."
Matt chuckled slightly before curling up and snuggling deeply under his covers, fully intending to take the nap that seemingly continued to get interrupted.
When Matt finally awoke it was to the surprising absence of the buzz from their florescent lights. Listening carefully to make sure his roommate wasn't sleeping, he sat up and asked, "Why are you sitting in the dark?"
Foggy glanced across the room in surprise, not having heard Matt rise. "Shit man, don't do that! And how do you know that I'm sitting in the dark?"
"Oh," Matt paused a moment as he thought of an explanation that wasn't too burdened with unnecessary details, "The lights make a sort of buzzing, it's hard to describe and fairly easy to ignore, but when they're on it's always in the background."
"Huh." Foggy nodded in genuine interest. "That sounds annoying, and I wouldn't be sitting in the dark, except the power went out about an hour ago. There was an announcement before it happened actually, I'm surprised you didn't wake up."
Matt nodded, surprised as well; it was rare for him to sleep through a disturbance of any kind, especially one as loud as a building announcement. "What did it say?"
"Oh just that there's a severe winter storm and we are advised not to leave the building, nothing special. I assume they're attempting to get the power back on, generators must be on the fritz or something."
"Huh, so what's the plan until then?"
"I don't know, I'm trying to save the battery on my laptop. We could play Charades."
"Oh yeah, how about we pull out Pictionary while we're at it?" Matt shot back.
Foggy laughed as he stood and crossed the room to his desk, swiftly opening the top drawer and pulling out an immaculately wrapped box. "Here, I was saving this for Christmas, but might as well open it now."
"For me? You shouldn't have." Matt replied jokingly, taking the package and feeling it curiously.
"Hey, no cheating! Just open it."
Matt sighed in dismay, "You suck the joy out of everything. Fine." Matt quickly unwrapped the present and opened the small cardboard box, pulling out two smaller squares. "Cards?" He asked, before running his sensitive fingers over the boxes, instantly noting the presence of braille on both packages. Uno and a deck of playing cards, in braille. Matt smiled gently as he ran his fingers over the lettering in disbelief, he couldn't believe Foggy had bought him cards for Christmas.
"Do you like them?" Foggy asked in nervous trepidation.
"Foggy, I don't know what to say."
"Generally 'thank you' is the immediate response. Unless of course you don't like them, then possibly, 'what the hell is this' or-"
"Foggy I love them, thank you."
"Oh." Foggy paused a moment in surprise before he sighed heavily in relief. "Good. I was worried you might not like them, or want them. Anyway, I give them to you now so that we can maybe use them now, seeing as how we're stuck without electricity."
"Sounds like a plan." Matt replied with a grin, eagerly opening the brand new packages and pulling out the regular deck of playing cards.
December 24th
Matt and Foggy were lounging lazily on their beds. Foggy had finally caved and turned his computer on, having been able to charge it when the power came back on briefly. Unfortunately it was out again.
Matt listened to the 'click click' of Foggy's keyboard with the occasional insertion of a "shit". Foggy had never been very good at Mine Sweeper.
A knock on their door drew both their attention. "It's open!" Foggy called, quickly followed by an annoyed, "God dammit!"
The door swung open to reveal Jake, a fellow dorm-mate who lived just down the hall. "Hey guys!" Jake greeted with a smile.
"Hey Jake, what's up?" Foggy asked as he put his laptop aside.
"The rest of us left on the floor are converging in the lounge for survival. Safety in numbers and all."
"Safety from what?" Matt questioned.
Jake just shrugged, "No idea, but Ronnie's got candles and everybody's pooling their non-perishable food to make a Christmas Eve dinner. You guys wanna join in?"
Foggy glanced to Matt, if his roommate didn't want to go then he wouldn't go either. But when Foggy saw the smile on Matt's face he knew they were going.
"Sounds fun."
"Sweet! I'll see ya guys down there!"
"Sure thing." Foggy responded with a nod as Jake turned to leave. "So, survival party."
"It sounds like it'll be a good time. Do we have any food to bring?"
"Uh," Foggy glanced over to their mostly empty make-shift cupboard. "Not much. Some cereal, marshmallows, open bag of chips."
"Wonderful."
The lounge was lit with the warm light of Ronnie's candles and a small stockpile of food had already been stashed in one corner by the time Matt and Foggy walked in.
"So, what have we got to eat?" Madelyn, a girl who lived on the opposite side of the hall from Matt and Foggy questioned as the last of the food was added to the pile.
"Let's see, pop-tarts, two bags of chips, bag of marshmallows, brownies, beef jerky, cereal, granola bars. We've also got a half box of soda and a brand new case of beer." Jake listed matter-of-factly.
"The feast of kings." Kyle joked.
"And queens." Amanda interjected, making everyone snigger at the dejected look on Kyle's face.
As Foggy glanced around the room he couldn't help but smile at the hodge-podge of characters that had gathered for the make-shift holiday dinner.
It was a fairly small crowd, eight people including himself and Matt: Jake, Ronnie, Madelyn, Amanda, Kyle and Ella. Foggy could only assume they'd all had a final the last day before break, when the blizzard had started. It was a group of people that, under normal circumstances, would probably never have sustained a lasting conversation, not to mention share a meal together.
Jake was a tall guy with short, blonde hair and intense green eyes. He was the friend to everyone, the guy anyone could get along with and was probably the only reason everyone had agreed to share dinner in the lounge. It was rare to find his door closed and he always had a smile on his face.
Then there was Ronnie. He was a scrawny, stick of a guy with scruffy black hair and dark brown eyes covered by glasses. He'd seemed like an innocent enough guy, not really doing much outside his room. Sometime before midterms it had been leaked that he was a pretty major pot smoker. Foggy had been just as surprised as most of the others, but Matt had just shrugged, completely unphased, wondering how no one else had smelt it on him.
Amanda and Ella were actually roommates, but they were basically polar opposites. They lived just down the hall from him and Matt, and Foggy never heard anything about a conflict so he could only assume they got along just fine.
Amanda was a tall, muscular girl whose dirty blonde hair was almost always pulled out of her face. Captain of the girls' soccer team, she spent a lot of her time on the field or in the gym.
Ella on the other hand, was a petit redhead, barely five feet tall. She was a theatre major but aside from on stage she didn't do a whole lot of talking. She seemed like a sweet girl though, and when she did speak with someone there was a genuineness there that couldn't be faked.
Kyle was a super stereotypical English major. He wore large, horn-rimmed glasses and wasn't usually without a sweater vest and tie, his orange hair slicked back with product. He was probably the biggest nerd Foggy had ever met, but not in a bad way. Conversations with Kyle were never boring, and he could always be seen reading some classic novel.
And last there was Madelyn. She was basically the female equivalent of Jake, social butterfly, she'd joined more clubs than Foggy cared to count and seemed to genuinely enjoy spending time with others and really getting to know them. Her dark-skinned face was always lit with a brilliant smile and her uncontrollable hair was generally tamed with some fashionable clip or up-do.
"Merry Christmas everyone." Ella smiled, trying to get the attention away from a blushing Kyle.
"Merry Christmas!" Everyone chorused.
"So, are we waiting for an invitation?" Ronnie demanded, "Let's eat!"
"We should split things up evenly first, and any extras can be up for grabs." Madelyn suggested.
"Good idea!" Jake chimed with a grin. "One item for everyone from every stack, and then whatever's left we can fight over!"
"Matt, if it comes down to it, I will use your cane to beat the rest of these people." Foggy warned.
"You go for it. I will be sitting safely on the sidelines, laughing at your cries of pain."
The rest of the room snickered but Foggy gasped, stricken. "You wouldn't come to my rescue?"
"Foggy, what help could I possibly be?" Matt shot back, being completely serious.
"I don't know! A distraction so I can flee?"
"Dude," Ronnie commented, "you'd leave your friend to fend for himself?"
Amanda nodded her agreement, "Harsh."
"I mean, throwing someone else to the sharks is a better chance at survival for yourself."
"Thank you Kyle." Foggy said with a nod in the English-major's direction.
"Okay everyone, strategical sacrifices aside," Jake called everyone back to the task at hand. "Pairs of two, you'll each get one pack of pop-tarts to split."
Jake made quick and easy work of the food distribution and soon enough everyone was happily chowing down on their make-shift meal.
The evening progressed and the food was munched on, but even when their meager rations had all but disappeared, everyone remained in the lounge. The entire case of beer was gone, and a bottle of wine had been retrieved by Ella from her room and was about three-quarters of the way gone. Needless to say, everyone was more than a little tipsy.
"Guys, we should play a game!" Madelyn suggested seriously, her eyes wide.
"What game?" Amanda questioned, obviously willing to get on board with the idea.
The room fell silent as everyone began to contemplate the question at hand.
"Why not charades?" Ronnie finally suggested.
Foggy snorted loudly and Matt exhibited an enormous amount of self-control to keep himself from laughing.
"No, wait guys, we can't." Ella called softly, thinking very carefully before talking, the wine most certainly affecting her along with everyone else. "We have to play a game Matt can play too!"
All the heads in the room swiveled in Matt and Foggy's direction, with everyone so thoroughly inebriated, Matt couldn't resist. "No, you guys go ahead, I'll watch."
"Okay!" Ronnie, Madelyn, and Kyle chorused. Ella seemed confused, knowing something was off about the statement but not understanding what that was. Amanda seemed to still be contemplating games to play and Jake was nodding softly, having stopped actually paying attention to the conversation long ago.
Foggy, amazingly, didn't fall for it, instead just snickering at the other's reactions. "We really should play a game you can enjoy too." His roommate whispered as the group began their first round of charades.
"Who says I can't enjoy this?" Matt demanded with a lop-sided grin. "A group of drunk college kids playing charades? This is going to be spectacular."
So as the sun began to rise on Christmas day, snow continuing to pile up in front of doors, a group of eight college students played a game of charades, cheering and celebrating loudly every time the correct answer was guessed. And when the blind boy amongst them managed to guess the right answer long before anyone else had a clue, well, the screams of excitement could probably be heard all across the deserted campus.
A/N: Thanks to goldacharmed for pointing out a small error. It's all fixed now! :D