Weston here again! I think Firkle is going to narrate this chapter and we get more insight to his obvious crush on Karen. We're going to make it so there's still a week left before their classes start so they get to explore the school and learn more about their new roommates and peers. At the end of the chapter I might have them start classes if I run out of stuff for them to do. There's still quite a few more characters for them to meet as well. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 4 – Getting Shin-gles

Firkle's POV

Usually I enjoy having nightmares. What other people find frightful and disturbing, I relish in experiencing. But not that night. I dreamt I was strapped to a table with a dark figure looming over me. It was giggling in a creepy manner as it inched closer to me. Then the figure started to grow larger and take on a familiar shape, but I couldn't quite make it out. I opened my mouth to scream for help but no sound came out. Then the figure spoke.

"Don't worry, Georgie," it hissed in a strangely pleasant but still unsettling voice, "I'll take good care of you. I always take care of my favorites. And I have a feeling you'll be my favorite one yet."

Then the figure closed its mouth over mine, its tongue sliding down my throat, and I woke with a start, gasping for air. I sat up and looked around the darkened room while clutching my chest, trying to calm my racing heart. Loud snores were coming from Seymour, and I could make out the sleeping forms of Michael and Pete. A digital clock on the desk said it was 5:30am.

I was shaking from my nightmare. What the fuck was that? That figure in my dream looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place my finger on who it was. I didn't normally do this, but I carefully got out of bed and crept over to Michael's bed. Making sure he didn't wake up, I climbed under the covers with him and gently pressed against him. I had my back pressed to his, so it wasn't all gay and snuggly, but it did make me feel a little better.

Michael had always felt like an older brother to me, and I knew I could count on him to comfort me. Even if he wasn't aware of it.

I tried to fall back asleep by closing my eyes and thinking of nothing. I'm not sure if I succeeded or not. I think I slept for a little while because when I opened my eyes again Michael was moving behind me.

"Where did this Firkle come from?" he asked. He had reached a hand behind himself and was poking me in the head.

"Well, Michael," mumbled a half-asleep Pete, "When a mommy and daddy love each other very much, they get certain urges…" He was silenced when Michael threw his pillow at him and Pete took it with a grunt.

I refused to look at Michael when he turned to me. "So, what are you doing in my bed?" he wondered, "Did you get up in the middle of the night and forget where your bed is?"

I really didn't want to admit that I got scared by a nightmare and didn't want to be alone in my bed, so instead I said in a slow voice, "Sure…"

There was a sigh from Michael and I flinched when I felt him ruffle my hair. I hated it when he did that. I shivered slightly when he got up as I lost my heat source. I debated whether or not I wanted to try going back to sleep, as I was still tired, and classes didn't start until next week, but I imagined my friends would probably want me to hang out with them. Also, Michael was already prodding me with his smelly foot.

"Get up already, Firkle, you lazy bum," he muttered at me. I groaned and curled up, trying to ignore him. But apparently Pete wanted to get in on my torment and chucked a pillow at me, hitting me square in the back.

"Ugh, fine," I growled, at them, "I'm getting up."

As I stood up, nerd-stereotype suddenly out an over exaggerated yawn. "Morning roomies!" he greeted in that obnoxious voice of his, "Michael! Pete! Georgie!"

"My name is Firkle," I growled at him.

Almost as soon as the three of us were finished getting dressed and ready for the day (with Michael grabbing a hairbrush, walking to the mirror, looking at it, and going "eh") there was a knock on our door. Pete went over to answer it revealing Henrietta and Karen standing there.

"Hey," Henrietta greeted, "We were gonna look for a place where we can smoke away from all the conformists."

"Great," Pete replied, "I've been dying for a smoke. I've been on edge since we got here." I could relate. And my nightmare from last night did not help.

We were about to head out the door when we heard a cough and turned to see Seymour. "Um, smoking is bad for you," he pointed out. We all gave him a cold "no shit" stare. He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "Um, just thought you should know," he mumbled.

The five of us headed out the door without another word to nerd stereotype. We decided to check if the roof of our dorm was accessible at all because we figured no one would ever find us up there. To our luck it was, and there was plenty of shade from the trees nearby.

Without hesitation we all picked a spot to sit and pulled out our packs of cigarettes and lit up. I chose to sit next to Pete and lay my head on his lap because I was still fucking tired. He ran his fingers through my hair, which felt good, but then he decided to be a prick and blow smoke in my face. I took a drag of my own cigarette and blew a lungful of smoke right back at him.

"You two are children," Henrietta said, exhaling her own smoke.

"Tell that to him," I muttered, "I'm allowed to be. I'm only eleven."

"So, what are we supposed to do all week until classes start?" Karen wondered.

"That's a great question," Michael responded, "I have no fucking clue. They haven't even told us how to get our schedules. Not that I plan on going to any of the classes."

"They probably thought we would be using this time to wander the campus and get to know where everything is," I murmured, "Like that would ever happen."

"Firkle, did you get enough sleep last night?" Pete asked me. I opened one eye to look up at him and saw him looking down at me with a slightly worried expression. I closed my eye.

"Yeah," I lied, "It's just too early in the morning."

"Maybe we should get something to eat," Karen suggested, "Get our energy levels up. I'm still a little bit groggy too." I hoped I wasn't blushing. I appreciated her taking the attention off of me.

"After we're done smoking," Henrietta said.

"After we're done smoking, of course," Karen agreed.

When we were finished smoking, we wandered over to where the cafeteria was. Again we had to use a map, because this campus is fucking huge. Luckily, there weren't too many students there as most of them were probably still asleep.

The cafeteria was pretty massive with countless of options for food that didn't matter at all to us because we just got coffee and toast with jam. The only of us who got anything more was Karen who also got a plate of scrambled eggs, but we didn't judge her for it.

We were enjoying our meal in peace at a round table that just had five chairs, so you know, no one could join us. But of course it couldn't stay that way.

There was a loud squeal of joy, causing us to flinch. I looked up and around to see where it came from and was annoyed to see Karen and Henrietta's annoying roommate, Mimi. We groaned with annoyance as she waved at us and ran over to join us.

"Hey, goth roomies!" she greeted joyfully. Great, she was a morning person. The worst kind of conformist.

"Why are you talking to us?" Henrietta growled at her, "We really don't want to be seen with you."

"Oh, that's ok! I'll just sit at this table then!" she exclaimed, taking the table right next to ours. My friend rolled her eyes. What part of "didn't want to be seen with her" did she not understand? What was more annoying was that Mimi twisted herself around in her seat so she could talk to us. This girl was clueless.

"So, what are my new goth friends up to today?" the peppy stereotype asked.

"We're not your friends," Michael muttered at her, "At most we'll barely tolerate your existence." This didn't seem to phase her because she just giggled.

"So, wow! You guys must have been here a while, huh? All you've got left on your plates is toast!" Mimi talked in a fast voice that really irritated me. Before we could tell her that's the only thing we put on our plates (and that we wanted to eat in peace) she showed us all the random breakfast items she piled on her own plate.

"I'm a vegetarian," she informed us as if we could give a shit, "So I don't eat anything with meat in it. I think it's cruel to animals. So I eat mostly soy products and other…"

Since I couldn't care less about whatever the fuck she was rambling on about, I got up from my seat and walked over to the center buffet where they were serving a variety of various smaller breakfast things. I piled some bacon, ham, more ham, and an egg onto a plate before walking back to the table, sitting down, and looking directly at Mimi. She blinked at me and opened and closed her mouth, looking like she wanted to say something, but wisely decided not to. She started to slowly start rambling on about her vegetarian fetish again, so I took a piece of bacon off my plate and took a bite of it, slowly chewing it to let her know I didn't give a damn.

Luckily, our awkward stand-off was interrupted by a bunch of cheering and screeching. We all turned to see what was going on (hopefully someone was dying.) Unfortunately it was just a bunch of girls in bright pink cheerleaders' uniforms.

"Oh, Christine must be recruiting for her lame-o cheer squad already," Mimi scoffed.

"Gross," Henrietta muttered.

We watched as the cheerleaders did their stupid routine right in the middle of the cafeteria, which seemed like a very idiotic place to do a routine. I turned back to my plate just in time to see Michael trying to steal some ham and smacked his hand away.

I'm not sure when the big block-shaped football guy came in, but suddenly there was a loud grunt and the entire building started shaking as someone started stomping towards us. I looked over to see this massive cube shaped guy with a buzz cut and just the most unpleasant face storming up behind Michael. I reached over and gently tugged on my friend's arm.

"Um, Michael? Look behind you," I warned him.

Michael blinked at me then turned in his seat to see the huge football guy standing behind him. His eyes widened. Michael tended to get intimidated by anyone who was taller than him, and this guy was fucking Goliath.

"You're the guy who was kicking the back of my seat during the opening ceremony yesterday," the big guy growled at my friend. Michael simply stared at him, unable to speak. I'm pretty sure the big guy was going to murder him, but at that moment one of the cheerleaders danced her way over to us. She was skinnier than the other cheerleaders, and Mimi for that matter. She had tight curls in her long bright yellow hair that was done in a pony tail and was wearing way too much make up.

"Bruce! What are you doing!" she whined hanging off his large, muscular arm, "Pay attention to me!"

Really? Bruce? Giant football player jock stereotype's name was Bruce? And this whiny bitch was probably his cheerleader girlfriend. Could this guy get anymore cliché?

Wait… wasn't Bruce the name of the guy who stuffed our roommate in the wardrobe? So he picks on nerds too? By the love of Satan, he could be more cliché!

"Not now, babe," Bruce growled, trying to shake the cheerleader stereotype off of him, "This guy was annoying me at the opening yesterday, so I was gonna pound his face in."

"Well that seems unnecessarily drastic," I heard Pete mutter beside me.

It was then that cheerleader stereotype caught sight of Michael, who hadn't moved or said anything. She shoved Bruce back and got right in Michael's face, who finally moved, flinching away from her. I instantly recognized the look on this girl's face. It was the Disney "love-at-first-sight" face.

May God have mercy on Michael.

"Hi," the girl said in an overly flirtatious tone, and twirling her hair on her finger, "My name's Christine. What's your name?"

Instead of answering, Michael's eyes slowly drifted behind her to her large boyfriend who was slowly turning red with rage. I couldn't blame my friend for not wanting to answer her. If he gave his name to her, that meant the huge raging bull behind her had his name as well, which meant he could find him easier. So Michael remained silent.

Unfortunately, Mimi decided not to. "Oh, that's Michael!" she exclaimed loudly like a dumbass. All five of us face-palmed.

"Mmm… Michael…" Christine sighed, "What a handsome name for a handsome man." I could see Bruce behind her making various "you're dead" gestures at Michael. He grabbed Christine by the arm and dragged her away while she blew kisses at my friend.

Once they were gone, Michael finally spoke. "I don't like those people," he said, "They frighten me."

"Wimp," Henrietta muttered under her breath.

"I'm done with this place," I muttered, "There's too many people here now. Let's get out of here." We all stood up and were about to leave but Mimi stopped us.

"Aren't you going to finish that?" she asked me, gesturing to my plate of meat.

I walked back to the table and took a piece of ham off the plate before picking up the whole plate. Then I walked over to some random guy, opened up the back of his pants, and dumped the rest of the meat into them before depositing my plate on a nearby counter. I walked back to my friends while Mimi looked on in shock.

When we got back to our rooms there was another notice on the door. Michael took the one off our door and quickly scanned it.

"Ugh, there's a stupid dorm meeting later this week that we have to attend," he growled, crumpling up the paper and tossing it on the floor.

"Lame," Pete agreed, "What's even the point of those? To learn the rules? To meet new people? Just post the rules on a corkboard or something and we don't want to meet new people."

"I bet they have a separate meeting on each floor, as if they want each one to all get along and shit," Karen muttered, "Well they'll have another thing coming."

Again, I had no idea how to end this chapter and it was getting a little long. So, this is where I'll end it. Next time will be Pete's view point and the dorm meeting and maybe classes will start? If Night Witch gets around to it.