Chapter 10

Olivia had just finished up practice and was heading back to her dorm. She was listening to music when suddenly one of her ear buds died. With the music off she noticed a familiar voice in the distance. There were two guys further ahead, she heard a voice that sounded like Viorel. She figured he must have finished practice too. The two split with one heading to the dorms and the other to another part of campus. She noticed the sweater the one walking back to the dorms was wearing. It was a baby blue Manchester city hoodie. Vio was the only one she'd ever seen wear it.

She didn't know if to call after him or try to catch up before he entered the building. She didn't do either, partly because of nerves and fear of what he might say. At this point she wouldn't be able to reach him inside and even if she managed to make it in, she never knew his dorm room number. She figured she should just go to her room as planned, but another person had just appeared. He rushed over to her and she knew she couldn't avoid him now.

"Hi Olivia, what are you doing out here alone?" Malcolm asked

"Oh nothing, just walking around to clear my mind"

"Oh if you like I can walk with you. It's starting to get dark, you never know there could be creeps out there"

"You don't say" she couldn't believe the irony, but an idea popped in her head

"Hey Malcolm.. Did you ever find Malvolio?"

"No, sadly he's still missing. He's never been gone this long, I'm afraid he might not survive" he said sadly

"Oh I hope he comes back to you. I really wanted to see him"

"You do?" He said surprised "well although he's still missing I have other pets I can show you" he said now excited

"Would you have time now?"

"Now? I would have to go in to get them, but I can't bring them all at once.. maybe one by one"

"Or I could just go with you so you don't have to move them"

"Come t-to my room?" Malcolm felt like this was a dream. He couldn't believe it, Oliva was asking to come to his room and see his creatures "b-but the teacher up front wouldn't let you in, plus there's another who makes rounds.."

"Well what if you helped me sneak in?"

"You would break the rules to just come to my room?" He knew if he didn't do something tonight then another chance like this may never come again

"Okay, okay. I have an idea"

O-O-O

Malcolm's idea worked, who knew the teacher didn't even notice anything off about Olivia. She just walked in wearing Malcolm's sweater and stuffed hair in a hat he lent her. In a way this probably isn't a good thing in terms of safety, but that's an issue for another day. Fortunately for her Malcolm actually started pointing out who lived in the dorms they passed. He even mentioned Duke moved back to his dorm with Vio which was conveniently on the way to Malcolm's.

Malcolm welcomed her in and started introducing her to each animal he had. Not so surprising he had the room to himself. Which was great for him because he had more room for tanks. After a few minutes being there her phone suddenly ran, giving her a good excuse to leave so soon. Olivia made sure Malcolm's door closed before she walked over to the door Malcolm pointed out to her earlier. She was going to knock, but felt the knob and it wasn't locked. She opened it and found two people on the bed against the far wall.

The guy was obviously naked. There was a baby blue hoodie on the ground by his feet. The girl on top of him shot up and turned to her. It seemed to be the brunette she saw the night before, only now she could see her face more clearly. It was hard to see the guy's face, she only saw some disheveled brown hair poking out from behind the girl. Olivia was already connecting the dots and didn't need to see the rest of him. The last thing she wanted to see now was his face. She felt like breaking down, but she wouldn't let herself do it there. Olivia just ran as fast as she could so she could hide out by the stairs. She stuffed her hair back into the hat and gathered herself together so as not to attract attention.

She made it out quickly and rushed over to her dorm where she finally allowed herself to break down. Maria was already there and saw her rush in and start bawling her eyes out on her bed. She tried consoling her friend and even called in another friend of theirs who brought ice cream to try and ease the pain and distract her from crying. Safe to say Olivia didn't really get much or any sleep that night.

The following day Oliva was absent from all her classes. It was a rare event because Olivia almost never got sick. Maria told everyone she wasn't feeling well last night and was resting. Luckily it was Friday so she had the whole weekend to sulk and eat before having to come back to reality.

O-O-O

Viorel's mind was preoccupied about the game today. It was a night match at home. Duke and Sabrina were weirdly quiet last night when he came back with dinner. He thought they'd be arguing again when he arrived. Duke was quiet most of the day, probably nervous about the game Viorel thought. Maria was in his history class and he noticed her looking over to him a couple times. She sat two rows down across from him. Her eyes were throwing daggers at him. He could swear Maria looked like she wanted to punch him. Perhaps it was about Olivia, but it was odd that she now was acting this way.

The day felt slow, but finally it was game time. Viorel was feeling good and the team felt so different from last week. Energy was good and so too went their game. They won 3-0, Viorel had two assists and almost scored a goal himself. His sister was at the game and ran up to the guys to congratulate them. Her interaction with Duke was weird as he reached his hand out to shake her hand rather than receive a hug. Viorel didn't care much, he was too happy. At least they seemed to be nicer to each other now.

Olivia didn't go to the game, she was too upset. Maria stayed with her, but their other friends went. They knew Olivia was upset because of Viorel, but only Maria and Sara who brought the icecream knew the whole story.

O-O-O

It was now Saturday, it was also Sabrina's last full day with them. The whole team was off, no practice or game that weekend. They decided last night after their win to drive down to the beach to enjoy the sunny weather. There was a large number of people from school already planning to go.

Even Olivia was convinced to go. Despite her knowing Viorel might be there. Everyone started arriving in the morning. Olivia and her group picked a spot near the volleyball court. The whole soccer team arrived and set up camp together not that far from them. This beach had a nice boardwalk filled with games, food, and some carnival rides; that's what made it so popular. Half the soccer team ended up going over to play volleyball including Viorel, his friends, and Sabrina.

Half of Olivia's friends were on the volleyball team, including herself. Albeit indoor volleyball, but they were still pretty good on sand. The girls wanted to play a match to show up the soccer team particularly Vio. Sara kept trying to convince Olivia to join, perhaps this could be her way of getting back at him. Olivia turned and saw the brunette was there too and finally gave in. Maybe defeating them ruthlessly could help her feel a little better. The match just wrapped up when the group of girls got to the court.

"Hey Duke! You think your team can go another match with us?" One of the girls shouted over

"Yeah we can take them" Sabrina said without a thought

"Sabrina, that's Gabbie, she's the captain of the girls volleyball team" Duke whispered "we can't beat them"

"So what, it's about having fun. Are you scared of losing to an all girl team?"

"Hm" he huffed

"Yeah we can play" Duke shouted back "Alright, let's go guys" he said to his side which included Sabrina as well

As predicted they lost badly, the only point they made was by Sabrina. Olivia really enjoyed seeing Viorel covered in sand from his attempted saves. It was the pick-me-up she needed after an awful week. Sabrina and Duke were still kind of worried from the other night. They kept glancing over to Olivia and looking back at each other. They noticed a group of guys walking over. They didn't look familiar to Duke. Olivia recognized one person amongst the group coming over.