Still in their night clothes, the occupants of the girl's dorm huddled around my late night masterpiece, pointing and laughing at the wall. Not quite hidden by their varying heights was a display of dear Eunice's quite large undergarments, pages from her diary glued to the pink wallpaper along with blurred photos of a familiar looking shaven headed boy. A trail of chocolates led from her room to the wall. No doubt she'd follow the trail when she woke, and if she didn't, the rest of the girls would surely direct her to it.
They all seemed so excited to have something happen. New drama to breathe life into this dying place. I smiled down at them as I hung over the railing, wondering if Eunice would abandon her anger once she realized how animated her humiliation had made them all. Would she play the martyr? Suffer so that they could be happy? I doubted it, but I liked to pretend that she would do it. Her imagined noble deed wouldn't be forgotten.
I turned and walked back into my room, uniform splayed out across newly washed sheets. They still smelled strongly of detergent, which covered up the scent of mold in the room somewhat. I slipped into my clothes, dressing from the bottom up, the same way I had since I was a kid—socks first, then pants, and finally my shirt. I had my sweater pulled halfway over my head when I stopped and pressed the itchy material to my nose.
It was strong enough to catch my attention. The smell was musky and warm, like a good cologne. My brow furrowed. No one I knew wore cologne, at least not one like this. The preps, they always smelled of their special imported crap that their father's bought them. I most certainly haven't been close enough to anyone to have their scent stick to my clothes, so who was rolling around in my stuff?
The question was better off left unanswered. I wasn't sure I wanted to know just who else was in my room.
. . .
Dr. Slawter stooped over the table while I carefully removed the stomach of what I was beginning to think was a fresh rat. It was too warm to feel alright about cutting this thing open, and I was half expecting the rat to start squirming on the tray it was pinned down to. Luckily that hadn't happened at any point during the dissection. My successful removal of the animal's innards didn't ease the teacher's stress though, and he looked to be one second away from visibly twitching. You'd think I was cutting wires on a bomb and not skin and muscle.
"I think you can relax now, sir, I've removed everything but its brains," I tossed my gloves into the garbage can behind me and stared down at the hollowed out rodent. I scowled. There was definitely no way for this little thing to wake up now.
"Would you like to?" he asked me. Slawter pet the small skull with a gloved finger. "It doesn't take much to open the head, and," he glanced back at the clock, "you've finished early. There's enough time."
"As appealing as pretending to be Frankenstein is, I don't know..."
He looked disappointed. "Well then. Clean your station up. I'll give you your next assignment when you've finished."
I unpinned the small rodent from the tray and dropped its empty corpse into the clear bag we had all been given at the start of class. The furry victim rested in a layer nearly an inch thick of chemicals, body fluids, and its displaced insides. An unpleasant smell wafted from the open bag, permeating the air in my tiny corner of the room. I vowed to shower right when classes ended; lab had been messier than I realized. The whole table was slick and near dripping onto the floor and I had a ring of blood around my wrists that begged to be cleaned off.
I checked the time. Only a half hour til lunch.
"Lucky me." I mumbled.
Dr. Slawter handed me a packet of work sheets after I dried off and just about scrubbed the skin off my hands. They were due next class and I was thankful for the alternating days; having to smell like chemicals for a week straight would have driven me nuts, not to mention all the money I'd burn through on laundry alone. Burning sounded like a better alternative to having my clothes smell like dead rats and that awful detergent, although I highly doubt I could get away with something like that. A fire on school campus mixed with newfound behavioral issues equaled trouble I was not prepared to deal with. So shit-tastic soap it was.
The bell rang as I set pen to paper and I wasted no time in stuffing my things into my bag and racing out the door. Even after picking at that poor thing's intestines for an hour and a half, I was surprisingly starving and headed straight down to the cafeteria for Edna's questionable culinary concoctions. The room was packed, unusually so, as most tended to grab fruit and duck out of the often horrible smelling cafeteria.
Students crowded around the counter, trays in hand, nearly brawling to get at whatever Edna had cooked up this time. I couldn't imagine what oddity had graced this kitchen that actually tasted good enough to generate this kind of fervor.
Meatloaf without cat in it?
Tempting as it was to ask, I decided to hang back and not risk getting injured over the new mystery item on the menu, and took a seat near the back. The farther I could get away from the mob the better.
Halfway into a slightly soft orange and the first page of my biology work a small, round package was dropped in front of my face. I eyed the white paper suspiciously and the short acronym that was printed on a tiny sticker: H & C, and turned my gaze away toward whoever had rudely tossed it onto the table while I worked. Gary plopped down across from me, holding the same unknown item he'd given to me.
"What is it?" I asked, prodding the paper with my pen. I was wary of anything that came out of this school's kitchen, and rightly so.
He began to unwrap the paper. "Ham and cheese. Apparently some company is funding the school and giving us real food; soon enough, Edna's gonna be gone, and hopefully so will the perpetual shit stink that plagues the dorms." Gary took a big bite out of the sandwich, chewing slowly as if to test the food out.
"Verdict?" I asked.
"It's real alright. Second best thing I've eaten all semester since I snuck out to grab pizza in New Coventry."
"You snuck out just for pizza? I find that hard to believe."
"Are you suggesting that I'm not being honest with you?"
"No, what I am suggesting is that I don't think you went all that way just for food. You had to have caused some sort of chaos while you were out."
A mischievous glint in his eyes told me I had hit the nail on the head, and if it weren't for the fact his leg was jumping underneath the table, I'd have questioned him about what he'd done. I saw nothing wrong with living vicariously through this sneaky bastard until I myself could escape this prison.
"What's got you all hopped up? You're shaking the table." I had to stop myself from squeezing his knee.
"Don't worry about it." He said. His hands were balled up in front of his face, barely hiding the deep red flush that spread from his cheeks down to his throat. Gary looked like he was in pain and part of me wanted to help while the other half was content letting him suffer in silence.
After a moment of battling internally, helpful Erin won. I sighed. Cold Erin needs to get her shit together.
"You sure? You're not looking so good." I said, leaning into the table. Gary stretched out his arms, and as his long limbs came my way, something familiar overpowered the stench of processed lunch meat and I cast a wary glance at him.
"Any reason you're staring at me like that, Kastner?" Gary asked.
It couldn't be, I thought. It was the same scent that had stuck to my clothes this morning, my outfit pulled from the pile of clothes I had collected from the floor in my old room. I hadn't been able to place the smell then, but if he was the source…what the hell was Gary doing in my room?
I looked away from him. "No, I'm sorry. I guess I just spaced out there for a minute."
Gary narrowed his eyes. "Right. Anyway, I heard about what happened in the girl's dorm."
"What happened now?"
"Apparently someone made a mural out of Eunice's underwear and diary pages along the main hallway." He grinned.
"And?" I pushed my food aside. "I'm guessing you're getting a kick out of that."
"Of course; public humiliation is a wonderful thing, and to do that without getting caught by Mrs. Peabody? That takes talent."
He would know.
"I'm glad you appreciate my work."
Gary drummed his fingers on the table. "If you're capable of doing something like that, then I think you and I would make great partners. Think of all we could do to get back at Crabblesnitch. No one would try and stop us; he's everyone's enemy."
"Are you trying to break him for your own benefit, or for the sake of everyone here?" I asked. "They're all apathetic now. If someone found out you were trying to stir things up again, he'd send you right back to—"
"He won't do a damn thing. I'm not going anywhere this time."