College Life Part 8: Dorm life by Greenbeans Disclaimers: True to my word, this one isn't as silly as the last two parts. I tried to keep it all light though ;) Some cursing in this one (what do you expect when you get Haruka mad ;) Comments, thoughts, complaints, compliments, ramblings, and flames are all accepted. But the latter two stand a serious chance of being printed out and turned into rat cage lining. All characters are property of their respective holders. I belong to myself, thank you, and have a nice day :) ********** Sunday ********** I leaned away from the homework on my desk to consider the events of the past two and a half months. Life certainly has been eventful since meeting Haruka and Michiru. While living in the dorms was always and adventure, they had managed to top every dorm legend I've ever heard. My gaze fell onto the fish tank on my chest o' drawers. I'd finally gotten around to adding the fish. Someone had once told me that fish were an excellent pet because they help to calm you. Did it matter if a lake god was living in with them? I'd long since learned that certain things, regardless of the current owners, tended to stay in the dorms. A fridge, a microwave, books, things like that were traded from person to person depending on who needed it. This fish tank would become one of those things. Just so long as it didn't leave the dorms. But none of this was helping me to get my homework done. This was dead week. * * Dead week is the last week of classes before finals when everyone is running around like a chicken with its' head cut off trying to get projects done. (Oh, yes, chickens *do* do that) I sighed at the thought. Unlike most, I had everything finished except for a 'comprehensive notebook' Haruka and I were to compile for Calculus. We'd planned on getting started on it tomorrow. Most of my time this week was already dedicated to the labs. People were going to come in last minute, do their work, get an 'A' and have learned nothing about the evils of procrastination. At least I got paid to watch them scurrying around mindlessly. ********** Monday ********** "Actually, Haruka, I think the best way to do this is to take it up to my room and use the math program on my computer to type out the differentials," I leaned away from the table that we'd been hunched over for the past hour. "Anything has to beat having to write these all out by hand," she agreed. "How about you come up to my room after dinner tonight and we can get this all done up pretty?" I suggested. She nodded slowly. "I know that Michiru has several finals to study for. Would it be alright to bring her with so that she can study while we work?" "Yeah, that'd be fine. Our room has already been declared a study room, so she should be able to get plenty done," I said. Without much care for order, I shoved the pile of papers and books on the table into my backpack. We can sort them tonight. "You realize that a binder would work wonders for your little organization problem," she commented while I crammed a few more loose pages in. I shrugged. "My way works." "That's exactly what I would say," she smirked slightly. "Heaven forbid that great minds think alike! How did you get on the list?" I jibbed. "Same way you did," she said while raising from her seat. "I lied, cheated, bribed, and threatened my way to the top." ***** (That evening after dinner) I opened the door to my room to discover that it was already full of people. I worked my way over to my desk without stepping on anyone. The person who was sitting in my chair, John, took the hint when I glared at him and moved to my bed. Neither of my roommates were around. "Alright everyone," I said. I didn't know a couple of the people, so I made it a general announcement. "My study partner is going to be here soon with her friend and we're going to need room to work. Compact or leave." Everyone scooted in closer to the person next to them until I was satisfied that there was enough room for us. There was a light tapping on the door. It must be Michiru because Haruka would have pounded and if it was someone from the dorms they would have just walked in. "Come in Michiru," I called from my desk. Two people had to move to make room for the door to open enough to let them enter. "It seems that you have company," she said. "Just studying. Have a seat on the bed. Haruka, you can have the chair next to me." Michiru avoided all the obstacles in the mine field of books, calculators, pencils, and papers that were scattered about to sit on my bed. My bed was close enough to my desk that I could sit at the foot and type on my computer. Haruka could have the chair from the desk. Michiru was situated between myself and John. The he glanced over appreciatively, then groaned in pain when Haruka 'accidently' stumbled and dropped her Calculus book in his lap. Michiru chuckled lightly at what I saw as childish behavior. "Sorry about that," Haruka said while retrieving the fallen book. She sat in the chair I had indicated and scooted it closer to the bed (and Michiru ;) Everyone returned to their own studies after she covered the room with an icy glare. "Yeah," I drawled to myself while the computer pulled up the program I wanted. Opening my backpack, I began to pull out papers by the handful. All of them needed to be sorted and arranged as our syllabus inducated. "Next term you're using a binder," Haruka grumbled while getting the pages at least facing the same way. "Only if I have to take this class again," I answered. "What's first?" She handed me the sheet with the first of the differentials that needed to be typed in. I happily pounded away at my instrument of choice. ***** "So what are you studying?" The geek next to Michiru asked. "Music theory," she continued to scan through her text. She never spent time in the dorms except when with Beans. Her impression of it was pretty much summed up by her current surroundings: crowded and intimate. Nothing that she'd seen had indicated that this place had much by way of privacy. The bathrooms were shared, as were the showers, lounges, rooms, cafeteria. Everything. This enforced closeness to others would get to her after a short time, even though she was a social person. Haruka had mentioned before on how she marveled at Beans ability to live like this. The confineds of the dorms was like a cage to Haruka that demanded to be escaped from. To live in an environment like this, one would have to be very accepting of ones neighbors. It was no wonder that Beans could take so many things in stride if living like this didn't bother her. "I didn't know that our school taught music theory," he continued even though she had made it obvious that she wasn't interested in a conversation. "They don't," she replied. "John," Beans called out while still facing the computer. "Yeah?" The geek asked. "We need some food. You're gopher tonight." He sighed and slipped off the bed. Michiru was somewhat relieved when he left the room. Someone needed to get that boy a breath mint. Beans leaned against the wall so that she could speak to her and still appear to be working. She then surprised her by speaking in Japanese. "Don't care for John? You won't have to sit by him again, just watch," she winked mischievously. "Don't worry, no one else in the room but us speaks your language." Not two minutes after that than did a girl come in and plop down on the bed next to her. She nodded a greeting to her, then dug into her text without a word. "See?" Beans asked softly. She indicated the girl with a nod. "April's a good study partner. Not a geek though. She's in the civil engineering program." "How can you live like this?" She asked, indicating the room full of people. Continuing the conversation as Beans had started it; in Japanese. "Like what?" She looked around confused. "My room's clean for once." "With all these people," Haruka joined into the conversation. Trust her not to miss a beat. "Do you even know who all of these people are?" "Uh, no, but I figure that they're friends of Alex or Jeff. Besides, to live in the dorms is to live in a micro- community. You won't get anything out of it if you aren't an active member," she stopped typing to answer. (That's true BTW :) Haruka shook her head and Michiru returned to her text. ***** It was nearing 11pm and we still had a ways to go. The blasted project *looked* easy, but once we got into it we discovered that there was a lot more depth required than we had thought. Haruka had already agreed to come back tomorrow night: same Bat time, same Bat channel. (Y'all remember the Adam West Batman's, right ;) John got up off the floor to open the window. A few moments later others began to stir at some unseen prompting. Haruka raised an eyebrow at the sudden activity in the room. Even April had gotten off the bed and was stretching out. Then the first yell was heard outside the window. It was joined by a second and a third. Soon other voices were accompaning the ones outside, including ones from within the room. "What the --" Haruka looked around her for the cause of the outburst. I smiled at them and pointed to the wall clock. It read 11:00 on the nose. "It's tradition that during dead week at 11:00 everyone stops and relieves their fustrations. That's why everyone is yelling out," I explained over the noise. "Go ahead. Yell!" I encouraged. "I really don't think that will help us fin--" I jabbed Haruka quickly in the belly. She let out a startled squeak. "Yell!" I screamed at her. Her first attempt was rather half hearted. Since no one had stopped yet, she yelled again. I know that it wasn't nearly as powerful as she could manage. By the end of the week I'm sure she'll be taking full advantage of the opportunity to release some steam. Michiru wasn't really doing anything either, but they'll be converted before too long. By 11:05 the calls had stopped. People began to gather up their materials and drift to their respective rooms. By 11:30 Haruka and Michiru were the only ones left that didn't belong to this room. "I think that we should be going," Haruka stretched her long body out, then helped Michiru up off of my bed. "I got an amazing amount of studying done," Michiru noted. "Mind if I come with Haruka again tomorrow?" "I wouldn't imagine excluding you," I said. "Good, because I wouldn't leave her!" Haruka put an arm around her waist. They left the room like that. Jeff came in with Alex not long afterwards. "How did 'sitting the study room go tonight?" He asked while laying out his clothes for tomorrow. "Just fine, but when you see John tomorrow, tell him to keep away from Michiru. Getting close to her can be hazardous to his health." He cocked his head slightly in confusion. That was one of his habits that Alex found so adorable. "I'll let him know." *********** Tuesday ********** Haruka strolled into my room without more than a warning knock. Michiru was behind her with a disapproving look to her. She didn't understand dorm manners yet, so Haruka's walking right in would seem rude to her. The room wasn't nearly as crowded tonight as it was yesterday. Most everyone was in their own rooms typing out papers or writing programs. Andy was here. It turns out that Jeff and he are friends. Jeff had given him permission to do his C++ programming on his computer so that he could study with me tonight. I had already finished the at-home labs, but he thought that he might need help with some of the later ones. I didn't mind. We all took up our original positions. Haruka continued to feed me pages as I typed furiously. Michiru studied quietly on the bed. More people drifted in and out with a running average of a half dozen people in at any given time. Things were going along smoothly until around 9pm. The door to the room burst open and dozens of little plastic disks were shot at us. The room was being raided! I pulled open my desk drawer that held my disk guns. I passed one to the stunned Michiru. Haruka was on her feet and ready to take action. I grabbed her by the arm and gave her a gun. The rooms' other occupants had already pulled disk guns out of their bags and were firing away at the raiders. For myself, I pulled out a bag of mini Christmas ornament balls and was chucking them hard. Michiru just sat on the bed. Haruka took up the weapon I offered her and was firing away with incredible accuracy considering how flimsy the weapon was. She unloaded fully, then took the gun from Michiru and continued her barrage. The room raiders finally ran out of ammo. They pulled back and ran down the hall. Haruka was about to give chase, but I held her back. "It's over," I said to her. "Alright, lets get this cleaned up." I handed a bag to Andy that was already part way filled with disks. "Yellow and green ones go into the bag," I instructed. "Blue are mine. Pink are yours aren't they John? Orange go into this bag," I held another bag out with some disks in it. "What's going on here?!" Haruka demanded angrily. I gave her an odd look. "What're you mad about? Time of the month?" "Dammit Beans! A group of people just burst in and shot at us with these stupid little guns and you act like it's okay! We're trying to get something done here if you haven't forgotten?" Everyone stopped cleaning up disks to watch her little tirade. "They're not from the dorms, Beans?" John asked. "Nope and they haven't been around enough to know about the disk wars either," Andy answered him. "Beans --" Michiru also insisted. "Okay, okay! Y'all take care of this and I'll take them out to the lounge and explain it to them," I said. "All of it," John called after me. I cringed slighly. I didn't want to tell them all of it because I don't think Haruka would take parts of it well. "So what's this damn 'disk wars' thing?" Haruka asked once we found a lounge that was empty. I laughed hesitently and scratched behind my head. "Well, it's like this. Disk wars is a game that's played here. Everyone has a disk gun and is assigned a color. We go around and shoot each other. "The rules are simple. Each person is assigned someone to 'kill' and someone to 'protect'. If you or the person you're to protect are 'killed' than you're out. The game goes until only one person is left. "The raid just now doesn't count for anything because it's dead week. They were just relieving stress," I explained. A small smile tugged at Michiru's lips once she got the idea of the game. Haruka still looked pissed. "Who were you assigned to 'kill' and 'protect'?" Michiru asked. Of course she would have to ask *that*! "You don't know the person I was supposed to 'kill'. But, well, you gotta understand that the person we have to protect has to be someone we're close to. Someone we're around often --" "Dammit Beans, who was it?!" Haruka shouted. "Er -- you, Haruka," I replied meekly. The expected outburt came. "*You* were to protect *me*! I don't want to have anything to do with your damn game!" I winced even more as her temper flared. "The person we're protecting isn't supposed to know, so that they can't help us out any," I said quickly. "Well, you did a fine fucking job of keeping it from me! Aren't you proud --" she stopped yelling when Michiru put a hand on her arm. "Enough, Haruka," she said calmly. "Shimatta!" "Haruka," Michiru said sharply. The tall girl shut up to look some what hurt. Michiru spoke again softly once Haruka had calmed down some. "You shouldn't be so angry, Haruka. Beans must have done a good job if you didn't notice anything going on." "I won for this term," I interjected quietly. Michiru *looked* at her. There was something deep behind that look, but I didn't know what. "Congratulations," Haruka said with only a touch of sarcasm. I nodded my head. "You're a bit early for the 11pm yelling session," I whispered so that she had to strain to hear. "Why you impudent little --" she growled. I grinned cockily. Michiru sighed like someone that had to complete a great struggle everyday of her life. With us, she probably did. ***** (After leaving Beans' dorm room for the evening) "How in the hell could she have done that without my knowing?" Haruka mused aloud during the drive home. "I haven't lost my edge, have I?" "No, you haven't lost your edge," Michiru answered. Haruka knew that regarding that subject, she wouldn't get false assurances from Michiru. She was stating a fact. "I don't sense any strange power from her. Maybe it's just a well developed skill," Michiru added. "We need to keep a better eye out." "Haruka, there's no need to become para --" "Michiru, if our friends can sneak around us, then so can our enemies," Haruka reminded her. "True, but remember that Beans is one of our friends, not our enemy." [Slight eyebrow twitch] "It's good to have skilled allies," Michiru insisted. "That it is," she agreed finally. ********** Wednesday ********** Beans, Haruka, and Michiru were studying in their usual lounge today. They were close enough that they should be able to get the notebook finished tonight. "How about you both come to dinner tonight?" Beans asked. It would give them the chance to get to know better the people that they were rubbing elbows with in the evenings. "Is the food any better in the evening than it is during the days?" Haruka asked. While it wasn't her main source of nourishment, she wasn't excited about eating more of it than she had to. Beans shrugged. "It all tastes the same to me. Just have to know what dishes to avoid and you're set." "I prefer Michiru's cooking," Haruka commented. Michiru smiled slightly at the compliment. "Home cooking is *always* better, but don't you two ever get tired of just eating by yourselves?" "We eat with you," Haruka defended. Beans gave her a pained look. "How about more than a half dozen people? Come to dinner tonight -- be social. The food isn't the main course anyways, it's the company." "Let's do it, Haruka. It will be like having dinner with minna* back home," Michiru encouraged. * Quick translation: minna -- everyone "Yeah, but without Mako-chan's cooking," Haruka grumbled some. "And here you said that you liked MY cooking. I'm hurt!" Michiru teased while Haruka blushed. "That's not what I meant," she said dryly. "Of course I like your cooking better than Mako-chan's." "Then you are the only one because *I* like Mako-chan's cooking better than my own," she said breezily. [Eyebrow twitch] She threw up her arms in fustration. "You are being impossible," she declared. "Fine, we'll go to dinner with Beans and her friends tonight and both be poisoned by it!" ***** I took Haruka and Michiru up to my room to work on our project some more while we waited for 5:00pm to roll around. Michiru had a nice conversation with the lake god. She let me know that it wanted a couple more fish. I'll have to get them later in the week since I really didn't have the time to do it now. "Haruka?" "Hum?" The tall blonde replied. "Be nice at dinner." "What? Why wouldn't I be nice?" She asked indignantly. "I'm not saying that you won't be. But none of this 'accident' crap or glaring at people. These people are like family to me, so be nice to them." "Beans, I didn't know that you felt so strongly about those in the dorms," Michiru commented from the tank. "The dorms are a community, but it can also be your family. They're the ones that let you use their microwave when you need a cup of hot water for tea. Bring you food when you're sick. Cheer you up when you're down. "I know that the dorm life isn't for you two. You have each other," I grinned. "We have each other too. Not as close as you, but friends, yes." There was a knock on the door. It swung open to reveal a group of people standing in the hallway. "It's time, Beans," John said. "'Kay. Everyone, this is Haruka and Michiru. Haruka and Michiru, this is everyone." ***** Michiru continued to smile as the conversations flew around her. They had gotten their meals and sat down at the table Beans had pointed out. The table was meant to seat eight people. It wasn't too bad when the 9th and 10th person squeezed in. Currently, she counted 14 people with their food at the table eating. As soon as someone left the hole would be filled in by another. As far as she could tell, there were three threads of conversation going on. The first was about the newest software failure from 'Squishysoft'? Microsoft she figured. Another was a lively debate over which country's aircraft design was better during the second world war. The third conversation was the one that she decided to follow. It was a debate on how to best launch fruit using a launcher that was build solely out of scavenged computer parts. Several of the ideas that were being kicked around were quite, um, unique. How any of them could work was beyond her. "How are you doing?" Beans asked from besides her in Japanese. "I can't believe that you're even discussing this nonsense!" Haruka said from her other side replying in kind. Beans shrugged and then smiled some. "It may be nonsense, but keep in mind that together we could probably accomplish it. This all may seem like hot air, but this is where we get many of our idea and figure out our problems. Tonight it's nothing serious, but if someone was having a programming problem, this is a good arena for solving it," she explained. "Hey Beans," someone from the far end of the table called. "What would you build a launcher out of?" "An Apple IIe," she called back. "Eh? Why?" "So that I could also use the bubble gum and paper clips that were holding it together in the first place!" That got laughs from all around. Even Haruka chuckled lightly at it. "I would use a standard PC," Haruka joined in to her amazement. "I could bend the cover to be a sort of catapult launch pad with the power source as a counter weight." The geeks put their head together to discuss it briefly. "That would work Haruka. It's better than any of the ideas that they've come up with," Beans nodded down to the other side of the table. The geeks obviously agreed after a moment more of discussing it. They then quizzed Haruka on exactly how she would accomplish her catapult idea. Michiru smiled to herself as Haruka explained her idea. She though of everything mechanically based in terms of cars. Cars used bigger tools than the geeks were used to with their delicate computers. It allowed her to think of things that would be considered 'violent and crude' in their minds. But they did ask for it. "Wow, what major are you in?" One of them asked. "Mechanical engineering," she announced proudly. It had taken them a while to come to that decision, Michiru reflected. There were no "Auto racing legend" majors listed in the catalogs. Haruka was briefly stuck on the notion of not continuing her education. But she couldn't race forever. Realistically, she needed something to fall back on. They didn't need the income, and they were both set comfortably, but just to have something to *do*. Setsuna had come up with the idea of studying for a mechanical engineering degree. That way, Haruka could design faster vehicles to go speeding about in. That idea had appealed to her. "A shame. You would make a good geek," he continued. She laughed lightly at the horrified look on her face. No, that was something Haruka definitely wouldn't want to be. "Thanks, I think," she answered politely. "Speaking of that; how is your final project in Comp. 101 going?" Beans asked. "I'm still working on it," she said before sipping on her tea. Michiru pinched her on the arm under the table. The truth was she was having a hard time with it. She had suggested, repeatily, that they call Beans and get some help. But Haruka was too proud for that. She didn't want to show any weakness to her main source of competition. "Well, if you have any problems, you know where I live," Beans smiled kindly. "I'll keep that in mind," Haruka said. Probably because she wouldn't let her forget. Dinner was finished not long after that. Everyone trekked back up to the dorms to work on their projects. ***** I took a deep breath. Only a few more pages to go. Haruka handed me the next sheet to be entered. I had this feeling that she wasn't being straight with me at dinner regarding her project in 101. She may think she has the market cornered when it comes to poker faces, but she actually isn't that hard to read once I figured out the signs. Hum, there *is* something I could do to help her out that wouldn't compromise her position or sting her over-inflated pride. ***** "Got it!" I announced once the last page came out of the printer. Haruka put the page with the rest of them and bound them into the folder she'd gotten. If we didn't get an 'A' on this project, I was going to be seriously steamed. "We can turn this in tomorrow after class," Haruka looked as relieved as I felt. This had been too drawn out for the both of us. "Are you ready to leave, Michiru?" The lady in question nodded. Haruka helped her up off of the bed. Once their bags were repacked, I walked them down to their car. "Haruka." She leaned on the open door. "Yes?" "Thank you for behaving at dinner tonight and both of you for coming," I said. "Thanks for having us," she grinned. "Next time, we do something other that rat food, okay?" I smiled back. "Sure." ***** (At Haruka and Michiru's house) "I'm glad that we finally got that stupid notebook finished," Haruka stretched and strode out of the kitchen with a cup of tea. "Are you going to work on your Computers tonight?" Michiru asked after Haruka handed her the cup of tea. "Oh, thank you, just how I like it." "Yeah, I need to get it done," she took her bag with her into the workroom where the computer was along with Michiru's painting supplies. She sat down at the evil machine. The disk she needed was in her bag. She pulled out the case and opened it up to reveal two disks when there should have been only one. "Michiru, have you been into my school bag?" She called to the living room. "No," she walked up from behind her. "Why?" "This disk isn't mine," Haruka held up a blue unlabled disk. "I wonder what's on it?" Michiru asked. Haruka put it into the machine and opened it. (Now, the geek in me has to declare to NEVER put foreign unidentified disks into your machine. So I'll say that they have a kick-ass virus checker and it was okay to do it this time ;) "Eh? It's a bunch of files that go along with the Computers class. Did I grab someone else's disk by accident?" Haruka mused softly. "I wonder how far they got." "Haruka! It's cheating to copy someone else's work!" Michiru protested. The phone rang then. Michiru picked it up. "Yes, she's here. Haruka it's Beans." "Hey, Haruka! Didja find the disk in your bag yet?" "Yes, but I don't need you to give me the answers --" "Who's givin' you the answers? That would be cheating," Haruka grinned up at Michiru. "Those are example programs that were worked up for winter term. It's all the same material, but the questions asked are different. You aren't taking the class winter term, so no problem if it actually *did* matter. "Those should at least get you headed in the right direction," she encouraged. "Thank you Beans," she wasn't sure what to say. She knew that she might have to break down and ask for help, but Beans didn't make her do that. She gave her what she needed without her having to admit that she didn't understand the projects. "No problem! Just consider yourselves an off campus extension of the dorms!" She hung up. ********** End part 8 ********** Heh, I wanted to do an episode on dorm living. Keep in mind that not all dorms are like this, only the cooler ones ;) Well, this is more the exception than the rule, but it could happen! The yelling at 11pm is an actual thing at a school I attended previously. It was meant to help release stress that had built up after a night of studying. In most cases, just walking into someone's room *is* rude. For this fic, I'm going with the idea that the dorms Beans lives in are pretty open. Everyone knows everyone sort of thing. I'm doing some minor format changes, mostly due to getting Texto'LE and we're arguing over format. (Damn program! You *will* pronounce Michiru's name correctly) Plus it doesn't like my files getting too long (Thank you Programmer's File Editor ;) Next episode: The next episode "Interlude" is just that. Fall term is drawing to a close and I'm going to begin right into winter term without stopping for Christmas break. Part 9 will help smooth the transistion and answer questions like what were their final grades? What's next term's classes looking like? And what did Beans give them for Christmas ;) I'd like to acknowledge some of my favorite fanfic authors whom I drew insperation from: * Tim Nolan: "Awakening", "Obligations" Thank you for answering all of my outer senshi questions =) * Jackie Chiang: "Senshi Kurai" I really liked this fic for being serious and still having fun! * Brett Handy: "Oh my God!!" Series Thanks for all the advice and encouragement you've given, mate! Check out his Oh My Goddess and Ranma fics at his website at: http://www.ozanime.com/darkwind/ * A Sailor Moon Romance: For posting this and providing me with plenty of fics to read ;) http://ctdnet.acns.nwu.edu/~aerdnahu/ Also: * Blitz Krieg Who finally got to see "Greenwood". "You're fic is *based* off of this! You should be shot: a quick, painless death!"