Nichole d'Mac Ealair's Story

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To tell the truth, Jack held no particular fondness for sleeping in or getting up early. It rather depended on the circumstances, he believed. He could stay up all night working on a story or essay or in a deep discussion with a friend or he could go to bed early and wake up at the crack of dawn. In short, it depended on what he felt like. His only desire was that he'd have a cup of tea waiting for him in the morning.

He was not surprised to see other people in the kitchen. The Ink Saber dorm had a well-earned reputation for early risers. He nodded in greeting to a couple of people as he set himself to making a pot of tea. It was a habit he took from home. It was strange being so far away from home, though the two countries weren't two different. Visiting another Anglophone country was less of a culture shock than visiting, say, Turkey. But while Americans liked coffee in the morning, Jack felt that good Earl Grey tea was a must in the morning.

He raised an eyebrow when he saw a frustrated Eleanor enter the kitchen. He smiled at her friendly. They were as different as night and day, but Jack liked to think that they were friends. He set his cup of tea down and poured Eleanor a cup before placing the tea pot on the counter along with a few empty cups for anyone who wanted one. As he exited he stopped to greet Jade as he walked. It was nice to know someone else from the UK here and he admired her work as much as he did Eleanor's, though his fellow Brit only shared her work in class when she had to.

"Good morning. Excellent story last class."

That was his way. Short and friendly. If she was willing to talk more, he'd love to, but if not, he still had a gloomy Eleanor to cheer up. He took a seat on the couch next to said person and silently offered her a cup of tea. Looking at her laptop, he smiled.

"Paradise Lost is fascinating. I just finished my paper last night. Most people do not understand it, particularly the rhyme and meter. My copy has most of the words on the first few pages underlined, like the owner was expecting gold everywhere until the evidently gave up on reading it and sold it on ebay."

It was an offer to help if there ever was one and honestly, Jack liked this type of stuff. He gave a short nod to Rainier. He knew he was Eleanor's friend, but the two hadn't had the chance to talk that much.





When John woke up, it was with a slight headache. He had been hard at work the night before shoring up his latest essay's defenses. He and a few of his political science teachers did not exactly see eye to eye on great many of things. It was only natural that they would be more critical of arguments which contradicted their own opinions.

He got dressed, deciding to wear black today based on the fact that he seemed to look good in it, and proceeded towards the dorm's kitchen. Rather than making breakfast from scratch, he opened up the refrigerator and found a container with his name taped across it. Day old pizza was a favorite breakfast food of his. It was only thing his dad knew how to cook in the morning.

As he microwaved a plate full of five cheese pizza, he saw a pot of tea ready for anyone who wanted one and poured himself a cup. As he took it out, he saw Victoria preparing herself some oatmeal and a smiled played at his lips.

"Awfully traditional this morning, aren't we?" John commented playfully. The two of them could not be more different, she an upper-class girl with revolutionary sympathies and he, an adamant capitalist from a working class background. He took a small bite of his pizza before setting his plate down on the counter and taking a sip of tea.

The alarm rang at 8 o'clock sharp. After a few jabs at the snooze button, Alec prepared himself mentally for the day ahead. Part of him just wanted to lie in bed for the rest of the day. But as he neatly tucked in the last corner, he thought against it. Instead he dressed in a buttoned up shirt and a sweater vest. But he spoiled the preppy exterior by rolling up his sleeves and leaving his hair a wavy mess. He took his journal with him and stuck a pen behind his ear.

As he headed into the common room, he saw the others going about their morning and took a bracing sigh. Maybe he should have just stayed in bed. He poured himself some coffee and toast and sat near the TV, half-listening to the news. Then he set to work on his latest poem. It was a mess of words on a page, littered with notes and lines, splotches and scribbles. It had to be perfect and yet no matter what he did, perfection slipped through his fingers. The problem was, he lacked inspiration. His immediate world was orderly and neat and all the chaos he left at home was far away. Everything was black and white and left his pages an uninspired mess. What he needed was to break out of his comfort zone but even the idea left him ill at ease.

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*Beep, Beep, Beep*

Nichole Esme d'Mac Ealair woke to the aggravating sound of her bedside clock. Without rising from the comfort of her bed, instead she dragged her hand out from beneath the heavy mountain of blankets that hovered over her, and hit the 'snooze button.' She grunted to herself as she dismantle the blankets and sat up in a sloppy position.

*Click* There was suddenly a flash from a camera that seemed to stun her.

"This is definitely going on my twitter page." A familiar voice said.

Nichole was startled when she found her best friend, Herman Andrews, lounging at the edge of her bed with a cream cheese bagel in his hand. "What the hell, Herman?" she bellowed as she rubbed her eyes back to reality.

"Dayumm! It wouldn't kill you to at least look presentable even when you wake up. You need Jesus, honey." He then took a huge chunk of the bagel and gorged it down as if he was a deranged savage who hadn't eaten in days; months even.

A low growl escaped Nichole's lips as she charged herself at him, "Herman!" However, he was already running down the hallway and she followed almost tripping as she went. She chased him all the way into the kitchen where students were already hanging out, seeing the two already going at it again early in the morning made everyone turned within a three-standing radius turned to look at them; at Nichole for she was still dressed in her kiddie pajamas.

There was no where to look without meeting curious eyes.

Herman came over to her, his hips swaying side to side and arms spread out. "You're just the cutiest wittle thing," He embraced her, squeezing her hard to the point where she couldn't breath. But of course Nichole didn't mind. Herman was well-known for giving out the best hugs...and kisses. He was a true ladies man at are. If he wasn't strickly dickly that it.

Nichole tried very hard not to be tempted in Herman's affections to the point where she softly nudged him away. "You're such an ass,"

Herman only stuck his tongue out as he scarfed down what was left of his food while at the same time he hoped over the couch and sat next to Rainer. "Hey, at least I'm not the only one who thinks that." he winked at Rainer flirtatiously in a way that told him that he knew what was going on between the two of them.

Nichole was over by the fridge and drinking out of the carton of orange juice when she heard him which made her turn her head towards him as he spoke. "Oh, get a life."

"Not until you get yours." he came over and snatched the carton from Nichole's lips causing her to spill some on her pj's, and went back toward the couch.

"Jerk!" She shouted after him.

He flashed her the finger, "Kiss my ass, bish. Kiss my ass."

Nichole couldn't other than smile at him. He was always such a jokester, but she loved him for that.

Selene toyed with the idea of throwing the phone at his head. Instead she took a large scoop of oatmeal and flung it towards his head. "So nice to have you on my side, John," she said. She didn't mind being accused of promiscuity but what she hated was being accused of being irresponsible. Granted, the longer she stared at the phone, the longer it tortured her.

Selene tilted her head towards Victoria. "What really pisses me off, is that I can't find my phone. I bet you it got switched," Again she attempted to hammer in a code with no such luck. When Herman and Nichole made their grand entrance Selene leaned back in her chair. "Babydoll, did I steal your phone last night, purely by accident? Or have I lost my mind?"

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Normally Jackson would be snoring, drooling, and subconsciously doing whatever he could to annoy Selene but last night he'd done a hell of a lot of drinking and a hell of a lot of something that made him taste Taco Bell in his mouth. Was it the munchies or the drunchies? Either way he didn't care much since he believed in the legalization of marijuana but it would have been nice to know what he'd been ingesting the night prior. He remembered a party, lots of friends surrounding him, and taking body shots off of a stripper-turned-biochemistry student but everything after that was fairly hazy. Becoming blackout drunk usually meant two things: he had a good time and he would have a bad sleep. Well, bad was a relative term, but if studies were to be believed, the fact that he'd woken up early was going to make his life even harder in the long run.

Opening his closet, he grabbed a black sweater and a pair of jeans deciding against a jacket despite the weather report that his lovely window provided for him. He was used to the cold and didn't like the bulk of most winter clothing despite how warm some of it was. Was it a bit strange? Maybe, but Herman could crucify him all he wanted later.

A routine of toothbrushing and washing later, the Sarto boy emerged in the kitchen to a collection of breakfast smells, breakfast talks, and breakfast clothing. Some were dressed for class while others were still rocking PJs, and well, Selene looked divine as usual. Well, divine might be an overstatement. She had her traditional hangover glasses on, but he got a smile out of seeing the consequences of her partying. She seemed rather concerned over the status of her phone which led him to walk over and wave a device in front of her face.

"Looking for something?" he asked with a chuckle, "nah just kidding. This one's mine."

He turned, then, to Herman and Nicole, waving a "morning" to each of them and taking a seat on one of the free chairs.

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He laughed, once more, at Elijah's words. He was never really quite sure if he was laughing at them, or with them. Either way, at least he got a good laugh out of it. These days, with teachers on his back like soul sucking harpies, he needed it. "Right, because I'm sure the starving peasants just need a bit of good news to brighten up their day." He threw his hands up lightly in a gesture of surrender with another laugh. If there was anybody that could find a way to dispute anything, it was Elijah. "Fine, but don't come crying to me when Miss America shows up asking for help with rehearsing her Q and A section."

There was some fiasco in the kitchen, and Rainier looked over curiously in time to catch Herman taunting Nichole. He rolled his eyes at the sight--it was nothing new-- before turning his attention back to the conversation at hand.

Shooting an incredulous glance in Elijah's direction, Rain scoffed softly at his comments. "C'mon, you don't think all I do is watch the news all the time, do you? I go out, I have fun! I'll have you know, I went on a date," he paused, looking up to the ceiling, mouthing something and counting on one of his hands, "three weeks ago. I went a date three weeks ago and it was lovely." He smiled triumphantly, neglecting to mention that the date only lasted about an hour before his date announced she had "somewhere else to be."

There was a sudden discomfort as Herman decided to join in on the party, jumping over the couch to sit next to him. Geez, they needed to get a bigger couch. Rain let out an 'Oof' at Herman's intrusion, scooting over a little to make some room for him. "Hey, at least I'm not the only one who thinks that."

Rain glanced over in surprise, silent for a moment as if he were unsure if Herman was referring to him. Then he began to laugh. "You couldn't be referring to me, could you Herman?" he began innocently. "Because I'm a human and she's a hell-beast, and we all know interspecies relationships never work out."

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She made a face at John's choice of name for her. She hated Vicky, too many grade school horror memories. "Yeah, some tastes just happen to be grosser than others," Vic muttered under her breath as Selene interjected, asking once more about the mystery phone. She laughed, choking slightly around another mouthful of cereal as she watched in what could only be described as amused horror at the interaction. The exchange of vaguely insulting comments could only end in tragedy, but Vic was very interested in seeing the exact kind.

As it resulted, she didn't have to wait too long to find out. She stood, too shocked to do anything but look horrified, as Selene's spoonful of oatmeal worked its way towards John's head. "Oh my god, Selene!" She put her bowl down on the counter with a clatter, hurriedly getting a paper towel and wetting it. She began wiping the gooey substance of his cheek as she spoke in a concerned tone over her shoulder. "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." With a sigh, she handed John the towel to let him finish his own cleanup and turned back to Selene. "Probably," she shrugged. "I'd just wait it out then. Whoever's phone that is will probably want it back, so they're bound to call it eventually. Or you could try giving yours a ring. You can borrow my cell if you need it."

She turned with everyone else at the sudden commotion that came stampeding through the kitchen. When Herman turned at Selene's comment, she waved excitedly at what had to be one of her favorite upperclassmen. He was followed by Jackson, all confidence and bravado and... was that a hint of hangover she spotted in his eyes? Clearly she had missed an excellent party last night. "Ooor that solves it, I guess. Maybe next time you should make a habit of checking with your roommate," she said in a tone that was all "all that hassle for this?". Turning, with another smile planted on her face, to Jackson, she chirped a pleasant "Good morning!"

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After Nichole was full aware that Herman was dejected from the conversation and located somewhere else far, far away, she hopped onto the counter and let out a sigh as she grabbed an orange from a bowl and began to peel it. However, it wasn't long until she had overheard Mr. Goody-Goody, aka the dork, aka Rain say something under his breath to Herman and to Herman only. However, little did anyone know that she had great hearing and made out exactly word by word of what he was saying. "Because I'm a human and she's a hell-beast, and we all know interspecies relationships never work out."

Something within her ached (her heart?). She couldn't tell if she should be offended by the comment, or hurt. It was odd to think of why she would be hurt. I mean, she did hate Rain. Didn't she? All he was, and all he ever will be to her is an inconspicuous dork. So, why would she be care whether or not what he thought of her? It's pointless, he's pointless. This whole rudiment was pointless which is why -without thinking- Nichole retorted back with the first insult that came to mind. "Are you sure about that, Rain? Because when was the last time you'd actually been in a relationship? Maybe you and relationships just don't mix. Period."

*Wrrrrrrrt. Wrrrrrrrrrrt. Wrrrrrrrrrt.*

Nichole puffed out a sigh and fumbled in her 32b sized bra for the buzzing cell phone that spent most of its time in there. Having to have found it; she scanned at the caller id and noticed that it was from Briony, of course. Good ole' Briony Sullivan. Nichole's forever best friend, her twin, the other person (aside from Herman and a few others) she had known to be around and clung to more than peanut butter and jelly. Nichole and Briony has been best friends as long as she could remember. And, in addition, she was perhaps the only female breed that was more on the verge of pursuing her rebellion.


From:Bri-Bri {Briony}

To:Big Mama {Nichole}

Nikki! Where the hell are you??? Did you substantially forget that we had to clean-up the wall we tagged?? If you don't get your butt over here, say hello to two weeks of detention.

It read. "Crap," she grumbled under her breath. She forgot that her Spanish teacher would be there any minute to see the artwork sprayed on the wall of the Northwest hallway, the artwork that she and a few others were told to clean up before the next morning, and that morning so happened to be this one. She stuffed the remains of the orange slices in her mouth before hopping off the counter, moving over toward Rainer, and snatching away his coffee. She drunk it, merrily sipping it down til' it was all gone. Then, returned the mug with a wink.

"I knew you'd come in handy. For once." And then she left with a teasing kiss blown in Jack's direction..feeling triumphant as ever.

When Rainier confessed to the eons that had passed since he had been on a date, a single date, Elijah thought his insides would burst. He did all he could to contain the urge to laugh until his face turned beet red and tears streamed down his eyes. But there was no stopping him. "What?! Three weeks?!" He pressed a hand to his chest to keep it from splitting apart. It took him several minutes to calm himself down. Finally, he wiped the tears from his eyes and caught his breath.

"Okay, wow... Rain, when are you taking the orders? Seriously? You don't have to be chaste to be smart," he said, ruffling Rain's hair. "But seriously... I'm being serious here," Elijah put on his best impression of sobriety. It wasn't that he was incapable of plights of austerity, just that it rarely did him any good. Inevitably the thought of Rain on a date with wallpaper or someone who resembled wallpaper kept creeping back into his thoughts. He stifled them down and with only a slight crack of a smile, he said, "Look," he said, gesturing to himself and Herman, "we're just looking out for you. Besides, " casting a glance at Nichole, "you could do worse. You probably have. You don't have to marry her. I wouldn't suggest it," Then lowered his voice to a whisper, "She will eat you alive,"

It wasn't that Nichole terrified him. Well, it was in fact. Partly because she seemed to have super human hearing among her many other dark arts. When she chimed in, Elijah caught a shiver up his spine. How the hell did she do that? "Maybe having fun, isn't the worst thing you could do, Rain. We could double date or something. Go bowling. Wear stupid shoes and get drunk on cheap beer. There's so much more to life than just sitting around watching the world go down in flames. Just sayin'," He pressed a finger to Rain's temple, "Think about it,"

John managed to avoid the worst of the oatmeal. Nonetheless, there was a glob on his cheek which Victoria had set to cleaning off him. He smiled at her. Really, it was just oatmeal. Still, this was typical of the girl. You could go from having a debate or argument with her but, when the chips were down, she was a kind soul. He placed a hand on her as he helped her wipe it off him.

"It's fine, Vic. Oatmeal has never hurt anyone. Not that I don't like the attention," he teased her lightly. Unfortunately, they were interrupted with Jackson's arrival, but John greeted him nonetheless.

"Good morning."




Jack watched Nichole walk in as confident and expressive as ever. He blushed a little bit at the kiss she blew at him. He hated it when she did that. The girl was a good-looking, intelligent, and confident, all attractive traits in his opinion, but that didn't mean she should be able to turn him into his high school self so easily. Strangely, the dorm as a whole contained a plethora of attractive and brilliant people. Was he not comparing Eleanor earlier to a gothic angel statue he once saw at home? He himself was " Hollywood nerdy cute" as he once heard someone describe it. It was atypical for people to be given both mental brilliance and physical beauty outside the movies. Was there a bias on the part of the college trustees?

He was interrupted from his musings, however, as he caught site of a look of hurt on Nichole's face at something Rain muttered. It vanished in a second, but it was still there.

"He didn't mean it," he told her. People seldom do.

"Love is not a feeling but an act of will. A mean word here or a kind one there builds up an inclination in one direction or the other. It builds towards healthy relationships or sickness, ill-will, apathy," he muttered to himself, his mind racing, not caring if the others heard.

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El nodded solemnly as Jack agreed with her on the discussion front. She was well aware of the teachers being perhaps the opposite of progressive, but she it was a lovely thought nonetheless. "Yeah," she sighed, "maybe it's for the best. Not so sure how well I'd fare in a class where all we had to do was talk." It was a biting tone, a hint of resentment, of venom, in her words. She couldn't say she appreciated her inability to speak out, or perhaps loudly. In fact, she wasn't sure if her professors even knew she was in their class half the time. She tended to have that effect on people. She was the kind of person who always seemingly faded into the background, a face that no one could ever quite remember. And sometimes she appreciated it. Other times she despised it.

She bore a hint of a smile as she turned to Alec. He had always been a kindred soul, one who never judged her silence, never had difficulty remembering her name. "I understand. I haven't written anything bordering on a week, and I suspect it has something to do with the lack of quiet one can find around here." As if on cue, a loud "discussion" between Rain and Elijah broke out. When the two were in the same room together, there was rarely anything even resembling silence. If she was being honest, she would indeed have to admit that the confined space had shown its effect on her work. Back when she was still in her house, she had been alone entirely. Her father barely spoke a word to her, and as a result she had all the quiet she could ever need to let the poison take control of her pen. Now, though, there was little of that.

She watched as her friend breezed in and out of the room, causing a massive scene as she so often tended to do. A short, breathy laugh escaped her lips as she did, and, catching Rainier's eye, she gave him a pointed look. He made a face at her, scoffed, and looked away; she smiled semi-triumphantly.

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A comment came from somewhere, and he looked towards the counter and found Nichole sitting there, peeling an orange as she retorted with a biting remark. Of course. Her and her super hearing. "Ouch," he laughed. She could be vicious when she wanted to be. "Look," he said, turning to Elijah, "has it ever occurred to you guys that maybe I don't want to be in a relationship? What makes you think I'm not perfectly happy being alone?" The look on his face was vaguely reminiscent of the same one he had when he went home for break and his mother had already asked about any girls in his life for the twentieth time. "And that includes," he said sharply, with a pointed look in Elijah's direction, "meaningless hookups. They are not the solution to my 'roboticness.' " He raised his hands on the word, waving them in a way that made it clear he thought Elijah was a loon.

Just then, Nichole came by, muttering something angrily under her breath. He wondered if it had anything to do with her deviant behavior and smiled triumphantly at the thought of her getting her just desserts. His smile faded quickly as she pulled his mug from the coffee table, practically chugging down his beloved source of caffeine. "Hey! Hey, what're you doing? Oh, come on." He shook his head defeatedly, purely resigned to watching her drink the last of his coffee. He watched her go with a sigh, then turned to Elijah once more. "She won't kill me. Yeah, you sure about that?" His comment was sardonic, a little biting, as he looked down sadly into his empty mug. "Yeah, I think I'm gonna have to pass on that whole double date thing."

He took a glance at Jack, who had chimed in moments earlier. With a laugh, he responded."Didn't mean it, did I?" In that cup was the last of the hazelnut coffee we had. Pretty sure I meant it when I called her a hellbeast." He took another look at his mug, frowning slightly. "And if I didn't mean it then, I do now." Was it a drastic overreaction for a cup of coffee? Perhaps. But in Rain's defense, it was the last of the hazelnut.

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Vic let out a short scoff at John's dismissal of the offending oatmeal. "Says you. But one time when I was ten, my neighbor thought it would be a good idea to pour her oatmeal on me after a sleepover because apparently I kicked her, and I'm still convinced that was the worst day of my life." Typical of her, she got worked up halfway through her short anecdote, her voice rising a few decibels as she recounted her tale of "horror". Grounding herself, she took a deep breath and spent several moments silent before shrugging and replacing the pleasant smile she previously had on.

It didn't take long for it to fall once more, though, as she caught the rest of Jackson's comment. With something of an aggravated sigh, she reached behind her and pulled her cell phone out of her back pocket. Extending it towards Selene as she returned to her previous post, she leaned over slightly to make eye contact with Jackson. "Super not cool, Jackson, I thought for sure this whole fiasco was over and done with for a second there."

There was a little something biting in her words, a little more anger than she had ever really shown before. Truthfully her aggravation had less to do with the cell phone baiting and a lot more to do with the very public display of affection that occured only moments ago. But that wasn't something she was about to admit to herself, let alone anyone else in the nearby vicinity. "Sorry," she sighed, "it's too cold to be peppy."