Wishful Deviltry

Chapter Eleven

    When they made it back to the building that housed the dorms they found Jessica sitting at the bottom of the stairs waiting for them to show up.
    "It's about time you guys got here to see your dorms." Jessica jumped up and looped her arm around Karis's arm. "I've been working on our dorm room all day and you're going to love it. Sorry guys, you're on your own. I'm not touching your dorm room.  There's no telling what I might find in there."
    "Don't gripe about our bachelor pad. It's well suited for our needs." Kenny said with pride.
    "Yeah, full of video games and dirty laundry. Come on Karis, I'll show you what a real dorm room looks like."
    Karis looked at Kaleb with concerned eyes as he motioned for her to go.  Jessica cheerfully pushed Karis in front of her and led her up the stairs to the second floor.  She skipped in front of her until they reached the fourth door on the right with the number 208 on it.
    "All the girls' dorms are in even numbers and the boys are in odd.  That's so we don't have any excuses to be in each other's rooms, if you know what I mean." Jessica explained as she unlocked the door.
    All of a sudden Titanium's face popped into Karis's head.  He was smiling at her.  His light brown eyes gazed down at her lips. She smiled when he leaned his forehead on hers and closed his eyes.  Their lips nearly touched.  The sound of a door opening abruptly close to them brought Karis out of her daydream.  She shook her head to clear her thoughts and glanced over her shoulder to see a girl poke her head out of her dorm room a couple doors down.
    "Can you two keep in down out here? I can here you all the way in my bathroom."  The blonde girl Karis had seen on the motorcycle earlier said in a squeaky, sarcastic voice.  She leaned against her dorm door glaring at Jessica. "If you're talking about getting caught in a boy's room, I don't think you would have that kind of problem, Jessica. You are a zero and you know it. The only way you'd be caught in a boy's room is if they needed some tutoring.  No, wait, you're not smart enough to tutor either. I guess you would never be caught in a boy's room."
    Jessica stood up straight, looking the girl up and down. "Yeah, Ethereal, at least the boys like me for who I am and not what I can give them, which in your case is nothing good from what I hear."
    "Oh, whatever!  You better let your friend there know that Titanium is mine and she needs to keep her hands off." Ethereal said looking at Karis with a disgusted expression.
    "He sure made it real clear that he's yours when he practically threw up after you rode off on your dream cycle." Jessica said tauntingly.  "Besides, Karis has Titanium and Kaleb after her right now and she has only been here one day.  What does that say about you, Ethereal, huh?"
    "JESSICA!" Karis hissed quietly trying to shut her up. "Nobody is after me.  I'm just friends with everybody. I can't deal with this right now!"
    Jessica turned to Karis and whispered, "We know this, but she doesn't. Just go along with it, you'll be fine."
    "Oh yeah, you mean Mr. Blue eyes. Well, he's new here, once he makes new friends he'll forget about her." Ethereal said nodding her head towards Karis. "Isn't that right, Jessica? Oh wait, you haven't told her your story yet have you. Well, I'll just leave you with that thought.  Hope you have fun tomorrow, Karin."
    "It's Karis and I'm sure I will."
    "Okay, whatever.  I really don't care." Ethereal opened her door.  She gave them one last smirk before she walked in her dorm and slammed the door behind her. The pictures on the wall rattled for a second.
    "Don't worry about her.  She thinks she owns this school. What she doesn't realize is all the crap that comes out of her mouth is all bark with no bite."
    Jessica opened the door to their dorm and ushered Karis inside. The dorm on the inside was a lot bigger than she thought it would be and a lot cleaner. There was a large open room that had two desks on either side with a computer on each of them, a couch sat in the middle of the room with what looked to be a fifty two inch television against the opposite wall that was hooked up to a DVD/Blu-ray, Video Game Center, and a MP3 docking device with surround sound.
    "Well, what do you think?" Jessica asked with a smile on her face.
    "I think I don't ever want to leave this room. This is amazing!  Are all the dorms like this one?"
    "The floor design is, but all the material inside here is mine.  And yours, of course."
    "This is awesome, Jessica. When did you have time to get all this stuff in here? I know you moved in this room from another room just to help me."
    "Remember, you spent a lot of time in the healing room. During that time I made arrangements with Mr. Carson on our dorm rooms.  I put your backpack in your room."
    Karis's eyes got wide. "We have separate rooms?"
    "Of course silly, you didn't think we would be sleeping together did you? I mean, you're really cute and all, but definitely not my type; I'm straight." Jessica said giggling.
    "Very funny. What I meant was all the dorms I've seen has only one room with a bunk bed."
    "Welcome to the high life. This isn't a summer camp, Karis.  This is your new home. We're like sisters now!" Jessica squealed.
    "Okay, which room is mine?" Karis asked smiling. She loved the idea of having separate rooms. She knew that if Jessica and her slept in the same room Jessica would constantly strike up a conversation and never let her sleep.
    "Yours is the door on the right. You also have your own closet and bathroom with a built in shower." Jessica said as she opened Karis's bedroom door and pointed towards a door that was shut. "The closet is in the bathroom so you can get dressed in there if you want to. You're going to love it here and we're going to have so much fun."
    Karis walked into her new room and looked around. It was twice the size of her room at home. She walked over to the window next to her queen size bed and looked out at the beautiful view of the training field. There were several big trees around with green leaves swaying in the light breeze. She looked down at one peculiar tree that had branches that bend in different directions. It looked like a perfect tree to climb if she was a little kid. When she looked down at the base of the tree she saw a dark shadow. It looked like a human shadow, but she couldn't tell from far off. Karis rubbed both her eyes with the back of her hands and took another look. The shadow was gone.
    "Are you okay, Karis? You just turned pale white, like you saw a ghost."  Jessica asked as she walked up beside Karis to look out the window.
    "Yes, I'm fine. I just thought I saw something. Have you ever felt like somebody is watching your every move? It's nothing.  I must be pretty tired. Let me get a shower and I'll feel much better."
    "That sounds like a great plan. I have some clothes you can borrow until we can go shopping. The pants might be little big on you but it's better than nothing." Jessica said walking towards Karis's door. "You know, I'd be pretty worried about you if you didn't feel the least paranoid after what you've been through but your safe here. Try not to worry, okay? I'll go check on the guys to see how their rooms are coming along."
    "Hey, Jessica." Karis called out before she got to the door.
    Jessica stopped and whipped her head around to look at Karis as she grabbed for the door knob. "Yeah, what's up?"
    "Thank you, I mean it with all my heart. Thank you."
    "No problem girl, we're sisters now. We need to stick together, besides your pretty much the only girl friend I have." Jessica chuckled as she walked out the door.
    Karis sat on her soft bed and waited patiently for Jessica to bring her some clothes. She debated whether or not she should lie down on the pillow but she knew once she went horizontal she would be asleep. Jessica finally came in with a blue jean shorts and a navy blue t-shirt. Karis smiled as she took the clothes from Jessica and disappeared into her bathroom to take a shower.
    Kaleb followed Kenny and Titanium up the stairs to the second floor of the building. He carefully inspected each dorm room to his right to see if he could figure out which one Karis went in to, but all the doors looked the same except for the room numbers.
    When they reached the second floor they walked to the fifth door on the left. Kenny unlocked the door with the number 209 on it and walked through the door. Kaleb looked at Titanium, waiting for him to say something canny, but Titanium just motioned with his hand for him to go into the room after Kenny.
    Kaleb looked at Titanium with tired eyes and sighed. "You're going to break her heart, aren't you?"
    Titanium closed his eyes as he pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers, clearly not expecting Kaleb to bring up Karis. He blew out a thwarting breath through his purged lips and slowly glanced at Kaleb with unreadable eyes. For a moment, Kaleb thought he somehow broke Titanium's conceited personality, but Titanium just shrugged his shoulders without saying a word as he turned around and started walking down the hallway to his dorm room. Titanium unlocked the door and looked at Kaleb again before he opened the door.
    "I'm going to go take a shower. I suggest you do the same." Titanium opened the door and disappeared into his dorm room leaving Kaleb alone in the quiet hallway.
    Kaleb stood there for a minute trying to figure out what to do next. The last two days had been nonstop and now that it had slowed down he didn't know what to do with his free time.
    "Are you coming in here or do you want to move your bed out into the hallway?" Kenny said from inside the room. Kenny's accent was so strong that Kaleb almost had to ask him to repeat what he had said but he decided to just walk into the room instead. Kenny was sitting on the recliner with a video game controller in his hand playing something that looked like Mortal Kombat to Kaleb.
    "Hey man, which room is mine? I just want to get a shower." Kaleb said as he leaned against a recliner on the other side of the room from Kenny.
    "Your room is the door on the left. Jessica brought your duffle bag in from the healing room and put it on your bed. Towels are in the cabinet in your bathroom." Kenny said without looking up from the television.
    "Thanks man." Kaleb walked in his room to find his torn duffle bag on the bed. He sat on the end of the bed and began rummaging through it. He pulled out a twelve inch dagger with a Kevlar cord tied around the steel handle to make sure it was not damaged. As he pulled the blade out of its sheath he checked the sharpness with his thumb. When he was satisfied he placed the blade back in its sheath and laid the dagger on his bed. Next he pulled out a Tomahawk Medieval Broadsword that was still in its sheath and placed it next to the dagger on the bed. He reached in and felt something at the bottom of the duffle bag. He signed in relief as he pulled out a small black cloth with a leather cord tied around it and placed it on his chest over his heart. Kaleb smiled to himself thankful that he didn't lose his throwing knives that his mother gave him when he was little. Kaleb placed the knives on his bed and shook the duffle bag and noticed it was empty.
    "Dang, I lost two knives and a King Arthur replica sword." He said to himself as he stood up and grabbed the empty bag off the bed to throw it away. Half way to the trash can something fell out of the side pocket of the bag? Kaleb looked down to see what fell out and saw something that resembled a dark blue cell phone spinning in circles on the floor.
    "There's Karis's phone. Now, how did it get in there?" Kaleb bent down to picked up the phone and accidentally pushed a button.  The screen lit up. It showed an unknown number that called approximately four hours ago with an area code that Kaleb did not recognize. He knew Karis would want to know about this so he decided to get a quick shower then go find Karis.