Waiting For Winter

One Up, One Down

"Rest here for awhile."

Cam tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she watched my lips move. She thought I didn't notice. Oh, I noticed.

"I know it's pretty early, but you haven't slept all night," I continued. "Your things will be there for you when you wake up."

"Thanks, Dean."

I gave her a smile, nodded, then turned and walked away. A minute later and my pocket vibrated. I brought out my phone and looked at the screen. Is she settled? How are things so far? I put my phone back in my pocket and continued walking. I soon found myself thinking about Kim pushing me. You weren't there! she'd proclaimed. Was I supposed to be there? Wasn't she the one who had feelings for Alexander and not me? Who in the hell does she think she is?!

I had to stop to calm my breathing. Enough, man, I thought, pulling myself together, I made her a promise. I've gotta keep it.

***

I woke up at 2.

"Shit," I said aloud. Looking around, I noticed my bed a few feet away from me, and noticed I'd slept in the chair. With a notepad and pen on my lap. The top of the paper was titled, "The Plan".

The Plan

• Get Kim to spread the word

• Tell Tim & get him in on it

• Select group of girls distract Alexander

• Select group of girls meddles with the cameras

• Tim & I provide get-away cars and protection

Uh. Wow. I'm a genius.

Knock knock. "Who is it?" I asked, folding back the notepad papers, closing it. I set it down on the left armrest beside me.

"Uh," her voice squeaked, and she coughed,"it's Kate again."

"Come in."

The door made an obnoxious creaking noise as she slowly pushed it open. She walked in wearing a flowing skirt and a collared shirt with the sleeves cut off. She looked like a princess from Hell with her purple hair, red lipstick and black eye shadow. "Can we talk?"

"Why else would you be here."

She glared at me, then gave herself permission to sit down across from me on my bed. She looked like she wanted to say something really personal but couldn't quite spit it out.

I sat up straight, annoyed, and nearly knocked the notepad off the chair. "What the hell do you want? You keep getting in my way and it's starting to really piss me off."

"I want to help."

I shook my head. "Help what?"

"I want to help you get us out of here."

Ok. How did she know about the plan? Fuck, that asshole, Tim! "Alright...and how do you think you could help?"

She suddenly grinned. "Let me take care of the cameras and security. Seeming as I snuck into here pretty easily while you were snoring up a storm, it'll be a piece of cake."

Sighing, I let the "Mean Dean" persona go. "Fine. If you could work on that right away, that'd be nice."

Kate stood and grinned at me with that old mischievous grin she always used to pull when she'd just gotten caught and was about to do it again. I watched her go, her skirt almost getting caught in the door as she shut it behind her. Laughing lightly, I glanced back down at my plans. So I've got Kate and her crew in on it. I wrote her name in beside the fourth bullet point. I smiled warmly at the thought of how far she's come. Setting my things down, I rose to my feet and yawned, walking to my dresser and quickly getting changed. Before leaving I ripped the page out of the notebook, and folded it into my pocket.