Skaters 101 (but without the skating)

What's gonna work-

"Hello?"

"Gabrielle, it's Yulia here. Please come to my apartment right now. I live on the top floor. You will know which one it is when you arrive. It's an emergency."

Gabrielle wondered what Yulia wanted from her. She had never interacted with her before outside of class. Nevertheless, Gabrielle decided to go anyway.

"It's like this..." Yulia threw open the door to the room Evgenia and her shared. (It was more like Evgenia's room, because Yulia usually hung out in the study room)

Gabrielle didn't need much explanation as soon as she saw Evgenia headbanging to the beats, dancing wildly while singing along to the lyrics. "ANIME ANIME ANIME YEAH"

"Do you even know what you're singing?" Gabrielle shouted over the blaring of the tuba.

"No!" Surprisingly, Evgenia had heard her. "But it's great!"

"Who gave this to you?" Gabrielle asked Yulia.

"Boyang."

"I should have guessed."

Yulia carefully pinched the speaker with two fingers and passed it to Gabrielle. "Would you know how to stop it?" She asked doubtfully as Gabrielle received it.

"I can try." She replied thoughtfully, examining the speaker while Evgenia continued shouting the made-up lyrics along to the music. She walked into the kitchen.

Yulia followed close behind and watched as Gabrielle rummaged in the cupboard for a pot.

"I need to heat this up in water first." She explained, and Yulia hurried to assist her.

Soon enough, the speaker was submerged in water, in a pot over the stove. The music was still playing, though more muffled.

Yulia watched in interest as Gabrielle turned the knob when the water boiled over, turning off the heat.

"The screws expand and then I can do this." Gabrielle used a wet cold cloth to fish out the camera, producing a screwdriver and unscrewing the screws that held it together.

Using a wire cutter, she cut the wires and the music came to an abrupt stop.

"Tweezer?"

Yulia handed Gabrielle a pair of tweezers.

Carefully, Gabriele extracted the tiny chip in it that contained the data, (Yanhan and Boyang's duet) and stored it in a small box.

"What are you going to do with that?" Yulia asked, intrigued.

"Blackmail material" Gabrielle answered simply. "Boyang taught me that. You never know when what you say or sing or even play may come against you."

As they were walking out the door, suddenly, Gabrielle spun around to face Yulia, smiling as sweetly as possible. "Since I helped you get rid of that awful music, could you do me a favor?"

Expecting what was coming next, Yulia shoved Gabrielle out the door and slammed it. "Thank you, but no, I can't."

~

Although Yuzuru slept on the top bunk, he could feel the bed creak as Shoma tossed and turned. He cast worried glances at his dorm mate, before finally asking, "Shoma? Is everything alright?"

"Of course not!" Shoma scowled. "Firstly, you made me go to bed. IT'S ONLY 6.30pm! And secondly, the assignment is due tomorrow! We didn't manage to get Yulia's assignment! What are we going to do now?"

"There, there." Yuzuru had somehow magically appeared at Shoma's side, patting his head like he did on Shoma's first night. "Don't worry about the assignment. Early to bed, early to rise, as the saying goes. And the earlier we rise, the more time we have to figure out what to do." Actually, the true reason for this was because Yuzuru did not want Shoma to even think of pulling an all-nighter. Getting him to sleep was the best way to make sure he did not do that.