With No Warning (Romance/Inspirational)(Complete)

CHAPTER 23: A New Do

CHAPTER 23: A New Do

“Rats!” Dakota exclaimed. The crack, followed by the roll of thunder, caused the electricity to blink, and her office computer to begin rebooting, right in the middle of inputting grades. The week had passed quickly, and she was entering Friday’s tests. Now she would have to figure out which ones saved, and which ones needed to be reentered. Maybe she would just fit the process into next week's schedule, she decided when it blinked again, just as her desktop and icons appeared on the screen.

Lora stuck her head in the door. “Bad storm brewing, I’m going, while the going is good and dry.”

“Me too!  Hold up, I’ll walk...” Another crack of thunder shook the building. “...Run with you.” Logging off the screen that had just blinked on, she grabbed her tote, and sprinted with Lora down the hall. Once outside, on the open campus, she nervously eyed the sky. “You think it’s safe to go across?”

The expanse of grass, they would need to cross, between the administrative building and the dorms, covered a tree dotted area of about three acres. Lora craned her neck, watching the sky for lightning. “Hope so, but let’s hurry. By the way, you know your favorite student is due back Monday, right?”

“Not Curt?” The dread in Dakota’s voice, rivaled the thunder in the distance.

“Yep. Suspension is officially over. His father was in Olivia’s office today.”

“So he is here now?”

“Not at school. He can’t come back on campus till Monday. Guess they are staying in a hotel in Tyler or something.”

“Great.” In a voice devoid of enthusiasm, Dakota replied. “Thanks for the warning. Seems like Olivia could’ve done that much.”

“Probably thought you would go on strike.” A strong gust of wind flattened Lora’s hair against the sides of her head.

Dakota turned her own face to the wind, using it to redirect a stray length of her long hair. “I would, if I thought it would work.”

They reached Dakota’s dorm first, and split, just as another clap of thunder reverberated the heavens. The dorm seemed eerily quiet, and she took a moment to check the sign out sheet, before continuing upstairs. Only three girls would be with her over the weekend. Bretni, Lana, and Cass, who were, all as a group currently, according to the sheet, at the local dollar store.

Nostalgically, she recalled, as she climbed the stairway and unlocked her room, the times Ranger had been her guard dog during the weekends in which she found herself totally alone. Shaking off the creeps, she reminded herself that the three girls were due back in an hour or so, and she would do well to use that time wisely.

Washing. Tossing a few straggler garments into the already bulging bag, she then dragged it into the laundry room, where she sorted clothes on the floor, beside the large folding table that dominated the middle of the room. Straightening from that task, she loaded the first washer, then heaved in exasperation, remembering that her detergent was still upstairs. As if cursing for her, a gargantuan boom of thunder vibrated, with a tremendous tremor, throughout the building, and the lights blinked off.

Bolting from the black room, she took a moment in the kitchen to still her pounding heart. As soon as the heartbeats slowed to a normal rhythm, she saw the silhouette in the doorway. And her arrhythmia began anew.

The pounding of her pulse literally pummeled at her chest from behind her ribcage. The electricity came back on, but she hadn't needed lights to identify the unwelcome body.  Tall and imposing, he filled the doorway that divided the kitchen from the media room. Although, instinctively, she knew his presence was not for a legitimate purpose, she directed her searching gaze beyond him.