The Gloaming Girls

EPISODE TWO (Part 3/5)

When I get back to the dorm room at quarter to four, I expect it to be dark.

It's not.

Actually, all the lights are on, and to my surprise, Ness is sitting cross-legged on Emory's bed, hunched over a laptop.

I say, stupidly, "I thought you were going to bed."

"I was going to," Emory says, from where she's lying on her back next to Ness, "but then this intruder decided that she lives here too, apparently."

"Oh, whatever." Ness rolls her eyes, grinning.

It occurs to me right then that Ness and Emory might not just be coworkers. They might actually be friends.

Ness looks up at me. "Solve an argument for us."

Emory groans. "Not this."

"Do you think it's normal for someone to not notice something out of place in their dorm right away?"

"You can't pick test subjects you know are going to agree with you." Emory struggles to sit up, then punches Ness's shoulder.

"That's not what I'm doing." Ness rubs her shoulder. "I just think that Olyss might be a little more normal than you."

"Am I supposed to be flattered or offended?" I ask, sinking down onto the bed and fighting a yawn. "What's this about something out of place?"

"Flattered." Ness winks at me. "Em thinks it's absurd that I wouldn't have noticed that the plant was knocked over as soon as I got home."

It's weird to hear Emory referred to by nickname. It's even weirder that she doesn't seem to mind. "I guess that would depend on what you were doing. Were you busy thinking about something else?"

"See?" Ness crows.

Emory rolls her eyes, then is overtaken by a yawn and lies back down. "Whatever."

"Not everyone has super insane powers of observation," I point out. "Some of us are human beings."

"That's what I was saying!"

"Don't you two start ganging up on me for having superior genetics," Emory says, smiling wryly, then doubles over with a huff when Ness whacks her in the stomach with a pillow. "Hey! That's not fair. That's discrimination against the disabled."

"Sorry, couldn't hear you over your superior genetics." Ness laughs.

"Tell me again." Emory whirls her finger in a circle absentmindedly.

"Again?" Ness sounds aggrieved.

"We have a fresh pair of ears," Emory says.

I lean back against the wall and close my eyes, lids burning. "What are you telling her again?"

"Everything I did during the day," Ness says. "I've told you this three times already. I woke up, went to a morning class, which means I left at ten after nine. I'm definitely sure I locked the door, because I always do. After class, I went to work. We solved a big problem, so we had a little celebration, and then I went home. I was thinking through the problem, so I didn't notice the plant, but I'd had coffee when we were celebrating, so I was up later than usual, and then I crashed hard. I noticed the plant in the morning."

"And Aron was with you all day."

"Yeah," Ness says. "He was the one who facilitated the little celebration thing. So it couldn't have been while I was at work."

"And it couldn't have happened the day before?"

Ness shakes her head. "No. I watered it before I went to bed, and I definitely didn't knock it over."