Brittany paced across her dorm room. She glanced around at the items in the room, contemplating how she might pass the time. Reading was boring. She had been playing video games a lot lately and was somewhat burnt out on them. Her guitar sat in the corner, dusty and disused for quite some time. She walked over to it, lightly caressed the strings, and then sighed.
“This place is so boring.” She removed her hand from the instrument and walked to the window.
Snow drifted down lazily in aimless circles. The flakes were few, but the ground was already inches deep with the ice crystals. Despite the warmth of the room around her, Brittany shivered a little. Letting out a slow breath, she watched fog move along the glass, radiating outward. It slowly began to collapse in upon itself, leaving the window clear once more.
Her attention tugged itself in another direction once more, and she found herself staring at the perfectly made bed of her roommate. That side of the room begged for disorder. Brittany fought down the urge to unmake the bed and toss a few of her roommate’s items to the floor.
Tilting her head to each side, Brittany’s neck popped a few times. She stretched her arms upward, easing some of the pent up tension in her muscles.
“Maybe I should call Akai,” she said to the empty room. She looked to the clock on her nightstand, frowning. The numbers there read 2:00 PM. “Or not. She’s probably busy with her family.” The comment came out a little more harshly than Brittany had intended, but she simply shook it off.
On Christmas, all the students traveled home to be with their families. It was a small number of students who had no family to which to travel home. And of those, even fewer remained on school grounds for the 25th of December.
Looking once more to the window, Brittany took a deep breath, then grabbed up her coat. Slinging it on quickly, she proceeded to throw on her hat and head out into the hallway. Shutting her door behind her, she glanced both ways down the hallway.
The beige corridor seemed so lifeless. No students occupied the halls. No voices rang through the corridor. None of the doors to the rooms stood open. Brief moments like these made Brittany realize just how odd the school could be. There were always students around. At least two or three doors were always open.
She took another deep breath, fighting away the silence by uttering, “It’s too damn quiet around here!” She hummed a song to keep the quiet at bay as she made her way down the hall. After a few steps, she picked up into a jog. She grinned at the lack of reprimand from any nearby authority figures. They too fled back to their homes for the Christmas break.
She ran to the end of the hallway and slid to a stop on the tile floor. Her shoes emitted a loud, brief screech as she halted. She flung open the door to the stairwell, opting to bypass the elevators for today.
She dashed into the stairwell, then started taking the steps down two at a time. She paused at the bottom but for a brief second to catch her breath. She flung wide the next door as she did with the first, then darted into the final hallway.
She tore another path down the hallway, similar to the upstairs corridor. She reached the double doors that led to the lobby and pushed them open with the same resolve that had carried her through the previous doors. She glanced around at the empty room. Only one of the overhead fluorescent lights was on. It emitted a soft buzz, struggling in its own battle against the silence that threatened to swallow the school buildings. The TV carried no current, the seats held no students.
With only a brief, somber pause, she glanced to the doors at the front of the building. The glass doors lead out to the courtyard. As she threw them wide, a rush of biting cold greeted her. She stepped out into the snow, feeling it crunch beneath her feet.
This brought a grin to her face. She looked out across the courtyard filled with snow. No footprints broke the pristine white surface. Brittany smiled at the beauty of the scene. The trees stood tall, guarding over the area where students normally came to eat. The picnic tables waited patiently for the days of late winter and early spring, when students would return to them with cafeteria trays. The buildings loomed tall, confining the courtyard to this particular area and blocking it from the outside world.
Brittany took in another deep breath then let it go to watch the fog escape her lungs. After a few moments, she once more broke out into a run. Her footsteps left indents in the perfect surface of the snow. Bits of ice flew up into the air as her feet stepped up for another bound.
As she reached the first picnic table within running distance, she leapt high into the air. One foot touched down on the seat, which then launched her to the top of the table. She landed on the flat surface then flung wide her arms, tossed her head back, and shouted out, “I am the king of the school!” A loud laugh followed the statement as her own echo greeted her.
Her laughter was cut short, however, as a ball of ice crystals caught her across the crown of her fedora. She jumped slightly, startled, then looked in the direction of the offensive projectile.
Brittany’s green eyes met deep gray eyes beneath purple bangs. The girl antagonizing her wore a wide grin, tossing another snowball up and down in her right hand.
“Well, my king, I think you’re not doing a very good job at ruling this school. I’m here to overthrow you,” Mairi said.