Monday - January 20, 2003 (1:21pm) - Vaughn Center Commons Room
Yawning, Skye climbed up the last flight of stairs and stopped in the commons room where Robert was playing videogames with Shane and Jonathon.
�Hey Rob�� she started, standing behind the couch the three boys were sitting on. Immediately the action on the TV screen stopped, and he turned to her expectantly. �Did you get a new screen name?�
He smirked and shook his head, turning the game back on. �Nah, that was Nick,� he replied casually.
�Nick?� she repeated, more to help process the thought than for clarification purposes.
�Yeah, Nick - baseball ace eight,� he confirmed.
Slightly unnerved, she left the boys to their game and went to her room, thankful for Kasey�s absence. Dropping her bag in front of her desk, she kicked off her sneakers next to it before lying on her bed, wrapping a blanket around her, and closing her eyes against the afternoon sun that came through the window on the other side of the room.
In the commons room, Robert, completely unaware of the amount of time that�d past, said, �The guy has a huge crush on you.� When he turned around to see if she�d heard him over the loud explosions on the TV screen, he saw that she wasn�t there.
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Monday - January 20, 2003 (5:43pm) - Vaughn Center Dorms
�Have you seen Skye?� Robert asked his roommate the moment Nick walked through the doorway, catching him off guard.
He blinked a few times as his thoughts tried to comprehend the question and determine if it were a set up. �Noooooo� was I supposed to see her?�
�Nah, not really. She just came in a lot earlier and I haven�t seen her since then,� he said, shrugging. �I was just curious.�
Throwing his bag onto the middle of the floor, Nick kicked off his shoes and flopped face down onto his bed. �I don�t want to study!� he yelled, the mattress muffling his words.
Robert snorted as he closed his laptop. �Then don�t, but I have to hit up one of the girls in my abnormal psych class since I can�t find Skye.� Standing up from his desk, he walked to the door and turned back to Nick. �Want me to close the door?�
Nick rolled over onto his back and stretched his arms above his head, groaning as his sore muscles started to burn under the pressure. �Nah, that�s okay.�
Robert disappeared, leaving Nick alone to reconstruct the day�s lit class in his mind, coming to the conclusion that he�d probably be smarter if he paid more attention to what Skye said rather than just how she looked as she was saying it.
�Hey sexy, shouldn�t you be studying or playing videogames or something?� a female asked from the hallway.
Glancing in the direction of the voice, Nick grinned. �Hey Kasey. I�m sleeping. Don�t want to study.�
She stepped slowly into his dorm room, being careful where she placed her feet. �Well, that�s hard to do when your eyes are opened.�
Shrugging, he stayed silent for a moment before asking, �Have you seen Skye?�
He knew she was the wrong person to ask when her eyebrows arched higher on her forehead. �And why are you looking for Skye?�
Nick felt his face getting warmer as he turned back to the ceiling. �Rob was looking for her. Something about abnormal psych.�
Frowning disapprovingly, Kasey crossed her arms over her chest. �Well, I haven�t seen her since lunch. Did he check the library?�
He shrugged. �Don�t know. He just asked if I�d seen her.�
Their conversation paused for a moment before Kasey headed back towards her room. �I�ll leave you to your nap. Sleep tight, Nick.�
Rubbing his eyes, Nick heard the door across the hall open and close before he reached out and grabbed a baseball off the ledge of the window above his bed and began to toss it up in the air, thinking about what he wanted to do.
Time passed until a knock on his opened door surprised him, causing the baseball to hit the mattress instead of his hand before it rolled across the floor.
�Excuse me. Are you Nick Carter?� an unfamiliar voice asked.
Sitting up, he turned to find an unfamiliar girl in a pink shirt standing in the hall, looking at him nervously.
�Yeah, I am,� he replied curiously.
The unidentified girl stepped cautiously through the mess in the floor much like Kasey had done moments before. �You had a package delivered today, but you have to come sign for it downstairs,� she replied, handing him a slip of paper.
�Cool. Thanks,� he said as she quickly turned back around and left.
Passing his hand over his eyes again in a fruitless attempt to wake up, Nick glanced down at his feet before pulling his socks off and standing up. Grabbing his keys on the way out, he shut the door and locked it, hoping in the back of his mind that Robert had his key with him.
As he walked down the hallway towards the stairs, Nick unfolded the slip of paper the messenger girl had given him only to see a date and time of delivery on it with the request for him to pick the package up at the main desk downstairs.
Turning the corner, he slammed into something that pushed him backwards, knocking him off balance, before he heard a small squeal that ended in a thump. Before he looked up to see whether he�d guessed the right identity of what he�d collided with, he had to fight back the grin that threatened to turn into laughter. Skye sat in the middle of the hallway, looking stunned and slightly disheveled as she met Nick�s eyes. A now half empty laundry basket had spilt its contents into the floor around them and a heavy-looking textbook had landed up against the far wall.
�I�m sorry. I should have probably been paying more attention to where I was going,� Nick began, trying hard to control himself as he tried to read the look on the girl�s face. She almost looked like she was about to cry.
Her head still spinning from the abnormal psych research she�d been doing while her laundry dried, Skye attempted to slowly piece together why she was in the floor with the new guy, her clothes spread all around them. Tucking a piece of loose hair behind her ear, she turned away from him and started laughing as she began throwing her clothes back into her laundry basket. �No, it�s okay. I was lost in my psych book.�
Nick swallowed hard as he helped her, doing his best to ignore the undergarments that he�d accidentally picked up; seeing his red face, Skye laughed again and leaned over to grab the lacy blue underwear out of his hand and tossed it into her basket.
�What? You�ve never seen a thong before?� she asked teasingly as she smiled at him.
�Not� not ones that belong to someone I barely know,� he stuttered, his face turning red in embarrassment.
Her smile grew bigger as she glanced back up at him before grabbing a pair of jeans that had slid down the wall and tossing them towards the basket. �So did I do all right this morning? In class?�
Confused, Nick scrunched up his forehead, trying to figure out what she was talking about until the proverbial light bulb flashed over his head. �You knew that was me?�
�Not at the time, no. Rob told me this afternoon. I had no idea who it was.�
Grabbing her psych book, Nick closed it before placing it firmly on top of the rumpled pile of clothes. �Yes, you did a great job,� he replied before turning his eyes to hers. �Don�t open this book until you get back to your room.�
Nodding, Skye felt her cheeks grow warmer as he smiled at her, causing butterflies to flutter in her stomach. �Yes, sir.� Nick stood up, and before she had a chance to do the same, he held his hand out to her; Skye looked up at him for a second before placing her hand into his and allowing him to pull her to her feet. �Thank you,� she said, her voice coming out much quieter than she�d intended.
�You�re welcome,� he replied, leaning over to grab her laundry basket before handing it to her. �Think you can make it to your room without dropping it?�
She grinned and nodded. �Yeah, the book is closed. I should be fine. Thank you.�
Hesitantly, Nick headed towards the main staircase again as Skye walked towards her dorm room. Before the distance between them grew too much, she stopped and called back to him, �Hey new guy��
Nick spun around on his heels, more eager than he thought he should be. �Yeah?�
He thought he could see her blushing a little bit, but he wasn�t too sure. �Good luck with cuts tomorrow.�
�Thanks,� he replied as she smiled at him once more before disappearing around the corner. Standing in the middle of the hallway for a moment, he felt like he�d forgotten something. Heading back towards his room, he entered their hallway to find her standing in front of her door, balancing the basket between her leg and the wall as she fumbled with her keys. �Hey Skye?�
She turned her head towards the voice that had called her name, a little surprised to see Rob�s roommate standing there. She raised her eyebrow, and before she had the chance to respond, he went on. �Rob was looking for you a little while ago. Something about abnormal psych homework or something.�
Rolling her eyes, she shook her head. �Not surprised. Is he in your room?�
�No, he went to look for someone else. I guess he really didn�t know what he was doing.�
Suddenly the door in front of her swung open, sending her basket tumbling onto the floor at Kasey�s feet while Skye caught herself by grabbing a hold of the doorframe.
�I thought I heard you out here. Who are you talking to?� she asked, glancing down the hall in both directions.
When Skye turned, she found the hallway empty of the blonde man that had made her stomach flutter, and she shrugged. �No one. Talking to myself again.�
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Monday - January 20, 2003 (8:12pm) - Campus
�So you�re sure that�s all we have to do?� Robert asked for what felt like the millionth time since he and Skye had gone to the cafeteria to eat dinner together and discuss their psych homework.
�That�s all we have to do. Call it preliminary brain storming for a possible lab experiment,� she said before sticking another spoonful of chocolate pudding into her mouth.
They walked back towards their dorm in silence as he mulled over what looked like an impending project, and she enjoyed the rest of the pudding one of the staff had slipped her on their way out. Robert became distracted from his thoughts when he noticed Skye took the time to lick her spoon clean after each bite before sticking it back into the plastic cup.
�Why do you do that?� he asked through his laughter.
She glanced over at him while she sucked on the spoon, making sure to get every last bit of pudding off of it. �Do what?�
His laughter grew as she looked up at him, her eyes wide with kid-like innocence. �That! Licking the spoon between each bite!�
Glancing down at the spoon in one hand and the diminishing pudding in the cup she had in the other, she looked at Robert with frustration. �How else are you supposed to eat pudding?�
For a few seconds, as they stopped and stood at the foot of the stairs that led to the front door of the Vaughn Center, he thought she was serious; then her mask broke and she began to laugh. �I don�t know. That�s how I�ve always eaten it. Childhood habit, I guess you could say.�
The two friends continued up the stairs and into the warm building, squinting at the bright light that contrasted to the surprising darkness that had surrounded them outside. Holding the door open for her, Skye heard Robert snap his fingers as she walked past.
�That�s what I�ll do!� he exclaimed.
�What? Eat pudding? I don�t think that would work as a clinical study for abnormal psych.�
Looking at her like she was nuts as she put more pudding in her mouth, the spoon completely upside down this time, he said, �It scares me that you followed my brain back to the psychology homework without any questions.�
She shrugged and started climbing the stairs, sniffling slightly from what was becoming the beginning of a head cold. �I�m smart.�
Shaking his head, Robert sprinted to catch up with her halfway up the first flight of stairs. �But no, not eating pudding. I meant like� childhood habits that carried into adulthood. Why do some go away and some don�t? Are they caused by environmental changes? Outside personal influ� Wait a second.�
He stopped again as Skye calmly continued up the stairs towards their floor. �How did you eat pudding when you were a kid?! Weren�t your parents complete vegans then? No dairy products?�
�Grandma�s house,� she replied simply, disappearing up another staircase.
Laughing, he climbed the stairs two at a time until he caught up with her on the landing of the fourth floor. Walking back to their rooms, Skye stopped suddenly in the middle of the hallway, placing the spoon carefully into the plastic cup before digging in one of the front pockets of her jeans.
Pulling out a slip of paper, she handed it to Robert. �Give this to the new guy for me.�
Immediately continuing on her way, she stuffed another spoonful of pudding into her mouth as he called out, �Whooooa! Hold up a second, smart one. What is it?�
Her keys in hand, she shrugged. �Don�t know. It was in my laundry. I wasn�t sure if it was important or not.�
Before he could ask her any more questions, she�d pushed her door opened and waved at him. �Goodnight,� she called out before filling her mouth with the last bit of her dessert and closing the door, leaving Robert confused and slightly perturbed in the hallway.