Room 818: is a G҉ A҉ N҉ G҉

[Deamon]

The door buzzed open and Arizona strode into her room for the week. Without breaking stride, she unhooked her kit bag from around her upper body and tossed it across the room with a chest pass. It landed on the covers of the further away bed with a satisfying sound.

"That one's mine." She stated bluntly as she continued moving across the room, coming to a stop at the window. She looked out at the skyline of D.C. Not that there was much of one. But still, it felt good to be off the bus. It had been a long journey. One that felt like it had taken days. It was probably due to everyone on the bus. Some of her classmates were fucking annoying. So maybe that was why she was in a bad mood. It could also have been that a lot of the team had decided not to go, which left her with a lack of friends on the trip. Luckily she still had Jonah. He was there and maybe they'd be able to explore D.C. together.

Unless he just wanted to spend time with his own friends.

It was hard to tell where they were at. They'd been talking since prom but they hadn't met up that much. She liked him a lot and assumed the feeling was mutual but...

Arizona pulled a face and stepped back from the window. The other thing she wasn't sure of was the room situation. She assumed the teachers were fucking with her. Rhonda and Cheridene were on the trip but she wasn't with them. Somehow she had ended up with Faith, Katie and Ivy. Faith was fine she had been cool in the game store that time. She didn't know much about Katie, apparently, she boxed and had anger issues. But then there was Ivy. Ivy was well-known and her rep was that she was a bitch. A bitch who enjoyed stirring up drama and, ironically, looking down on others. She thought she was better than everyone else basically. Arizona wasn't going to be accepting any of that shit. If the pastel gremlin decided to start anything she was going to get launched out the window.

In short, it wasn't the start she wanted.

From where she was Arizona kicked her shoes off and with a loud sigh fell back onto the bed.

[Frozen Smoke]

Faith had considered protesting after she'd managed to get a look at the room assignments for the trip. She had so many friends, and yet whatever process they'd used to pick spots had seemingly decided to give her stewardship of GHHS' anger mismanagement club, which was not something she wanted to deal with. But - She was no hypocrite, and as minimal a flex as it would have been to send a nice, politely worded email to the head of the trip requesting a room change, it wasn't the kind of thing she was going to do. She wasn't going to mire herself in the swamp of quid-pro-quo, just to get some slightly better room companions.

Besides, she only had to be in the room after curfew, and maybe just maybe they could reach enough of a peace according to sleep during that. She could spend every other moment roaming the halls of power with her friends, and the list of places they were going to visit was stretching long - The Smithsonian, the White House (of course), the NRA Museum, a tour of all the memorials (From Lincoln to Unknown Soldier), the usual stuff. But she had so many other things she wanted to do - She had been looking to see if there was some place all the Congresspeople shot locally, and there'd been a few promising leads here and there. There'd undoubtedly be a protest somewhere, and she wanted to go and watch it - Not to shout them down, she didn't want to get in trouble, she just wanted to see people actually doing it with her own eyes.

That was what kept a genuine smile on her face as she burst into the room, holding in an unsightly sigh of relief as she realised only Arizona was in the room right now. She might actually be able to escape from this process at least somewhat unscathed. 'Zona had seemed edgy at that game shop, but that wasn't exactly helped by Lucas, so she was probably alright overall. Now if only she could find her b-

There were only two beds.

"What the fuck." Faith commented flatly, as she looked at the other double bed.

"There are only two beds?"

"... WHO'S BRIGHT IDEA WAS THAT?"

[Deamon]

The door opened again and Arizona turned her head to the side to see who it was. Luckily it was just Faith. Faith was chill. She could manage Faith.

Arizona couldn't help but laugh as she heard Faith's reaction to the bed situation. It was some priceless shit. It made Arizona look forward to seeing Ivy's reaction. There was no way It was going to be good. The only real question was how big a tantrum it would be. Arizona wanted to be in the room when it happened. If only for the show. As for Katie, Arizona had no idea.

"Honestly," Arizona began as she turned her head to the side to face Faith. "I don't really give a shit, because this bed is mine." Her hand patted the duvet for emphasis. She didn't know if she was going to get challenged on it. In reality, Arizona didn't care that much about it. Sure, there were only two beds but they had a floor, and they could also just share. It wasn't exactly hard to figure out. There was an urge bubbling within Arizona. It was the urge to fuck with Faith. To really push the two beds thing to the extreme. But there wasn't any reason to do it, plus she didn't want to.

It was weird in a way. Arizona hadn't spoken to Faith to any real degree since the game store but she still remembered it. There was still some memory of that day. It wasn't like the situation with Lucas, where she could have just ended him there at the table. Faith had welcomed her into that and taken the time to teach her. It must have taken patience because Arizona knew she had no idea what she was doing.

"The good news is that you can claim the other one."

[Frozen Smoke]

A frustrated sigh and momentary look at the ceiling later and Faith had managed to regain her composure a little. It wasn't like she'd expected the room situation to be great anyway, free trips normally meant barely-above-free everything else, but she'd hoped they'd at least try and treat them like adults.

She looked at the free bed, then at Arizona's bed.

If she took the free bed, she'd have to share with either Ivy or Katie, because the chances of them agreeing on who would sleep on the floor were probably zilch. If she claimed a spot on Arizona's bed, she'd probably be hanging off the edge by the time she got in it, plus she was part of the Basketball team and whilst had gone to prom with Jonah, they weren't officially dating as far as she knew, the team certainly had an... Air around it.

She didn't want to give off the wrong message by claiming a spot next to her in bed when there were other options.

Faith's response came in the form of another sigh and a disgruntled frown as she stuck her thumb under strap on her duffel bag, turning and opening the door to the en-suite bathroom, before slinging her own bag into the bathtub with a soft thump. Katie and Arizona could argue about who had to share a bed with Ivy, she was going to stand back and not to get made collateral damage.

[Pippi]

Katie could hear Faith’s complaints from out here in the corridor. She rolled her eyes, sighing as she nudged her bag with her foot and folded her arms, building up the mental strength necessary to open the bedroom door. She’d been looking forwards to the trip. She didn’t have any plans in regards to what she wanted to do in D.C., but a week out of the house and away from her dad sounded like heaven.

Then she’d found out the room assignments, and she wondered whether she’d have been better off spending a week in her basement with her punching bag. Cause odds were here, she’d find a very animate, very loud, brand new punching bag anyway.

She sighed again, picking her sports bag up by the straps, taking a couple of steps closer to the bedroom door. Arizona she could deal with, Arizona was totally fine. No problems there. They weren’t hella close or anything, but they didn’t need to be. She didn’t regularly piss Katie off, and that was enough. Faith was different story, a very, very big can of worms that she wasn’t going to open right now because, somehow, Faith had decided she liked, or at the very least didn’t mind, Katie, and if that was a bandage on any drama for the upcoming week, she wasn’t going to be complaining about it.

But then there was the third roommate; by far the worst of the lot, and among the front runners for worst possible girl for Katie to be forced into a room with. Ivy was a moronic, spoiled brat, someone who’s mere existence threatened to undo months of therapy and anger management in the blink of an eye. Violence was the last resort for a stressful situation, in Katie’s mind, but she would happily make an exception for Ivy. If only she didn’t have an overprotective brick shithouse of a boyfriend, as well as, most likely, a trail of guys she’d screwed behind his back.

Did she have any evidence for that? Course not. Was it the sort of thing she suspected Ivy would do? Absolutely.

Katie grit her teeth, made a noise of consternation, before deciding to just rip the bandaid off and push the door open. A quick glance around, and she was able to let out a deep sigh of relief.

“Thank Christ, the pastel nightmare isn’t here yet.”

She didn’t know what Arizona’s thoughts on Ivy were. Frankly, she didn’t really care. She kicked her shoes off into the corner of the room and eyed the two beds, wondering where to sling her bag. Clearly, Arizona had claimed one bed. That left one and a half beds to split between three girls. Didn’t need to be a maths whizz to figure that one out.

“Yo, Arizona,” Katie said, thinking on her feet. “I was wondering something. D’you flop about and stuff when you sleep? You a duvet hogger?”

[Fenris]

There was a series of three strong knocks at the door.

[Frozen Smoke]

Faith was hoping she could just get out of here before the aforementioned gremlin made her appearance, and hope her stuff was safe in the bathroom as she went to find a room that was going to be less of a peacekeeping operation. The knock at the door made her stomach plummet, and she held in a sigh as she reached out and turned the handle.

[Fenris]

A tired-looking young man in a bellhop's uniform stood at the door, giving a polite nod to Faith. He dragged a large luggage cart into the room upon which sat four bags—all different sizes, one pink, one light purple, one pastel blue, one mint green—and methodically removed them from the cart, stacking them from largest to smallest, against a bare section of wall. After he completed his task he glanced around the room, nodded again, and quickly and quietly left, dragging out the cart and closing the door behind him.

Ivy Langley was nowhere to be seen.

[Deamon]

Arizona raised an eyebrow as Faith dumped her bag in the tub. Not that it affected her in any real way. If anything it just meant there was a chance she could swing the situation into getting a bed to herself. So she wasn't going to complain about that. Whatever, if she didn't want a bed that was her problem. Arizona wasn't going to press the issue.

Still, she was going to strike up a conversation when the door opened again. It looked like everyone was beginning to arrive. Arizona wasn't exactly sure what they had all been doing. They had all been on the same bus after all. But whatever, it had allowed her the freedom of choice. Katie strode in and Arizona had to laugh at her opening statement. She got the feeling the room arrangement wasn't something Katie was pleased about. But hey, shit happened and it was only for a week. She'd be able to deal if she didn't get the sleeping arrangement she wanted. Arizona had no actual proof to back that statement up with. She didn't know Katie well enough to make a judgment on that front.

"I dunno man I'm norma-" Arizona's reply was cut off by three sharp knocks on their door.

Faith emerged from her newly acquired bathroom lair to open it so Arizona just remained lying on the bed.

As it turned out it was one of the hotel staff. They were delivering a whole Amazon van worth of cases it seemed. Arizona wasn't an expert in traveling but she thought that four cases for a week was overkill. Although, to her surprise, Ivy didn't appear when the hotel employee left the room.

"So that just fucking happened."

[Pippi]

“It sure fucking did.”

Katie glared at the gaudy stack of bags resting agains the wall, shooting a quick nod at Faith, who had been hanging out in the bathroom for whatever reason, before fixing her gaze back on the offending cases. God. Christ. Fuckin’… she was trying really hard not to let Ivy and everything about Ivy get to her, but this shit right here made it really, really difficult. Like… four bags? Four fucking bags??? All of them in the same disgustingly eyepiercingly bright colours as her clothes? Because these were obviously Ivy’s bags, unless Faith had suddenly lost the plot entirely.

“Princess does realise we’re only gonna be here for a week, right? The hell does she even have in these things?”

Clothes, most likely, all of Ivy’s hideously overpriced bundles of lace and frills. Katie didn’t see the point in any of it. Not the price, because that just meant you were gonna be walking on eggshells with everything you did, in case you spilled food all over your thousand dollar dress, nor the clothes themselves – or, for that matter, why Ivy needed so many of them. She was gonna look like she’d just been drenched in frosting regardless.

And speaking of cake…

“Maybe she’s inside of them,” Katie said, shrugging, taking a step closer to the bags. “Maybe she’s planning on, I dunno, bursting out of the top of them. Like a stripper.”

She nudged the bottom bag with her toe. The temptation to kick them was strong. Very very strong. She resisted it. For the time being.

[Frozen Smoke]

The porter seemed in a hurry, so she held the door open for him as he marched through with the parade float of luggage that Ivy had furnished herself with. She offered him the "Thank you" that Ivy was most likely not going to give him as he left, trudging back to his post in the lobby no doubt. He was then followed by a complete lack of Ivy.

She poked her head out the door into the hallway, and saw a few of their classmates filing through and stepping into their assigned rooms. Despite how short Ivy was, she dressed with all the subtlety of a Christmas tree - and that it was hard to miss her in a crowd - so her absence in the slow trickle of humanity was conspicuous. That was certainly unexpected. But a few moments alone with the two roommates gave her time to contemplate the devils she didn't know, rather than dealing with the one she did, which was a small blessing.

She closed the door behind her as she turned to look at the two of them, who seemed to be in as much disbelief as her. She shrugged at Katie's question, knowing that Ivy would probably be able to explain just how necessary every part of it was, in her own way. And as good of a contortionist as one had to be to be a cheerleader, she doubted that she was limber enough to lock herself inside a suitcase.

Faith rubbed her temples for a moment as she tried to figure out how to approach this. It was going to be tough to not sound like she was belittling the two of them, or making excuses for Ivy, but she had a chance to maybe - Just maybe - head off the horror show before it happened.

"So, uh, we all like, want to enjoy this trip, right?" she broached, trying her best to sound diplomatic and honest, her phrasing choppy as she tried to think about every word that was coming out of her mouth carefully, looking over the two of their faces for any adverse reaction.

"Cos, I have a proposal."

[Deamon]

Katie seemed to take offence at the very presence of Ivy’s suitcase army. For Arizona it didn’t matter that much. She had heard many things about Ivy and suitcases arrival fit with the image that had built up. As for direct contact with the girl, Arizona couldn’t claim much. They barely knew each other. Brief interactions leading the even briefer memories.

After Katie questioned whether Ivy was about to spring a disappointing surprise Faith spoke up. The way she was talking seemed preemptive to Arizona. They’d only just arrived and she seemed to be implying that they were already prepping for war.

It didn’t make much sense to her. Not least because she hadn’t said or done anything to imply she wasn’t going to be civil. Then again that was the reputation she maintained. No wonder Faith was assuming her thoughts on what was going on matched Katie’s. There wasn’t much Arizona could do to combat that viewpoint either.

She considered sending a message to Jonah to see if he wanted to do anything once they had settled in. See if there were any landmarks he wanted to visit.

After a short pause Arizona spoke.

“What is it?”

[Pippi]

Katie folded her arms and huffed at Faith’s statement, but didn’t say anything more than that. It was real, real tempting to give off a snarky reply, something like ‘No, I wanted to come on this trip to be absolutely miserable’, but what would be the point? The only person she externally had beef with was Ivy; all of the grievances she had with Faith, she kept held close to her chest. She was already being forced to tolerate one person; pissing another person off and having to tolerate two would probably make her snap.

She lightly kicked the bottom suitcase, then stepped away from them. That was what she was trying to avoid, snapping at anyone. She’d been put in a bad mood ever since she found out Ivy was sleeping in the same room as her, and her initial reaction had been to plan how best to mess with the other girl in retaliation for the room assignments. But as scummy as Ivy was, that was one of the few things in her life that hadn’t been all her fault. Couldn’t really seek revenge for something she hadn’t actually done.

So, yeah, best to put all thoughts of getting her kicks by toying with Ivy out the window. It’d be fun for a good half hour or so, and then odds were Ivy would get her big, Wyatt-shaped revenge afterwards. She’d just have to listen to Faith’s suggestion, pack her bad mood away, and wait until she had easy access to her punching bag again.

“Go ahead,” Katie said, lightly scratching her arm. “I’m listening.”

God, this would all be so much easier if she’d just been assigned a room with Saffron in, though. At least then there’d be no arguments over who had to share a bed.

[Frozen Smoke]

Faith swallowed, her mouth feeling dry as she realised she didn't quite know how to phrase the thought.

"Can we just like... Not."

There was a pause before she figured out how to elaborate, her eyes darting up to the celing, as if searching for guidance for a moment before returning to the two of them.

"'Cos like, Ivy's going to do That Thing - Where she just tries to do... shit" she waved her hands in an indistinct but expressive manner to emphasise the ephemeral nature of the point "and make this whole trip as unenjoyable as possible, and I don't want to give her the satisfaction, y'know."

"Asking if we can just agree to a ceasefire here, I guess. Just all be reasonable adults."

[Deamon]

Arizona had to fight back the urge to say something in response. She was annoyed. It was Faith's insinuation that annoyed her. They had literally just arrived. Arizona hadn't even said anything about Ivy but Faith was already jumping in. As far as Arizona was concerned the pre-emptive strike had helped nothing. If anything her mood had been made worse. Apparently just happening to comment on what happened was enough of a transgression that it merited an entire diplomatic appeal. Ivy wasn't even in the room and she was dictating everything that was happening.

Arizona glanced over at Katie from where she was lying on the bed. Her mind was running through the offer. Considering what Faith had said. Eventually, she reached a solid conclusion.

Yeah, fuck that.

She scoffed, loudly and sat up on the bed.

"I haven't done anything except claim a bed but sure whatever."

There, she could be reasonable.