Chatoyant College Book 12: Chapter 9: Free Food

Corrie tried to be open to conversation, but Edie didn’t say anything about Leila for the rest of the day, though she did keep looking out the window. Corrie didn’t want to bring the subject back up herself. She did wonder where Leila had gone after she talked to Edie, but she was confident that the faerie could take care of herself.

They passed a pretty quiet day, working on their homework and snacking throughout the day because neither of them felt like going out to the dining hall for lunch. Corrie didn’t want to leave Edie alone—and it was also nice to just hang out in the room all day with her roommate and best friend.

As the day wore on toward evening, though, Corrie started to get sick of homework. She’d caught up with her math and art homework and done the introductory and closing paragraphs of her essay for her English class; she knew she should practice trance, but now that she was getting bored, she didn’t think she would do very well.

Just in time, there was a knock on the door. She got up to answer it. Roe, their neighbor down the hall who had visions of the future, was standing there. She grinned. “Oh, good, you two are in! I’m bored, do you want to get Chinese food or something? I’ll pay.”

“That’s nice of you,” Corrie said, raising her eyebrows and stepping back to let Roe inside. “I won’t say no to free food. How about you, Edie?”

Edie put down her pen and turned. “Free food is good. What’s the occasion, Roe?”

Roe sighed and leaned on the doorframe. “Nothing. I just usually have something to do on Saturday nights, and today I don’t.”

“Not hanging out with Link?” Edie asked.

Roe shook her head. “He has stuff to do tonight. Important Djanaea stuff that I don’t want to get involved with. Do you guys want Chinese? Pizza?”

“You’re the one paying, so we should get whatever you want,” Corrie said. “Pizza is probably cheapest.”

“I don’t care. Link always pays for our dates, so I have a lot of extra money.”

“You said Chinese first,” Edie said. “So you probably want that most. Let’s get that.”

They found the menu online and picked out what they wanted, then Roe went back to her room to place the order. Corrie started picking up her half of the room. If people were going to be in here eating, she should have it be less of a mess.

When Roe returned, a few minutes later, she had Annie in tow. “I’m feeding her, too,” she declared, shaking Annie lightly by the shoulders. “You two don’t mind, right?”

Annie smiled, obviously knowing that Corrie and Edie were happier having her around than otherwise. “You know, we don’t always have to hang out here,” she said. “Salome’s out tonight, so my room is empty. We could shake it up a little.”

“I’d rather stay here,” Edie said, glancing toward the window. Corrie was sure she was hoping to see Leila again. Annie’s room was across the hall, so her window would show the campus, not the woods.

It was true that they always seemed to hang out in Corrie and Edie’s room, but she liked it that way. “It’s simple statistics. Half of us live in this room, so we should stay in this room. Besides, this way you three get to admire my beautiful artwork!”

She held up the complete legal-size paper full of shaded cubes. Annie and Roe gave teasing oohs and ahhs. Corrie laughed and put the paper carefully in her portfolio. “I think the professor will be happy with it, anyway.”

“It is nicely done,” Edie said. “I’m sure you’ll do well in that class.”

Annie sat down on the trunk at the foot of Edie’s bed. “It looks boring, though.”

“It’s a prerequisite for taking most of the art classes, and I’d like to take a few,” Corrie explained, sitting down on her bed. “It’s kind of boring, but I do like learning about the rules for art. You know, before breaking them.”

“Where’s Dawn tonight?” Roe asked, looking around. “I knocked on her door, too, but no answer.”

“She and Rico are out on a fancy date,” Corrie said. “They’ll be sorry they missed the free Chinese food.”

“I don’t know, going on a date sounds a lot nicer,” Annie said.

“You should go on some dates,” Edie told her. “I bet there’s a lot of girls in the Rainbow Alliance who would go out with you.”

“I’m too shy to ask anyone out,” Annie said, looking away. Corrie knew that she had a crush on Edie, but none of them was going to say anything while Edie was still with Leila.

“I better head out front,” Roe said. “The delivery guy will probably be here soon, and they’re about to shut the gates.”

“Let’s all go together,” Corrie said, standing up. “It’s safer that way.” Not that she’d had any problems lately picking up food from the front gate, but she preferred to be careful, especially now that the rules had changed.

“Good idea,” Annie said. Edie said nothing, just stood up to join them. They all grabbed their jackets from their rooms and headed down the stairs.