I started seeing more of Joey around the dorm after that , apparently because now he knew who I was so he wasn 't barging in on a stranger by coming over to hang with Pete . Joey was a really interesting guy . He was half Hispanic and half Italian , and he seemed to take more after the Italian side of the family than he did his mother 's side . He talked with his hands a lot - stereotypical , I know , but he did . He 'd met Pete at the local comic book store on a game night that hadn 't had a very good turnout and they 'd discovered they were living in the same dorm and became buddies . And his roommate , coincidentally , was Dave , the worried guy from the library . They 'd been roomies for two semesters , but due to conflicting schedules Joey and Dave didn 't get to see much more of each other than Pete and I did . We had all managed to hang out a few times in spite of that , though , and it had been nice . I was in our dorm 's ground - floor rec room , i . e . the place where all the vending machines were , when all of a sudden I heard a distant sort of whump sound and the building sort of shivered , and then the fire alarm started going off . I forgot about getting my soda and ran out into the lobby . Our security guard was already out there , and he waved me to the front door . " Anyone else back there ? " I shook my head . " Okay , get out and get way back . All of you too ! " he yelled at the trickle of students which started flowing out of the fire stairs . More security guys came in and propped open the doors , herding people out . " Get out and stay back ! Just stay out of the way until we sound the all - clear . " I let the trickle of people carry me with it out the door , and then we all stood around on the grass and watched more people come out . People were saying it was just a fire drill , but then the smoke started to make an appearance and a fire truck pulled up followed by an ambulance and then another fire truck . They were all just sort of standing around , though , and although a couple of firefighters went jogging into the building they came right back out again . The smoke , coming from an upper floor it looked like , was getting thicker , and more people were showing up to see what was going on even as the trickle of people coming out of the dorm slowed and then stopped - the security guys were the last of it , and as I was going back over there , starting to feel panicked now , I heard one of them tell the firefighters that nobody else was coming out , but they weren 't sure if the building was clear or not yet . That had me approaching the nearest clump of firefighters . " One of my friends is still in there , " I said once I got their attention . " We 're both on the third floor … " There wasn 't really anything else I could do , so I started to walk away like they 'd told me . And that was when I heard that same guy respond to a question from someone else about what if the student was still in there with a snort . " Oh , the one who 's taking ' cold medicine ' ? I don 't risk my fucking life in this job to rescue some damn stupid druggie . If he sleeps through it , oh well , one less . " There are advantages to blending in , you know . And to being on the short side . Being easily overlooked in a crowd is one of them , on both counts . I was already going in the lobby doors when I think someone noticed me - I heard a yell , anyway - but then I was inside and there was smoke everywhere . I pulled the neck of my t - shirt up to cover my nose and mouth , sort of wearing it like a hoodie . That didn 't help me see … but after an entire semester of walking the halls in this damned building while I waited for Dickie to let me back into our room , I knew the goddamn dorm like the back of my hand . I didn 't need to see . The stairs were , as I 'd suspected they would be , almost smoke - free . I pelted up to the third floor as fast as I could , took a deep breath , and dove into the smoke to find Joey and Dave 's room . Again , like the back of my fucking hand - I went right to it . I could actually see the fire , though , and the smoke smelled nasty , sort of chemically and scratchy at the back of my throat , so I quickly got out the key Pete had passed off to me before he 'd gone to class and let myself in . The smoke was much less inside the room , and of course Joey was sound asleep , still . I grabbed him and shook him , and then I screamed in his ear . " DAMMIT JOEY , GET UP ! FIRE ! " He wiggled , winced a little because I was right in his ear and I was loud , and then he sniffed and opened his eyes . They widened when he saw the smoke hanging in the air . " Wha … " I grabbed his arm and hauled him upright , and he didn 't fight me when I pulled him up and threw his arm over my shoulders and started dragging him to the door , only pausing to get him to shove his feet into his furry purple slippers . I knew the fire had to be getting closer , but we weren 't jumping out of a third - floor window so the stairs were the only way to go . Thinking fast , I grabbed a t - shirt that was draped over the back of a chair - I thought it looked like one of Dave 's - and pulled it over his head , then pulled mine up again and out the door we went . Acoustic ceiling tiles don 't burn all at once like wood ; they smolder first , like wool or charcoal . Which is a safety thing , supposedly , but ours were putting out more and different smoke and it was thicker than the other stuff . I forced Joey to bend over and dragged him over to the stairs , then into the stairwell , and I stayed partially in front of him all the way down just in case he lost his balance . The lobby where I 'd spent a pretty nice , quiet Christmas was starting to look sort of rough now . Lots of smoke , parts of the ceiling sagging and crumbling - more smoldering acoustic tiles , I figured the fire must have gotten into the space between the floors or something - but I knew where I was at and we were out the door before anything bad could happen . Joey was more awake now , and coughing more too , but I kept pulling because I knew we needed to get as far away from the building as possible . Paramedics appeared ; one of them separated me from Joey , and I grabbed his arm . He yanked his arm away and glared , but I held up the other thing I 'd grabbed in Joey and Dave 's room : The leftover - from - Christmas bottle of nighttime cold and flu I 'd given Pete to give to Joey a couple of days before . " It 's not all the smoke , he has the flu or something . He 's taking this , that 's why he didn 't wake up when the alarm went off . " He took the bottle , glare going away . " Well shit , " he said . " Thanks for thinking of that . I 'll keep the bottle with him so the docs know it 's in his system . " I smiled , and then once he turned back around I pulled my very best disappearing act - I could see a pissed - off fireman stomping our way , and this day was shitty enough without me going to jail . Disappearing into the chaos of students and faculty and emergency vehicles was easy enough , and once I was sure I was safe I flopped down on my back in the grass and just breathed , trying to slow it down , throwing my arm across my eyes because the sun was in them . Everybody was safe . All my friends had either gotten out or hadn 't been in . I 'd probably just lost everything I owned , but supposedly there was some kind of insurance on the dorms - no idea if it covered students ' personal property or not , but hopefully it did . After a while someone sat down next to me , and I uncovered one eye ; it was Dave , and he was holding out a bottle of water . I sat up and took it from him , unscrewed the cap and drained half of it . " Dave , I love you , man . " I shook my head . " I was down getting a coke , I heard a noise and the walls sort of shook … and then the alarm started going off and the security guys started chasing everyone out . Everyone thought it was a drill , but then the smoke started and the fire department showed up a couple of minutes later . " I capped the water bottle and rolled it between my palms . " Um … did they get everyone else out ? " " From what I heard , yeah . They were kind of hanging back , but then some fucking idiot went running in there and dragged his buddy out so they had to go in after that . " I winced , not looking at him . " When I came over here , the dean was out there screaming at the fire chief and a whole bunch of people were pissed off . " He shrugged . " I 'm sure that 'll be all over the news by tonight , whatever it was . Pete 's with Joey , by the way - they aren 't taking him anywhere , but the paramedic wanted to keep him where they could see him until his cold medicine wore off some more . And yeah , they think he has the flu too , so we 've got another week of pitiful to deal with . " I snorted , which made me cough just a little . " Well , only if they don 't send everyone home . The other dorms are maxed already , and I 'm not sure any of us have any stuff left - the fire was right down the hall from your room , and it looked like it had already gotten between the floors too if the way the ceiling tiles in the lobby were coming apart was any indication . " He gave me a look . " Hey , it 's not like I could have come and found you guys first - I went to tell one of the firefighters about Joey , and then he turns around and tells his buddy he 's not risking his life for some druggie . I saw a chance to get past them and I took it . " " Did you ever . " Pete plopped down on the other side of me , holding his own bottle of water . " Joey is snoring , I told the paramedics I 'd come back for him in a little bit . And it was someone 's cheap - ass meth attempt that blew up , fried their room and started the fire . They got it out , some of us might still have stuff and some of us might not , they aren 't real sure right now but they 're going to be sending in official - type people to collect everything room by room . Everyone knows they 're looking for more drugs and shit while they 're at it , but as long as I get my stuff back I don 't really care . " " Well , it would kind of have to be , since they were sharing the room . " I re - capped my water and stretched back out on the grass . " You know , for such a shit day … it 's kind of pretty out . " I yawned . " I certainly hope not , but probably . They aren 't … going to get this sorted out in a week or two , you know . And there 's not room for all of us on campus . " Pete was nodding . " Yeah , they could send everyone home and switch us all to telecourses so we can finish the semester . That wouldn 't be too bad , I guess . " Dave scowled and waved at Pete to shut up . He reached around me and grabbed my wallet out of my back pocket ; I just blinked at him , because he was acting weird . He looked inside the wallet and then held it out to Pete . " Notice anything familiar about that address ? " " Proof that our little Danny is capable of bullshitting the DMV , yes . " He pointed a finger at me when I opened my mouth to protest that . " Nope , as long as you have to look up at both of us , you 're little and that 's it - Joey doesn 't count , everyone has to look up at him . And you 're tired because you sucked in a bunch of smoke and your adrenaline high is wearing off , dumbass , you 're crashing . " Pete tossed him my wallet , already climbing back to his feet . " Soda , " Dave told him . " Not diet , either - he needs the sugar . " " Actually , Dr . Montoya is my dad . And my grandpa , too . " Dave grinned . " We 're one of those families . My big sister 's already in med school , but I told Dad at Christmas that I 'd rather do research and he said cool and then we watched a scientist - saves - the - world movie together and heckled the errors . As long as I don 't become a sex therapist he 's happy . " Pete laughed and took off ; I raised an eyebrow . " My cousin Rudy . He 's … strange , we 're not sure he 's in it for the right reasons . Grandpa has someone keeping an eye on his practice , just in case . " " Oh , he won 't be if Grandpa has anything to say about it , believe me . He 's not a hardass or anything , but he 's got a big thing about not embarrassing the family . " He raised an eyebrow of his own . " So , when 'd they kick you out ? " " Oh , Dad was serious . " Had he ever been . " I got a letter from his lawyer the day after my eighteenth birthday - he sent it to the school - saying he 'd legally disowned me . It had a restraining order in it , if I try to contact anyone in the family or deliberately get within a hundred yards of them I go to jail . Not that we had very much family to begin with , but I guess he was just covering all his bases . " I dropped back down on the grass and looked up at the sky ; except for the smoke drifting by , it was calm and blue and pretty . " Wasn 't a very big town , so I had to find someone to crash with who was far enough away that I wouldn 't run into Mom or Dad accidentally . Had to change my mailing address , get a paid mailbox , find a new job I could get to without a car . I managed to keep my laptop , and a bag full of clothes . I worked two jobs that summer to get a bus ticket out here - luckily the college had already accepted me and I had my letter , coming here got me out of town and out of the state for good . " I knew he wanted to ask what about my friends , but I think he already knew the answer . Not like I ever got any mail that wasn 't official or junk , or any phone calls that weren 't from him or the other guys . Instead he snorted . " Geez , he must have been a prize twatwaffle , Danny . " He patted my shoulder . " We 'll make sure you don 't pick up another one of those ; you already have one asshole , you don 't need to date a second one . " I couldn 't help it , I started to laugh . Which made me cough , but just a little . And I threw some grass at him , which made him laugh too . Pete came trotting back a few minutes later with a can of soda , Joey , and one of the paramedics . " We 're giving him back , he can snore over here , " the guy told us , handing over the bottle of cold medicine ; Dave took it . " If he starts coughing up anything that doesn 't look normal tonight , bring him to the emergency room . I don 't think he will , though . And next time tell him to get his flu shot . " " He can 't , " Dave piped up . " He 's allergic to the preservative the drug company is using . It 's the same one they use in those cartons of liquid egg product , that 's why he never eats the eggs in the caf here . I double - checked that with my dad , and he said as long as they keep using albumin as a carrier for the vaccine Joey 's gonna have to take his chances . " " Well that sucks . The rest of you got yours though , right ? " Dave and Pete both nodded , I didn 't . " I doubt you 're allergic . " " Yep . " Joey had plopped down on the grass next to me . " He 's still too little to let out on his own , a lion might eat him . " " Jesus Christ , what 's in this shit , Everclear ? Vodka ? " Dave squinted at the label , took the child - proof cap off and sniffed . And blinked hard . He recapped it and handed it back to the paramedic . " Maybe you better keep that , it smells like minty cherry schnapps . " " It pretty much is , " the paramedic told him , handing it back . " That 's how it makes you sleep through the symptoms . It 's fine , it 's not doing anything to him it isn 't supposed to be , trust me . Watch the dosage , though - on this one it goes by weight , not age , and he 's skinny . " I took the bottle away from Dave and put it by Pete , who had also sat back down . " Any idea what they 're going to do with us tonight ? " I asked him . " Since our dorm is still smoking . " He shook his head . " No idea . We told them all the people who inhaled smoke needed to be indoors in a clean place by sundown , though , so I 'm sure someone 's working on it . If they come around checking again I 'll let them know you guys are over here . " He raised an eyebrow at me . " How ' bout you ? Coughing , shortness of breath , anything ? Your buddy there said you were crashing . " " The soda 's helping - I 'm just really tired , " I told him . I 'd only been coughing before because Dave had made me laugh . " I 'll be glad when they find us a place to sleep . " " Sleep now , " he ordered , and stood back up . " Same rules apply to him as the other one , boys . I 'm leaving you two in charge of them , okay ? " We were . By that night I wasn 't able to hold back the coughing anymore , but at least my eyes weren 't as irritated as they had been earlier . Joey wasn 't much different than he had been before the fire , and Dave and Pete just kept him loaded up with cold medicine so he wouldn 't whine - after Dave had called his dad and verified that it would be okay , that was . Pete called Joey 's parents and let them know Joey was okay - the story had hit the news already , it was a given somebody in Joey 's huge - ass family was going to see it . And then Pete called his own parents , and tiredly fended off ' suggestions ' that he should transfer to a college in the islands . Dr . Montoya showed up late the next morning . We were all temporarily housed in the admin building 's atrium , on cots that smelled vaguely like mice but were better than the cold tiled floor . Classes had been canceled for the day because most of us didn 't have our books or homework or anything ; the caf , bookstore and coffee bar were still open , though , so I 'd gone in to work the night before and not gotten back to my cot until late . The person guarding the admin building 's main door would have given me shit about coming in so late - they 'd instituted a curfew for the night - but Pete had been hanging around the door waiting for me and he 'd let the guy know I 'd been out legitimately . Between the early morning light that had come pouring into the atrium , the coldness of said atrium , and our ' wakeup call ' courtesy of the admin staff who 'd said they couldn 't let us laze around the place sleeping and stuff , I hadn 't gotten much sleep and I was definitely feeling it . Anyway , Dave 's dad came in worried and very quickly went from worried to pissed off . Not the loud kind of pissed off , the kind that made him talk to the other non - students he encountered like he 'd judged them and found them wanting . Even though it wasn 't aimed at us , though , I made sure I was out of the line of fire ; I took the blanket they 'd given me - which also smelled a little mousy - and sat down on the floor where I could lean against Joey 's cot . Which turned out to be a mistake , because I fell asleep there , one of the admin people noticed and came over to wake me - and Joey - up , and Dr . Montoya verbally ripped that person into tiny little cringing pieces without ever once raising his voice . And then he was down at my level on the floor , frowning . " Danny , " he said very slowly and calmly , the same way Dave had the previous afternoon , " what did the smoke smell like yesterday ? " I blinked at him , holding back a cough . " The ceiling tiles smelled like burning styrofoam and plastic , they were making heavy smoke . There was some regular smoke … and upstairs it smelled chemical - y and it made my throat feel scratchy . " " Not much in the stairs - I knew there wouldn 't be - but too thick to see much on our floor and when I came back down with Joey . " I blinked at him again . " I couldn 't leave him in there , sir . I told them he was in there , and they weren 't going to go in . He was taking the cold medicine I gave him , I knew he wouldn 't wake up . " " Yeah , I 'm sure . " He patted my head and moved up to the cot . Joey was awake and bleary - eyed , and Dr . Montoya chuckled . " Feeling hung over ? " The wake - up admin person heard that and started screeching , and I forced myself to stand up , putting myself between her and Joey . " He 's taking cold medicine , he has the flu , " I snapped , just barely managing to cover the cough that roughened the word ' flu ' into something really ugly - sounding . " The paramedic yesterday said the medicine was working the way it was supposed to work , it 's supposed to help him sleep it off . And he 'd probably be feeling a little better if you hadn 't woken us all up at 7am . " She scowled at me , tapping an impatient foot against the tile floor . " This is a professional building , we have people coming in here . We understand all of you needed a place to sleep , but even though they let you out of classes that doesn 't mean the whole college stopped working . " She was kind of looming over me at this point , because fucking high heels - I 'm pretty sure women only wear them to get a height advantage , because they look uncomfortable as hell , not to mention tricky to walk in . That 's what I 'd heard my mother say a few times , anyway . " You can go back to sleeping in once you aren 't in our building . " " Fair enough , " I told her . " Except in Joey 's case , because he 's sick . Even if it isn 't important to you that you 're making him miserable , you should at least be concerned that you could be making him sicker . Not to mention , we 're in an open area and he could potentially be exposing everyone else here to the flu … including the people who have to come in here for business , and all of you who have to work in here , too . " " And the atrium is freezing cold , " Pete put in . " We all get that you guys did the best you could under the circumstances - believe me , I was really glad we didn 't have to camp out on the grass last night , because I couldn 't figure out where you were going to find room for all of us . This , though , " he waved a hand at the pretty but chilly glass dome above our heads , " was not the best place for Joey to be . And I thought it was really interesting that you guys called curfew on all of us last night after the game was over and put a guard on the front doors … but they didn 't close down the library or the bookstore and the coffee bar . " He clapped a hand down on my shoulder , which actually unbalanced me a little - just a little . " That 's why Danny here is so tired , he was at work last night - you can ask the guard , he didn 't get back until after eleven . And here it is tomorrow and almost noon already and none of us have any of our stuff yet , and they wouldn 't let any of us leave the building to go eat . " " They sent over cereal bars and a couple crates of juice boxes . Not their fault , Dad , " Dave tossed back over his shoulder in answer to the sharp intake of breath . " The caf isn 't set up to handle this kind of thing . One of the people who brought stuff over told me they 'd expected everyone to come over there for breakfast like usual , but they got told we all had to stay where we were at until they could find out who was a druggie and who wasn 't . " " Oh , so that 's it . " Dave 's dad had stood up . He moved me back to Joey 's cot and made me sit down next to Joey on it . " Stay , " he told me , and then turned back to her . " I think we should go over to the front desk and call up the dean . " She opened her mouth . " You can call him , or I can call the alumni association and we can all call him - not that I 'm not going to call them anyway , but whether I do it now or later is your choice . " " Okay , my way , then . " He pulled out his phone . " Hey Sam , it 's Dave . Yes … yes , as a matter of fact I 'm standing here in that fancy atrium they built last year . It 's where they made most of the kids from the burned dorm sleep last night … yes , exactly . Yes , he 's here and so are his friends , including one who has the flu and one who inhaled a little too much smoke . Do me a favor , hit social media and make sure all of us know about this , would you ? Because they 're apparently punishing all the kids for what one idiot did , looks like a witch hunt to me - oh , and they weren 't going to go in after the one who had the flu yesterday because they just assumed he must be a druggie too and therefore he deserved to die . " The lady from the office had almost run back to the desk at this point , I heard her heels clicking on the tile ; I hadn 't been watching her , because Joey was warm and I was tired . Dave 's dad - also Dave , which was kind of funny ; I wondered if his grandpa was a Dave too ? - kept talking to his friends . And then I heard the wake - up admin lady come back , heavier shoes with her - cop shoes , that would be a security guard , they 're mostly retired cops . " Him , " she said . " I told him he wasn 't supposed to be in here . And that one got up in my face because we ' didn 't care ' about his boyfriend being sick . " That got me to open one eye ; I glared at her . " I don 't have a boyfriend , " I told her , and then leaned into Joey 's shoulder again ; he must not have minded , because he put his arm around me . I was really tired . " It isn 't safe to have a boyfriend . " Dead silence ; the guys told me later that the look on her face had been priceless , though . See , our college supposedly has a really strong commitment to diversity , it was one of the reasons I 'd picked it . But once I 'd gotten to the campus , I 'd realized that their ' commitment ' was mostly bullshit . They had little student - led groups for different kinds of students , yeah , and the standard anti - harassment policy , but that was about it . I know one of the groups had approached Pete once , wanting him to join the Asian Student Alliance , but they 'd been kind of weird about his monster posters because a lot of them were from knockoffs of Asian movies and they hadn 't liked it when he 'd told them he wasn 't Asian , he was Polynesian . Apparently he was supposed to feel marginalized by his lack of ethnic representation on campus , and offended because the college had held a luau - themed dance ; Pete 's response to that had been to show them a selfie of him and Joey at said dance - Pete is Joey 's wingman - and ask if they meant he should be offended because the college 's ' healthy choices initiative ' meant there hadn 't been any soda there since that was pretty much all he drank at home . They didn 't stick around too long after that , and he 'd cackled under his breath for an hour afterward . Dave 's dad broke the silence first . " Did you hear that , Jim ? " he asked . " Yeah , I think maybe the old alma - mater isn 't what it used to be … oh , hey Ted . Well , I heard you read someone the riot act yesterday , but I sure don 't see you down here today . " I opened both eyes this time ; ' Ted ' is our dean 's name . Dave 's dad 's friends had conferenced in the dean of our school ? " Yeah well , I came down here to check on my son and his friends , because he called me this morning and said he was worried - one 's got the flu , one got a few lungfuls of really thick smoke from burning ceiling tiles - oh , and that one had to go to work last night , he said the coffee bar was really busy and I guess he didn 't get back until around eleven . And then your staff woke them all up at seven this morning , none of them have their stuff yet , and they 're apparently not allowed to leave the building even to get food … cereal bars and juice aren 't breakfast , Ted , that 's the snack they give you before naptime in preschool . " Ted apparently said something , because not only did Dr . Montoya snort , I heard the other guy on the phone , Jim , do it too . " Yeah , I 'm sure they are , Ted . That 's why they 're wearing full hazmat gear , right ? Because of somebody 's pop bottle chemistry accident , not because of the ceiling tiles in that old building … no can do , Ted . Jim , make that call , get someone the fuck down here right now . Because we 've got possible exposure in multiple students and hey , they are all here in one spot so it won 't be hard to test them all … aw , Ted hung up . No , I never did either - he was always such a smug bastard . Oh here , talk to the security guard for me . " He passed over the phone , the guard took it , listened and um - hmmed … and then turned white . " The fuck ? ! " he exclaimed . " Oh shit , we thought they 'd fixed that years ago … no sir , not a problem , I 'll be watching for them . Yes … yes sir , thank you . You too . " He handed the phone back , then turned to the openmouthed administrator . " Ma ' am , Dr . Montoya is staying where he is , and there 's a medical team coming in to check the kids . I 'll let them all know they need to stay in where they 're at for a little bit longer ; maybe you should see if the cafeteria can bring over cocoa and coffee or something , it 's freezing in here . " " Harmful chemical exposure , " Dr . Montoya told her . " Modern ceiling tiles don 't put off that kind of smoke . Do I want to know if that 's the real reason the fire department didn 't want to go in ? Should I go ask some of them ? You know , the guys over there in full hazmat gear , I 'm sure they 'd know all about why they 're wearing it . " " That 's apparently what started the fire , yeah . " Pete plopped himself down on the other side of Joey . " That 's what we were told yesterday , anyway - the paramedics said that 's what it was . But what I wondered is why the sprinklers didn 't go off . We got told during orientation not to use kitchen appliances in our rooms or we 'd set the sprinklers off . " A few more students had started gathering around , bored and curious . " Did any of you see the sprinklers go off anywhere ? " A lot of head - shaking . " I don 't think they were on . " That was Tammi , the dorm monitor . " Someone was burning incense in the lounge one day and I made them put it out … but it had made a lot of smoke before I got there and nothing happened . " " Yeah , I remember that - I 'm the one that called you and complained , " Joey put in . " I stepped out of the room to go down the hall and there was this haze of smoke in the air , it smelled like a flower shop burning down . The group in the lounge said they needed it because they were trying to ' create a peaceful atmosphere ' . " He snorted , held in a cough . " I was kind of surprised they could breathe in the middle of that , honestly , much less do yoga . " Dr . Montoya was giving the administrator a look that kind of made her shrink in on herself . " I don 't know anything about that . I 'll just … go see if we 're anywhere on getting these students their belongings back . " " They 're going to need laundry credit , those clothes will be saturated with smoke and particulates , " Dr . Montoya told her , and she nodded really quickly and took off , heels tapping the tile in a brisk staccato now . He sat down on the cot I 'd been using , wrinkling his nose . " Okay , this smells like mice have been living in it . Are all the rest of yours like this ? " A lot of nods . " Well that 's just great . I 'm really sorry about this , kids . My friends and I all went to school here , and it was a really great school . I 'm not sure what 's going on with it now . " " It 's still a great school , that 's why most of us picked it . " A few people nodded , including the dorm monitor . I zeroed in on her . " Do you know , are they going to send everyone home ? " She shrugged . " No idea , nobody 's told me anything . I don 't think they 'll force anyone to leave if they can find a place to stay , though . A friend of mine has an apartment in town , she said I could crash on their couch for the rest of the semester so I don 't lose my spot . " " Yeah , if you officially move off campus they won 't let you back in the dorms . " She shrugged again . " It 's not really a big deal , they just figure that once you move off you 're in the ' adult ' category and you should stay there , that 's all . It 's not a big deal , really . " " Tell us that after a few months on your friend 's couch , " Dave advised her . " No dorm means no meal plan , Tammi , and no being close enough to walk to class . " He sat down beside his dad . They looked really alike , Dave and his dad , almost the same height with the same dark wavy hair and the same brown eyes ; I 'd never looked anywhere near that much like my dad , who was five inches taller than me and had straight brown hair where mine was lighter and curlier , and blue eyes where mine were brown . " That 's going to screw a lot of us up . Would another college accept us , in light of the circumstances ? " His dad put an arm around him . " It 's a good thought , but first things first . You all need to get checked out , you all need your stuff back , and then we need to find a more appropriate place for everyone to sleep until the administration pulls its head out and lets you all know what their next move is going to be . Then we can start thinking about what you 'll be doing next semester , okay ? " The four of us stayed in a hotel room that night , courtesy of the alumni association . Dr . Montoya had told my boss at the bookstore that I wasn 't allowed to work for a couple of days because of the smoke I 'd inhaled , and because a local doctor - also a member of the alumni association - had written her a note that said so , I was off until Monday and not in danger of losing my job over it . You may be wondering why I would have been anyway - not like the entire school not to mention the town didn 't know about the fire - but my boss was one of the ' this is the adult world we don 't hold your hand ' people and she 'd actually given me shit for not having my apron the night before , and for not having showered and changed before coming in because I 'd smelled like smoke and had grass on my clothes . Yes , some people are that stupid , really . I 'd told myself she was just caught up in her own thing and blew it off , but Dave 's dad had taken a dimmer view of the situation . Mainly because I 'd had to go to work the day after the fire too and he 'd come after me just in time to find her giving me shit again . By that weekend , the college was in really hot water . Our dorm , as it turned out , had been slated for demolition and rebuilding but they 'd had to table the plans for that for a while after one year when the economy took a big hit … and they 'd just never gone back to those plans , because things picked back up and the dorms filled up and knocking the old one down would have meant losing a good chunk of students . Which would have meant losing a lot of money , so they 'd quietly tabled the idea until someone could figure out a way to do it without costing the college money , and it had stayed on the back burner . And this was a college town , and it needed the college to be full of students , so the fire department had acknowledged at every inspection that ' plans were being made ' to rebuild the old , semi - unsafe building . In their defense , they really didn 't think anything bad was going to come of that . The ceiling tiles were old but still fire - resistant , meaning they 'd smolder instead of flaming if fire got to them , and they had slowed the fire down when it had hit the crawlspaces between the floors ; the problem was , those tiles were specifically designed to work with a sprinkler system in place because of the smoke and particles they 'd put off , and the sprinklers hadn 't been working . Turned out they 'd been shut off for maintenance at some point and it had never gotten done so the system had never been turned back on again . I guess the first couple of firefighters on the scene hadn 't realized what they were dealing with , they 'd thought what they were seeing and smelling was the result of a much larger homegrown meth lab than the soda - bottle version which had actually blown up and some of the latecomers had heard that and assumed that a whole bunch of us must have been in on it . Turned out even the dead meth - girl 's roommate hadn 't known , because she was a real innocent type and when her roomie had told her the chemicals and things were for a project for her advanced chemistry class she 'd believed it . She was an English Lit major , she didn 't know chemistry from a hole in the ground . We all really felt sorry for her , because the police had nearly driven her into a breakdown trying to get her to admit she 'd been part of a campus meth ring . At least they 'd apologized , though , and sent for her parents ; the administration had already been taking steps to expel her and ruin her chances of ever getting into college again by that point , so it really quickly became a clusterfuck . But some good came out of it . The college administration turned out to be a big part of the problem , and about half of them lost their jobs . The dean actually did that firing and then stepped down ; he 'd be gone at the end of the semester and someone new would take his place in the fall ; for summer semester , if they had one , the college would be without a dean , but that apparently wasn 't a really big deal and we all did sort of snicker over it . The college also had to pay all of the displaced students back for their room and board and lost property - or rather , the college 's insurance had to pay - so I was suddenly sitting on a nice little pile of money , even though I was currently homeless . And we were all going to get to finish the semester via telecourses or by getting a place in town somewhere , but after that we 'd have the choice to transfer or stay . If the college even stayed open , there was already some talk by the State - ' Jim ' as it turned out , was one of our congressmen and he was Not Happy - that maybe the college needed to be closed for a while and all of us rolled into the university . Which was down in enrollment and had plenty of room , so the university was pushing hard for that option and offering lots of perks to the students . They even sent some enrollment counselors in to talk to all of us , they said they were seeing how what we were currently taking would fit into their programs , and whether any of us would need to change majors or not . Some of that was bullshit , of course , but it turned out to be a really big deal for me . The one who talked to me really talked to me , and shook his head over the idea of me majoring in engineering . " Danny , engineering is mechanical mathematics , " he said . " Looking at your test scores and your aptitude and interest results , you 'll absolutely hate it . Switch to the biological sciences , then you can specialize later once you know where your interests are . I bet you 'd love genetics . " Table of ContentsPrevious : Chapter 3 : A New RoommateNext : Chapter 5 : The Result of ResearchShare this : Click to share on Facebook ( Opens in new window ) Click to share on Twitter ( Opens in new window ) Click to share on Google + ( Opens in new window ) Click to share on Pinterest ( Opens in new window ) Click to share on Tumblr ( Opens in new window ) Click to share on Pocket ( Opens in new window ) Click to email this to a friend ( Opens in new window ) Like this : Like Loading . . . This entry was posted in Update and tagged A World Full of Monsters , sci - fi . Bookmark the permalink . Post navigation Follow Me ! Content of this blog created by L . S . Christopher / Goth Kitty Lady is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4 . 0 International License . Post was not sent - check your email addresses ! Email check failed , please try again Sorry , your blog cannot share posts by email . % d bloggers like this :