[Wixern]

Helen knocked on the door, softly. Then, she opened, revealing a rather large living area, with a fireplace, and several kitchen appliances. A T.V. stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by couches. On those couches were the girls, looking bored or doing homework, or sometimes both. Helen cleared her throat, but Joneth beat her to it.
‘Hello girls. My name’s Joneth, and I’m the new transfer student. Who’d be in charge of these lovely ladies?’
A blonde girl, probably a cheerleader or photo model, walked up to Joneth and looked at him, suspiciously eyeing him.
‘Don’t ogle me like that. Helen’s with me, and she’s here to make sure I don’t molest you right away.’
The girl smiled, and extended her hand. Joneth took it, making sure to stare deeply into her eyes.
‘My name’s Tiffany. Tiffany Menning. I’m the prefect in charge of the girls’ dorm rooms. You’re looking at Lacey, Jenna, Alia and Mirna. Why did you come here, anyway? Shouldn’t you be at the boys’ dorm, talking about baseball and football?’
‘I thought I’d have a sensitive talk about my feelings first, and that doesn’t really guarantee a good start with the guys, I reckon. Anyway, I can’t help but feel that you missed out on introducing me to someone.’

Joneth pointed to a girl in the far back of the room, seated alone in a comfortable chair, a book covering most of her face. She hadn’t even looked up when Joneth had entered the room. The only thing visible was her black hair, falling loosely around her like a curtain.
‘Oh. That’s Jesse. You’d probably best steer clear of her, she- hey!’
Joneth walked up to Jesse and managed to draw her attention. She looked up, and caught his eyes. Nothing happened, and she returned to her book.
‘Reading War and Peace, huh? Or is there another reason for your cold attitude?’
‘Leave me, unless you want to eat your hat.’ Jesse replied, cool as ice.
‘Ouch. That hurts me right where I live.’
‘Not exactly. I’d have to aim quite a bit lower.’
‘Are you sure you don’t wanna talk to me? I’m a nice guy once you get to know me.’
‘I don’t want to know you. I’m leaving.’

And with that, Jesse placed a bookmark in her book and got up, leaving for the bedrooms. Joneth smiled as he returned to Tiffany, who was standing in slight shock.
‘I was going to tell you that she’s, like, a super-*****. Way mental, too. Spent a few years locked in the rubber wall clinic.’
‘I dunno. She seemed nice to me. Is she always this cold, or is that just because I’m wearing my pride and joy?’ Joneth said, once again tapping the hat.
‘She’d be able to freeze a forest fire. You got lucky. The first guy who spoke to her here got a heel through his foot. Had to be taken to the hospital and everything. Nobody knows who she really is, or why she acts like this, and no one wants to.’
‘Really, hm?’ Joneth hummed quietly for a second, lost in thought, before he spoke again. ‘I’d best be going. I’ve got some baseball and football talk to catch up on. Nice meeting you all, girls.’
With a wave of his hat, Joneth left the room, followed by Helen. A short walk took them to the boys’ dormitory, were Joneth immediately entered, telling Helen to get back to her work before anyone would find out.

This dorm wasn’t much different from the girls’ place. A large room, kitchen appliances and a few guys lined around the T.V., although here there were several game consoles near the T.V. and it wasn’t as clean as the girls’ was. Joneth immediately recognized the prefect in charge: a football jock, standing and chatting with his buddies. Joneth walked over and went into “Popular” mode.
‘Yo guys, how’s life treating y’all? My name’s Izen. Joneth van Izen. I’m new here, and I’m looking for the coolest guys around.’
The jocks smiled and one stepped forward, grinning widely.
‘Well, you came to the right place, Izen. I’m Harry, the prefect here. I’m in charge of the chaos that you see here. And my buds here are O’conner, Mac, Henner and Big O’.’
Joneth looked at the guys. They were your average herd animals, walking behind the big lion out of fear of getting eaten. Mac and Big O’ were the only African Americans, and compensated for it by being twice a big as the other guys. They’d be easy to string along later on, but there was some need for information first.

After a short round of introductions, Joneth took place on the couch and cracked open a cold beer. He then started off the investigations among the guys.
‘I just came back from the girls’ dorm.’
‘How’d you pull that one off? Disappeared underneath your hat and smuggled yourself in?’ Harry commented, genuinely surprised.
‘Almost, but that doesn’t matter. I spoke with Tiffany.’
‘Aw man, she spoke to ya? ***** won’t even look at me.’ Big O’ rumbled.
‘What’d you mean, Big O’? She CAN’T look around ya!’ Harry said.
The dorm exploded in laughter, until Harry calmed down and let Joneth continue.
‘Anyway, I also spoke to Jesse.’
A silence enveloped the room. No one said anything, and Joneth used the time to take a swig of his beer. He was a fast drinker, and he liked his silences to be useful to him. Finally, after a few more seconds of silence, Harry was the first to speak.
‘And you’re still alive? Last guy tried that and got himself a ticket to glass-shard ville. That broad’s crazy, and I don’t care what anyone says.’
‘Yeah man. She once showed up to class with a knife strapped to her arm.’ Mac said.

Joneth could see that this wouldn’t be easy. He was intrigued by Jesse, but he needed more than this. He tried a different approach.
‘Doesn’t she hang out with anyone?’
‘Man, not even the Goths and the Emo crew hang out with her. You a Goth, right Dave? What’ya say?’
‘We tried, but we didn’t realize she was REALLY that disturbed until it was too late. She was planning to ritually sacrifice a chicken and move up to humans in the end. **** was crazy man, I swear. She’s a cold-hearted monster with a love for death.’
‘Well, don’t she fit right into your taste, then?’ Mac commented. Laughter ensued once again.
‘She’s alone. Always. Even goes to the bathroom alone. Won’t even hang out with the other loners.’
‘But she’s pretty cute, right? Got a nice set of curves, too.’ Joneth said, hoping to provoke a more positive reaction.
‘Maybe. She got it going on, but she ain’t telling anyone. Besides, it’d be like playing Russian Roulette with a .45. You’d better be off dating a meat grinder.’ Big O’ said.
‘Yeah. She’s got some beauty, but it ain’t worth it. You’d best find yourself another girl, Jon. ‘Cause there’s no reason in going for the tough catch when the easiest catches are practically biting at your ankles.’ Harry said.

Joneth let the conversation derail from there. It was always good to watch what they were talking about and who reacted to what. Pretty soon, his hat was on the conversation list.
‘What’ya wearing that for, anyway?’ Harry asked. ‘You some sort of magician?’
‘I can put a spell on the ladies, but I don’t need the hat for that.’ Joneth said, and an outburst of laughter followed: with alcohol, you didn’t have to be funny.
‘Anyway, it’s a mystery, and I’m keeping it like that. Suffice to say that it’s got more surprises than a raffle contest, and that goes for the rest of me, as well.’
‘Aw come on, man. You got some sorta hideous skin disease underneath there?’
‘No, I bet that’s where he keeps his porn hidden. Eight magazines of-‘
‘- Close call, but no. I keep my alien breeding process in it. Take it off and it’ll snap your head off quicker than you can blink.’ Joneth finished.

The rest of the evening went normal, and pretty soon they started going to bed. Joneth laid down on a comfortable mattress and waited for the rest to finish their evening rituals. After a while, the lights went out, which meant that, for Joneth, the time to start assessing the situation began.

“Okay, so I’ve found the interesting girl I wanna date, but I’d have to break some psychological barriers to get through. No problem there, right? Nothing I’ve never done before. I also made friends with the popular crowd, which is the most important. I think I’ll meet up with the nerd crew tomorrow. They’ve got an excellent eye for social stratification, even though they’re low on the ladder. They also get some girls in once in a while, which means closer interaction with the female crowd. Speaking of which, the Emo and Gothic groups would need some attention as well. They’re pretty easy, though. Still, I feel that there’s some things they can tell me about Jesse that would come in very useful. Very useful indeed.”

And with that, he drifted off to sleep, his mind comfortably wrapped around the situation, knowing exactly what he would be doing tomorrow.