Gang Book

Chapter 8: sleepless nights

That night, the three girls made their way to the dorm. Beth had been in the nurse's station and was talking to a psychiatrist. Dipankar was getting healed. Apparently his injuries were extremely severe and he was also suffering from internal injuries as well.

"I can't believe Sunny did that!" Nan sighed, throwing her hands up.
"Which part, thrusting the blame on Shrimpy or almost killing Dipankar?" Sam asked.
"Both!" Nan said walking up the stairs to their dorm's floor.
"He's taking things way too far," Nikki said. Sam held out their dorm's keycard at the scanner.

"Beep!"

Sam quietly opened the room's door, and there they were, at their new dorm. Everyone slid into the small opening of the doorway.

"Home sweet home!" Nikki said excited, but tiredly. All three of them drowsily headed to their beds and planted their bags down.

"So this is it," Nan said, flopping down on a couch. There were five doors across the common area, bedrooms, and two bathrooms, on opposite sides of each other.
"Who's our fifth roommate?" Sam asked. Then, they heard the "beep" sound coming from the door.

"Heyy! Are you guys my new roommates?" A girl with long, curly, red hair said. Her hair was frizzy and poofy, and Sam recognized her from the girl with caveman-like clothes from gym, who tried to ditch class. Her name was Miranda or something.

"Wait a minute! Are you Nikki?!" roommate girl asked excitedly.

"Yes? And you?" Nikki asked politely, yet confused. Nikki had seen her at the gym, but still she wondered how this random girl knew her name.

"OMG! I know you from Instagram! You're super famous!" she said excitedly. Despite her tattered and weird clothes, and the fact that she looked like she ran away from a bear, she seemed sweet.

"So you're a fan I presume?" Nikki asked with a smile on her face.

"Of course I am! I'm your biggest fan out there!" she squealed.
Nan smiled, happy for the girl. She remembered her name. Merida. She loudly screamed inside her head, Her name is Merida! Nikki, her name is Merida! She hoped Nikki wasn't tuning out all the thoughts.

"I can't believe you are my actual roommate! This is a dream come true!" Merida said passionately, while jumping up and down on the beige colored wooden floor.

"I know, me too... Merida?"Nikki tried to ask without any skepticism. Oh, that's what her name was! It must've slipped in someone's mind. she thought.

"Yep! My name is Merida, and I'm soooo happy that we're all roommates!" Merida bounded and put her arms around Nan, Sam and Nikki, hugging them so tightly she was almost choking them.

Nan couldn't help feeling a bit awkward. After all, Merida was a total stranger. But she seemed nice, so what could possibly go wrong? Plus, they would get used to her sooner or later.

"Yeah, I'm super happy too," Sam muttered from Merida's arms. She thought Merida was a little more innocent. Definitely better than every other new person she'd met that day.

"So, what should we do? I'm not tired at all," Merida said, removing her arms from the hug.

Nan smiled at her, and looked at her outfit. "That's so new though Merida, like your outfit, like maybe caveman chic," she complimented. Nan wanted to go into modelling, but she was too short. A few runways accepted her, but she should've been at least four inches taller to be one.

She smiled, flushing with joy from the compliment. "Really? Thanks, I stole it from a department store's dumpster, I love dumpster diving!" she said enthusiastically.
Nikki smiled politely, Nan's expression was completely frozen, and Sam frowned.
"That sounds greeeat!" Nan said with a strained voice, giving her a thumbs up.
Nikki continued to smile politely until finally a knock came on the door.
Nan perked up, "Beth?"

Sam opened the door, and it was just Madam Ella. "Nancy, I would just like to let you know that your sister will be staying in Dipankar's dorm after her therapy session," she said.
"What?" she screeched. She was staying in a boy's dorm? Her boyfriend?
"Normally we wouldn't allow this, but we believe that together they may heal from the psychological and physical damage Sawyer caused," Madam Ella stated as calmly as possible before exiting the dorm.

Nan's jaw hung open, frozen with shock.

Suddenly there was a clapping sound, and Sam looked at her sister, brows furrowed, wondering if her sister was doing that to her head.
"Are you jealous Nancy since you have no love life? And Veronica, you're not fooling anybody with those perfect outfits, and Samantha, are you really the best artist out there?" they heard a voice speak. The voice echoed through the walls.
Fireballs immediately erupted in Sam's hands just in case, and Nan's hands burst into electricity. Sam looked at Nikki in confusion.
"I sense something, but I can't read it," she said, picking through objects with her mind, wondering if there was a creepy doll lying around. Objects floated through the air, until suddenly a vase flew and smashed against a wall.
They all looked at Nikki, "Did you do that?" Sam asked.
Merida looked around in awe.
"It wasn't me," she said.
Suddenly a vague silhouette filled out, revealing a shapeless person, with curly black hair and medium-brown skin with charcoal-brown eyes. He seemed to be made out of light and darkness at the same time, a vague shape around his body which was pretty average height.

"Who are you?" Nan asked, purple electricity humming through her veins and they were on the verge of erupting.

The guy started laughing hysterically, "Sweetie, I'm Aiden, and a phantom."
Merida gasped in shock. "That's so cool!"
Sam's fire reduced a little, but it still was there, serving as a warning.
"Why can't I read your mind?" Nikki asked, but she couldn't manipulate him with telekinesis either.
"Because I'm dead, and therefore I'm not technically existing," he said, and dropped down into a regal curtsy. Aiden seemed to be wearing the clothes of a knight.

"Not gonna lie though, that's pretty cool." Sam said while reducing the fire slowly, until it was all gone. She was still a bit confused, but she sort of understood what was happening right there, right then.

"So you guys are saying this random phantom thing that just aimlessly flew into our dorm is cool?" Nan said, raising an eyebrow while examining the creature.

Aiden was basically trespassing into a boarding school, and to make matters worse, into a girl's dorm.

"Why are you here anyways," Nikki asked with utter confusion. "You can't just fly into someone's dorm, and-"

"I can just fly right into a dorm," Aiden said, taking a deep breath while planting an evil smile on his red face. "I am a phantom. I can do anything I want!"

"I mean," Merida slowly stated. "He is a phantom after all!"
"I am so close to losing my mind!" Nikki shouted. "So close, first the Thirupathi Raju thing, then there's Bethpankar, and then there's everything today and Sunny being a bad person, and now there's Shrimpy whose mere existence is annoying!"

"So aggravating," Nan agreed. All of a sudden all three girls looked at each other. They knew what each other were thinking.

"Hey, um, so are you Sunny by any chance," Nikki asked nervously because if it wasn't actually Sunny, that would definitely ruin her reputation for Merida. "Sorry for asking if you aren't."

"Who is this 'Sunny' kid," Aiden asked furiously. "I am AIDEN the PHANTOM! You can never replace me with this 'sun' thing!" he yelled angrily, and punched a fist through the door and disappeared through the wall.