"I say this with love, you need to stop pulling all-nighters," Hadley slaps his arm on Darlington's back. "People like you and I don't need to do that before exams."

"I slept as much as I could," Darlington shrugs. "Three noise complaints because of two parties, two lockouts, and one prank call."

"I meant the night before," Hadley laughs.

Darlington had stayed up all night on the eighteenth for his exam in the morning of the nineteenth, and then he'd been on call that evening. Only now, in the sanctity of the office in Burns Hall did he finally feel like he was resting.

"You know, I wish they had moved you into Pearcher after Louie was fired," Darlington says. "That guy's a menace."

"Yeah, you've mentioned," Hadley says. "Burns is understaffed too."

Darlington sighs. Hadley misunderstands him. Working two floors isn't the problem. Actually, it's one of the better parts of the year. The problem is that Burns Hall is on the other side of campus, and Hadley is there just as often as Darlington is in Pearcher House.

"At least you made the party enjoyable last year," Darlington shakes his head.

"Just stay for an hour," Hadley takes a sip of the drink Darlington bought for him on the way over. "People will get drunk enough that no one will notice you sneak out. Besides, Elodie's never been observant anyway. I'm assuming that's the real problem."

Darlington crosses his arms over his chest. He does not want to admit that Hadley is correct.

~~~

While Moonie balances haphazardly on a couch, trying desperately to reach the ceiling, Maverick is staring at the screen of his computer.

"Okay, so I've narrowed it down to two movies," Maverick finally says. "Would you prefer a classic, where a bigshot lawyer woman moves back to her small hometown which she hates so that she can sell her recently dead great aunt's bookstore, only to fall in love with a rancher who is running the Christmas parade? Or something a little odder, where two single-parent families with the last name Doyle accidentally get booked into the same cabin for their Christmas vacation?"

Since Moonie is so focused on hanging up the sparkling cold streamers on the ceiling, they don't look at Maverick, "I thought we finished yesterday."

"We will never watch every Hallmark Christmas movie," Maverick furrows his brow. "Even if we watched one every day for a year, we would still have hundreds left."

Moonie tries to balance on her tiptoes as she grazes the ceiling. When she had agreed to watch a Hallmark movie every day until the break with Maverick since they both finished all their exams by the fourth day, she had not realized he would take the endeavour quite so seriously.

"It's going to take me at least an hour to decorate, and an hour to get ready, and you haven't even got the booze yet," Moonie has to make so much more effort to stay on task than the other people they know. Truly, watching the film while putting up décor or doing their makeup is not an option.

"I already did," Maverick gestures to the head for his parrot mascot costume. "Pippa's head makes it easy to carry heavy things."

Moonie looks down at the head and the chair tips slightly. She catches herself while Maverick stands up and rushes over.

"Here," he says.

Maverick wraps his arms around Moonie's knees. Before she can protest, he hoists her into the air. She laughs, and so does he. She tapes the streamer onto the ceiling. Then, he lowers her to the ground.

"We should probably find a step stool," Moonie finally admits, their cheeks flushed and red. They force herself to meet Maverick's eyes. "Can you grab the master's and go to the storage closet while I handle the balloons?"

"Course," he salutes and runs to the door. Then, he pauses and turns to her.

"Where's the safe code?" he asks.

"Group chat," they answer. When he steps out of the room, Moonie's eyes widen. "Wait!"

Maverick pops back in the room, "what?"

She grabs his keys off the coffee table and chucks them to him. He catches them with ease.

"God bless you Moonie," Maverick holds up his hands in prayer, lanyard wrapped between his fingers. "Where would I be without you?"

Moonie smiles. Maverick makes her feel more put together.

~~~

The worst thing about Darnley was that it was located in Colmar. While Colmar was one of the biggest towns in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, it was still small, and it was not particularly walkable. Benedict didn't mind wandering around campus to get out of Pearcher House. It was cold, but he liked layered clothing. Besides, Benedict's home was only a few hours outside of Colmar. He didn't mind the cold.

As much as he needed to get out of Pearcher House, he did not really want to go home. It was nice to see his parents and his grandparents, who lived around the corner from him. Unfortunately, he was bound to see people whom he knew in high school. He had nothing to talk to him about, and they must have felt the same because they stopped contacting him ages ago.

When he gets back to Pearcher House, he sees Galilee outside. Perhaps he should talk to her. Instead, he waves and purses his lips.

Galilee waves back. Her hands are chapped and cold, but she doesn't stick them in her pocket. Instead, she holds on to the camera.

"Aren't you cold?" she asks.

Benedict pulls off his headphones, "what?"

"Aren't you cold?" Galilee says, but with less gumption than the first time.

Benedict shrugs, "snowstorm is supposed to hit in three days, so I figured I'd enjoy the weather."

"I admire your spirit!" Galilee says.

Benedict nods and pulls back on his headphones.

Galilee doesn't have the courage to say anything more. Benedict heads back inside Preacher House.

It's a beautiful, if old, building. It's better to look at than live in. Galilee continues to take a few photos of the building. She bets her parents would love to see her work. Back when she lived at home, she would sometimes have to pose for a few hours at a time with her siblings for photos. Her parents, even after all their years of work, still had trouble with camera settings. Galilee didn't. Even with the bright winter sky above them contrasted with the dark building, her photos were exposed properly.

If she showed them the photos though, they'd want to post them. The thought makes Galilee crumble into herself.

~~~

Ro has her phone propped up on her desk. She purses her lips as her parents continue to explain the plan.

"Don't worry," Ro says. "I got permission to leave at ten for the bus."

Ro does not have permission to leave early. In fact, she was expressly told by her supervisor that she had to stay until noon, even if no students are in the building, because those are the hours stipulated in her contract. Ro isn't even paid hourly, so it seems like a moot point.

"You need to let us know once you've made it to Sault Ste. Marie," her mother insists on the other end of the line in rapid-fire Spanish.

"And Toronto, and then Bogota, yes I know," Ro answers in English. Her mother always seems less angry and panicked in English. "I've made the trip before."

"It's a long layover," her father adds, his face only in the corner of the screen.

"I know," Ro does not mind the layover. The entire trip is going to take twenty-eight hours, in part because of the eight-hour layover in Bogota.

"Make sure the airline treats you well," her mother says. "Let them know we will sue them if they lose your luggage again!"

"Sure," Ro doesn't pay her mother much mind.

Travelling should be easier this time than it usually is since the airline is paying for over half of the flight. She cannot believe they both kicked her off the flight due to overbooking and also lost her baggage. They are lucky her clothes were replaceable. Even with the flight cheaper, Ro is paying over a thousand dollars round trip when you include the first plane ride and the two buses. It could be more expensive.

"Well, are you sure you know when the buses are coming, because-"

Ro hangs up the call. She can just tell them it's the shitty campus Wi-Fi. It's working today, which is nice. Ro suspects it's because there are so few people on campus to use it.

~~~

Callie is hoping to get this last item shipped before she leaves tomorrow. Her brother is making the trek out to her, and she doesn't want to make him stop at the post office. If she can finish this painting and leave it to dry overnight, she can package it and sell it before her brother even arrives at noon.

The light in her room is terrible, so she heads down to the study room which has better lighting. She supposes that she could try to paint in the lobby where the lighting is better, but she knows that the study room has half-decent lighting, even though it is in the basement. There shouldn't be any students in there, so she heads off.

Down in the basement, she can hear Moonie laughing in the staff lounge. She would say hi if she weren't in a rush. Instead, she opens the door to the study room.

Jerry is inside, wrapped up in a huge sweater. He doesn't pay her any mind, neck craned forward and fingers gripped tightly around his video game. The sound of the alien gun that Jerry is shooting is loud enough for Callie to hear.

Callie doesn't bother interrupting him. From what she knows about Jerry, when he is deep in thought he is hard to interrupt. She sits down at a different table and starts painting.

Jerry is not actually hard to interrupt. Actually, his mind bounces easily from place to place. Usually, it is easier for Jerry to pretend he hasn't noticed someone than to talk to them. Right now, he is acutely aware of Callie's presence. She is here and she hasn't said hello. Surely, she noticed him. He tries to think of every possible motive she could have, every question she could ask, and every answer he could give.

It is rare that Jerry is around someone and comfortable. Those two things are mutually exclusive. Going home will offer a fraction of relief, if only for a second before he realizes he will be around his parents too. Life is never-ending.

~~~

It's a bit silly of Marcellus, but he is trying to screw back on the window stopper in his dorm room. He had removed it when he moved in so that he could smoke out of the window, but now he worries that their supervisor is going to come to inspect their rooms over the break. Normally, it wouldn't bother Marcellus. It's just a window stopper.

There are a lot of small things though that compile into big things.

"Bullshit," he mutters to himself.

As a mechanical engineer, this should be easy. Unfortunately, the angle is awkward. He had just as hard of a time unscrewing it a few months ago. If he were more aggressive, he might throw the screwdriver across the room, but the screwdriver might put a dent in the wall and then he'd have to deal with another issue entirely.

Marcellus typically has no problem doing work. Except, apparently, he doesn't do it properly.

~~~

Tempest is supposed to be on call tonight, but she knows that there will be no calls. It's only two o'clock in the afternoon, and already there are no students left. Typically while on call, RAs are forbidden from drinking. With no one in the building, she's going to have to drink with the others. She is already filling her bottle with non-alcoholic wine. It smells enough like liquor.

There is a knock at Tempest's door, which she answers.

Elodie is on the other side. Her sleeves are rolled up past her elbows and her hair is falling out of her messy bun.

"You've actually got to see this," Elodie says. "I can't even describe to you this checkout I'm doing."

Tempest nods, heading out with Elodie. She locks her room even if there are no students to break in.

"How was the final exam?" Tempest asks. Her classes sometimes overlap with Elodie's and so they both had the same exam in the morning.

Elodie shrugs, "fine enough. Probably not as good as you."

"I'm sure you did fine," Tempest shrugs. She did go through some cue cards with Elodie, so Tempest assumes Elodie is right.

They make their way up the stairs onto Elodie's floor, and Elodie checks her phone. She laughs, "Maverick is asking for the master keys. Guess he will have to come up and see this room too."

"Is he doing checkouts last minute too?" Tempest asks. She had all her checkouts finished last night, even with her exam this morning.

"No," Elodie laughs. "He needs access to the storage closet. I'm supposed to help him with his checkouts later if he hasn't forgotten."

At the door, Elodie preemptively covers her nose with her shirt. Tempest looks on. She's done some checkouts in her last two years, but none that are that gross. The worst she found was a punched hole in the wall and a pet guinea pig.

With the door open, Elodie shows Tempest what she's found. Maverick will probably think it's crazy too. Above the blinds in the room, a student has stapled and duct-taped blackout curtains to the ceiling. There are clothes haphazardly strewn about the room. Books are on the floor, crawling with ants. There are at least a dozen takeout containers as well.

"I'm not even touching it," Elodie shakes her head. "Now I know why the student has been avoiding my texts."

The smell wafts out of the room and hits Tempest. It's putrid. Her stomach turns. She runs down the hallway as fast as she can, coughing as she heads to the bathroom. She gets there with Elodie on her tail. Tempest barely makes it to the toilet on time. Elodie holds back her hair.

"It is pretty bad," Elodie says. She rubs Tempest's back. "I didn't know it would upset you."

"It's fine," Tempest's voice is hoarse as she gasps for air. She pukes again, and she knows it is truly not fine.

~~~~~

Welp, here is my gift to you for today. I'm having a blast writing this little thing. Please submit the relationships as soon as possible! I'd prefer it if they were in by Friday! Also, this is my first time really writing your character, so let me know what you think! I'm trying to get them as best as I can, but you know how it is!