Galilee has noticed that when she drinks, she typically wakes up early. She rarely drinks so much to get hungover, and so her body pulls her out of consciousness early. Since it is December, the sun is not up yet when she is. Next to her bed are the polaroids, which she flips through. Galilee is happy she paid for a more extensive version of the camera that came with a timer. There are two photos of the group together, with one at the beginning of the night and one at the end. She smiles.

Though it makes her unhappy, Galilee gets ready. She braids her hair into a milkmaid braid after showering, and she pulls on a sweater tunic and jeans. Her quiet rebellion is wearing a red sweater since her family's colour palette is supposed to be soft pastels. They'll make her change, she assumes. Yet, she doesn't care all too much.

After doing the subtle makeup that will brighten her face for their vlog camera but will appear as though she isn't wearing makeup to the untrained male eye, Galilee sighs. Her family won't be here for a few hours, and there are going to be enough people who are hung over. With her wallet, her winter coat and boots, Galilee makes her way downstairs. The Food Services Unit will be shutting down production today, so as long as she gets to the coffee shop on campus, she'll be able to pick up drinks for people. In their office, they have a box that they usually use to make easy drink deliveries.

Galilee gets to the main floor first, however, to make sure it's worth it to wear her clunky boots. Much of the first floor is entirely glass, including the front doors. When she peers out into the dark morning, she drops her keys. They hit the ground with a clang.

~~~

It is very rare that Darlington feels this way. He had a drink with the group, and then Maverick and Moonie wanted to do one more shot, and Darlington cannot say no to Maverick and he can certainly not say no to Moonie. It had been over an hour, and Darlington, mistakenly, thought that one more shot couldn't hurt. It definitely hurts this morning.

Someone is banging at his door. He hears the thud and rolls out of bed. It's dark out still. At least he knows it's not a student today. Darlington pulls his staff hoodie over his shoulders and presses a dull hand to his head.

"Coming," he manages to say, after a second knock.

Once he has on some slippers, he makes it to the doorway. He opens it and sees Galilee on the other side. The hallway lights are perhaps the most painful thing that he has looked at in quite some time. He presses the back of his hand to his forehead.

"Sorry," she manages, "I just... is this worth calling the super over the weather?"

"What?" Darlington says.

"I just... the coldest it ever usually gets in Utah is 20 degrees, but it's really cold out, and there is a lot of snow."

Darlington, having mostly grown up in upstate New York, knows that it can get even more frigid.

"It's fine, Gally," Darlington says, and when he sees her knee jittering, he sighs, "here, I'll look out my window."

So, Darlington goes back into his room. Gally stands just inside the doorway and turns on the light. Darlington opens the blinds, which are pretty shit at keeping light out, and sees nothing but grey fog out the window.

He rubs his eyes. It's not fog. It's snow.

"I was on the ground floor," Galilee says when he doesn't speak at first. "It's got to be half a foot of snow out there already. I think Benedict mentioned something about a snowstorm that was supposed to hit in a few days."

"Go get Benedict," Darlington says. As a resident assistant, he has to be used to waking up when he would much rather be in bed. "He's from around here, right? He'll know what to do better."

~~~

Benedict usually wakes up early. Living in residence, where students are up late hours into the night, Benedict struggles. Yet, he is not yet awake when he hears a knock on his door. He tries to ignore it, until the second, and a quick third knock afterwards.

"One minute," he says, sighing.

He pulls on his bathrobe and shuffles over to the door. Galilee is standing on the other side. Though overall he would rather not interact after the events of last night, he is at least not angered further by someone else's arrival. It's Galilee, and usually, Galilee is sensible enough not to interrupt him unless necessary.

"Sorry," Galilee says. "Darlington said to come to get you. It looks like the snowstorm hit early. It's deep and getting deeper by the minute."

Benedict, without a word, grabs his keys off a hook by the door and shuffles out of the room. He would rather be dressed, but he would rather it wasn't Galilee who has come knocking, and he would rather over a million things happen besides this.

They take the elevator down, and Darlington is already on the main floor. He peers out at the snow. Galilee was probably right. Half a foot of snow covers the ground, even if it appears like more because the wind is blowing it up against the windows.

"How long is this going to take to plow?" Darlington asks, looking over at Benedict.

Benedict stares out the window at the snow in the air, rather than on the ground. He wishes he had had the sense to bring his phone.

"What does the forecast say?" Benedict says.

"Six days of this," Darlington says. "This all happened over the last six hours, so about an inch an hour. It's supposed to let up tomorrow a bit, but in two days, they are predicting it'll be two inches an hour."

"But they can plow that, right?" Galilee asks. "I mean, it's the Upper Peninsula. It's not like we're in Texas. They have the infrastructure."

Benedict is an English major, but he is also good at math. It's been an inch an hour for the last six hours. It'll be a foot at noon, and by this time tomorrow, it'll be two and a half feet. Even if it lets up, two and a half feet of snow cannot be plowed.

Galilee can read the look on their faces, "I mean, the forecast was wrong. It predicted the storm would be here two days from now, so maybe the length will be shorter."

"Call the super," Darlington says to Benedict. "Galilee, you call people, but just to wake them up. I'll message the group chat so they have the messages."

Group Chat

Nicknames, as made by Maverick

Galilee: Maze Runner Eyebrows Guy

Jerry: Seinfeld

Elodie: Melodie

Benedict: Cumberbatch

Maverick: Clara's beard

Tempest: Stormy

Darlington: Darlington

Marcellus: Marky Mark

Calypso: Homer's Girl

Moonie: Moonie

Ro: Ro your boat

Darlington

Hey, everyone. There is a lot of snow coming down, and it looks like it isn't going to let up anytime soon. Benedict is on the phone with the super now. It looks like we're being told to stay indoors until further notice. She's going to message the building chat to update us once she talks to the Unit.

Marky Mark

wut?

Melodie

wait, is that why Galilee called and hung up?

Maze Runner Eyebrows Guy

It was easier to wake you that way than running around the building

Marky Mark

Darlington's first prank, do you want an ornament to put on your tree at home to commemorate the location?

Stormy

Holy moly. I just looked out the window

Ro your boat

Go study in America, they said. It'll be fun, they said. It basically never snows in Buenos Aires.

Homer's Girl

Fuck, Ro, aren't you supposed to catch a plane?

Ro your boat

Ya

Marky Mark

BIG L

Jerry

Press f in the chat to pay respects

Ro your boat

You both are dicks

Darlington

Let's not get upset with anyone, all right? We should wait for Benedict to reply before we get too intense.

Cumberbatch

Super said to stay tight and she'll give me a call soon. I don't think we are going anywhere until tomorrow.
Unless anyone has a snowmobile, of course.

Melodie

fuck
fuckkkkkkkkkk

Maze Runner Eyebrows

It's going to be okay! We should all be together though, because my Wi-Fi is kind of spotty

Stormy

Yeah, mine too. It's okay today, but with the snow it could get worse

Marky Mark

bro
u cant say that w/o knocking on wood

Stormy

I did lol

Moonie

ive got hot chocolate powder and a kettle if people want to meet up to talk. but i dont have enough mugs so byo mug ig

Seinfeld

no coffee?

Moonie

Nah

Melodie

i've still got some iced coffee mix in the staff fridge if you want

Seinfeld

gross

Clara's beard

my head hurts, so can you guys stop messaging the chat if it's not important? it's making my phone buzz like crazy, and i drank way too much lololololol

Darlington

@Maverick look out your window

Clara's beard

...
uh oh
that's bad

~~~~~

This is, I think, one of the shortest chapters I've ever written for an apply fic in a very long time. However, I think it is so funky fresh. Also, if you hate the nicknames, blame Maverick, not me. All of their meanings should be pretty straight forward, but there are one or two which are a bit of a harder thing to find out. Let me know what you think! Nanowrimo has me working much harder on this than I usually do.