Eventually, they all gather in the staff lounge. It takes nearly half an hour to gather them all together, since Elodie and Callie both shower first, Tempest is hugging her toilet and puking, blaming her hangover that doesn't exist, and Maverick has the bright idea to plug three kettles into the kitchen to heat the water quickly for the hot chocolate, causing the fuse in the staff kitchen to trip. Darlington fixes it, while Moonie preoccupies themselves with laughing at Maverick's blunder.

The others take the time to clean up the mess they made the previous night in the lounge the previous night. Since most of the liquor is Maverick's, they shove it inside the cabinets in the kitchen to keep it hidden once their super comes over. Soon enough, the décor is in a bin in the staff office for future uses next semester, and they are sitting on the couches and chairs in a circle in the staff room, some of them dressed but with wet hair and others still in their pajamas.

"Should we call back the super?" Tempest asks. When Moonie goes to pass her the last of the hot chocolates, Tempest won't take it.

Moonie had gotten the numbers for who wanted them. Jerry, Ellie, and Tempest had all said no to their offer, but Moonie made an extra, just in case Ellie wanted something after her iced coffee, or either Jerry or Tempest changed their mind. Moonie offers the extra one to Maverick, who takes it.

"I'm sure the super is getting inundated with calls," Darlington says.

Pearcher House is one of the larger buildings on campus, as is Burns Hall on the opposite side. There are three supers who oversee all of the buildings, but only one super is on call at any point in time. The other two left sometime yesterday for the holidays.

"Damon says that Greer House has only just called her," Callie says, her fingers clinging to the mug to keep warm. She always finds herself cold. "The RAs in Greer had the good sense to sleep in. I don't know anyone in the other places though."

"Hadley is still wrangling together Burns Hall," Darlington offers, shrugging. "Goldie says that Townsend Place found out before us because some idiot left a window open in the bathroom and it practically froze her out of her room."

"I thought Goldie was in Webster Residence?" Moonie says, furrowing their brow.

"That's Goldie Wu," Maverick says. "Goldie Summers is in Townsend Place."

"Which one of them is the one you called a bitch?" Jerry asks, looking at marcellus.

Half of the women in the room shoot Marcellys daggers, and he rolls his eyes, "I didn't call her a bitch. I called her an asshole."

"Could be either," Ro offers, scowling. She tries to pretend it is the idea of the Goldies that makes her mad, rather than the weather keeping her here. "They're both assholes."

"Can we stay on topic for ten consecutive seconds?" Darlington asks, too tired to truly care one way or the other. He mostly has everyone collected here so that no one is losing their mind alone or causing havoc throughout the building.

Elodie gets a text. She pulls her phone out of her pocket, hoping it is one of the few people who know her across campus, but it would be foolish to think so. She reads the text from her brother, scanning the words. As soon as she heard there was snow, she knew not to expect her brother to pick her up. Emmett was supposed to come today along with Tara and their baby since Elliot got home from the University of Michigan last week. The roads are too shit for someone with a newborn to risk driving.

She doesn't tell anyone though, instead texting her brother that she is fine, and that her boss has already got in touch, and that the roads are worse on the way to her college than the weather. Elodie would rather he didn't worry, even if she knows that expectation is impossible to meet.

"What is there to talk about?" Marcellus rolls his eyes. "Benedict says we aren't going anywhere, and he actually knows the area."

"Benedict is majoring in English and Education," Ro rolls her eyes. "Maybe it'll clear up in half an hour. They can probably get the snowed clear by noon."

"It's still coming down hard out there," Benedict rolls his eyes. Usually, he tolerates Ro better than most of the others, but today he is tired and it's too miserable to go out for a walk and clear his head. "And what makes you more qualified? How often does it snow in Buenos Aires?"

"Go fuck yourself," Ro spits back.

"This is so so bad," Galilee says, her voice quiet enough that it wouldn't be picked up by a camera unless she had a microphone taped underneath her clothing. She shakes her head.

"Maybe we should set up one of the kid's dorms as a rage room for some of you," Elodie smirks. "I wouldn't mind destroying some of the stuff for the idiots on 6West. It'll teach them to throw eggs."

"Don't come for Jerry like that," Maverick says, trying to dissolve the tension.

"Marcellus is just as bad at his job as I am," Jerry shrugs, not even really aware that saying those words makes Marcellus' free hand curl into a fist.

Darlington sighs. This is going to be a long several hours, potentially days.

"Ref, I'm calling a time out," Maverick says, holding his hands in a T. He looks to Darlington for approval, which only confuses Darlington more. Maverick puts down his hot chocolates, which he has been double-fisting like beers, and stands with his arms up, waiting. "Come on team, huddle."

Moonie stands up without question, and the others look at each other.

"Mav, love, this is a bit much, isn't it," Elodie sips her ice coffee absentmindedly. She doesn't need a huddle. The group of them isn't really a team. She barely knows any of them and they barely know her.

A few others nod at each other. Maverick keeps his arms up, but he feels his chest tighten.

"You hear coach!" Moonie practically yells. "Huddle!"

The others begin to begrudgingly get up. If Maverick weren't so damn kind, Marcellus would mutter something under his breath. Instead, the eleven resident assistants of Pearcher House form a huddle, arms over their neighbours' backs and heads craned in together.

"Alright, team, the Avalanches are coming in strong. They've been playing a tight game, and they are working together to get us down, right?" Maverick does his best impression of the football coach during half-time. "They don't know what's coming to them. We've got spirit. We're the motherfucking pirates alright? We just need to stop fighting each other. Cumberbatch has got the knowhow to get us through their lines, and Darlington's going to call our plays. We've just got to get our thick skulls out of our asses, and we'll be right as rain. We'll melt those motherfuckers. Got it?"

"Yes, coach," Moonie offers, smiling.

"Yeah," Marcellus says. Something about the ridiculousness of the situation has made his anger slip away.

"Got it?" Maverick repeats, yelling.

"Yes, coach," the team all chimes in, with some like Moonie and Galilee yelling, and others participating half-heartedly. Ro even speaks, though her voice is quiet.

"On three Pearcher, on Six, House," Maverick says. He pulls back to put his hand in the middle.

Everyone joins him. Together, they chant, "one, two, three, Pearcher! Four, five, six, House!"

With that, the group disbands. They find their seats back around the room. There are no calls that have come from their supervisor, lovingly called the super. Darlington continues to check in with the resident assistants he knows across campus. There is no update on what they are supposed to do. All but two of the buildings are up and figuring out the madness.

Ro has gotten two emails. All flights out of Sault Ste. Marie has been delayed, and the airport does not know when they will be back online. Also, the bus service has cancelled all trips out of Colmar and the surrounding area. Ro is supposed to get a refund. There goes her trip home.

Benedict has a missed call from his mother. His father has sent him a long text, telling him they will pick him up as soon as the roads clear. It has several emojis and reminds Benedict to stay positive four separate times. Benedict is positive. He's positive that he'll be lucky to be home for Christmas, but he assumes no one else on his staff team will be.

Jerry doesn't check his phone. His mother has been texting him since four in the morning, worried about the roads, and all sorts of other things that are even more irrational. He's had her on do not disturb mode since he woke up. She seems to be relapsing.

"So, now what's the game plan, coach?" Tempest asks, looking at Darlington. "Or, ref?"

"I'm kind of lost on the metaphor too," Elodie laughs.

Darlington shrugs, "I guess there isn't much to do but wait around."

"Fuck," Marcellus mumbles.

"We've got to do something?" Moonie says, looking around. They usually have a few party games in their back pocket for when things go wrong. "We could to Pictionary or something? Oh, Callie can draw really well! Callie, would you be willing to do portraits of us while we wait?"

Callie can feel herself blushing. Leave it to Moonie to embarrass her like the little sister that Callie always wanted, "sure."

Callie leaves to get paper and proper pencils. She's just going to be sketching, and she could put in half the amount of effort and impress most of the staff team, but Callie would rather bury herself in drawing. It's easier to try not to disappoint her not-actual sister Moonie than consider how her inability to go home is going to impact her actual brother, Enzo.

Unlike Jerry, Galilee did not have the same good sense to mute calls from her mother. Her ringer goes off. She excuses herself from the room and stands in the hallway. It's a video call too, the worse kind of call. She looks up at the ceiling, takes a deep breath in, and answers it.

"Hi Mom, hi Dad," she says, looking at the pair of them and the camera in their hands. "Hi Larfam!"

She hates the stupid name they call the people who have watched her every move since she was ten. They aren't her family, but Galilee supposes that her parents aren't her family all too much either. The name Larfam comes from their family's actual name; they are the Larsens. Originally, they wanted to call their viewers Larsons and Lardaughters but that didn't stick. Galilee isn't surprised that the Larfam is along for this new development in her life. They've been along for everything. As the oldest sister, many of her videos were firsts for the family, and are among the most popular. First Lardaughter to graduate high school, first to court a boy, first to learn how babies are made. The video about her first period is only slightly less popular than the one where her Dad gave her a purity ring.

She's sure that if she went on Reddit, she would find people who were counting down until her eighteenth birthday. People are already counting down until Jossilyn's birthday, and she is only fifteen. There's another for Dinah, eight, Brighten, five, and McKell, four. None of her brothers have countdowns yet. Afton doesn't have one, but Afton has a feeding tube and her graphic medical history is already online. Afton is one.

"Hey, there's number one!" her father says. The numbers only account for their birth order.

"Here I am," Galilee repeats, smiling. She adjusts the camera to get the best angle of herself.

"We heard the news Galilee," her mother says. "Stuck in Michigan all alone for the holidays! We're doing everything we can to get you."

"God gives his toughest battles to his bravest soldiers," her father says.

"Don't I know it," Galilee tries to play it cool.

"Honey, you should play up being sad," her mother says. They pause a beat, hoping for Galilee to change her facial expressions, which she does.

"Oh, Galilee, we're going to send up Braxton and Layton tomorrow afternoon to come get you," her father says. "The snow should clear up by then. It'll be such a fun boys' trip!"

"I can't wait," Galilee knows that her parents don't have the time to come themselves. They also need Jossilyn to stay at home with the little ones, so it's only possible that the boys can go.

"We have exciting news for when we see you!" her mother says. "We're going to Livestream it on the twenty-third!"

"Oh, can I guess?" Galilee doesn't need to guess. She knows the answer, based on intuition alone.

"Of course, you can," her father says. "It's going to be a whole game. And don't worry, there are no pranks set up for when you get home."

That's a lie.

"Alright, but I'd better get going," Galilee says. "I'm making soup for my staff team. None of the men know how to cook!"

"Such a good sport," her mother says. "We love you!"

They all exchange goodbyes, and Galilee presses the power button to put her phone into sleep mode. She sighs.

Her parents are having another baby. Now, Jossilyn is never going to be able to get out of her home. And with the snow continuing to pile up, Galilee is never going to be able to help her.

~~~~~

Okay, there is a lot of Galilee this chapter, but I have no excuse. I was just in the mood to analyze Mormon family vloggers. Favourite moment this chapter? Because, Maverick is always my hero and I loved his speech. Let me know what you think in the comments! (I just finished a major project, so these updates will hopefully speed up).