Darlington has already done the math by the time everyone arrives for the staff meeting. The depths of the cupboard have provided enough pancake mix, granola bars, fruit gummies, and small bags of chips for a few days. Counting for those and the non-perishable snacks the teammates hadn't thrown out for winter, the group will have supplies that should last until Christmas. Not that it matters. Tomorrow is December twenty-second, and none of them expect to even still be in town on the twenty-third so only half the group even bothers to humour Darlington.

Elodie and Callie are in the kitchen, setting up the evening. While Elodie mixes drinks, Callie is finishing up cue cards from the supply closet to improve their drinking games for later.

"I feel like this is going to end up too complicated for our drunk asses," Elodie looks over at what Callie's doing. Elodie is no longer high. It's been the longest of days all the same. If she hadn't taken a nap before this and finished up her ramen, she wonders if she would feel somehow more depleted.

"Is it too much?" Callie asks, looking at the cards. She thought she had them done earlier when she had written 110 cards. There are eleven sets, each complete with ten names, on per card. They are supposed to vote, and you are supposed to take a number of drinks equal to the number of people who voted for you. It was only ten minutes ago that Elodie had suggested everyone have their own name too.

Mostly, Elodie suggested it because she knows that no one really knows each other that well. Hell, she's probably the most social of the bunch and she couldn't tell you more than two facts about any of the people on the staff team.

"It's great," Elodie barely looks over and then does a double take.

The sets of cards are in nice scripts, but each set is different from the others. Moonie's set, she assumes, has bubble letters. She thinks it might be Benedict's cards or Darlington's that look like they were written on a typewriter. One font can only be described as "anime-like", and another is clearly modeled after retro video games.

"Which ones are Maverick's?" she asks, poking her head over.

Callie picks up one of the sets, "I tried to do comic sans because it's supposed to be helpful for dyslexics. I also made sure the colours will contrast well for him."

"Impressive," Elodie's eyes scan all the pages. She finds which ones are hers. The letters are all made out of vines and flowers.

Callie notices her gaze, "you dress kind of like a hippie."

If she were braver, Callie would ask other questions. Usually, it is easy for Callie to notice things about others. Finding beauty in things is what Callie is best at doing. No one knows much about Elodie though.

She can feel her chest loosen when Elodie laughs. Elodie moves back over to the drinks, eyeing them up. Everyone accepted Elodie's offer to make drinks, so long as Elodie used her own liquor. She doesn't mind, since it got her out of listening to Darlington act high and mighty.

"Fuck Darlington," Elodie smiles because the words at least bring her some reprieve.

"He should be glad I'm not touching his cup," Callie forces her lips to move even though her heart is racing. "I'd poison him."

Elodie looks at the glass, a smile on her face. She was making vodka crans for everyone, but she decides to grab the black rum he bought, which has an oddly high proof and throw it into his drink instead of vodka. It's not enough to get even Darlington wasted, but it will gross him out for sure.

Since Elodie doesn't hide it, Callie notices. It makes her laugh.

~~~

In the room, Darlington is trying to organize the food stores in cardboard boxes that were in the storeroom. There are all sorts of things in there, from an old mascot costume from the days when there were only three residence buildings on campus so they each had their own colours and mascot, to paint supplies for events, and even boxes of pancake years that expired a previous year, but no one had thrown out yet.

It would help if Benedict weren't following behind him, reorganizing every box like it's Tetris.

"You just going to take that, Damien?" Marcellus feels the name curl around his teeth just like his grin.

Darlington tries his best to ignore him.

After his outburst in the morning, Benedict has taken the time to calm down, "at least my sorting method makes sense."

"Really?" Darlington wipes his brow and then plants his hands on his hips. "Why would you put pancake mix in every box, and take the fruit gummies out of their box? We'll never know where anything is or how much we have left."

"The cupboards in the kitchen are way too small for all of this stuff, considering all of the dishes inside it," Benedict shrugs. It doesn't bother him, and he kind of enjoys the smug satisfaction of knowing he is getting under Darlington's skin.

"Please, Benedict's an honourary engineer," Marcellus crosses his arms, leaning back on the sofa. "Tell them, Ro. We should leave the competent stuff up to us engineers. Darlington doesn't make the cut."

Ro doesn't want to get involved, but she chose to hang around them rather than join the others in putting up decorations. Moonie, Callie, and Maverick are all trying to hang things up on the wall and laughing to themselves. At least listening to Marcellus dig into Darlington is amusing, and just as fun is watching Tempest squirm while everyone rips at him.

"Yeah, sure," Ro shrugs, "Benedict, you want to switch degrees. You'd be good at math."

Benedict tries to focus his eyes on the cardboard boxes, making sure everything fits perfectly. This way, he hopes no one can see how his face warms. Other people seem to think he is smart, so maybe he isn't as incompetent as he feels.

Darlington presses his lips together, forcing them into a grin. He does not want to give them the satisfaction of seeing him falter. Their opinions don't matter anyway. None of them are particularly good at their jobs, and Darlington heard a rumour that Marcellus is nearly on academic probation.

"See, Benedict's got this," Marcellus jokes. He pats the spot next to him. "Come sit down, Darlington. We can handle this."

Darlington's hands twitch. He has been so patient, and it has been the longest day of the year, even if it is actually winter solstice.

Ro is trying not to giggle.

"Darlington," Tempest finally manages. She feels like her throat is dry. "I'm having trouble editing this PDF. Can you come help?"

Darlington comes over. He seems content to tinker with her volunteer application for a local church. Really, she gave up on the application when she got pregnant and had to purposefully mess with the document to get it to have the error it's having, but at least it gives something else to distract Darlington. They like work.

She could see his hands itching to do something. She would send him up to shave his stubble if he wasn't so twitchy, and if she didn't think the suggestion would deeply offend him.

"Now what?" Ro sighs. "I need some entertainment."

Benedict is trying to finish the last box. He decides not to bring up board games again.

Marcellus winks at Ro, "we'll think of something."

She rolls her eyes.

~~~

"No, move to the left," Moonie laughs.

Maverick shrugs it off. He is used enough to getting his left and right confused, and it might bother him if someone else said anything, but it doesn't bother him all that much because it is only Moonie.

Galilee is almost jealous of the confusion. At least, it would be easier than working with Jerry, who keeps ripping up the tape to give to Galilee, but since hanging streamers is slower going than ripping tape, he keeps putting it on her arm rather than waiting for her to be ready.

She's got eight pieces of painter's tape from her wrist to her elbow.

"Jerry, slow down," she forces a laugh, but she feels on edge.

Then, Jerry drops the tape on the ground. Galilee's head turns to look at him. He stares back at her blankly, blinking.

"I wondered how long it would take you to tell me to stop," his lips barely move when he speaks. It makes Galilee feel uncomfortable. "You should've done so sooner."

Galilee turns around. She peels off each piece of tape and decides to hang the streamers on her own. Jerry blows up the extra balloons. He feels as if he's made some progress in developing Galilee's character. She's too much of a pushover. The balloons aren't much, and there are sure to be some in the storage closet if Moonie wants them later.

It's a thought that's already crossed Moonie's mind. She would rather simply pass away than have miss matched colours. Then, her brow furrows.

"What colour are the streamers?" she says to Maverick.

He nearly wobbles on his chair. Moonie goes to sturdy him, and he laughs. She joins in.

"Same colour as basically everything," Maverick shrugs. "There are red things, and there are things that are bluish-greenish. Streamers and balloons are reddish, your shirt and pants are bluish-greenish, and your eyes are brown. I can see brown too."

Moonie can feel her cheeks warm. He noticed her eyes, and the colour is right too. She forces herself to blink, looking away. This whole thing is so wrong of her. Moonie doesn't want to ruin their friendship with some fool-hearted crush, like all the ones she has every week. She loves the way his hair flops when he moves his head abruptly, and all the different smiles and laughs that he has, and she loves watching Hallmark movies with him. There is no way he would comment on her eyes if he felt anything similar because he would know how deeply that would make her feel.

Maverick's head is currently bobbing to the beat of a children's song about a shark family.

They are all interrupted when Callie and Elodie enter the room. The pair managed to put all eleven drinks on the pancake griddle, and are carrying them in.

Tempest looks at the drinks with wide eyes. She forgot to say something, everyone is going to notice. She looks at Darlington, but he is still trying to fix the PDF.

"Gather around!" Elodie says.

Everyone begins to move to the board. Darlington leaves Tempest, getting the drink that Elodie poured for him. Soon enough, there is only one drink left. Tempest takes it with shaking hands. Maybe she can pretend to spill it on herself, although she does like her blouse.

"Are we going to have to cheers again?" Ro rolls her eyes, holding her glass.

Tempest finally gets Darlington's eye contact. He stares at her, trying to come up with a plan.

"Nah, let's just do it and then we can go home tomorrow," Elodie brushes off Ro.

The group all raise their glasses together. Tempest stares at Darlington. He's trying to think desperately.

"Cheers!" they call out together.

Then, they drink. Tempest puts the cub to her lips, pretending to drink and hoping no one notices.

Darlington nearly chokes on the drink. Tempest notices, and Elodie and Callie nearly spill their drinks as they start laughing. Even though it is gross and bitter, Darlington forces the entire drink down his throat. It's a bad decision, but no worse than having Tempest drink.

Everyone stops to look at them, as Darlington grabs Tempest's drink and begins to chug it. He's going to get so hungover tomorrow.

"What, can't handle a little whiskey?" Elodie laughs.

Marcellus chuckles, leaning across the circle and high-fiving Elodie and Callie. The two girls giggle and give each other props. Even though they know it is a bit mean, even Maverick and Moonie find themselves laughing.

Finally, Darlington finishes Tempest's glass. He feels dizzy. Tempest helps prop him up.

"You're all assholes," he manages, finally the rest of his patience gone.

It is only going to get worse as they stay stuck here.

~~~~~

I know I'm doing the most when I have 2000 words written and it feels short. Also, I should have more free time over the next two weeks so look forward to more updates! Winter spirit has gotten me in the mood for this story. Also, I would ask for predictions but I think some of you are too good at predicting my stories. Instead, I'll ask which character you feel most like. I hate to admit it, but I really feel like a Darlington or even a Benedict, but some terrible combination of all their worst qualities. Who are you?

See you soon!