January was coming to an end, and with it, our term. The Academy had entered the frenzy of end of term exams. On the weekend, the study rooms in residence were crowded with students, all futilely cramming information, and furiously trying to complete term long projects that would inevitably have to be handed in on Monday or Tuesday. We'd collectively spent too much time doing the Elite's bidding for Hijinks. 

Which is what Jess, Ashley, Eddie and I had been doing in a corner of the dining hall all morning—trying to break the code we'd found in the Hellhound's communications. Despite deciphering part of their cipher, we'd been unable to crack any messages about their big weapon. It didn't concern us too much as we knew with certainty that there would be no prank this weekend. Everyone would be too busy studying.

"I've got so much work to do when we get back!" Jess lamented, banging her head on the table.

I chuckled. "Jess, if you didn't put it off for so long, you wouldn't have as much to do."

"Right, like you have any less work to do."

I laughed, this year I actually did have work done. With as much time as I'd spent not pranking, I'd had a lot of free time. Normally that free time would have been spent with Jess, but she'd been busy with all her music related club events, her Hijinks duties and Ashley. I didn't know what I was going to do with myself while all my friends were studying. 

"Come on." I hauled Jess up and pushed her out of the dining hall. "If you get started on your papers now, I'll help you study later."

Jess groaned again, giving me a grumpy look as we trudged through the path in the woods to the quad. There were several students ahead of us and more following; lunch hour was officially over. Ashley looped her arm into Jess', her expression equally as grumpy. "I still have to finish two papers, but I can help you, Jess. We can work on it in my room—Sarah's studying with her friends in the library today."

"I'm done!" Eddie grinned smugly.

"Well, we all can't be geniuses!" Jess snapped.

"Who said he was a genius? He said he was done, not that he's going to get awards for his exemplary work. I bet his papers will be so bad that they'll make an anti-award in his name!"

"Nicole!" Eddie growled, chasing me through the wood and into the quad. As we broke through the trees and neared the center of the quad, we were faced with a mess of students running wildly. There was a distinct whizzing sound, followed by a pop and splatter. What in the world?

I yelped as I felt a sudden sharp pain against my shoulder, the pain was not the worst of it. The ensuing burst of ice cold water that spattered my back and half of Eddie as he tried to push me out of the way was the worst.

"Oh! Oh! Holy Mother of—ice in my bra! Ice in my bra!" I screeched, flailing and uselessly jumping in place. I'd made myself and Eddie the easiest targets there. I could only hope that Jess and Ashley had avoided the torturous ice-rain of doom. "Oh my God! Oh my God! Cold cold cold cold!"

It took several icy water balloons exploding against and around me to bring me to my senses. We needed to move. Eddie was on the ground, rolling sharply every once in a while to avoid another flying ice bath.

"Eddie! Move!"

"Zigzag, Love! Zigzag like your life depends on it!" He yelled behind me as the two of us ran, shrieking and cursing as we went. It wasn't a hard direction to follow, the bombs that hit us were painful, leaving the beginnings of bruises wherever they whipped against us.

Ice cold water balloons in January? That was unnecessarily evil.

Eddie and I burst into residence with several other students, all running like crazy to get to our rooms and the warm comfort of dry clothes and blankets. I kicked open the door to my room, shoved Eddie in and instantly began ripping off layers of icy clothing.

I stumbled around wildly, my shirt half over my head, stuck since I'd attempted to remove it, my sweater, and my scarf all at once.

"Stop moving, you idiot!" Eddie laughed.

I obeyed the command, only because his icy hands had gripped my torso and forcefully stopped me. I shivered as the sopping lump of clothing was tugged off and discarded, leaving me in a sports bra. 

I caught sight of my floor first—scattered with our shoes, socks, jackets and shirts—then Eddie. He was red and soaked from head to toe, and I was sure I looked no better. I flipped a now melting icicle over my shoulder and we both broke down in laughter.

"Stop dripping on my floor!" I threw him a towel from my closet. "Bathroom now."

As soon as the door closed behind him, I peeled off my pants and tugged on a pair of sweats. 

"You know, Love, I thought we were about to have a movie moment." Eddie shuffled across my room wrapped in the towel. He was average height, and his body that was neither fit nor flabby, I noted as he neared me. Definitely worthy of having a movie moment with—if I was another girl and he wasn't my goofy friend.

I grabbed my blanket off my bed and draped it around his shivering shoulders, scoffing, "In your dreams, Love." 

"All the time," he said, struggling to keep a straight face. " It's getting kind of ridiculous really."

I pulled a shirt on and looked for one to fit him. "Ridiculous how?" I challenged, wondering how inappropriate his answer would get.

"Awkward dreams in math class, ridiculous."

We both cracked at the absurdity of the words, laughing till we had tears in our eyes.

"That was so bad, Eddie!"

"God! I know!"

"Like that would ever happen!"

"Right? I'm way out of your league!" He joked. "But seriously, I could do worse than my hot boss."

"Hot?" I'd not heard that one before. Cute, good looking, kind of intimidating had come up, but I generally didn't waste time wondering how guys saw me; I knew some of them liked me and that was enough. I stopped digging in my closet and examined his expression. "That's a new one."

Leaning against the wall by my closet, he looked at me surprised. "Really?"

"Nicole, we found the weapon and confiscated it," Mark yelled into the room before barging in with Robert and Rebecca. "You should have seen Robert, he was like the freaking Terminator! They kept shooting him and he just walked up to them like he didn't even feel it. And then he punche—"

"Uh, Mark? I think..." Robert noticed the discarded clothes—male and female—on the floor.

"We should go... wait...are those my brother's shoes?" Rebecca's question made me laugh uncontrollably.

I hip-checked Eddie, still wrapped in the blanket out of my way and stepped out from behind my bookshelf. "Thank God! I hope you shot them in the faces with those stupid ice balls of evil!"

"So you got caught in the line of fire?" Mark guffawed as he took in my still sopping hair.

"Are those my brother's shoes?" Rebecca repeated, looking disconcerted.

"He's back there," I said offhandedly, waving my hand over my shoulder without a care. "We were coming back from the dining hall with Ashley and Jess and then, well, you know. It was pretty funny though, Eddie panicked and fell and then he just rolled around screaming."

"At least I was moving," he snapped as he suddenly appeared behind me. "Nic just jumped up and down crying 'Sweet mother of freezing rain from hell! Why God, why? Ice in my bra! Ice in my braaaaa!' What was that going to do, Dumbass?"

"So you're the easy targets they were talking about?" Robert mused with a chuckle. How he was able to stand there dripping a mini lake of icy water on my floor without shivering was beyond me.

I turned to look at Eddie as everyone else began to look amused. He wore a pair of my grey uniform slacks, identical to his own, but it was the rest of his ensemble that elicited the reaction. "Eddie, you could have waited for me to find you a shirt that fit."

"I could have," he nodded. "But I like this so much better... Seriously, where is the rest of this sweater, Love? Why is this even a thing?"

He tried to tug the hem of my black cropped hoodie down past his rib cage as we all laughed at his expense. The short length and the fact that it wasn't nearly as loose-fitting as it was on me wasn't even the most amusing part.

Robert' eyes darted from Eddie's head to the rest of the sweater, chuckling. "It's a thing that works more on girls, Kitten. You should probably get your own clothes."

"Don't listen to him, I think it looks purr-fect, Eddie." Rebecca giggled at the look Eddie was giving Robert as she led him out of my room.

"Ya!" Mark snickered following them. "Looks great to meow!"

"Okay, what's with the cat thing?" Eddie turned to ask me as I began to close the door behind them all.

I eyed the ears on the top of the hood and shrugged. "If you stretch my sweater too much, Tiger, I will kill you."