Chapter 10: Preparation

By the time she got to her physics lab, the last thing Alessa wanted to do was hang up flyers for the party. She had slept fitfully after that terrifying dream, unable to shake her anxiety until the first rays of dawn peeked through her bedroom window. When she'd finally fallen back asleep, there had only been a couple hours until morning, and though she couldn't remember any other dreams, she suspected that those feelings of panic and dread had chased her through the remainder of the night.

The worst part was that she hadn't even been able to talk to anyone about it. Janie unfortunately was assigned to a different lab session, so Alessa was forced to work with a stranger to complete the day's experiment.

Mercifully, her partner seemed to sense her distraction and was taking charge of the lab work. Alessa was content to stand on her stool and mindlessly bounce the basketball when commanded. Meanwhile, her partner manned the motion sensor and calculated the coefficient of restitution, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

She couldn't imagine what that nightmare might have meant, or why it had so unnerved her.

After mulling it over for a while, she decided her subconscious must have just taken all those messy feelings she had about Isaac, and her terror and sorrow, and her grief, and boxed them up into a neat little narrative, forcing Alessa to confront all the negative emotions she'd been trying so hard to suppress.

It was no wonder she was so rattled. Of course she would feel disturbed after having to face all that head on, in a dead sleep no less.

Digging her nails into the rubbery grip of the basketball clutched against her stomach, she looked around the room and realized with a start that she was the only person still standing on a stool.

Her cheeks flushing, she clambered down quickly, her partner looking up from the lab bench he'd been leaning against only to raise a wry eyebrow in her direction. He sighed and resumed writing, then finally capped his pen and thrust his other hand toward her with a completed copy of the worksheet. She smiled apologetically, gratefully tucking it into her backpack before shuffling toward the door with the rest of the class.

Alessa did feel a little better having given the dream some thought. But that didn't change the fact that she had lost hours of rest to its aftermath, and now she was tired. All she wanted to do was go home and take a nap.

But instead, she was obligated to deal with the flyers.

She trudged from the science building to Van Husen Hall, flyers in hand, half-heartedly thrusting one toward whomever she happened to pass. Inside Van Husen, she tacked a few to a couple of bulletin boards and left a stack on the counter of the café, downing a too-hot cup of over-salted soup on her way.

After finishing her pitiable lunch, Alessa decided to take a lap around the quad to distribute her remaining flyers. There were a few covered bulletin boards staked at odd intervals around the green along with a plethora of lampposts and, of course, mounting poles for the university's ubiquitous security cameras. Perfect. Even if Alessa didn't pass a single soul, she should still have enough flyer-ready surfaces to be able to finish off her stack.

Heading for the bulletin board on the south end of the quad near the library, she passed a group of three female students and handed them each a flyer with a perfunctory, "Party Saturday." She remembered Lizzie's admonition to invite "…lots of boys. Cute boys," and felt a small pang of guilt. Oh well. Was it her fault that all of the cute boys were apparently in class during her only flyering opportunity?

She held a flyer against the bulletin board, securing it in place with the stapler. Taking a quick glance around to make sure no one was looking, Alessa reshuffled some of the other printouts on the board to slightly obscure the flyer she'd just posted. The fewer people who showed up to this party, the better.

Next, Alessa headed toward a lamppost about ten yards away. She knew it was technically prohibited to post notices anywhere except on university-approved spaces like the bulletin boards, but she was eager to get rid of her flyers and get home for a quick rest before her afternoon lecture, so she decided to risk it. Anyway, she didn't see anyone in the immediate vicinity who looked official enough to reprimand her.

She taped a flyer at eye level, then crossed the cobblestone path toward a camera pole a few yards further. She worked her way in a loop around the quad, crisscrossing the path as she encountered any surface she could stick a flyer to, passing them out to the handful of other students she encountered as well.

At last Alessa was down to one final printout. She surveyed the quad and was satisfied with the job she'd done. A little too satisfied, in fact - her subtle attempts at sabotage stood no chance against the barrage of colorful papers waving in the brisk fall breeze as far as the eye could see. It actually looked rather festive with all that pink, yellow, and blue.

Alessa turned to the mounted camera beside her, staring quizzically into the lens as she approached the base. She felt an odd sense of being watched, as if the camera were looking right back at her. But there had to be thousands of hours of footage logged across the absurd number of cameras on campus - too much to actually review in its entirety. There was no way there was anyone actually watching her. She decided the university was probably just storing all the recordings in a vault somewhere in case one was ever needed for another lawsuit. Once again, Alessa mused that the whole practice really seemed unnecessary. Unnecessary and unnerving.

Reaching the camera mount, Alessa tore off an inch of tape and held her only remaining flyer against the pole. She pressed the tape down and was about to release a satisfied sigh when she heard a deep male voice behind her.

"Excuse me, miss. This is a violation of university policy. I'm going to have to ask you to remove that."

Alessa swore under her breath. She'd never heard of anyone actually getting in trouble for flyering. Of course she had to be the first. She prepared her best perplexed face - she had decided her best option was to feign ignorance - and turned around to face her accuser.

She was surprised to find not the burly university official she was expecting, but a student. And not any student, but Mr. Tall Dark & Handsome from the library the other day. He narrowed his deep brown eyes and flashed a mischievous white smile which glowed against his tan skin.

He introduced himself in a slightly higher octave than before, the smooth velvet of his voice decanting into Alessa's ears. "Nikhil. Sorry to scare you. I couldn't help myself." He gestured at the expanse of the quad, the multicolored papers adorning every available surface. "Is this all your handiwork?"

Alessa laughed sheepishly. Yes, this Nikhil was definitely what Lizzie Green would have called, "a cute boy." Was he really flirting with her? She flushed as she tried to think of something clever to say in response.

"Yeah, that was all me." Fantastic.

Nikhil smiled nonetheless. "So, will you be at this party -" he paused expectantly, motioning towards her with his hand.

Alessa picked up on his meaning. "Alessa. And yes, I will absolutely be there." Ugh! She tried to make up for her inadequate banter with a smile, a real one for once.

"I'll have to look for you." He flashed that smile again and Alessa's grin brightened. "So do you have any more of those left?" He indicated the pink flyer she'd just hung.

Alessa quickly peeled it off the pole and held it out to him. "Why don't you take this one? You'll save me from adding yet another infraction to my colorful record." He laughed. Finally.

Nikhil folded up the paper and slipped it into his pocket. With a coy smile he turned to go, locking eyes with her one last time. "See you tomorrow, Alessa."

"Bye," she replied, unable to wipe the goofy grin from her face as he sauntered down the path away from her. Perhaps this party wouldn't be so bad after all.