Beginning and end

'Terror strikes the world series today as a deadly mass shooting at Fenway Park claimes the lives of many, including the lives of three congressmen. The attack was carried out during the first inning , just as the game was beginning. Witnesses claimed to have seen an unmarked vehicle and heard the sounds of semi-automatic gunfire within the park. The criminals responsible are still at large as police personnel have few leads on the suspects. Authorities ask for the public to please cooperate by providing any other accounts of suspicious activity. There is still little to no word from authorities but there is much speculation of this attack being organized by one of the domestic terrorist groups that have begun to sprout up in response to the war with China.'

The news video was being played from the phone of a small young woman as she walked, set on a low volume so as to not distract her from her surroundings. But this didn't stop her from being immersed, and judging  by the numbers of views, likes, and comments the story was having a similar effect with people. The phone playing the video was distrubed by a blue bubble appearing near the top of the screen. The sender was marked "Bestest Roomate ever" with a single like of text.

"Turn around"

Armoni turned around with her phone in one hand as she brushed her bright red hair out of her face with another. She had been walking along the outside of her college campus. Following the sidewalks that led from here to there. Each one crowded with students rushing to get to class or bunched into groups commenting on the happenings of today. Her eyes scanned the horizon for someone she knew. A knowing smile graced her features as she recognized a face in the crowd. She waved her hand in the air at her approaching friend Kiara.

"Armoni, girl, why are you walking so fast? I thought we had plans to meet up and smoke before your internship at the greenhouse started?" Kiara asked.

"Girl, I'm sorry. I totally forgot. Reggi hit me up and asked me to get to the greenhouse early today so we can study for midterms." Armaoni explained. A quirky smile made its way onto Kiara's face and she rolled her eyes.

"Swole Reggi with the beard? Girl, look at you. Turning it around like that! I remember our first semester, I never thought you would leave them hood rat dudes you was running with alone. Now you're getting with a handsome educated man that wants to support your growth. I'm so proud of you!" she cheered. Now it was Armoni's turn to roll her eyes.

"Girl, it isn't even like that. And aren't you dating one of those hood rat guys I run with?" she argued.

"Girl, whatever, knowing you y'all probably studying the bump and grind anyway." Kiara said as she began to sway her hips in a suggestive manner.

"Oh my gosh, because that will be on the exam." Armoni said sarcastically.

"Em,I guess I'll have to call Rodger," Kaira says, a little upset.

"Why are you saying it like that, you need me to check his ass real quick?" Armoni asked pointedly.

"No it's not that it's just, he's been very different since his parents accident. If he isn't around you or Mark, he starts getting depressing to be around. And its only been getting worse. Nothing I say or do gets him out of it, an I can feel him drifting more and more to stuff I can't be apart of. It's different from how it used to be, when we was just having fun in college. It's hard for me to be around this version of him." Kiara explained, She had an uncomfortable look on her face, no doubt replaying Rodds most recent episode. Armanoi wasn't going to push her to go into detail, her face was enough proof.

"I get it, here" Armoni said as she reached into her bag.She pulled out a small ziplock bag with something stamped on it, it was Armoni's personal brand of home grown weed. "This shit right here is what I've been growing back at my moms, I call 'Space Dick'" Armoni told her.

Kiara took the bag quickly, giving her an incredulous look.

"You and these names! Goddamn, Is it as good as that 'purple sex' you had me on last month?" Kiara asked.

"Yup, maybe even better" Armoni smirked.

"Girl, I love you. Promise you're going to take me with you when you run away to your dream house this summer!" Kiara said.

"I swear, wouldn't go without you" Armoni agreed.

"I'm holding you to it! Let me find out, haha" Kiara laughed as she went in for a hug.

Armoni hugged her back before they went separate ways. The large complex buildings of the campus loomed overhead as she continued walking along the sidewalk. Up ahead, the greenhouse comes into view . It was a large building made with glass panes all around the top. Inside, it was quieter than the outside. The smell of various plants filled her nose and masked the scent of her secret. This filled her with joy as she walked through the garden, but as she headed into the area in the back there was something else.  She approached the door with the 'staff only' sign and was met with the sound of music. She pushed open the door and was upset to find that she could hear music playing loudly through the cracks in the floor of the small office space. After binding down and shifting the floor boards, a bit of light trickled through the cracks revealing a trapdoor.

She pulled the door up and could smell the familiar sent of burning weed. She dropped down into the lower floor and pulled the door shut. Shimmed down a short ladder into a room where a young bearded man with glasses and braids was singing and dancing with his shirt off waving it in the air. Cigar in hand, the tip slightly burnt as he took drags from it, he was completely zoned out into his own world. The room was the size of a large office slightly bigger than the one upstairs that had somehow been fitted  with two large speakers on either side of the room and a strobe light. 

"Cut the shit off bro! I can hear your music all the way up there!" she shouted. She grabbed him by the shoulder, turning him around and stared into his eyes, they were very low and red. "Reggi snap  out of it!" 

"Awe shit, my bad yo." Reggi slowly came out of his haze, laughing lazily as he walked over to grab his phone off the table that stood between the speakers. He turned off the music and walked back over to her. " I just wanted to celebrate our moving on to bigger and better things or whatever." he apologized.

"So you turned our TOP SECRET grow room into a club?" Armoni wasn't having it. She gave him a glare as she set her bag down. "Nah, you need to take this shit somewhere else! This is not a frat house dude! If anyone finds out what we've been up to down here we're screwed! You know old man Jay has been complaining about it smelling like weed in here more and more for going on two years now. And you're doing all this,  like why Reggi. You're smarter than this ." she argued.

"Relax Moni, we already moved all of the weed shit out of here. Nobody found us for two years and if they did now so what. It's not like we made the 'supply closet' down here, what are they going to be mad at us for using it. An if they are so what, it's nothing down here but some speakers." Reggi laughed.

But Armoni wasn't convinced. It was a hard business and she wasn't going to get caught because they were taking it easy. Growing weed could get them busted or rich, she was banking on the latter. But it was time to work and Armoni wasn't playing games. She started up the ladder, followed by Reggi as he continued to take hits from his joint. The two reemerged in the staff room. " The point is that it's too late in the game to take risk and get sloppy. Besides, you know I hate surprises."

They both stopped talking as they noticed someone else standing in the breakroom. An old man dressed in a cleaning suit. It was the groundskeeper and local hard ass, Mr. Jay. The old man was the worst person that could catch them. Armoni was certain he would jump at the chance of getting her expelled, or worse. The man turned to them and they pretended not to notice.

Armoni and Reggi left the greenhouse through the back exit and started making their way quickly through the campus. " Oh shit  put that out!. And why don't you have a shirt on." Armoni asked frantically.

" I don't know, I was turnt." Reggi responded 

"Hey you two, get your butts back over here!" Mr.Jay called after them and they started to run. Mr.Jay was on their tail breaking out into an impressive full speed sprint for an older man. "Dammit you two, I  know your names!" He called after them.  As he runs Mr.Jay pulls out a walkie-talkie from out his jump suite. " I need back up, two runners on the south side of campus headed for the dorms from the greenhouse, male and female. "  The pair ran and cut through a building and lost him in a crowd of students leaving class.

Out of breath the pair stops outside the Cafe. "Haha, lost him." Reggi laughed. 

"Are you sure about that?" Mr.jay seemed to have appeared from thin air behind them on a campus police golf cart.

Armoni returned back to her dorm room. It was a common one, not too fancy. There was a coffee table facing the window that she walked straight over to while just over her shoulder, two young men sat on her couch. Mark, the college football star, as well as the campus trap star. And Rodd, a grad student and major pothead.  Being two of her closet friends they where like family to her and they where who she called with the tragic news.

"You're getting kicked out of school!?" both men called out in shock.

Armoni had a sour expression as she looked at her phone.

"I'm so fucking pissed.!  My last year at this school,  and then, this shit happens!. Fucking Reggy!" she growled.

Armoni had been so upset about Reggy's bad decision to hold a dance party in there secret hideout she forgot to check the breakroom before emerging. It wasn't uncommon for mr. jay or anyone else to be in the break room at any given time, but at that moment Armoni had assumed they would be safe. That paired with all weed she left behind in her bookbag and she had grounds for a federal case on her hands. 

"Why didn't you just run up outta there?" Rodd asked.

"I did but old man Jay turned into a track star all of a sudden."

" Yo that creepy old man has had it out for you ever since we got arrested that first Fall semester. " Mark added.

"Mr.Jay had always suspected that I was growing weed somewhere in or around the green house but could never find our grow. He almost caught us going in and out of that room so many times but never could catch us.  And the week after we take it all down and move it to a better place I finally get caught. How could I be so stupid." Armoni explained.

Both Mark Rodd shared strained looks, neither could argue her claim.

"Damn, that's rough. So how did you get out of going to jail this time" Mark sighed.

"Yea, lucky I have some friends in high places. I got away with a slap on the wrist by giving away two ounces of some of our best buds and close to three thousand dollars to the Dean." Armoni added.

This made Rodd and Mark look at each other in shock, then back to Armani.

"That wasn't the money from the safety deposit box was it!?" Rodd asked.

"Freedome cost.." Armoni said quietly.

She wouldn't have given it up, but her life was on the line.

"So what now?" Mark asked.

It was now, Armani decided to speak her mind on something she had been pondering over for a while now.

"Well that's what I was thinking about. I know we all agreed that none of us should really be seen staying over there but given the circumstances, I was thinking about moving to Acworth" Armani suggested.

"In my parents house?" Rodd asked.

"It's just I'm the only one that knows how to work the stuff for the plants and my dogs are at the place already and my mother is going to be really freaking pissed if I tell her I'm getting kicked out and moving back in with no degree" Armoni defended her suggestion.

Honestly, it worked out for her since no one really cared about the house or her. She could lay low until things blew over.

"Yeah it wouldn't be a secret location with you living there" Rodd said, visibly upset with the idea of her moving into his childhood home.

"I wouldn't make it obvious. I don't need to trap daily since I got you two to sell what we're growing on the streets. I just need some time to get myself together and be under the influence of some positive energy" Armoni argued.

Despite her sound argument, Rodger didn't appear convinced.

"I guess you're gonna want to borrow one of the cars too.." Mark sighed.

"The fastest one!" Armoni insisted.

"What? You're not getting the benz, you can ride in the jag" Mark clarified for her.

Beggars can't be choosers after all. 

"Shit Ok" she nodded.

Armoni gets the keys and she's off in the car. There was no time to lose as she was now public enemy #1 with her college. The last thing she needed was for them to try to use her for a scapegoat on something else. As she is driving through traffic she gets a phone call from her father.

"Well hello stranger. How are things in baltimore?" she asked, a smile on her lips.

"Everything's good out here. How is my baby girl, how's school?" her father replied.

Naturally, he didn't know about her side hustle or the problem she had now. And she was not about to come clean about either.

"It's going really well, I'm just starting to get tired of it all. Things are getting really stressful at the green house. The guy I work with, Mr.Jay, he is a pain. And the papers just get longer and harder. It's just all so stressful.When am I coming to see you, I need a brake dad. Just a couple of months" she sighed.

Well, it wasn't a complete lie.

"A couple of months. I was under the impression that you wouldn't want to take a break  until your graduation, you've been so focused on the books and graduating" her father chuckled.

"Yeah well I've just been feeling like I need a break. Maybe a semester off would be good for my mental health. And you know things aren't great between me and mom, if I went home for a semester she would start saying I dropped out" Armani said back.

"Yeah, I think I said exactly the same words to her before and look how that turned out." her father chuckled. "I wish you could come stay with me Armoni, but it's not that simple sweetheart" her father .

Just then a huge mushroom cloud of fire rose from the ground and formed in front of her. Her eyes go wide with fear and shock as she holds onto the wheel for dear life.