The Unskillful Thaumaturge

XLVII

Daria returned from class only to find that Lillian was still sprawled under the covers of her bed. She rushed over to shake her roommate's shoulder. "Lillian!"

Lillian pulled the covers over her head. Daria shook more vigorously. "You're going to be late for class!" she cried.

"What time is it?" Lillian mumbled, pulling herself to a seat.

"Ten fifteen. Get up!"

Lillian clambered awkwardly out of bed and slid onto the floor, straightening up and rushing into the bathroom to change and brush her teeth. Daria quickly gathered the most important-looking papers on Lillian's desk and jammed them into her roommate's backpack, zipping it up and cramming the water bottle into the side compartment. She left the backpack sitting on the chair and then hurried into the closet to take off her coat and boots.

Lillian emerged flurriedly from the bathroom and raced to her desk, stopping when she realized that Daria had already packed her belongings. "Thanks!" she cried, dashing out the door and hoisting the backpack over her shoulder. Daria peered out from the closet, jacket in hand, and chuckled softly, watching the door swing shut behind her.

❦

Dakota opened the top drawer of the file cabinet and dropped a pizza box inside as Ashley observed. "Is Heath still downstairs?"

"Erica Heath? Yeah. She's pretty determined to find you. I'll let you know when she's gone. Until then, use the back way."

"I left the mirror in here earlier. Did you pick it up?" The top drawer slid shut.

Ashley nodded. "I'm scouting out good places to put it."

"How's the situation with Jennifer?"

"I told you to stop asking me about that! I'll let you know if I have to fix anything."

"Okay, okay!" Dakota retrieved his pizza from the second-to-top drawer and opened the box. Ashley eyed the box for a few seconds before speaking.

"How have you been disposing of food wrappers?"

"Garbage and recycling."

"Do you fix them first?"

Dakota seemed puzzled. "No."

"You should," Ashley scolded. "This-" she tapped the pizza box- "is going to attract notice at some point."

"I'll start fixing them."

"Also, it's probably bad for the environment," she remarked.

"I'll start," Dakota repeated through a mouthful of pizza. As if to emphasize his point, he walked over to the file cabinet and dropped the empty pizza box in the top drawer. Ashley nodded in approval before turning away.

"I'm going to go look at those maps some more," she declared.