Fire at Diamond Forest

Fire on campus

"Alright everyone settle down. I know there is a lot of panic going on about making sure everyone is safe and wondering where you are going to go. If you can still attend the school, and so on" The Dean started out.

The auditorium was full of 100 or so frightend students. And they had every right to be frightend. The second year dorm building just nearly burned to the ground and many students lost most, if not ALL of their belongings.

"Here I have Detective Grant. He is going to fill you in on what we know about the fire. Detective, if you would." The Dean stepped away from the podium to allow the detective to speak.

"So far we know little to nothing about the fire. We have yet to determine what started the fire or where it started. So far all we know is that considering how fast it spread, an accelarant must have been used. And it is because of that fact that we are declaring this was no accident. However we have yet to discover what accelarant was used. The investigation is ongoing and we will continue the investigation until we get to the bottom of this. We do not yet know if the fire was started by a student. And we are considering that there may be more than one culprit respons-"

"do you even know ANYTHING?" a random student loudly interupted.
"It sounded like a bomb" Another studend followed, causeing another uproar of students shouting and demanding answers.

"Silence!" Dean Wilson demanded. Everyone in the room doing as told immediately. The mixture of fear and respect for the tall, well dressed woman was apparent.
"thank you! I expect much more respect from my students. You will do well to not interrupt again!" She said firmly. clearly with a hint of a threat in her tone. "You were saying detective?"

"Right..." The detective said, unsure of the state of the room as he stepped back up to the microphone.
"As I was saying..There was no evedince found that leads us to believe a bomb was used. We are being led to believe that the 'boom' you all heard was something that exploded after the fire started. So other than the fact that an accelerant was used, we do not know anything for certain yet. However like I said there is an ongoing investigation. When we unveil more evedince and facts I will see to it that every on of you is informed of what we discover. But for the time being, all I can say for certain is that you can expect security on campus to be very tight. You can expect officers patroling the campus as well as officers being stationed in every building. There may be random bag searches along with interigations of potential suspects."
he paused for a momment as he looked around the room.
"Thank you for your time"

The building became loud with chatter and some students yelling questions.

"Settle down everone" the Dean stepped back up to the podium
"Since you are all out of a dorm building and therefore do not have a place to live during your enrolment, the Board has decided that those of you that are able, will be able to live off campus with roommates in the Willow Complex. To help with the process there is already an app in the making that you can download onto your smart-device that will allow you to communicate with other students in need of roommates. This way you can get some information about the person you would be living and paying bills with. Due to the dire situation, there will not be any guidlines as far as gender or year/grade restrictions. Obviously we expect you to be responsible and room yourselves with people that will not be any more of a distraction from you'r classes. The only rule that we will enforce is there will be no parties that involve drugs and excesive drinking. We have already been in contact with the Willow Complex's main office and they have agreed to make the complex specifically for students until a new dorm is constructed. Keep in mind, while you are living there, you are representing Diamond Forest University."
She paused to be sure she was understood. Her stern voice and furrowed eyebrows making it very clear she was serious with her words.

"Now. Since the Board and I are aware that it takes some time to find people you are comfortable living with as well as making arrangments to actually move to a new place, We will be paying for those of you who are unable to stay anywhere else to stay at The Foster's Hotel for as long as we can. If after that time you still do not have anywhere to go we will have to make arrangements of some kind, but we havent gotten that far in planning as of yet. Since there of some 120 of you, we wont be able to get each of you you'r own rooms so there may be a few of you to a room. I can't say it will be easy. In fact I can guarentee that it will be far from it. But we will get through this together. For now, Those of you who dont have anywhere they can stay tonight, please make your way to Dr. Bloom's Office and she will arrange for you to stay at the hotel with a few of your peers. But please, if you 'are able' to stay somewhere else for the time being, with friends or family for example, please do. Getting 100 some students into hotel rooms will be diffucult as it is"

Almost immediately, the students gathererd themselves up and headed down the stairs of the autotorium.

"This is insane. I cant believe we have to uproot our lives like this. And what about everything we had in our dorms? Pretty much everything I have to my name was in that room." Mia frustradedly proclaims while making her way down the stairs.

"I know babe, for now you can stay at my place until you can figure out that roommate thing" Adira said trying to be helpful.

"Any way I can just stay with you for the rest of the year?"

"As much as I would love that, it would be in violation of my lease. Im not supposed to have anyone stay over more that a week. Which is really dumb but its not something I can risk. If I get in trouble for violating the lease because you're staying with me, then we'd both need somewhere to live. Sorry babe." Adira explains.

"Uggghhhh. To think I 'just' got used to living with that Tracy bitch. eh. At least I dont have to deal with her or her boyfriend anymore." Mia complained.

"Well im glad you're looking at the bright side. Even if it is... whatever 'that' is." Adira laughed. "when do you want to start looking into that roommate thing?"

"well definitly not right now. For now I just want to get back to your place and pass the fuck out."

"well im right there with you on that part."

-While Mia and Adira were on their way out, on the other side of the auditorium-

"Man what the hell. All my stuff is gone. My clothes, my Laptop, my books.. everything." Jake started. "All I have is what im wearing right now and whatever I got in my bag wich is pretty much just notebooks. This is fucked."
He grabbed his bag and headed down the stairs torwards the Counciler's office.

"you wanna stay with me tonight?" Matt asked before Jake could get too far. "I know you'd rather hang with me then spend the night with some rando's you dont know."

"your right about that but I also dont wanna end up getting stuck at your place with your crazy ass parents" Jake forced a  laugh, trying to dirstract himself from the fact he just lost most of his stuff.
He knew Matt was trying to help but he also just didnt want to stay with him. Sure they we're "friends". But not close enough of friends for him to sleep over at his place for god knows how long. In truth, he didnt know what he was going to do. All he knew was that he didnt want to do anything. he just wanted to go back to his room and relax. he had a rough enough day without the fire burning down his dorm. For now he was just going to see how the hotel thing went. Besides, if he got roomed with some annoying people then he'd just leave and sleep in his car or something.

"Well what are you gonna do then?" Matt asked.

"Dude im just gonna make it up as I go. I'm to tired and pissed off to actually make a real plan right now.