It was a warm September night on a Friday in Hazelnut Hill. Freshman were getting ready to go to their first college parties, sophomores were hanging up their LED strip lights in Ralsh, juniors were making the long trek back to 3k, and seniors Emma, Alyssa, Shannon, and Caitlin were sitting at their tiny dining room table waiting for the chicken to marinate.
"When did Javier say he was coming?" asks Shannon.
"I think he said he'd be here a little after 7," says Alyssa.
"Oh yeah, I bumped into Michael today in O'Peill, he said he's coming too. And Ana and Caroline said they were coming, but they have to go grocery shopping so they'll be here around 7:30," Emma added.
What's that noise? It must be the street cleaners, preparing for tomorrow big game against Notre Lame. Caitlin and Emma saw their big buses parking outside of Conte as they were walking back from class.
"Dammit," whispers Emma as she shuffles through her backpack, which is always twinning with Larissa's.
"What?" says Alyssa, looking up from her phone.
"They're not in here. My mildliners, they're missing. Maybe I forgot them in my last class, but I could've sworn I put them in the front pocket next to my iClicker."
"Ugh, I don't want to walk all the way back up to campus. Alysssuhhh???"
"Yeah, I'll come with you."
"Yayyy! I think we can get back in 20 minutes."
What is that scratching noise? Oh, it's Finn. She's hungry and scratching at her bag of dog food lying in the corner next to the mop and stack of paper towels. She's not really supposed to be here, but Emma couldn't help but bring her along in her suitcase after being quarantined with her for 3 months.
"I'll feed her!" Shannon says enthusiastically.
"Let me go get my shoes on," says Alyssa.
Shannon gets her food bowl from under the table (Finn will only eat if it's under there) and digs in the food bag to find the scoop.
"SHANNNNONNN, someone keeps calling you," Larissa yells from their bedroom. But Shannon doesn't seem to hear her.
"Shannon, Larissa's calling you," says Caitlin.
"Oh, really. I didn't hear anything." Shannon drops the food scoop back into the bag of dog food and disappears into the bedroom. Finn lets out a sad whimper.
"Did you get Alyssa anything?" Caitlin asks in a low voice.
"No," Emma responds. "I would have, but it kind of snuck up on me. Did you?"
"Yeah, I got her this cactus chapstick and phone case."
Emma chuckles under her breadth. Alyssa does like cactuses, but not as much as people think she does. It's kind of become this thing since cactus paraphernalia is so easy to find nowadays. Her friends and family get her this stuff every holiday and birthday. If you saw her dorm room you would think she loved cactuses, which just encourages people to buy her more of it, even though she's just a little more than indifferent to cactuses. It's a never ending cycle. Anyways, here comes Alyssa.
"You ready?" asks Emma.
"Yeah, let's go." says Alyssa. "We'll be back in 20," Alyssa shouts as they walk out the door.
"Noooo," Shannon says as walks back out from the bedroom. Finn looks up at her, still upset about not being fed . "Nathan has the stomach flu and can't help set up for the SEASA barbecue and now they're asking me to go help."
"Why can't they ask somebody else?" asks Caitlin.
"I don't know. It's okay, I'll go really quick and come back. Can you keep an eye on the cake? The carrot cake should only be about 3 more minutes, and the german chocolate cake should be about 10. Stick one of the knives in the middle and make sure it comes out clean before you take them out okay?"
"Alright," says Caitlin. "Also, weren't we going to get plastic silverware from the dining halls so we didn't have to get our stuff dirty?"
"Oh shoot, we forgot about that. Maybe Larissa can go get them really fast. LARISSSAAA..." Shannon shouts as she skips off to their bedroom.
Finn is playing in the kitchen when Caitlin hears something get dragged off the counter. She's about to go see what's the matter when a Canvas notification banner lights up her screen. It reads "POLI4556: Quiz 1, Graded." She opens it. 10/10. Very nice Caitlin.
Finn makes another noise in the kitchen. "Finn, what are you doing?" Caitlin asks in a parental tone. "Oh no, bad puppy." She's dragged the powdered sugar bag onto the floor. Luckily it wasn't open, or else our cakes would have to go icing-less.
Shannon comes back into the living room with Larissa. "Okay, so I'm going to go help set up really quick, and Larissa is going to go to Lower to get some plastic silverware."
"Should I get like 20 forks, and 20 knives?" asks Larissa.
"Yeah, that should be good," Shannon responds.
"Well, everyone doesn't really need their own knife. Don't we only really need one to cut the cake?" Caitlin adds.
"Yeah, that's true, so I guess get 20 forks and 1 knife," says Shannon.
Finn starts to jump up on Larissa's legs. She's been doing Comp-Sci homework on her bed all day, and Finn missed her.
"Aww, she wants to come with us. Okay Finn, I guess you can come with me. I can tie her up on the picnic table outside the mod while we set up" says Shannon. "Be back in 20."
Caitlin waves them goodbye, but then she starts to smell something. And no, it's not Finn, because Finn just left (but she does get kinda dirty sometimes, so it's never completely out of the question). Something is burning. The carrot cake! Caitlin rushes over to the oven and opens it up, and billows of light grey smoke start to roll out. "Oh great," says Caitlin. "That was literally only 2 minutes over what Shannon said." Baking is a more of science than most people think, young padawan.
"Okay, umm...I gotta get this out. Where are the oven mitts?" "They're not in the drawer next to the stove, they're not hanging on the door of the stove, WHERE ARE THEYYY?" Caitlin yells in her head. "Whatever, I'll just use this towel," Caitlin says under her breadth. But as she grabs the cake, the heat from the pan instantly rushes through the towel and to her fingertips. It burns, it burns, they're burning.... Caitlin drops the cake pan on top of the stove as quickly as she can. The towel was much thinner than she had thought. "Owww" she says as she looks at her fingertips which are turning bright red and starting to blister. She turns off the stove, leaving the german cake and its german willpower to bake itself.
Caitlin gets her phone and texts a picture of her left hand to the Flexin' Plexin' group chat and her mom, who recommends she go to University Health Services to get the burn checked out. "Ouch, that looks like it hurts. Might be a second or maybe even a third degree burn. Go to health services and see what they say," Caitlin's mom suggests. "But it's Alyssa's 21st Birthday party tonight mom, what if they make me stay overnight or something extreme like that?" Caitlin responds. "Caitlin, go," says her mom. And even though it was over text, Caitlin read that in her mom's voice, so she decides to walk downstairs to UHS.
The woman at the front desk tells her to take a seat. And after about 20 minutes (who's here this early on a Friday night???), a nurse walks out to greet her and take her back. But as they're walking to the exam room, Caitlin notices that something seems off. Too many phones are ringing, nurses are standing hunched over the computers with scrunched up faces, and less-than-fit doctors are running towards the back door-- the emergency entrance. "Twenty-one, male, no breath and no pulse at the scene, CPR started 4 minutes ago..." But that's not all of it it. Caitlin recognizes this boy. She stares with her eyes wide open, taking in every bit of information from the scene that she can, when the nurse ushers her into the room and closes the door. "Sorry you had to see that. Something bad has happened, a tragedy." Her voice trails off as her glassy eyes divert to the floor. She takes a second to recompose herself and then says "What brings you in here at this hour?"
