Plus Expenses

The day had been fairly uneventful. School was easy, thanks in no small part to his signing up for less then challenging classes. God bless the slackers. His door slid open as he returned home, his roommates posters covering the walls like a grand, uncoordinated tapestry. It was certainly an intersting sight to see, but one that Gideon was quickly becoming accustom to. In fact, there was little excitement to be found, especially compared to the many adventure novels he spent his days reading.

"Yo Seb, you around buddy?" he called out. After a few seconds without a reply Gideon dropped his back pack and took a seat several feet from the door. The long hallway didn't allow for much leg room, but it suited his needs. Now he just needed something to do.

There was a grunt from the window and a hand slapped onto the cill, and then a second. A sound of strain could be heard as a blonde head reared itself up. Seb swung his arms into the room and hung from his armpits on the ledge of the window, panting. He then finished the job and pulled the rest of his body up and slumped into the dorm, landing head first.
"Success!" he cried, decidedly out of breath which left it little more than a whisper.

All that time wasted watching footage from the stupid parking lot! And all I discovered was that it was two people! Stupid cheap equipment!

Aubri could hardly stand the fact that after a couple hours wasted watching video footage, all that had been discovered was that two people had taken her car. That was all they could make out from the fuzzy film. The principal was being nice and said that he'd contact the local authorities, but who knows how long it would take them to even begin looking for her car, much less the people who took it. Sighing, she meanered aimlessly through the boys dormitory. She recognized and even knew a couple of people passing her in the hall. She paused in front of dorm number 14. The guy she'd rammed into at the movie theatre lived in that dorm. He'd told her that he'd snuck into the theatre. At first she'd been shocked, what did the price matter to her, but then she'd realized that it didn't really matter what he did.

Sighing, she stood there for a moment. Then she decided that she'd see if he was there. Maybe he'd know what to do about her car. The principal had been nice, but it had been awkward sitting there in his office crying. He said that he'd contact the local authorities, but who knew how long it would take to track down the two people who took her car, if they even tried to at all.

What can it hurt right? I mean the worst he can do is ask me to leave his room...

Taking a deep breath, Aubri gently knocked on Gideon's door...

((I think it's funny how Gideon will be looking for Kan and John, who have the dorm right next to his [assuming that the dorms have even rooms on one side of the hall and odd on the other side] We'll be hiding right under his nose.))

The quizzical expression Gideon sported as he walked towards the open window at the back of his dormitory evolved into one of delighted disbelief as he recognized the arm of his roommate latching carefully onto the windowsill. Gideon didn’t know how many floors up the male dormitories were, but he imagined it must have been quite the climb. He quickly made his way to the open window, stretching his arms as he went before coming to a stop right in front of his emerging roommate. The blond boy fell to the floor in an exhausted heap, his head protecting the rest of his body by absorbing most of the impact. The boy cried success! But in such a weak voice it was not so much triumphant as it was comical.

“Now, I can only assume you have an excellent reason for not using the stairs. But for the life of me I can’t think of one other then you being bored.” Said Gideon as he squatted in front of his roomie, his head cocked to the side as he looked the boy over, hoping that stupidity wasn’t contagious.

A knock at their door made the next sarcastic comment to die in his throat as he looked first at the door, and then back at Seb?

“Are you expecting someone?” he asked the tired kid before turning back to the door. “Come in!”

Aubri slowly pushed the door open to find Gideon squatting in front of his roommate who was in a heap in front of him.

"Is he okay?" Aubri asked completely coming into the room. "He's not like hurt or anything? Is he?"

She swiftly made her way over to where the two boys were and attempted to squat down, but then gave up that challenge seeing as she was still in her extremely short school skirt. She contemplated leaning over but then decided against that too. The school dress code said a white shirt, so Aubri had decided to wear a white corset and then a red vest over top of that. Although the outfit looked cute, if she leaned over it didn't leave much to the imagination. So she decided to content herself with standing next to the two boys and wondered if the one boy was okay. For the moment she completely forgot about her car and her original purpose for coming into the room.

Gideon instantly recognized the girl as the one from the movie theater a few nights ago. Which caused him to turn once more to his room mate. How did the frisbee freak score such a hottie. More importantly, if he had a date with what’s her face why was he crawling into his dorm through the window? There was only one thing Gideon knew for sure. He was definately going to rethink his stance on the merits of playing frisbee.

"Yeah!?" Gideon replied as the girl walked into their dormitory. Without permission. "Im sure he is perfectly fine. He does it everyday as a warm up. Probably. To be honest I don't spend much time in here."

He stood up to make room for the girl, whose name he had forgotten, as she swiftly made her way over to the downed Seb. For a moment it looked like she was going to bend over to examine him. Given her outfit it would have likely created a memorable view. As you can imagine, when the girl caught herself before her delightful faux pas, Gideon was noticeably disappointed. In the end, she opted to stand there awkwardly, giving Gideon a great view of the back of her head. For once, Gideon found himself wishing he could be in Sebs position on the floor. At least he had a chance to....

Gideons train of thought was broken as he realized he was likely intruding on Seb and Aubri's alone time. So he did what any good room mate would do. He made up some random excuse to get out of their hair.

"Well, I have to go," his mind lurched for an activity, "skateboard...now. So I guess I will see you all later!" he smiled as he backed away. Realizing he had no idea how to skateboard. Maybe he would just go take a nap out in the courtyard.

Aubri breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that the boy lying on the ground was okay. She was trying to figure out what to say next when Gideon said that he was going to leave to go skateboarding.

That's odd, I wonder where his skateboard is?

Before she could contemplate it further, she remembered her reason for coming into this room and that it would be detrimental to her if Gideon left. Turning around she lithely walked over to where Gideon stood.

"Wait," she said, gently placing her hand on his arm. Her smile was sensual and slightly seductive.

"I was actually hoping to talk to you, but then I was distracted by your roommate." She gave self-depreciating smile and thought about how easily distracted she was. "I was... well... I was kind of hoping that you could help me out with something." She looked into his eyes shyly, her smile losing all it's enticement, and her features became sweet and innocent.

Unsure of how to proceed, Aubri paused. She wasn't used to asking people for favors. Typically people just did things for her without her having to ask. She decided to see if Gideon would agree to help her out before she went into further detail.

Gideon froze when he was asked to wait, the jock turning smoothly on his heel in a comically extravagent manner, his expression ensuring that his confusion was readily visible. Her smile was seductive, her touch commanding of his attention, and either one by itself set off warning bells. He had a weakness' for pretty girls, and had been manipulated into doing a lot over the years because of it. It had taken him a little while but at least he could confidently say he was starting to learn some of their tricks. Out of principle, whenver he felt he was being used, he said no. Simply refused to play the game, even if he didn't know what game he would be playing. Right now, the fake skate boarding was sounding like a good idea. That was until he saw her seductive positioning change to that of an innocent, and sweet young girl. Who needed his help.

Apparently he wasn't as well versed in manipulation as he thought. Gideon was teeter tottering back and forth, decidedly undecided as to if he would agrre to help her. Especially considering he didn't know what she wanted in the first place.

"I can't agree to something I know nothing about. Tell me what the problem is, and I will see what I can do," he said after several minutes pause.

"Well you see..." Aubri began uncertainly, "my car, my beautiful 2007 silver Mustang GT convertible, was stolen from the parking lot by two people from this school and completely trashed! I know the principal contacted the authorities because I already spoke to him about all of this, but the authorities aren't likely to really check into this too deep. I mean, what's another stolen car to them, right? So, I was wondering.... and well hoping that maybe you could help me out..." her voice trailed off.

I'm an idiot! What was I thinking! What can he do to help? It's not like he's a real P.I. or anything.... but still I don't know, I for some strange reason trust him... ah, grrr to unpredictability!

"I can pay you if you like," she rushed on after a moment, "like you wouldn't have to do it pro bono or anything like that. I don't know, if you could just like talk to people, find out if someone's heard any rumors. I mean, you know more people at this school than I do. You probably know how to find out the things that go on in this school..."

Aubri left her sentence unfinished. She stood there waiting in desperate anticipation.

Just like a rich kid to put so much value on an overpriced automobile. Thought Gideon as he began to clean the dirt from beneath his fingernails. He was losing interest fast. Rich kids were so, stupid. They never gave anything away even though they had so much to give. If this girls dad could afford to buy her a silver mustang, he could afford to buy her another one. Still she seemed pretty upset over the lose of her car. Was it enough to get involved with? Probably not. Kids who were willing to steal expensive cars were probably very dumb, and probably very violent. Most students didn't want to risk breaking the law, much less commit a serious crime like gran theft auto. If they were willing to steal a car, they were likely willing to beat Gideon to a pulp. Something Gideon very much wanted to avoid.

Aubrey continued to prattle on for awhile before mentioning a payment. Suddenly, Gideon was interested again. "How do you know they are students here?" he asked as he stared at his fingernails. His body languages creamed aloof, but that didn't mean he wasn't listening. It just meant he was more concerned about the health of his cuticals.

Aubri had watched him as she'd explained the situation. He had been busily playing with his fingernails, which annoyed her and showed his disinterest at the same time. He'd looked up when she'd mentioned paying him but then proceeded to be preoccupied with his nails again.

"I'm not totally certain. It was just mine and the principal's guess since the two people had exited the school building onto the parking lot. But I guess there is a possibility that neither one was a student," she paused contemplating the situation.

I feel like this is a complete waste of time. He doesn't even seem like he's paying attention or even cares. That could be it, maybe he thinks I'm just some spoiled rich kid, which I guess technically I am.

"It's not that losing the car is a huge deal. I have another one... that sounds bad doesn't it. Yeah, it does. But my mom gave me that car as a gift, and it's more the sentiment behind the car that I'm upset about losing than the actual car itself," she explained.

Sighing, she decided that this was an utter waste of time and decided she would just leave. She pulled out her cell phone to check the time, one of her innate habits, and dropped it on the floor. Muttering a curse, she stooped down to pick up it, unconscious of the view she was giving Gideon. Straightening up, she quietly thanked him for listening to her and turned towards the door.