Winters Night - Chapter 2

“Elizabeth, the principal will see you now.” said the lady behind the desk of the Nightingale academy private school.

Standing up with a sigh she walked into the room that had the principal’s name on it.

“Miss Elizabeth Cole, I presume.”

“Um, yes ma’am.” Liz mumbled nervously.

“Take a seat.” the principal ordered.

Not hesitating Liz sat down in the leather chair in front of the principal’s desk. The principal pulled a stack of papers out of a drawer in her desk. Motioning to a few papers, “This it the paperwork stating what room you will stay in, who your roommate is and where the dorm is located.” Motioning to other paperwork in the pile she lifted up a map, “We have arranged for a guide to take you to all of your classes but this will get you everywhere you need to be if you lose your guide, it’s a map of the entire school grounds.”

She pulled up something on the computer and printed it out. “This is your schedule, there are five classes. You will of course have English, Math, Science, and History the last class is the one you chose which is chorus. Does that sound correct to you?” she asks Liz.

“Yes, yes ma’am.” she stumbles out as she looks at all the papers the principal is handing to her. “Your guide will take you to your room and he will make sure you are situated. Have a nice day.” says the principal as she turns back to her computer.

Liz sits there for a moment then gathers her papers, gets up and walks out.

“Are you Elizabeth?” asks a lanky young man standing next to the front desk as she is closing the door.

He is about five foot eight, tan, green eyes and has silverish hair.

“Liz.” she mumbles as he looks at her questioningly.

“Call me Liz.” she clarifies.

“Whatever just follow me.” he states.

She looks at the ground nervously then straightens and moves closer.

He leads her out of the office and to the female dorms without saying a word. When they stop he says “My name is Grey. Just don’t think this makes us friends since you know my name.”

“Where are my bags?” Liz asks trying to push her nerves aside.

“They are in your room. Your roommate should be up there waiting for you as well.”

“How do I know which room is mine?” she asks her voice giving away that she is slightly scared.

He smiled sensing her fear, “Remember that piece of paper the principal gave you. If you look at it there will be a number match that number to the number on the door and that is your room.”

“Oh, yeah sorry. I forgot.” she says quietly as she shuffles through the papers in her arms, locating the paper with her dorm information on it.

Grey hands her a key. “This is the key that will get you in. Have a lovely day.” he says sarcastically as he turns to leave.

“Wait,” she calls. “what about showing me around?”

“That’s what a map is for.”

“But the principal said that you would show me around.”

Grey sighs heavily, “Get your roommate to do it I have more important things to do.” he states as he walks off leaving her alone.

“Oh, yeah okay, um thanks for all your help.” she says when he is out of earshot. After looking at the papers, and asking a few people if she was on the right floor, she finds her room, and taking a deep breath she walks in.

——

Liz looked around and took in the dorm. It was roomy. She walked down a small hallway and found the kitchen on one side and a locked door on the other that Liz realized was a bathroom after she put her ear to the door and heard water running.

Walking further through the hall she entered the actual room that she was to sleep in, one side was decorated with posters and quotes and the other she presumed was hers as the bed held all her bags and belongings that she had brought with her.

Walking over to the bed she set down all her papers, no sooner had she done that she heard a door open behind her.

“Oh, I hadn’t realized that you would be here yet I thought I still had time.” said Liz’s roommate as she walked out of the bathroom in her towels.

“Oh, um, yeah, my guide kind of gave me the map tour, so it was over fast.” Liz said shyly as she watched her room mate get dressed.

“I’m Crystal. I’ll be your roommate until one of us leaves.” She said smiling “do you mind if i call you Eliza?” she asked liz.

Liz smiled, grateful to have met someone who was actually kind to her, “No, i don’t. You said Crystal right?”

Crystal smiled “Yup that’s me, pretty as a diamond.” she chucked. “I’m just kidding.”

Liz gave a quiet laugh. “I know I just got here so do you mind if I have a few minutes to unpack and get cleaned up?”

Crystal smiled, “Not a problem, I need to go by the supermarket anyway and get a few groceries, my numbers on the fridge if you need anything don’t be afraid to call.”

With that, Crystal tied up her shoes and walked out the door humming a song that Liz recognized.

Once Crystal was gone Liz began unpacking. She set up her bed and got all her clothes into the dresser beside it. Looking around at all her stuff she smiled, satisfied.

Realizing that she had only spent 15 minutes getting all her stuff together and Crystal probably wouldn’t be back for a while she got into the shower.

After her shower Liz got dressed and sat on her bed not knowing what to do. She remembered seeing a park on the way to the dorms from the office and decided that she was going to go for a walk to clear her head. So she wrote a note to Crystal explaining where she was going, put it on the fridge and headed out the door to the park.

——

Grey finally gets back to the dorm room after showing the new girl to the female dorm rooms. As he is walking into the room Jack is walking out of the shower with nothing but a towel on. He stops in the middle of the room and looks at Grey.

“Where have you been?” he asks Grey.

“Got called to the office to show a new girl around campus but I just dropped her off at the dorms and left her in the hands of her roommate. Why what’s up man?” he answered. As he was talking Jack had gotten dressed and thrown on a coat.

“What was her name and room number?” asked Jack hastedly.

“Her name is Elizabeth and I don’t know here room number I didn’t care to know, so I didn’t ask. Where are you going?” replied Grey

“I’m going out for a walk. Please don’t follow and definitely don’t let the pack follow do you understand Grey.” stated Jack firmly.

“Yes, I do Frost.” responded Grey submissively.

Without another word, Jack leaves the room.

——–

Making his way over to the female dorms, Jack walks around trying to see if he can pick up the scent of the new girl. As he gets there he picks up her scent and follows it to the park that is in the middle of the campus. There he sees a brunette, who looks to be about five foot four, sitting all by herself on the little swing set that is across from the picnic area. Walking over to the swing he looks at her, “May I sit?” he asks sweetly.

She is taken back by his kindness being that no one except for her roommate has been kind to her since she had gotten to the school.

“You can if you would like.” she says quietly.

“Are you a new student here?” asks Jack as he sits in the swing next to her.

“Yes, I just got here this morning.” she relaxed a bit.

He looks at her, smiling and asks “So how are you liking it so far?”

She looks at the ground nervously and says “Well I guess it’s nice. The principal seem a little strict and the guy who showed me to the dorms wasn’t all that nice. Everyone seems cool but they don’t want to help they just blow me off like I’m nothing. Oh by the way my name is Elizabeth Cole but you can call me Liz if you want.”

“Liz,” he says testing the name, “Liz, I like that, it’s a very pretty name. You can call me Jack my full name is Jack Crowe but everyone seems to call me Jack Frost or Frost.” offering his hand for her to shake.

She looks at him sideways and giggles “That’s cute.” accepting his hand.

“So tomorrow if you don’t have any plans would you like me to show you around campus?” he asks stumbling on his words.

She blushes “That sounds nice, thank you Mr. Frost.” she says teasingly feeling oddly comfortable in his presence.

“Yeah any time. Are your eyes two different colors?” Jack asks.

“Yes, I hate it. I think it is horrible!” she answers getting kind of defensive.

Looking at her with a slight blush and a small smile he says “Well this might come off a little weird since we just met but I think your eyes are beautiful. Again I’m sorry if that’s a little weird.”

Her eyes light up and she starts to blush really hard and says as she stumbles on her words “It’s not weird I think it’s nice and the idea that you are blushing makes it cute.”

“Would you like me to go.” Jack asks her as he realizes that maybe he interrupted her alone time or thinking that maybe she didn’t want him there. “I feel like I interrupted something?”

She looks at him and gets very hyper “No, no, no, please stay. I don’t understand but you being here is very calming, I like it. It’s the first time I’ve felt like this in a while and it’s nice. Please don’t go.” She almost whispers the last part.

He smiles and says “Okay I’ll stay then. Actually, why don’t we go to the coffee shop just a little ways that way.” he suggests pointing down the street. “It’s starting to get dark out and it gets cold here at night.”

She looks at him, just noticing how chilly it was starting to get out. “Okay, yeah, that sounds nice.”

They both get up and start heading over to the coffee shop.

About half way there she slips her hand into his. He looks at her surprised and she immediately takes her hand away, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I shouldn’t have done that we just met. I don’t know what came over me. You must think I’m weird now.”

They both stop and he gently grabs her hand and looks at her with a smile, “It’s not weird trust me, for some odd reason I feel a connection between us and I’ve wanted to do the same thing but didn’t want to freak you out.”

She blushes and they start walking again. They don’t say anything else till they get to the coffee shop.

——

They find a seat near the window and the waitress walks over to their table with a smile, “What can I get you two tonight?” she asks in a southern accent.

Liz smiles at the waitress, “I would like a mint hot chocolate please.”

Writing that down the waitress turns to Jack, “Okay, and how about you sir?”

Jack looks at the waitress “I would like a cup of hot green tea.”

The waitress says “I will have your drinks right out to you.”

Liz looks at the waitress and says “Thank you”

The waitress walks off and Jack looks at Liz “What are you looking at?” she asks blushing.

He smiles, blushing lightly again, “You’re beautiful sorry if me saying that is weird.”

She smiles at him and takes his hand then says “No its not I think it is sweet.”

The waitress comes back after a few minutes with their drinks “Here is your hot chocolate ma’am, and here is your tea sir.” she says as she places the drinks in front of them.

“So do you have any plans for tomorrow?” Jack asks as he blows on his tea. Liz looks up from her drink “No not as of right now. Why?” she asks with a grin knowing what was going on.

“I was wondering if you wanted to do something tomorrow.” says as he takes a sip of his tea. Liz smiles “I would love too.”

After they finish their drinks and Jack pays, and they leave. As he is walking Liz back to the female dorms he asks her “So are we still on for tomorrow?”

“Yes, I almost forgot, I was having so much fun.” she says blushing, “I guess it’s time to say goodnight.” as the reach the front of the dorm building.

“Goodnight sweet dreams I will meet you here at 8 in the morning,if that’s okay with you?” he states questioningly.

“Yes that’s good,” Liz replies smiling. “good night Jack.” she says as she gives him a hug, then walks inside. Smiling he turns and goes back to his dorm, and the only thing he could think of was Liz.

———-

As Jack opens the door to his room Grey starts laughing and says “So how was your date?”

Jack gets into the room and closes the door then says “It was nice.”

Grey looks at him and says “Wow you’re actually admitting it that’s a first.”

“Yeah why wouldn’t I?” Jack looks at him as he starts getting undressed.

Grey shrugs and reply “Because I thought you might want to play it safe especially with the four hooligans running around.”

As Jack gets under his covers he says “Don’t ruin my good mood.” He smiles as he pictures Liz’s eyes, “I will worry about that in the morning. So goodnight and turn out that damned light.”

Grey does as he is told then goes to bed.