Read Terrorscape for Free Online Page A

least,
the ones unfortunate enough to be in their rooms
when the RAs came by—crowded into the Bay
Lounge. They looked around at their heretofore
unseen neighbors with open curiosity and sexual
speculation.
    Val stood at the back, nearest to the door. A line
formed between her eyebrows as the boy from earlier
walked in the door from the opposite side and smiled
at them all. “Hi everyone—I'm Adam Lang.”
    “And I'm Tiffany Landsteiner,” a blonde girl said,
pulling away from the group she had been chatting
with to bound up beside him. Val recognized her as
the chipper girl from resident check-in.
    “We're your Resident Advisers!”
They spoke almost, but not quite, in unison.
    Looking around, Val could not shake the feeling
that she was in the middle of a cheesy Old Navy
commercial.
    Adam
and
Tiffany—God,
even
their names sounded forcefully prep—went over the rules. Don't
drink. Don't blast loud music after 10 P.M. No pets.
No smoking within twenty-five yards of any doors or
windows. Rules that meant nothing in the grand
scheme of things.
She felt a migraine forming behind her eyeballs.
    Mary was standing in the corner with a group of
boys and girls Val didn't recognize. Maybe that was
why Mary hadn't been in the dorm all day. She had
been doing what normal college students did, hanging
out with her friends. Telling them horror stories about
her crazy roommate who screamed in her sleep, and
lived like a ghost.
    Val stared at her, trying to make eye-contact. If
Mary saw, she was making a schooled attempt not to
notice. She didn't look up once.
    I don't care, anyway.
She did, though. That was the problem.
“—but if you follow all the rules, there's no
problem. I know we're going to have a great year!” Are we? Can I get that in writing?
    “And now, just to make sure that we all really do
get to know one another—” Tiffany wielded a sheaf
of marigold-colored papers like a weapon “—we're
going to do ice-breakers! Yay! Isn't that fun?”
    Did that girl seriously say “yay”? Val looked at
the door, longingly, but it was blocked by a group of
rambunctious boys and she couldn't bring herself to
approach them and ask them to move.
    The RAs made circles around the room passing
out the sheets of paper. They were printed with bingo
squares that had things written in their centers like
“someone who has two different colored eyes” or
“someone fluent in more than language” or “someone
who lived in another state.”
    She'd always hated exercises like these. They
made
people
resentful,
because
they
essentially
yanked
the
carpet
out
from
under
you
while
simultaneously making you feel as if it were your
fault for failing to remain upright.
    Val looked around for Mary again, but she had
already been reabsorbed into the group. The door was
unblocked, though, and she crept towards it. Neither
Tiffany nor Adam were looking at her right now, so if
she could just make it to—
“Hey.”
    Val yelped and dropped her paper, causing two
boys near enough to hear her over the din to laugh.
She picked up her paper, flushing, and then whirled
around to face her interloper.
    He smiled gently. “Did I scare you? Sorry.” Damn it, I was so close . “What do you want?”
“Uh…well, you could tell me if any of these apply
to you, for a start.”
    He shoved his paper at her, and she belatedly
recognized him as the red-haired boy who had
spoken up in her defense at the resident check-in. He
was even more attractive up close and she faltered.
“I—”
    Most of the little squares were already signed off.
How had he gotten so many so quickly? His sheet
was a veritable autograph book.
    With reluctance she asked to borrow his pen. He
gave it to her and she signed her name off in one of
the squares.
    “There.”
“Valerie, huh?”
    She nodded, keeping her lips pressed together,
afraid her breath was rank. She hadn't eaten anything
since the ramen before her nap, and she was pretty
sure that had garlic in it. Garbage