I never liked sleeping with strangers

It had been a very long day of getting to know the new girls that joined Nick’s harem. Mary and Rose in particular were waiting on Amelia hand and foot, while the teacher suppressed her urge to tell them that she would rather be alone.

Eventually, when dinner passed, they all returned to their rooms. Some had eaten. Others hadn’t.

Some were afraid that they were the ones who would be devoured.

Ella and Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin

“THWAP!”

The sound of Ella’s rubber-band snapping against her wrist echoed through the short hallway. She stood in front of her door and **** herself not to be afraid.

It… it’s going to be alright… that woman, the witch… Dakota… she said that nobody can hurt me as long as I’m on the island. And… I can’t hurt anybody either. So there’s n-nothing to worry about! She took a deep breath, and slowly let the air escape her lungs.

So you don’t have to come out, either.

She could feel Cinder tapping away in the back of her mind. Trying to **** herself out. After being quiet for so long...

But she couldn’t come out.

This was Ella’s second chance. Her opportunity to live the life she’d always wanted to live, to have love, and friendship. But Cinder would ruin it. Like she always ruined everything. But Ella wouldn’t let her ruin this.

If Ella wanted to heal, if she wanted to live her life without the fear of her other self destroying everything in a fit of rage, then she needed to get a better handle on her emotions. She needed to not be so easily-swayed by her fear and anger, and… learn to deal with those things herself.

This was the first step.

She clutched the doorknob tightly until her hands started to hurt. Then she pushed the door open and stepped inside.

“Ah!” Ella gasped and nearly fell back through the doorway. She knew that Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin would be in the room. But she didn’t expect to see the woman standing in the middle of the room staring at her the second she walked inside.

Like she’d been waiting for her.

“Uh-ah… uweh…” Ella stammered. Her heart raced in her chest and she felt Cinder’s presence again. Her alter had let her stay in control when dealing with Kim, but now that the Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin was really here… fear was starting to take root again.

The assassin approached her. Ella started to shake. But she couldn’t run away. If she ran, that would throw her into a panic. And she wouldn’t just run from the room… she’d run to her special place. That place deep down in her mind where nothing bad ever happened.

And Cinder would come out to play.

Ella fumbled for the rubber-band on her wrist, but before she could snap it, Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin stopped in front of her.

Those crystal-blue eyes watched her closely. They were all Ella could see, and they kept her paralyzed in place.

When the assassin raised her hand, a flinch shot through Ella that nearly made her heart stop.

But then she saw it.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin was holding something in her hand.

It was… a chunk of dough with frosting glazed over it. The sweet smell of sticky cinnamon wafted up into Ella’s nostrils and she felt herself drooling instinctively.

“Uh… eh?”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin was holding it out to her.

“Is… is this for me?” Ella stammered out, not sure what to make of the assassin’s gesture.

The pale girl nodded, then tilted her head to the side with a charming smile and slapped the chunk of pastry into Ella’s hand, covering it with frosting. Then she turned and skipped off to the bed.

“…Thank you?” Ella didn’t know what else to say. She brought the sweet up to her lips and took a big bite.

It was the tastiest thing she’d ever eaten.

Amelia and Vivian

“Welcome back, Teach!” Vivian tapped two fingers to the brim of her beret, and flung them in Amelia’s direction with a salute. “Have fun with the hussies?”

Amelia’s eye twitched. “I don’t think you of all people should be throwing that word around,” she scoffed, shaking her head. “And what do you think you’re doing? Wearing shoes in bed?”

Vivian lounged in the middle of the bed, making it inconvenient for anyone to try sleeping on it with her. Not only that, she’d changed- at least, she’d changed her footwear. Now she had on clunky combat boots, and rested them on the mattress.

Amelia couldn’t see the other woman’s eyes through her sunglasses, but the goading smile on the heiress’s face was a familiar one.

But Amelia had a tool of her own at her disposal.

“Those girls are very sweet,” she said, walking over to the bed. She glanced at Octavia out of the corner of her eye. The butler’s expression was impossible to read, but she followed Amelia with a stare as cold as ice. “And very polite. They respect their elders. You would do well to learn a thing or two from them.”

“I know,” Vivian nodded. “You’re right. I probably could! But you know something, Teach? I just can’t seem to bring myself to be the goody-good type. Just not my style.”

“Well… I can hardly comment on your… style,” Amelia diplomatically replied. “But I will tell you that I do not appreciate you tracking mud on the bed that we will be sharing for the remainder of this… endeavor.”

“Ooh…” Vivian wiggled her eyebrows and sat up. “Calling it an ‘endeavor’ that’s so… clinical, don’t you think? I think ‘affair’ would be a much better title.”

Amelia refused to allow her discomfort show on her face. Not that that stopped Vivian in any meaningful sense.

“Or, wait, do you not like that word?” She pressed. “I mean… he is your son, after all. Maybe the imagery of an affair with him… you’re not that into it? I should hope not, anyway.”

“Nicholas is my stepson,” Amelia deflected.

“Oh, come on Teach, if I gave a non-answer like that in class you’d give me a zero!” Vivian groaned. “Come off it already. Look, you don’t have to go for him. But… it would really mean a lot to me if I could have your blessing?”

Amelia actually snorted at that, as undignified of a gesture as it was.

“My blessing?” She shook her head incredulously.

“Yeah! I mean… Nick and I… we’re gonna have a lot of fun together…” Vivian licked her lips. “You’re not upset about that, right?” She stood up and patted Amelia’s shoulder. “A nice guy like him is just the kind of guy to make me settle down. Tame my inner wild child. Don’t you think so?”

Amelia didn’t dignify that with a response. At least, not in so many words.

Instead, she conjured her riding crop. Vivian took a step back, caught off-guard.

“Whoa, Teach, that…”

“There are a few things we need to discuss,” Amelia said, smacking the crop against her palm. “We should work out some ground rules, while we’re staying together. Would you be amenable to that?”

Dawn and Morgana

“Morgana, stop fidgeting around,” Dawn sighed. “You’re starting to worry me. You already finished your diary entry for the day, right? Just relax.”

“B-but I can’t relax!” Morgana wailed, shaking her head frantically. “Look at this place! It’s so… wh-what if I break something!? They’re not going to make me pay for it, are they!? I’m broke! I’ve never worked a job before! D-Dakota is going to make me work in the lingerie shop, or put me on an assembly line, or I’ll be paraded around on a stage, **** to take my clothes off while strange men are ogling me, and then I’ll…”

“Morgana, whoa, breathe,” Dawn said, getting up and walking over to her. She was afraid that the panicking goth might start to hyperventilate soon if she didn’t step in. “Look, it’s alright. You’re fine. You’re not going to break anything.”

Morgana’s eyes flew around the suite. “But… this is the Luxury Suite! It’s filled with all kinds of expensive stuff! And I-”

Dawn grabbed the other girl by the shoulders and shook her hard. “Morgana!”

“Wheh…” Morgana’s eyes spun in her head and then she met Dawn’s gaze. When she saw the worried expression on the other girl’s face, she blushed, and looked down.

“Sorry… I just… it’s been a really long day…”

She crept over to the bed and hugged her legs to her chest, trying to calm her racing heart.

Dawn followed after her, her brow furrowing with concern.

“Morgana… are you still worried about the challenge?” She asked quietly.

“Of course I am!” The goth blubbered. “I… I ruined my family! I turned them into freaky goth versions of themselves!”

Dawn sighed. She sat down next to Morgana and held her hand.

“You screwed up. Mutating your cousin was one thing, but doing that to the rest of your family, that was crossing the line.”

Morgana’s jaw dropped. This was Dawn’s big, comforting speech!?”

“D-Dawn-”

“But you can’t keep wallowing in it forever,” Dawn interrupted her. “What’s done is done. You made a mistake. It was a stressful situation. Believe me, I get that. But beating yourself up over it and hating yourself isn’t going to help anything. Morgana, this show is trying to change us. And… you let it get to you. But I messed up, too.”

She looked down and sighed.

“But… you just changed yourself, right?” Morgana remembered Dawn’s confession from the beach. “That’s nowhere near as bad as what I did!”

“You’re right. You did something a lot worse.”

Again, Dawn wasn’t doing great in the comfort department tonight.

“But… again. It happened, and you can’t undo it,” Dawn said, shaking her head. “Think about it this way. You changed their bodies. Yeah. That’s pretty messed up. But you didn’t give them any mental transformations, did you?”

Morgana shook her head. “Well… no.”

“Then think of that as a positive!” Dawn shrugged. “Stuff like this… it’s a mess. But your family is still your family. I’m sure when you get back, and explain to them the situation, they’ll forgive you.”

She smiled and patted Morgana on the cheek. “It’s not as big of a deal as you think it is.”

Morgana wasn’t sure if she fully believed Dawn’s words. But she wanted to believe her, and she did make a bit of sense. Hopefully that was enough to help her get a good night’s sleep tonight.

Dani and Kim

“I’m surprised,” Kim said, watching Dani from her bed. “You seem to be in a pretty good mood tonight. Something good happen while I was gone?”

Dani was humming as she was looking through all the outfits in the closet. “What was that?” She called back to her roommate. She knew Kim had said something, but she’d barely heard her.

“I asked if something good happened when I was gone!” Kim called back to her. “You seem like you’re in a really good mood!”

“Oh!”

Dani returned with a stack of clothes in her arms. “Nothing serious. Just… me and Carly, we…”

She blushed, and Kim got the hint.

“Okay, that’s enough,” she said, cutting Dani off before she got to any of the salacious details. “You don’t need to tell me any more. I get the picture.”

Dani beamed at her, and her cheeks darkened even more. “Um… so… look, this is going to sound a little weird, but…”

“But?” Kim raised her eyebrow.

“Do you think maybe… you could help me a little bit?” Dani asked hopefully.

Kim blinked. “Help you with what?”

“Well… Dakota said we could choose to wear any of the clothes that are in this room, right?” Dani looked around the expansive display room. It was practically a walk-in closet in its own right.

“Yeah, what about it?” Kim sat up in bed and walked over to her. “You want me to pick something out for you or something? Because look, just because I work in a boutique, that doesn’t mean I know anything about fashion. Just look at me!”

She gestured at her current outfit. A schoolgirl uniform. Like all the other clothes in her closet.

“…I mean, you have to wear that, though,” Dani pointed out. “But me, well…” She looked down at her own clothes. They were girlier than she preferred.

“…I’ve kinda gotten a bit complacent,” the tomboy admitted, glancing up at Kim. “I just kinda wear these clothes because I don’t want to buy the really expensive ones… the ones for boys.”

Kim thought it was a bit of a ripoff that Dakota intentionally upcharged things like pants for Dani, to keep her from wearing what she wanted. But then, wasn’t she technically part of the problem by selling them to her?

“I just need your help in picking out an outfit!” Dani explained. “You don’t need to be like, a fashion wiz or something, just tell me what you like!”

“…Sure,” Kim shrugged. It was either that, or she tagged in Vivian. And she really didn’t want to do that.

Dani’s face brightened, and she rushed to go change into her first outfit.

Sylvia and Gina

“Dude, why are you so antsy?” Gina groaned. She lounged back in the heart-shaped bed, while Sylvia sat on the other side of it, fidgeting.

“I’m just… I’m worried about Marley!” Sylvia admitted. “Dakota said that she would be giving Marley a reward for doing so well at your party, but… I didn’t think she’d be taken away from me like this. I didn’t expect to get so worried about her…”

Gina didn’t really know what to say to that. Still, she tried at least.

“Come on, there’s no way Dakota’s going to do anything,” she assured Sylvia. “That would piss Nick off, right? And she’s trying to get on his good side.”

Sylvia glanced at Gina, and wondered if even she believed that. Because frankly, as reasonable of a claim as that sounded, Sylvia couldn’t tell if any of Dakota’s actions had actually resulted in that outcome.

“I-I guess…” She muttered, looking down. She still wasn’t convinced.

“Well… what do you want from her, then?” Gina pressed.

“Huh?” Sylvia didn’t know what to make of that.

“Look, I’m not the most perceptive person around, I’ll admit that.” Gina propped herself up on her elbows and looked at Sylvia with an uncharacteristic amount of seriousness. “But I can tell that you’re always on edge where Dakota’s concerned. …And yeah, I get it, given your history. But dude… you can’t keep worrying about it!”

“Why not?” Sylvia asked, biting the inside of her cheek. “She was trying to get me eliminated. She can’t STAND me. Look, maybe you don’t fully grasp how much power a host has on this show, but it’s a lot. And I can’t just shrug that off as not being a big deal, not if she’s out to get me!”

Gina held up her hands. “Look, you’re right, I don’t know,” she admitted. “But that’s why I asked you, what do you want from her?”

Sylvia blinked. “What… do I want from her?”

Gina nodded.

“I’m not one to talk about relationships with mothers, believe me,” Gina said, shaking her head. “Mine’s the absolute worst. But… I’ve been thinking a lot about my mom, recently… especially after that challenge. And seeing Amelia again…”

For a moment, Gina’s expression wavered. But she quickly composed herself. “So look. What do you want from her? Do you want her to leave you alone? Or do you want her to suddenly become mother of the year or some shit like that?”

Sylvia shook her head. “I think we both know that’s never gonna happen…” she muttered, her voice aching with bitterness.

Gina shrugged.

“So it ain’t. So what? You gonna just mope around all day?”

“Should I get drunk again?” Sylvia asked sarcastically.

“…Prob’ly not. ‘Specially not with Amelia poking around,” Gina snorted, shaking her head with a laugh. “Granny’s not gonna be very happy if she sees any underage drinking going around!”

Sylvia sighed and rolled her eyes. Just what she needed. More people to be wary around.

Rose and Carly

“Look, it’s my bed, too! I can use it if I want!” Carly protested.

“Yeah, but… sex!? Really?!” Rose groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I get it, you and Dani are dating, and I’m happy for you, I really am. But I have to sleep here too, you know! And I’m not exactly thrilled to be sleeping on a bed when I know my roommate has been banging her girlfriend on it! Not two hours ago!”

Carly shrugged. “Dude, are you really telling me that if Nick came in here and told you that he wanted to have sex with you on your bed for once, to spice things up, you’d tell him to pound rocks?”

Rose’s mouth dropped open. “Th-that’s completely different!”

“Why? Because then it’s you having sex with someone you love?”

The momentary lack of an answer to that question was an answer in its own right.

“It’s… just different!” Rose pouted. “And besides, think of Marley! When she comes back, is she going to be happy to hear about this? I don’t think so!”

Carly frowned. “…I did that stuff because of Marley,” she said quietly.

Rose raised her eyebrow. She was very interested in hearing all about how Carly banged her girlfriend and somehow it was for the sake of her sister.

Carly blushed. “I mean… well… think about it like this! Marley and I, we’re stuck together perpetually, right? So any time I want to… well… get intimate with Dani… she’s kinda gonna get the short end of the stick, even if that’s just me having someone else babysit her.”

Rose bit her lip. That was true…

“So… I figured that while she’s with Nick, and on her own for once, it would be polite to get it out of my system! Me and Dani being together without having to worry about someone else, without feeling guilty… it could be just the two of us!”

Damn it. Carly was raising a very valid point.

“…Argh, fine. But are you gonna do it again?” Rose demanded.

Carly couldn’t answer that. Not honestly, anyway.

Rose sighed and hung her head. “I figured you probably would…”

Resigned to an outcome she could do nothing to change, she sat down in bed next to Carly and flattened her head against the pillow.

She didn’t like it.

“I hate my hair like this…” She groaned, sitting up. “Even lying down feels weird without my curls…”

“Well, I mean… hey, you just need to get some BP, and it’ll start to grow back, right?” Carly said. “Did I tell you? We found out something really cool about this room! Apparently, if you play the video games, and you do well enough to get a high score, you get a bonus reward of some BP!”

Rose blinked.

“Wait, what? You’re serious?”

Carly nodded. “For real. You should totally try it! …Oh, but it’s only once per day.”

Rose rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Still, though… okay… thanks, Carly, that gives me an idea…”

She wasn’t much of a video game person. Stuff like that just never appealed to her. But if it would lead to getting some BP, she could definitely give it a serious try.