2 Weeks in. We Truly Begin.

"You can't be serious" Melly was whining at her roommate Two weeks later.

Melly was not hard to track in such games. Various photo and group chat feeds had led her to an abush coming out of the library on day 2 and another coming into her dorm the morning of the 6th game day.

Melly herself had been focusing on her studies and had put very little time into the game. And hadnt even memorized the name of her last target. As she herself was down to one knife/life/marker

Her roommates brilliant plan that Alex had just finished explaining?

Swap to online only classes, bunker down in the dorm and stay naked/immune the whole time.

"Or you know. Admit I gave you a foolproof stategy and masturbate for me on stage like a good girl when you lose." Alex added bringing Melly out of her stupor.

"Oh my god, you perv!" Melly accused playfully, "you had this planned the whole time!"

Alex had a mildly wicked grin that all but confirmed it to the younger Coed. As plans for many additional layers played in Alex's head.

"Fine, but no guests until after the games for two reasons now. And no webcams or video calls in the room without permission!" Melly ammended to their understanding of roomamte boundries.

"Agreed," Alex's grin never faltered in a way thst made Melly slightly uneasy.

It was actually not so bad, for the first few days.

In a post covid world most professors are suprisingly addaptive to remote sessions and emailed assignments even with a mid semester transition to that style of learning for the student.

She would wrap herself in a beach towel and scurry through the hall ready to drop it and claim immunity if caught on the way to the bathroom.

But she always went at weird hours when no one was in the halls.

Was it silly, absolutely. was it going to make a huge difference when she won the prize money. Also absolutely. This was the kinda college story she could tell years later with a laugh.

The first day she had hidden under blankets.

By lunch on the second she was doom scrolling her laptop bare to her self imposed world borders.

By the third she was up to date on everything she could think to be scolastically and even managed to boost her psych grade from a D a C from an extra credit round.

The old ass psychology proff was refusing to accept the extra credit via email. Stating he enjoyed the office hours visits and discussion over tea as part of the extra credit.

So on day four of her self imposed exile it was that Melly, her spring break in jerpardy if she screws up her GPA and needs more funds for tuition. But in overdrive if she wins the assassin game.

It was with that mental focus and a slightly caffinated and sleep deprived state that a naked apart from a large beach towel Melly Decided to venture fourth from her dorm and get herself to the otherside of campus for a meeting with an elderly member of faculty for a pleasant discussion on censorship in media over tea.

She clutched the overlapping ends of the towel both as a natural inclination to stay covered and in preparation to throw it off if anyone seemed likely to take her last life in the high stakes game of nerf assassin she found herself in.