Beryl coughed and cleared her throat after releasing a long belly laugh.
"A very honest answer," Beryl coughed to stop herself from laughing again. "Thank you, Stacey. Everyone, have a seat. The groups that are called may run to the dormitories first and bag their beds before anybody else. You don't have to stay in your groups in the dormitories. You are free to pick and choose any bed or room you would like. Winners of the small competition just now - that is Group Five, Group Nine, Group Fourteen and Group Twenty-one. You may go first."
Excitement filled the room along with a roar of noise from all the gathered teenagers. There was a flurry of activity.
"That's us! Quick, Stace," Flail dragged Stacey upright and Ken grabbed her by the wrist to tug her along.
"We need to get there before the other groups do."
It seemed that the excitement had all gone to their heads. They couldn't think of anything else but getting to the dorms first.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry! Ah, Group Twenty-one have already left! Hurry up!"
"Our bags! Our bags! We need to get our bags first!"
The four skidded down the auditorium stairs to the corridor where the boys picked up their bags and raced the other three groups to the dormitories. The girl groups split off and were directed to a different door from the boys. Stacey didn't think so far ahead. She just followed Ken, Endo and Flail without thinking. Also, the boys had forgotten to let go of her wrists, so she didn't have much of a choice.
"I hope they have a four bed room," Endo shouted. "It would be awesome if we could stay together."
"I reckon that's a great idea," Flail yelled back.
"Less talking! More running!" Ken scolded them.
They raced upstairs and could hear two of the other groups ahead of them already running and shouting comments.
"That's a twelve person bedroom! It'll be too crowded."
"Hey there's a bedroom for two! How awesome is that?"
"I like this six person bedroom. It'll fit our whole group."
"I promised someone else I'd bunk with them."
"Aww."
"Hey! I bagged that bed!"
Down the corridors, Stacey and her group peered into rooms and dodged out of the way when someone from one of the other groups zoomed over.
"Here!" Ken dragged them all into a room where there were two bunk beds on either side of the room and a small round table with four chairs at the other end of the room. "This is our room. There are four beds. The toilets and showers are just over there. We'd have first dibs in the mornings if we're fast enough."
"I bags this bed!" Endo jumped up onto the top bunk of a bed, while Flail flung himself on the bottom bunk of the same bed.
"Which bed do you want, Stace? Top or bottom?" Ken looked at Stacey and rubbed his head.
"Uhh," Stacey rubbed her forehead. "Top?"
"Alright then," Ken grinned and threw his bag on the bottom bunk.
A group of boys peered into their room.
"Awww. All the bed are taken."
"This looks like a good room. Pity."
"Hey. Isn't she a girl? What's a girl doing in the boy's dormitory?"
Everyone inside the room froze and stared at Stacey. Ken face-palmed.
"Sorry, Stacey. I totally forgot you were a girl. I'm so sorry," Ken said.
"Does that mean there'll be a bed free in here?"
"To be honest, I totally forgot too," Flail said.
"You're really way more like us guys than those girls," Endo agreed. "Respect. I never thought I'd ever meet a girl who got along with Ken and me so well that we'd forget you weren't a guy. Why can't there be more girls like you? You don't make me feel nervous like those giggly, squealy girls do."
Ken face-palmed at Endo's lack of filter.
"Uhh… Thanks?" Stacey said, not sure whether that was more an insult or a compliment.
"Endo, you can't say things like that," he said in a helpless tone. "Especially not on national television."
"Are there still cameras around? Are we still being recorded?" Endo asked, looking around and spotting the static cameras. "Oh. Uhh…"
Flail covered his face with a hand, shaking his head. Stacey looked up at the ceiling. Endo fiddled with his bag on the bed and then shook himself, taking a big breath.
"Anyways, just stay here for now. Let's see if they'll let you just stay with us," Endo suggested. "It wouldn't really matter which bed you got on the girl's side anyway. If you stay with us here, we'll make a curtain around your bed so you can get changed and take care of you like a sister."
"Umm. Ok," Stacey shrugged. What else was there to say, anyway? She didn't mind either way. It'd just be a matter of whether she was overlooked here or not.
"So I can't have her bed?" the boy at the door persisted.
"No. Go try somewhere else," Endo pushed him out the door. Endo rummaged in his bag and pulled out a rolled up bedsheet. "I'm so glad my mum made me bring this now," he said, half closing the door and tucking the bedsheet under the mattress of the top bunk to form a curtain around the bottom bunk. Look. See? You've got a privacy screen."
"That was gonna be my bed, Endo," Ken snorted at his friend but then waved a hand, "but good idea. They might not let Stacey actually stay, but whatever. I'm sure they'll sort it out later. Stacey, you should have the bottom bunk. I'll take the top. You're a girl. You should have your own private space for when you get changed and stuff."
"Aww, Flail, did you hear that? Ken just praised me. He said I had a good idea," Endo fist bumped Flail. "It's the first time this year. I only got praised by him eight times last year. I aim to beat my personal record of twelve in a year. Do you reckon I can?"
"I don't see why not," Flail laughed, "but if it's you, I'm not sure how possible it might be. I mean, you have some pretty dumb ideas sometimes."
"But they're not all bad, right?" Endo flopped on his bed.
"I don't know. Most of them are pretty rotten," Ken ribbed Endo and Flail played along.
While the boys were teasing each other, Stacey sat down and then lay down on the bed, leaving her feet on the floor. It was so nice to lay down on a mattress again. It wasn't a bad mattress either. It was pretty alright. There was even the nice clean scent of sunned sheets and lavender wafting up. So nice. So relaxing.
Before she knew it, she'd fallen asleep.