Survival Of The Fittest

Slide the keycard in, and…

Beep!

Roxie slid it back out, but not without a bit of juggling. Same goes with opening the door. Her hands were kinda full right now, after all.

It was funny, because the hotel management missed an opportunity. See, their room number was 832. However, it seems it was unofficially decided that like, the dudes get the 700s while the girls get the 800s. She wasn’t sure if it was like, an official ruling after all, or it just worked out that way. Which was a shame! They were just so close to having 237 but backwards.

There was a bit of a chuckle about the room arrangements going around to begin with. She guessed that it was because of the fact that each girl in Room 832 was a colorful character. Hm. “Colorful” might not be the right word she was going for. Kinda ironic.

Anyways, things had been more normal than the occasional “lol room 832” thing people liked to joke about. It was what you’d expect. A round of Depeche Mode here, maybe a horror movie showing along the line there, chattering about stuff. Really, it wasn’t like they were doing their best impression of The Craft in there. People were silly sometimes, you just kinda have to step back and giggle a bit.

Though, if they were doing The Craft, dibs on Nancy Downs? Dibs on Nancy Downs.

“I’m back with food!” she called out from the door as she slipped inside, carrying the white McDonalds’ bags and a cardboard soda tray.

Going down to get Mickey D’s was… an experience. See, they agreed on McDonalds’ for dinner, and then it was Roxie’s job to go get it, right? So, fair enough. But then Dr. Terrence stopped her when she was just about to leave and was like “excuse me, why are you heading out at this hour?” So of course you explain you’re going to the McDonalds’ down the street, right? You shouldn’t have to, it was like 7, it was far from 10, but it’s good to explain when asked. But then he insisted on going with her because “it’s getting dark out and you shouldn’t go alone.” To be fair, he had a point. So it was awkward ordering McDonalds’ for everyone when your Math teacher was standing right there. Honestly, she suspected the whole thing was at least partially a front, because she saw him order a black coffee and a “Big Breakfast” immediately after she ordered.

At least he seemed less… sullen, she guessed. Exhausted? Well, yeah. But he seemed to be perking up a tiny bit nowadays.

Anywho.

Roxie left the drinks and food on the desk, and took off her jacket, hanging it on the back of the chair. She picked up an iced tea and salad for herself, and put it on the end table. Finally, she sat down on the bed and began removing her prosthesis. Since, y’know, it was relaxing time. Her crutches were right nearby if she needed them. Amelia was still out, which meant that Roxie had to text her in a few minutes as promised.

“So… did I miss anything while I was out?” she asked.

You never know.

Yuka lay on the bed, phone held overhead, idly scrolling through Tumblr, dresses and gowns passing through her screen. She was looking for a good outfit for graduation. Her wardrobe wasn't 100% goth clothes, believe it or not. More like 75-80%. Like, there were enough leftovers in her closet to make a good look for the afterparty, but she wanted something new. Something to mark the end of an era, the beginning of a new one. Because maybe she would drop the whole pastel goth thing and reinvent herself for college- OK no that wasn't happening. Again, 75-80% of her wardrobe and makeup kit was made up of fishnet stockings and dark lipsticks and hair dyes. She didn't have the money or the will to let go that easily. But the idea of walking in with a brand new dress and some brand new heels and some brand new shade of lipstick was incredibly alluring, and kept her stuck to her phone even though there was an entire city to explore outside.

It was weird thinking so far ahead when there was so much to focus on here, now. But her mind tended to wander during breaks like this, especially when she was exhausted. She hadn't even taken off her makeup yet. Maybe if she scrunched her face enough, moved her facial muscles around, the foundation would just crack and fall off, like bread crust. The thought occurred to her, and yet she continued to lie here.

Violet Q. was lounging around in other parts of the room while Amelia was still off in the museum. Part of the reason she was so exhausted was that their room was across the hotel from everyone else. Really added to the whole mysterious, occult-y reputation of Room 832. Roxie had told her when they learned their room number about how 832 was almost 732 which was backwards for 237. A bit of a stretch, to be honest, but one more point in favor of the theory of this room being a witch den.

It was an awfully benign den though. Really, the only thing that united the four of them was that they had a bit more black and a bit less color in their wardrobe than the average person. Well, they did. Yuka's hair was probably the only source of light to be found in this room.

She had told herself at prom to hang out with Amelia more while they hadn't graduated yet, and the patron saint of room designations heard her wish. Talking with her had been fun. A bit of an oddball, to be honest, and Yuka had started losing track of their conversation on the deficiencies of sun-sign astrology about midway through the bus trip, but the time with her was appreciated regardless. She hoped Amelia would come back to the room soon.

Violet was also pleasant, as usual. She and Yuko were friends, and any friends of Yuka's sisters were her friends. She was a bit too quiet for her taste, but forcing people out of their shell never really ended well.

As the potential graduation outfits drifted in and out of her phone, it occurred to her that in a few weeks, she would never see these people again. She looked at them, and tried to ingrain the moment, this normal mundane moment, in her mind. Even as she did this, the idea of it actually happening hadn't really sunk in yet. This same thought had occurred to her many times, more and more often as graduation approached, and yet it hadn't sunk in still. Usually because she banished the thought and any accompanying emotion of regret or dread or nostalgia the moment she noticed, but now it was less willingly and more an inability to emotionally comprehend the idea, if that made sense. But she knew she needed to remember as much of her classmates as she could, before it was too late.

Just as that last thought came to mind, the door rattled, and then opened. Yuka's gaze turned from the gowns and dresses on her phone, and lit up when she saw what Roxie had in hand.

"Yeeeeeeeesssss, finally!"

She put down her phone, pushed herself up from the bed and rushed over to the bag on the desk. She grabbed the burger and Coke that she had ordered from the bag, setting it down on the table across from Roxie. Another person she had to commit to memory, probably the most important one of all, aside from her sisters and parents.

"Not much, to be honest. Just resting and all."

She took a sip from the cup of soda, and then looked at Roxie as she removed her prosthetic leg. An idea came to mind.

"Say, do you have a special video in mind? Now that we're in DC and all?"

“See, I was thinking of taking it relatively easy and use my vacation well, right?” Roxie said, putting the prosthesis aside and sliding the liner off her leg. Urgh, she was sweating pretty badly today.

Her stress overload in like, Junior year wasn't a huge secret. Basically, she took on a lot of things, and had a lot of those things going on at once. Roxie usually felt the best when she had a full schedule. But last year... last year it seemed like she finally hit that sweet spot of "too much to do." So, she was going to try to use this trip to de-stress a bit. Hopefully not too much, though. She enjoyed having stuff to do, too.

“So… I honestly didn’t have much planned aside from a vlog. Then again… there would be plenty of places to shoot here. And I did bring some stuff makeup-wise. So if I changed my mind...”

She’d have to look up the rules for filming in the National Mall. Surely there was some case of like, someone dressed as a zombie president-

Oh. She just remembered President Evil.

“Yuka, did you see President Evil? It’s the one I uploaded before the trip.”

Zombie George Washington would have been great in DC proper. She didn’t bring the wig and stuff needed to become him, so that was a missed opportunity!

Violet had been looking through some pictures of herself with Princess and she was sitting cross-legged on one of the beds. Yuka had been doing her own things for the last hour or so and Amelia was out at a museum for the time-being. She assumed it had been an hour since Roxie had left to get some food for them. Yuka seemed like a cool girl even if Violet hadn't hang out with her in person. Even though, Yuko had told her that she could hang out with her sisters if she wanted to. Violet had been glad to know Roxie and Yuko from the anti-bullying club. Now Amelia was an air of mystery to her. Amelia was a strange girl but she seemed really sweet and Violet always found herself being drawn to oddballs.

Violet glanced up from staring at her phone when Roxie made a grand entrance with their food and Violet found herself smiling slightly as Yuka seemed to be in a hurry to chow down. Violet waited for a minute while the girls were talking about doing a possible video and she wondered what she could do in DC. She had already planned to get some gifts for her parents. Maybe she could ask Roxie and Yuka if she could join them in their adventure. However, she didn't want to be a bother if they wanted to do their own thing. Should she spend time with Princess as they were girlfriends now? She honestly had no idea what she was doing with Princess. It was her first official relationship with a girl she was starting to like a lot more than she wanted to admit and she didn't want to do something to mess it up.

Violet got up from the bed and made her way over to the food, taking her order of a cheeseburger, fries and a cup of Sprite. She turned to look at Roxie and Yuka who seemed to be deep in conversation and she knew that it would be impolite for her to interrupt. She waited while munching on a frie and she was intrigued by what they were talking about.

She just needed a chance to thank Roxie for the food.

Yuka's eyes lit up as Roxanne spoke. President Evil was probably one of Roxie's best ideas, which said a lot. The mix of formal decorum and rotten decay was everything she aspired to in her fashion.

She hadn't been able to help test some of Roxie's looks lately, which sucked because, as tedious as the hours of make-up could be at times, being the first to see Roxie's newest idea was nice. It made her feel special.

"Oh my god! Yeah, I remember. We should, like, dress up as zombie presidents at the Lincoln Memorial. That would be so spooky, to be honest. I call dibs on being his wife, if you don't mind?"

She took a bite of her burger, and then scrunched her eyebrows as she did so. Not at the food, it was heavenly, but zombie presidents usually had zombie clothes, and that wasn't exactly something Yuka had planned for when packing her clothes for the trip. She wasn't good at making clothes also, that was more of a Zen thing. She smiled as they and the clothes they wore that night came to mind. Prom night had been fun. They would probably have packed sewing material, even on a trip like this. Shame they weren't able to come.

Yuka washed down the food with a swig of Coke, and then looked at Roxie.

"You know any place in DC where we can get ripped up formal clothes? Or anyone on this trip who could make one? We need to finish the look, really."

She then turned her head and noticed Violet looking at them, as if she had something to say. Yuka felt bad. She never liked having more than her fair share of the conversation, because that meant shutting other people out, excluding them.

"You, Violet, do you have any ideas?"

Violet probably didn't have any answers. She was more goth-adjacent than actual goth, someone who wore dark casual over pale white makeup and lace stockings. But that wasn't really the point of why Yuka asked. She was just giving her an in.