Lockdown Christmas Miracle Ch. 07

Eric fired up his laptop at the kitchen table and checked his school e-mail while drinking coffee. He could see that he'd gotten a few study guides, as well as reminders about project submission deadlines and online final exam schedules over the last couple of days as it looked like his professors were slowly coming back online. The college had sent out a text a few days back advising a 'transition' week after Thanksgiving break to allow for any difficulties students might have in establishing online learning from home while also allowing teaching professors to create an online workspace from home for lectures, etc.

There wouldn't be any online classes, lectures or new assignments during the transition week, but deadlines hadn't changed for final projects and exams, so Eric was starting to feel a little anxious that he hadn't really done anything for school since they'd left campus.

When Cassie came down for breakfast and coffee she could see that Eric was pretty wrapped up in his work and so she too grabbed her laptop and sat across from him to get caught up on her end-of-term projects.

All lab work and research had been formally suspended during the shutdown at Cassie's university, but there was still an opportunity to work with available online data sets for the projects where results and data for lab or field work had already been uploaded to the university servers.

Cassie had been checking in more regularly over the break than Eric and Ellie, and opened some replies from her professors, as well as her thesis advisor, that she had sent emails to over the past week, in order to make sure that she wasn't letting any of her coursework suffer. If anything, it sounded like she was ahead of where most of the professors and study group members were based on what still needed to get done for the end of the Fall term.

The university was still hoping to reopen campus after Christmas, but she saw an update from her advisor that she should work out a plan to complete her thesis online. The department head had advised the teaching staff that they should prepare for an extended closure, based in turn on what she had been told from the administration.

When Ellie shuffled in an hour or so later, she drank some coffee and asked Eric about what was going on with his classes. She had read the text from college to mean she could take another week off, but watching the two of them work, Ellie reluctantly booted up her own laptop and joined them, with a little grumbling accentuating her review of e-mails and calendar items. From time to time she would shoot glances over at Eric, who was sitting diagonally from her across the table and seemed to be working pretty intently. As much as she wanted to just lay around, or see if Eric wanted to go out to the lagoon, she eventually resigned herself to the idea that the other two would be working for a while and came to terms with the fact that she really did need to play a little catch up heading into finals too. Still, it frustrated her that Eric was giving so much attention to his screen and hadn't caught her eye yet, even once.

Eric had made pretty good progress on a paper he was writing and updated a saved draft online to request that his instructor review and comment on the rough draft before he completed the paper. His instructors weren't holding office hours that week, even online, but students could still request feedback and help during the week by saving projects to their online class folder and e-mailing their professor.

One of his study groups for engineering had gotten a few responses from his shout out to anyone who wanted to prep together before finals. He was surprised that a red-haired girl named Lisa had replied right away, very enthusiastically, about the possibility of setting up a study discussion if he wanted to meet that week. They really hadn't interacted much all semester and she rarely contributed to in-class discussion, but maybe she really needed to pull her grade up with her final. Eric always tried to chime in when he could for class discussion, as it was listed as part of the grading criteria and the instructor for that class had gotten some online ratings that indicated he tended to grade pretty generously to students who attended each class and spoke up during discussion. Eric sent an invitation to the group with a proposed meeting time and dug into downloading and saving the study materials into a folder on his laptop to review.

Lisa followed up about twenty minutes later with a pm asking how his holidays were going. She complained a little about being stuck at home, with her parents and younger siblings, and hoped he was having a better time. Eric replied and she'd made an effort to keep the chat going, even if Eric had taken a while to respond each time while he worked on reviewing and organizing his class notes. Taking a break for a minute, Eric looked up her social media profiles, scanned her posts and looked at a few pictures. She wasn't ugly by any standard, just sort of plain and maybe a little nerdy. He did see some gaming references that caused him to pause, as he didn't know many girls that gamed, and she seemed to be into some pretty solid titles.

Eric replied to her pm, making a reference to spending too much time online in his current favorite open-world game over the holidays and how much he needed to get caught up on work for school. Lisa instantly shot back a reply, confessing the same problem and peppering him with questions about his player character and where he currently was spending time in the game. Eric found himself getting caught up in the chat and a little surprised that a girl would find the game as interesting as he did. Lisa eventually broke off the chat, needing to go help her mother, but told him her user name and asked him to shoot her an 'ally' request the next time he logged on.

Eric looked up to see Ellie glance over at him, looking bored and a little annoyed, as she rested her cheek on one fist with her elbow propping it up from the table. He switched over to a program designed for drafting engineering projects and completed a series of exercises from his study guide in that class. He was working through a particularly confusing exercise, which kept failing each time he'd test the solution, when Cassie interrupted him to see if he wanted to take a lunch break with them. He'd gotten so engrossed in the problem that he'd lost track of time and suddenly realized that he had gotten both hungry, and pretty stiff, from staring at his screen for as long as he had.

They made some sandwiches together and the girls went off to watch some TV while they ate, but Eric went to the den, to log into his gaming system, and look up Lisa's profile out of curiosity. Pulling up her user to send her an 'ally' request, he was a little shocked to find that her character was significantly more advanced than his, and rather than something plain or mousy, she had taken on one of the toughest and most demanding character roles the game offered. It offered a high opportunity for reward and advancement, but had a correspondingly higher risk of dying and almost no ability at concealment. It was the last character you'd choose if you wanted to blend in or avoid conflict. Based on her level, she had to be very, very good, and equally matched in lethality to almost any other player in the game.

The outfit and player features she had selected for current use in the game were likewise chosen to get maximum attention, rather than facilitate concealment. She had chosen a combination of bright armor, a deep red cloak and what had to be the brightest shade of red hair available in the game. Her character was sexy, deadly and designed almost intentionally to taunt other players into targeting her, as she would stand out in almost every situation. However plain Lisa might have seemed in the real world, her gaming personality was basically a rock star, samurai, bad-ass with an amazing set of tits. Eric hit send and saw a confirmation pop up that his ally request had gone through.

"Who's your new girlfriend?" Ellie asked as she walked up to lean on the back of the sofa next to Eric's head.

"Oh, hey!" he looked over. "Just some girl from one of my study groups. We've never actually even met in person." He backed out of Lisa's profile and returned to the main menu. "We were just chatting on-line today and she asked me to send her a friend request in the game."

"Well I'm pretty sure her tits are fake," Ellie quipped sarcastically.

"Yeah, she doesn't look anything like that in real life." He shrugged. "Except for the red hair maybe." He chuckled. "What's up?"

"We were just wondering where you wandered off to and whether you wanted to go to the beach or something." She watched him log out of the game and shut off the TV.

"That would be great," he stood up. "When did you guys want to go?"

"Like 5-10 minutes?" she asked.

"Sounds great. Let me go get my trunks on." Eric got up from the sofa and headed upstairs. Taped to his bedroom door he found something that he'd been looking forward for a long, long time, but never expected to find on his bedroom door of all places. It was a flyer that read:

~Paradise Hall Dorm Party~

***Residents Only!***

Tonight in the Common Area @ 6:00

Food, Drinks & Entertainment Provided

Hosted By: The Honor Society for Miraculous Sisters

Eric ran downstairs a few minutes later to see his sisters waiting in the living room.

"So...any big plans for tonight?" Ellie mused casually.

"I heard about a dorm party later." He shrugged. "Could be fun. I might check it out," he grinned, unable to contain his excitement.

"That does sound like fun," Cassie chimed in. "If you go, we're definitely in then too!" They all laughed and headed out into the cold, grey day to walk to the beach.

Once they had settled in at the beach, Ellie and Eric got high, but Cassie didn't feel like joining them. She was excited about getting back to work on projects for school and wanted to tell them about everything she was working on. Ellie and Eric tried to look interested, but between the complexity of Cassie's research project, the time they'd already spent working on their own studies earlier that day, and the potency of the weed, they ended up simply staring at her, making little effort to follow what she was saying. Cassie didn't seem deterred and pressed on for most of the afternoon.

At several points, Eric or Ellie would make their way down to the water, but as soon as the other joined the, Cassie would follow. She seemed happy, talkative and full of energy. She asked about their coursework and made a series of efforts to engage them in discussions about their own studies. Even without much input from either of them, Cassie still tried to advise them about their academic careers, classes they should consider and the benefit of attaining a dual-major, or even a minor, with relatively little additional coursework.

Ellie and Eric exchanged a series of glances when they could, but it was obvious that they would have a hard time enjoying any unsupervised time together with Cassie there. As enjoyable as it was to spend some time seeing his sisters in their bikinis, and escaping to the warmth and comfort of their island paradise, Eric was in little danger of an uncontrollable erection in these conditions.

Eventually, Ellie managed to shift the conversation to the subject of the 'dorm' party that night and how much fun it was going to be to blow off a little steam with finals coming up. She told some stories about some of the funnier things she'd seen at parties her freshman year, but neither Cassie, nor Eric had much to add. Cassie confessed that living in the honor dorms for her first couple of years of college, that while they had get-togethers organized by different groups, they were all pretty tame compared to what she had heard about some of the other parties that happened on campus.

Cassie had learned pretty quickly that as competitive as most of the students in her program were, you had to be very careful about your reputation if you wanted to be taken seriously, considered for the most prestigious scholarships, included in the most coveted grant consideration and invited to participate in the most important research projects. It was okay to have a drink here or there, but the social connections you needed to focus on most were with the faculty who could recommend, or choose, you to join their projects and the other high-achieving students you wanted to team up with for group projects. As much as it sounded like fun to do many of the things that Ellie described, Cassie would never actually risk doing them, because she worried that it would hurt her chances academically.

"Well that's all gonna change tonight!" Ellie promised. "What happens in Paradise Hall, stays in Paradise Hall!" she declared.

"So did you want to get ready together, Ellie?" Cassie asked excitedly.

"Oh, I was just going to run upstairs to grab a quick shower and change before setup," Ellie waved her off. "It's really no big deal." She threw a quick glance at Eric.

"Well," Cassie paused. "It's kind of a big deal to me. It would be awesome if you'd help me pick out something to wear and help me get ready. I've never really..." She trailed off awkwardly.

"Oh, yeah...sure!" Ellie understood finally how much it meant to Cassie. "Yeah, I can bring my stuff over to your bathroom and we can totally get ready together!"

Eric anticipated an opportunity to catch another glimpse of the girls changing as he walked outside the enclosure when they changed to leave, but even as he fantasized about that one bit of potential excitement, he heard the generator sputter, and the lights flicker, before both went out. Their tropical paradise was instantly darkened to a flat, grey shadow of its former self.

Eric quickly changed while the girls looked the other way and once he was dressed, Eric went out to check the generator. A quick check of the fuel level confirmed that he had simply forgotten to refill it after their trip yesterday, just as he had been too distracted to remember to do so after they'd had lunch today. He went to the shed to fill up the fuel can and by the time he returned to refill the generator, the girls were dressed and were standing around outside, concerned that there was a problem with the generator. Eric explained what had happened, much to their relief, and they waited while he checked that everything fired up again, once he had refilled the tank.

It was getting late, so they headed back to the house and the girls made Eric promise that he'd stay upstairs for at least 30 minutes to allow them time to get ready and get the party set up. Eric went to his room, showered and got dressed in some jeans, a t-shirt and a sweater. Even after doing all that, it had still only been about twenty minutes, so he booted up his laptop and saw a chat message from Lisa letting him know that they were now allied in the game and that she would look for him next time she was online. He made a quick reply and said he would do the same the next time he was logged in.

When Eric heard the music start thumping from downstairs, he assumed that it meant that the party had started. He logged off and headed down to the kitchen to find that the center island counter had been turned into a 'bar', stocked with pitchers of drinks and red disposable drinking cups. The counter by the stove offered a mixture of chips and snacks along with a couple different kinds of hot appetizers that you could throw into the oven before a football game. The music was blaring a hip-hop dance track from the living room and Eric was glad that they didn't have neighbors close enough to hear them.

It was warm in the kitchen and Eric peeled off his sweater almost as soon as he walked in. As he was pulling his sweater over his head, the girls walked in from the living room with drinks already in their hands and ran over to give him a group hug to welcome him to the party. Ellie must have helped Cassie pick out her outfit because they were both wearing what had to be their tightest pairs of jeans and the skimpiest t-shirts they owned. Both were also wearing heavier makeup and perfume. They looked like they were headed out to a night of dancing and Eric imagined that under normal circumstances, that they'd have guys lined up to buy them drinks, everywhere they went.

Ellie showed him the different drink choices on the bar while they all ate some snacks and he couldn't help blush at the names they'd chosen to give them. He ended up taking a 'Wrong Island Ice Tea' to start and Ellie proposed a toast to the "First Dorm Party ever in Paradise Hall!" They lifted their cups, took a drink and let out something between a cheer and a scream of celebration.

Ellie laid out three cups along one edge of the island counter and told them that they would need to learn how to play 'flip cup' if they were going to survive a dorm party. Although they didn't have enough people for two teams, they'd compete as a single team against a timer to see if they could complete the relay in less than two minutes. The game involved the first person taking a drink, turning their empty cup over, with a part of the rim hanging over the edge, and then trying to 'flip' their empty cup to land right side up on the table with a single finger. Getting their cup to land correctly would signal the next person to drink and repeat the same steps. Ordinarily they'd be competing against another team across the table, but as they only had three, they could have just as much fun practicing.

Ellie went first, downing her shot, turning the cup and managing to get it to flip successfully within a few tries. Cassie went next, downing her drink and attempting to do the same trick with her cup. After a bunch of tries, it finally managed to land teetering and stay up, at which point Eric took his drink, but the timer went off before he could attempt to flip his own cup. Ellie declared that they had lost, and pouring a small shot in each of their cups, they had to drink as a penalty. She set up the game again and reset the timer, but switched the order so that Eric went first and she went last. Eric quickly swallowed his drink, turned his cup over and attempted to land it as Ellie had. The first few tries were way off, but he started to get a feel for how much force would cause a single flip and within a few more tries managed to land it.

Cassie downed her drink and after a dozen tries, managed to get hers to land. Ellie quickly drank the contents of the third cup, and by her fourth try, had managed to flip the cup, just before time expired. They high-fived and yelled, hugging each other and bouncing to the music to celebrate their 'win' for a minute before Ellie declared it was time to move on to the next game, 'neck ball'.

Ellie pulled out one of Eric's old nerf balls, that she must have found out in the garage somewhere, and explained the rules. The timer was going to be set for three minutes and whoever was still holding the ball went it went off had to drink the shot she had poured into one of the cups. If two people were touching the ball when the timer went off, then they both had to drink. If the ball dropped, the last one to touch it had to drink and the timer got reset. She took the ball and put it under her chin and explained that the next player had to take the ball from her, using only their chin and neck, before passing it on to the next person in the same way.

Ellie pulled the ball out to make sure both Cassie and Eric understood the rules before setting the timer. They played odds and evens to see who would start and then paper, rock, scissors to see who would go second. The order ended up being Ellie, Eric and then Cassie. Ellie put the ball under her chin and started the timer.