Midnight Movie Club Ch. 04

"You pull all that from the top of your head?"

She shrugged casually. "I like movies..."

"Julie! And... Alcide, right?"

Both freshmen turned to see Jaxon coming up the aisle towards them. His arm was already thrust out towards Julie as he shook her hand before turning to do the same with Alcide's. "I hope you both enjoyed the movie tonight."

Julie's throat tightened up as she tried to answer. Fortunately, Alcide was already speaking. "I was just telling Julie that I'd never seen it before. It's not one I'd normally come across but I had a hell of a time watching it."

"Excellent," Jaxon answered enthusiastically. "Hopefully you'll be introduced to several movies that you've never seen and have the same level of enjoyment."

"I can promise you half of that." Alcide casually flicked his copy of the schedule with one finger. "I've legit never seen or even heard of some of these movies," he laughed.

Jaxon turned towards Julie "And how about you? Did you find the movie enjoyable?"

"Very much so. Comedy, especially set-up and timing, is incredibly difficult. This film was a masterclass in the genre." She reached out and tapped the corner of Alcide's schedule. "I've seen a large number of films on this list, there are several which have evaded me so far. I look forward to seeing them."

"And I looked forward to your input on their discussion. Both of you," Jaxon quickly clarified. "Thank you for coming. I will see you next Tuesday, if not sooner." With that, Jaxon politely stepped away, smoothly disengaging from the conversation.

"He seems cool," Alcide said, observing Jaxon as he greeted another student.

"Indeed he does," Julie sighed. She didn't catch Alcide's raised eyebrow as she said, "I look forward to getting to know him better..."

X X X X X

"Sure you don't want to join in?" The young man motioned to the empty chair. "Room for one more player."

Cole shook his head. "Appreciated. Just window shopping for now."

The young man nodded before returning to the game and reaching for a stack of the cards in the middle of the table. "I tell you," he said, reading the black card, "it was a non-stop fuckfest. When it was over my asshole looked like blank." As the other players began to lay down cards, Cole wandered away. Cards Against Humanity had never been of interest to him, even as a drunken party game.

The Gaming Club took up one of the larger rooms in the student union. Long cafeteria-style tables were interspaced with smaller round ones. Each table had someone sitting at them, from two people playing Magic The Gathering head-to-head up to a group of six reading over a ruleset for Betrayal Legacy. Even five students were sitting in a corner playing UNO of all things, although the laughter indicated the game in progress was far less cutthroat than normal.

Cole casually meandered about, rarely spending more than a minute silently hovering over a game in progress before moving on. After finishing his second circuit through the room Cole checked his smartphone. The Gaming Club had been in session for almost half an hour and the urge to sit down and join a game had yet to strike him. Maybe another half hour's wandering would see something catch his eye...

"No luck, huh."

Cole looked up from his phone. Standing in front of him was the young woman from the Gaming Club's table at the student expo, giving him a friendly smile. "No luck," he answered. "Fancy ain't being tickled by anything going on at the moment."

"That sucks." The young woman was Cole's height with a frame curvier than Eleanor's. Her dirty blonde hair was done up in a ponytail and she was dressed in dark blue jeans and a navy blue Hollister t-shirt, with white trim around the sleeves and collar. "If nothing's grabs you tonight, I would recommend coming back next week. People tended to switch up games regularly last year."

"Makes sense," Cole nodded. "Pretty varied mix going on tonight. Any chance, guy who ran Gloomhaven about?"

"Not anymore. According to my boyfriend, he transferred to Oregon over the summer."

"Damn. Hoping to get in a legacy game, scratch the RPG itch a bit."

"Well if that's what you're interested in..." She motioned towards a table in the far corner. "...James is running Imperial Assault later tonight and... yeah, you walked past some people just starting a Betrayal Legacy campaign over there."

"Eh, sci-fi and horror ain't ever been my bag. Think I threw my roommate when I missed a Star Wars quote weekend last. Thanks for pointing them out, looking for more 'Battle of Evermore' than '2112', you know?"

The young woman's eyes narrowed slightly. "I know the first reference," she said, tapping her finger against her lips, "however the second escapes me."

"Rush song."

"Never... heard of them?" Cole felt his eyebrow involuntarily raise as she added, "I know the Zeppelin song because it references The Lord of the Rings and I know the books like the back of my hand. I'm going to guess '2112 is science fiction?"

"Gonna apologize in advance." Cole made a placating gesture with his hands. "Music snobbery inbound. Mentioned Lord of the Rings and never heard of Rush? Never heard 'The Necromancer' or 'Rivendell?' Know we don't know each other, but if you like hobbits, recommend those."

The young woman's friendly laugh and bright smile soothed Cole's fears about coming off like a jackass. "Make you a deal then," she said. "You come back next week, regardless of whether or not you sit in on a game tonight, and I'll give those songs a listen." She held out her hand. "I'm even willing to go so far as to shake on it."

"Can't refuse that offer." Cole took the offered hand. "Cole Scales. Pleasure."

"Caroline Cross," she answered cordially.

"Alright," Cole said as he pulled his hand back, "gonna make one more walk around the confines, see if anything jumps out and grabs me."

"If I might make a suggestion? You don't find anything that interests you tonight, that's perfectly fine. It took me a couple times last year to be comfortable enough to sit down for a game." Caroline rubbed her hands down her face. "Oh God, it turned out to be an absolute disaster. I had to be convinced to come back the week after. I'm glad I did, but there was definite cajoling involved. No game is better than a bad game or a forced game."

"Next Wednesday then. Music and game discussion."

"Looking forward to it, Mr. Scales." With that, Caroline turned away. Cole watched as she headed towards one of the long tables before taking a deep breath and beginning his third walkabout of the large meeting room.

X X X X X

"Eleanor!"

Eleanor groaned as she sat up. Her body was stiff from having spent the past few minutes lying on a flat rock. A young man was crossing the street, waving towards her as he led a group of college students towards the overlook. "I'm glad you made it," he called out. "I was afraid we weren't going to see you today!"

Eleanor clambered off the rock as Mark Wainwright, the president of the Farragut Environmental Club, crossed the street. "My roommate just took off for a jog around the lake," she said as he approached her, "and I figured instead of walking over to campus and then coming back here I'd just wait."

"It looked to me like you were appreciating the scenery," Mark pointed out as he eagerly shook Eleanor's hand with a smile on his face which she returned. The senior wore worn blue jeans, brown hiking boots, and a long-sleeved black shirt. A dark blue bandana covered his shaggy blonde hair.

"Damn right I was appreciating the scenery." Eleanor gestured to the view in front of them. "It's an astonishing view and the weather's gorgeous too. It's the perfect day for picking up litter."

Mark playfully made a dismissive gesture. "I had nothing to do with it. Give it up for Mother Nature. I won't complain when circumstances line up, though."

The rest of the club, nearly two dozen people, had crossed the street at this point to join Mark and Eleanor at the top of the overlook formally named MacDonald Viewpoint. From where they stood, the ground gently sloped towards the calm blue waters of Lake Pend Oreille. Dirt eventually met water along a shoreline dotted with pine trees. A timeworn footpath wound its way through the trees, carving a trail that traced a rough path along the shoreline. The top of the slope was bordered by several flat rocks, forming a semi-circle around the overlook, and at its' center were several informative displays outlining the geological history of the lake below.

As everyone took a moment to catch their breath and appreciate the view, a white pick-up truck pulled into the overlook. After walking over and conversing with the driver for a moment, Mark walked around to the tailgate in the back, clapping his hands to get everyone's attention. "OK, everyone," he called out as Eleanor and the other students gathered around, "listen up! The reason we're all out here stupidly early on a Saturday morning is that we give a damn about the environment. Take a look over there." Mark pointed towards the serene lake. The low-lying mountains on the other side were capped with a hint of snow, like a cherry on top of a milkshake. "That's one hell of a vista, less than half a mile from campus. And between the end of tourist season and the storm last week, the shoreline is a mess. The Army Corps of Engineers does a decent job keeping the water clean but trash pickup usually falls on volunteers such as ourselves."

The dull thwack of Mark's hand smacking the metal tailgate sent a flock of sparrows bursting into the air from a nearby tree. "Everyone wears a pair of gloves. Everyone uses a trash grabber." He reached over the tailgate to grab a long metal pole with a plastic pincer on one end. "Don't, and I can't stress this enough, don't pick up something with your hands if you can use this." The claws on the pincer clacked together as Mark pulled on the handle at the other end of the pole. "If you have to use your hands, be careful. It's easy to cut yourself on accident, and not being able to use your hand sucks when you're a college student." At that, Mark rolled up the right sleeve of his shirt. He held his arm in the air, palm out. Eleanor, along with several other students, couldn't help but wince at the sight of a long jagged scar that ran from Mark's palm to nearly halfway down his forearm. "I know what I'm talking about. I got this from a bottle of Jagermeister last year, and not in the fun way."

Mark turned in place for a moment, letting everyone get a good look at his scar, before smiling at the group. "Safety lesson's over. Everyone come up, get your gloves, your stick, and a couple of garbage bags." As the group stepped forward Mark opened the tailgate and climbed into the back of the truck where he began to hand out pairs of thick workman gloves and litter pincers to the gathered crowd.

Once everyone had gotten their supplies, Mark stepped onto the tailgate. He pointed to the leftmost person in the group of students. "Alright... south." Mark's finger moved to the person next to them and said, "north," before moving on to the third person. "South." Mark alternated between "north" and "south," assigning each student to a group with Eleanor falling into with the "south" group. "And I'll go with the north group," Mark said as he climbed off the back of the truck. "The north group is going to work their way along the shore towards town and the south group is going to head towards the boat launch. If you fill a garbage bag..." Mark held up a gray Hefty bag. "...just tie it off and leave it. We'll pick them up and load them in the truck once we're done for the day.

"And one last thing," he added. "This is a 'work at your own pace' kind of deal. You get tired, just let someone know you're heading back to campus. Today is all about getting to know one another and making a difference locally." With that, the young man hopped to the ground. "Let's get going then!"

The students quickly separated into their assigned groups. Eleanor fell beside a young man with slicked-back black hair, his scalp shaved almost to the skin. The young man looked over his shoulder at Mark from behind wire-rimmed glasses. "Not exactly the most 'rah rah' speech," he said to Eleanor, "but I appreciate the safety lecture."

"He's not kidding about glass," Eleanor grumbled. "There's always some drunken asshole tourist who thinks it's funny to smash their beer bottle against the rocks and then doesn't clean it up. I grew up around here and used to love walking barefoot on the sand. Now I have to be careful even if I'm wearing sneakers."

"I see how that would suck. Hey, want to work together? I'll grab, you hold the bag open?"

"As long as we can switch off at some point." Eleanor held up her stick and squeezed the handle. "I like the clacking sound," she laughed.

"We'll swap every other bag then. The name's Brian. Brian McKenzie."

"Eleanor Freeman. Nice to meet you. Let's get picking."

Eleanor and Brian were the first ones to start heading down the slope. The other ten members of their group, also pairing off, fell in behind them. Once they reached the bottom of the hill they began to work their way south along the shoreline. Almost immediately the students were confronted with a wide assortment of litter - plastic and glass bottles, cigarette butts, shopping bags, and more. The sharp clack of the trash pickers mixed with the gentle sound of water lapping against the shoreline as the group went to work.

"How did you end up caring about the planet?" Eleanor asked while she held the bag open for Brian to drop a crushed beer can inside.

"Pragmatically," Brian smiled, "I've always wanted to be a civil engineer, and a good way to ensure what you build does its job is to make sure it doesn't get backed up with garbage. Plus," he added as he dropped a cigarette butt into the trash bag, "I'm going to be living here for the next four years. What about you?"

"Hippie grandparents and a Mom and Dad who both work for the state Department of Lands."

The pair continued to pick up trash, lightly chatting back and forth as the garbage bag Eleanor held slowly filled with litter. "I think that's good," Brian said as he dropped a half-gallon jug, the bottom filled with a sickly yellow sludge, into the bag. "Let's tie her off and switch."

"I can't believe there's so much trash." A deep frown creased Eleanor's face as she pulled the drawstrings on the plastic bag tight before tying them in a double-knot. "I know people tend to not give a damn about nature, but by the Goddess this is excessive."

Brian pulled a fresh trash bag from his pocket. He whipped it open, snapping his arms to help pull the edges apart, as Eleanor used her stick to grab a waterlogged news circular. "If you're up for a silver lining, the storm last week blew in from the north, right? Maybe it pushed all the trash in front of it and it all ended up down here instead of, I don't know, spread evenly across the entire lake?"

"That makes sense. Better than people being heartless bastards who don't give a whit for the planet."

"Oh, people are still heartless bastards who don't give a whit for the planet." Brian held a finger in the air for added emphasis. "My explanation just means there are fewer heartless bastards than you'd think."

"I'd like to believe that." Eleanor gave Brian a sad, wistful smile before resuming her collection efforts. It took nearly half an hour of work for Brian and Eleanor to use all four garbage bags that they had started with. "Do you want to keep going?" Eleanor asked Brian as she tied off the bag of gathered trash. "I'm for it if you are."

"Sure, if someone thought to grab extra trash bags," Brian answered as he ran the back of his hand across his forehead to wipe away a thin layer of sweat. "Being out in the sun's better for me than sitting in my room playing video games with my roommate. The company's pretty nice too."

Eleanor gave a friendly smile at Brian's compliment. "Take a break. I'll see if someone's got some extra bags." She turned and headed for the closest pair of students. They were standing further up the slope from the water's edge, working to unwind a roll of paper towels that had become entangled in the tines of a fallen tree branch. "Pardon me," she called out to one of the pair, a tall woman with raven-black hair pulled into a tight ponytail that hung past her shoulders, "do you have an extra garbage bag or two by any chance?"

The woman turned towards Eleanor. Her face was obscured by a pair of dark sunglasses, but Eleanor could see the skin around her eyes narrow as she stared at her. "Oh," she spat, "you."

Eleanor studied the young woman. Besides her sunglasses, she wore a simple red blouse, blue jeans, and well-worn sneakers. "I'm sorry," Eleanor said after a moment, "do we know each other?"

"Vaguely." Poison dripped from the singular word as the young woman continued speaking. "I'm your neighbor. The one who you insisted on disturbing two weekends in a row by banging your bed frame against our shared wall?"

"Oh. You're Beatrix's roommate. I didn't recognize you with the sunglasses." Eleanor made a circular motion around her face for emphasis.

"Yes, and I didn't recognize you with your clothes on."

"OK... look, I'm sorry," Eleanor repeated. "Beatrix told me and my roommate twice that my bed knocked against the wall. That's on me," she admitted, patting her chest. "I put towels between the frame and the wall as a temporary measure, and I promise this weekend I'll come up with something more permanent..."

"If you stopped bringing strange men back to your room every weekend to have carnal relations, that would be the simplest and most permanent solution."

The venom and disdain in the young woman's words caused Eleanor to recoil as if a flashbulb had popped directly in front of her eyes. She tried to formulate a proper response, but all her brain could do was default to its initial setting. "Do... do you have any spare trash bags," she heard herself ask in a quiet voice. "We ran out." A sharp snap filled the air as the young woman tore a handful of garbage bags free from their roll and shoved them towards Eleanor, who took them without a word. The young woman immediately turned her back to Eleanor to focus on the paper towels wrapped around the tree branch.

"Damn," Brian whistled once Eleanor returned, "I could feel the hostility all the way over here. What did you do, sleep with her boyfriend?"

Eleanor tried to smile at Brian as she handed the garbage bags to him. "She's my next-door neighbor and my... handful of illicit rendezvouses with members of the opposite sex since school started offend her on a personal level."

"She DOES know that she's in college, right? That when you shove a bunch of hormonal teenagers together without parental supervision, you're going to get illicit rendezvouses?"

"According to her roommate, she's a hardcore fundamentalist. Not the 'turn the other cheek' kind, the 'how dare you have fun' kind."

"Oh boy," Brian laughed. "It's a good thing you went over there then. She definitely wouldn't have liked me." Brian turned around and pulled the sleeve of his t-shirt up, revealing a brightly colored rainbow banner tattoo on his shoulder. "I play exclusively for the other team," he said with pride. "If I don't have at least one illicit rendezvous per semester with a curious young man, I'm going to be severely disappointed."

"I appreciate someone with a plan," Eleanor grinned as Brian pulled his sleeve down. "Come on then, open up that garbage bag and let's get back to our penance."

X X X X X

Susan happened to be looking in the direction of the doorway when Alexander walked into the lounge. A smile crossed the tall woman's face at the sight of him. "Well check this out," she teased once he met her gaze. "You showed up."