I couldn't tell you what time the party finished. Or if, in fact, it finished at all. I woke in the morning on the floor of the hall, lying next to Alex, on top of his arm. I groaned and shielded my eyes with my arm, as the bright morning sun filtered through the open windows. I rolled over onto my side, and into Alex, trying to escape the light. I winced as I felt something digging into my hip. Searching my pocket, I found my phone. Curious, I sat up and checked the time.

07:56.

Shit.

I swore to myself. Just over half an hour until classes started, and the majority of the senior class was passed out in here.

Alex stirred next to me. "Mmm…what?" he asked sleepily.

"It's almost eight," I hissed at him.

He sat up immediately. "Shit."

Normally, we probably wouldn't have worried about being a little late to class. In fact we'd be likely to skip the whole thing. But the combination of the fallout from our last party, and the inconvenient and unwelcome arrival of the heroes putting all the teachers in a foul mood, meant there was little chance of any of us catching a break.

"Help me wake everybody?" I asked.

He nodded and helped me off the floor, immediately setting off to wake everybody and send them back to their rooms.

I located my friends first, figuring they could help as well. Tristan was the first one I spotted. Saving the pleasantries, I opted for a more effective way to wake him.

"FUCK!" he yelled as I kicked him in the side, waking quite a few people around him.

I beamed at him. "Sleep okay?"

"Bitch," he muttered, rubbing his side. "What'd you wake me for?"

"Nearly eight, that's why," I told him matter of factly. "And you need to help me wake everybody up.

He groaned, and hoisted himself up off the floor, muttering under his breath. "Yeah, well, you didn't have to kick me," he pouted.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't," I teased. "Either way, you're awake now. Help me wake everyone up."

He glared at me, but helped me wake them. Soon, with Corinna, Jason and Cameron's help, everyone was back in their rooms, and with twenty minutes to spare.

"I noticed you didn't kick anybody else awake," Tristan pointed out.

"Of course I didn't," I said innocently. "I love them all far too much to want to cause them any physical pain."

I poked my tongue out at him, as he clutched his heart in fake hurt, falling to the floor. "Holly…you wound me…" he gasped dramatically. "Now… I have nothing…" he cried, sprawling out over the floorboards.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't make me kick you again."

He stood, laughing. "I was unprepared before. And anyway, the only reason you even got that shot in was because I was asleep. You know that's the only way you'd ever be able to get me. A low blow, darling, but I guess some of us have to take pride where we can…" he taunted, amusement and challenge in his eyes.

"I'm going to take you up on that someday, Trist. Just try not to cry too much when I damage your pride and deflate your ego, okay?"

He chuckled. "Admit it, Holly. You just want to get all hot and sweaty with me…" he winked.

"Of couuuurse. Whatever you want to think, Trist. Whatever gets you through the day."

He laughed lightly, and slung his arm around my shoulders as Corinna and I headed out the doorway and down the hall.

"Oh, Holly, we do have such fun," he said, in a jovial English accent. "And thinking about you thinking about me most definitely gets me through the day." He winked at me again, before heading down a separate corridor to his room, not giving me a chance to respond.

Corinna and I sprinted up to our room, arguing all the way about who would get the first shower. I won.

"I'll get your clothes ready for you, alright?" Corinna told me as I headed into the bathroom.

"'Kay," I called, closing the door behind me. "Thanks. I won't be long."

I turned the water on, stripping my clothes off quickly. Thanks to the advanced villain technology, I didn't have to worry about giving the water time to warm up. Perfect preset temperature, every time.

Imagine my surprise when I stepped in, and the water was freezing cold.

I yelled.

"Holly?" Corinna's worried voice came from outside the door. "What's wrong?"

"The water's freezing!"

"But…how?" she asked, sounding as confused as I was.

"Don't ask me."

There was no way that I could get to the bottom of this, and still be ready on time, so I just had to suffer through it. Gritting my teeth, I picked up the soap, spending as little time as possible under the water.

Barely five minutes later, I turned off the water, and jumped out of the shower. Drying myself off before I headed into the room, I noticed something taped to the mirror that I had missed before. An envelope. I wrapped myself in my towel, thankful for its warmth after that torturous shower, grabbed the envelope and headed outside. I'd nearly forgotten that I had a roommate who needed the bathroom as well.

She was standing right outside the door when I opened it.

"What's that?" she asked about the envelope.

I shrugged. "Was taped to the mirror. Go have your shower, we don't have much time."

She nodded. "Alright…but…how did that get into our bathroom?"

"I don't know," I told her. "I'll think about it after I'm ready, we can't afford to be late again."

"Oh. Right." She headed into the bathroom.

I walked over to the bed, where Corinna had laid out my clothes. Suddenly, I remembered why I hardly ever let her pick any of my outfits. She was far too girly. Sometimes I wondered that this girl could actually be a villain. This girl, who would actually let me wear a pale pink babydoll dress. Out in public.

I sighed. "I don't even care if I'm late," I muttered to myself. "I am not wearing that."

I headed over to the drawers, and grabbed the first things I could fi nd – a pair of simple black short shorts, and a Guns 'n' Roses shirt I'd stolen off Tristan. Considering how much taller he was than me, not to mention how built he was, I could have worn the thing as a dress. Which, after briefly considering my other option, I decided I could pull off – Audrey Kitching style. I grabbed the only thing Corinna had laid out for me that I was actually going to wear – my underwear and bra – and hurried into them. I slipped the shirt on over my head, belting it just below my chest with a wide silver belt, and pulled on a pair of ripped black stockings just as Corinna came out of the bathroom in her underwear and towel.

She sighed when she saw me, and headed over to where she'd left her dark pink jeans and black singlet ensemble.

I just looked at her. "You didn't actually think that I was going to wear that, did you?" I asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Oh, a girl can dream," she retorted. "But, and even though it seriously pains me to say this," she continued. "You totally work the shirt dress look."

I grinned. "Why thankyou."

"Where'd you even get the dress?" she asked as she pulled on her jeans.

I laughed. "It's Tristan's shirt, actually. On account of the fact he's freakishly tall, and pretty built, it looks like a dress on little ol' me," I informed her. "Handy, right?"

"You forgot the fact that I'm also freakishly good looking." Speak of the devil.

"Don't you ever knock?" A half dressed Corinna demanded.

I smirked. "Yeah, not so funny now that it's you he's perving on, is it?" I laughed.

She huffed, heading into the bathroom to get ready.

"I wondered where that shirt had escaped to," Tristan said, coming up behind me and placing his hands on my waist.

I turned to face him, slapping his hands away as I did. "Well, now that you know, you can rest easy."

"Am I ever going to get it back?" he asked, sly smile playing on his face. "Or am I going to have to take it off you?"

I scoffed. "I'd like to see you try. I'm quite fond of this look. In fact, I've seen a fair few other shirts of yours that would look far better on me than they do on you," I teased.

He glared at me. "You stay away from my wardrobe, you devil woman you," he warned me, amusement glinting in his eyes.

"Dare you to try and stop me," I taunted, glancing at the clock. I swore. We had five minutes to get to class.

"Cor! Five minutes!" I called out to her, grabbing my eyeliner, foundation, and hairbrush on the way to the mirror. I quickly applied my makeup, and ran the brush ferociously through the tangled mess that, thanks to a night spent on a wooden floor, now passed as my hair.

Corinna emerged from the bathroom just as I gave up in my hair, decided just to tie it up in a messy bun. It wasn't getting any better.

"You ready?" I asked, getting down on all fours in the hunt for shoes.

"Find me a pair while you're down there, and yeah I will be," she told me.

I came up with two pairs of flats – one blue, and one red.

"Take your pick," I offered. Secretly I hoped she'd pick the blue.

I grinned when she plucked the blue pair from my hands and headed to the door. The red just went so much better with my outfit.

All that time, Tristan had been watching, with amused eyes. "You guys," he chuckled as he joined Corinna in the doorway, "really do amuse me."

I scowled at him. "If we weren't running late, I'd pummel you for that," I growled.

He just laughed.

"Hey, Hol, what was in that envelope?" Corinna asked curiously, just as I was about to close the door.

I'd forgotten about that. I darted back into the room and grabbed it from where I'd tossed it on the bed, shoving it into my bag amid the mess of phone, iPod, a couple of books and an apple. I hadn't had time to check which books they were, but the wrong books were better than no books at all.

"What do we have?" I asked no-one in particular. Either Tristan or Corinna shared all my classes. Except for Villainy, but I knew we didn't have that.

"English," they replied simultaneously.

"Great," I muttered. "I love an early morning post-party run."

We sprinted off in the direction of the English class, which was 2 blocks away. On a good day, it was about a ten minute walk. Not as bad as Villainy or Weapons, but bad enough was enough this morning.

We made it with just under a minute to spare. While all the training we were put through meant that we were all in top physical condition, we were also all still feeling the effects of last night's indulgences, and exhausted on top of that. Even I was breathing a little heavier than usual.

Despite our late departure from the dorms, we were still among the first students to arrive. We slid into our regular seats – Tristan and Corinna either side of me – and waited patiently for the others to arrive. They trickled in slowly, each of them seeming in as much of a hurry as we had been, and before long, class was started, barely five minutes late.

Our teacher, Ms. Atkins, looked up from her desk, an expression of mock-surprise on her face. She'd pretended to be reading as she had waited for all of us to arrive, so she wouldn't have to start the lesson with people still absent.

"Ah, we're all here?" she asked. "Goodness, I didn't even see you come in. How foolish of me," she smiled.

She was one of my favourite teachers. She was always willing to turn a blind eye as long as what we were getting up to wasn't too dangerous, and always ready to help you out of a jam. It amazed me that she had landed a job at the Academy. Unlike all the other teachers, she wasn't a villain. She was just a regular civilian, who'd been lucky enough to be invited to teach here. Which just goes to show what an amazing teacher she really was – they don't let just anybody in here. To get even an interview, you have to be at the absolute top of your field. I mean, it's a basic requirement before you can start teaching others.

"If everybody could please take out their plays now," she asked. "We're going to continue on with the work from last lesson."

Some people groaned. Usually, I'd be among them. We were studying Shakespeare at the moment, and generally that meant a whole lot of Ye Olde English that you just could not make any sense of half the time. But, this time, I was genuinely interested. We were studying Julius Caesar. My favourite Shakespeare play so far, no competition. Even though you couldn't make much more sense of it than you could the others, the storyline intrigued me.

Jealousy. Conspiracy. Murder. Revenge. I mean, what could speak better to a group of aspiring villains?

I took my book and play out of my bag, and carried on with the work.

Personally, I liked Mark Antony. He reminded me a bit of Director Hargrove, to be honest. Both were the kind of villain that I aimed to be. Now, I'm not saying that Antony was a villain – after all, he was only doing what he could to avenge a man that he both loved and admired, but the way that he used absolutely nothing more than his mere words to turn the mob against Brutus, and all those conspirators, and basically just take control of Rome? Absolutely genius. I would kill to be able to do that.

Corinna nudged me five minutes before the bell was due to ring, while everybody was packing their things away. "Hey," she whispered. "The envelope?"

"Oh, yeah." I fished it out of my bag, and opened it.

Inside, there was a letter.

Dear Villain.

We sincerely hope that you enjoy your shower. We thought that after your late night last night, you'd all be grateful for a nice, refreshing start to your morning.

We hope this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

xxx.

"Son of a bitch!" The bell drowned out my curse.

"What?" Corinna asked. "What did it say?"

Fuming, I resisted the urge to crumple the paper, and passed it to her. I watched her face darken as she read.

She met my eyes when she was done, passing the letter back to me. "So it was them. They used up all the hot water, AND they broke into our rooms!"

I shook my head, shoving the letter carelessly back into my bag as we headed out the door. "Nah. They would have had to use the windows or something. The lock was fine this morning, no signs at all of it being picked or forced."

"But they still got in," Corinna stated obviously.

I nodded slowly, as Tristan followed cluelessly behind us. "Yeah. Yeah, they still got in."

"Who got in where?" Tristan demanded, obviously tiring of being left out. I pulled the letter back out of my bag and passed it to him.

"You didn't get one?" Corinna asked.

He laughed. "I didn't have a shower, more like."

She wrinkled her nose. "Ew."

"You guys love it," he joked, before attempting to put his arms around us. We ducked out from underneath him.

"Not a chance," Corinna told him. "At least, not until you've showered."

He stared at her, feigning hurt. "Corinna," he said, his voice wavering in the convincing way that only he could pull off. "I gave you two the best years of my life. I gave you guys everything I possibly could have, and you can't overlook this?" He looked away dejectedly. "I thought we were friends," he whispered, not even meeting our eyes. "But apparently this friendship meant more to me than it ever did to the two of you."

I rolled my eyes. "Stop being such a drama queen, and tell me what the hell class I have now."

He just grinned at me. "You tell me exactly who got in where, and I'll tell you anything you like."

"Or, I could just ask- hey! Where'd she go?" I asked, confused at Corinna's disappearance.

He shrugged. "Dunno. Class, I'd guess. But now you have no alternative. What's going on?"

I pointed at the letter in his hand. "Read it?"

He frowned as he scanned it, before he passed it back. "Huh."

I raised my eyebrow, dropping the letter back into my bag. "Huh? That's all that you have to say on the matter?"

"Well," he smiled widely, "I'm sure you already have a plan in the works. I see no reason to jump off the deep end, when I know we're getting our revenge anyway."

I thought about this, before laughing. "Honey, you know me far too well." I hugged him. "I do, in fact, have a plan. I mean, I did already have a plan – getting them to leave – but now it's just going to be a whole lot more fun…Now, what class do I have?" I demanded.

"Hand-to-hand," he informed me happily. "So, optimum venting, right?"

I rejoiced internally. He was right. Hand to hand combat would definitely improve my mood. It nearly always does. I smirked at him. "Wanna partner?" I asked as we headed into the training rooms.

He winked. "Wouldn't have it any other way. You know I love the thought of getting all hot and sweaty with you…"

I rolled my eyes and smacked him, as I plotted the eventual, spectacular downfall of the heroes in the back of my mind.

I groaned as Tristan's fist collided with my stomach. My leg swung up to kick him in the neck in response. He dodged neatly out of the way, taunting me.

"Come on, Hol, you can do better than that," he challenged. "Or am I just far too good for you to compete with?" he laughed.

I grunted in reply, aiming another kick at his abdomen. He dodged again. Damn.

"Oh, come on. That the best you got, little girl?" he teased, grey eyes dancing.

My fist swung up, colliding with his face. I grinned, as he gasped dramatically. "Not the face!" he cried dramatically.

I laughed, settling into an offensive stance. "Come on, Trist. Quit being a girl. Get into it!" It was easier to enjoy now that I'd finally landed a blow.

"Bring it on."

We launched into a series of playful (yet still painful) kicks and punches. Neither of us were taking the exercise as seriously as we probably should have been, but still, we both wanted to win.

"You know, Holly," he said between heavy, laboured breaths. "I knew you'd cave in. You only wanted to partner with me so we could get all close and personal." He winked, dodging my punch. "Too slow," he mocked. "You're gonna have to be - "

I cut him off with a sharp blow to the head.

"…Touché," he muttered, rubbing his head as we circled each other.

I smiled angelically. "And what was that you were saying before, Tristan? I couldn't hear you over the sounds of my inevitable victory."

He rolled his eyes. "Ain't over yet, little one. I still got some fight left in me."

I giggled at his fake Southern accent.

"Whatever. Delay the inevitable, see if I care." I jumped nimbly out of the way of his fist, and ducked the other. "Oooh, too slow," I jeered slowly. "Maybe you should have showered this morning, it might have improved your response times."

He opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off by the bell.

"Good work, class. Finish up, and I'll see you all next lesson," our teacher, Mr. Kennedy called over his shoulder as he raced out the door for a cigarette.

Tristan looked at me, challenge and amusement in his eyes. "Alright, kid. One more hit. You better make this one count," he grinned.

I ducked quickly behind him, aiming a cheap shot at the back of his knees. He thundered to the ground. I pushed him onto his back. Moving quickly, I pinned his wrists to the floor, straddling him.

"Gotcha," I teased. "Who's slow now?"

He rolled his eyes, groaning. "Cheap shot, babe. If I'd known we were street fighting, I'd have had you on the floor an hour ago."

I laughed. "Victory is victory. Nobody specified rules before we started, so suck it up."

"You know, Holly," he began, eyes sparkling. "I really, really like this position we're in… you up for another workout?" he asked in a low, husky voice.

I made a noise of disgust as I got up off him. "In your dreams."

He chuckled as he lifted himself up off the floor. "Ah, Holly dearest, however did you know that I dream of you? All those cold, lonely nights, those dreams are all that keep me warm in my large, empty bed…"

I scoffed, trying not to laugh. "Well, you hold onto those dreams," I said, as we made our way into the courtyard. "They're about as close as you're ever going to get."

He mock-pouted as he matched my pace. "Oh, come on, Holly. You seriously trying to tell me that you've never thought about it? Never? Not once?"

I grinned wickedly just outside the Villainy classroom. "I'm not saying anything of the sort. I'm just saying. You're not getting any closer than those dreams." I winked and headed into the room, leaving him outside, hopelessly trying to figure out what I'd meant.

My five minute lateness had cost me the beginning of what sounded like a very good lecture.

"They were in your ROOMS!" Mr. Murray bellowed at the classroom, not evening noticing my lateness. It seemed he'd found out about the heroes' pathetic attempt at revenge. "Your damn ROOMS! What kind of Villains are we teaching here, if you can't even protect your own rooms from a bunch of amateur heroes? And YOU!" he directed at me, as I slid into my seat. Apparently he had noticed me. "What the hell were you doing to stop this? Where the hell were you?"

"Partying, sir," I replied calmly.

"A PARTY?" he sputtered, his face as red as I'd ever seen it. "ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME?" I could practically see the veins on his bald head.

"No, sir," I told him. "See, I had a plan. I still do, as a matter of fact. We're getting rid of those heroes, sir, I can promise you."

"How?" he asked scornfully. "By throwing parties while they break into your rooms? I can see you obviously have this situation under control." He shook his head. "Honestly, Holly, I've never been so disappointed."

"I underestimated them," I admitted freely. "I never thought that they would retaliate, at least not so quickly. And I never once thought that they would be stupid enough to dare to enter our rooms. But they will be gone, by the end of the week. If not sooner."

He allowed himself a smile. "And what, exactly, would your plan entail, Miss Muter?"

"Honestly, sir, the less you know the better." I grinned. "You have to be able to act innocent when their teachers ask what's going on."

He laughed. "Very well then. Make us proud. That is the first and last thing I will say on the matter."

I nodded at him. "Of course, sir."

"Well," he said, addressing the rest of the class, who'd been watching our exchange with interest. "Now that's sorted, we can finally get onto learning something new."

I tuned out his voice as I searched through my bag for a notebook. No doubt whatever he was teaching was simple enough, and besides, I could always just steal Felicity's notes.

What I was doing was far more important. I ripped a couple of blank pages out of the first notebook I found, and started to really plan. As soon as pen touched paper, ideas began flowing. I had more ideas than I knew what to do with. By the time the shrill sound of the bell rang through my concentration, the pages I'd ripped out were covered in notes. Looking over them as I packed up, I was confident that the heroes would be out of our school by Friday at the very latest.

Tralalalala.
I think that's about it for the rewrites, and the updates for now. I'm about three quarters done with the next chapter, so that's not too far away.
Review ndat. :D

loovee ash. xx.