The Dead Pixel Society

© 2026 Zoe Taylor

Aria gets a temporary respite from having to return to her old dorm that might not actually be that temporary, after the storm left Clarity campus in shambles. By a vote of the floor majority, she's officially unofficially a refugee under Elaine and Kris' protections now

Author's Note:

Sorry this one's a bit late! I had to go through and remove the emoji from the texts because they crash Drupal :D

When Aria tried to leave the dorm, the senior RA called after her. “Hey, where do you think you’re going?”

Aria turned and looked over her shoulder. “I was going to try and get back to my dorm?”

“Nu uh,” she said. “It’s way too dangerous out there. Go and see Nurse Amber and I’ll see about getting you a bed for the night here. There are trees and powerlines down all over the campus, no buts,” she said firmly.

Aria’s heart skipped a beat. “Here? Tonight?” she squeaked.

“Hey Sara, we’ve got two extra beds in our room remember? Because Tracy washed out, and Laura wanted to bunk with her cousin on 3?”

“Hey, that’s right,” Sara answered. “You sure you two don’t mind?”

“Hell no,” Kris said, shaking her head. “I’ll vouch for them.”

Them...

She was officially a ‘them’ now, not a boy in a soggy blazer. Aria couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“That makes three of us,” Heather said.

“Four,” Lyra added.

“Five,” Vanessa chimed in. “And that makes it a floor majority. If Madison has a problem with it she can sleep in the storm cellar.”

“You heard the mob, Chambers,” Sara said, motioning with a beckoning finger. “Come on, I’ll walk you over to our medical office.”

“I... Thank you,” Aria said softly as she moved to follow Sara, clinging to her soggy umbrella like a life preserver on a choppy and unfamiliar sea.

“While you’re getting checked out I’ll find you something dry so you don’t freeze to death on us,” she said, leaving Aria at the door. Nurse Amber was waiting just inside the office, listening to a NOAA weather radio broadcast, but she switched it off and looked up on hearing Aria and Sara’s voices.

“Jesus Christ,” she said softly as she sprang to her feet, ushering Aria to a chair. “I thought I heard someone got caught out in this mess but you look like you went five rounds with Creed,” she teased.

“I feel like it,” Aria groaned. “But the lasagna helped.”

Nurse Amber checked Aria over, poking and prodding at particularly bad bruises, and even bandaging one of the more severe welts on her arm with some waterproof medical adhesive because, as it turned out, she was prescribing Aria at least a 20 minute hot shower. She didn’t have signs of a concussion at least, which Aria already knew, but it was nice to have a medical professional’s confirmation.

***

By the time she had managed to find her way to the fourth floor things had settled down a bit at least. The rain still pelted hard against the pod walls, but the hail had stopped, and the wind had died down a bit.

Aria was surprised to find how similar the girls’ dorms were to the boys’, and yet, they were so different too. For one thing, the carpet had that same drab charcoal low pile ‘dorm’ vibe, the same off-purple Clarity Beige™ wall paint, and even similar geometric and abstract art prints on the walls, but the dorms felt more subdued and quiet, and not just because of the storm.

Girls were moving about and chatting, mostly about the storm, the tornado in Centerville, just trying to wind down after the terrible evening. Hardly anyone paid Aria any attention. The door to 401 was wide open and someone’s stereo or speakers were playing Billie Eilish, but it wasn’t obnoxiously loud.

A girl with ash blonde hair, wearing nothing but a lacey pink bra and sweat pants emerged from 402 right as Aria came close.

“Oh, sorry, didn’t see you,” she said, nearly running into Aria, and flashing her an apologetic smile. She didn’t scream or demand to know why a boy was on their floor. Aria didn’t even clock that she looked a lot like Heather, just much more athletic. She was in her own anxious world of trying to decide if she belonged here or not.

“Next one up,” she heard Madison say softly next to her. “You’re looking for Elaine and Kris’ room. It’s the next one up.”

“Oh,” Aria said, turning to look at Madison, who was just leaning in her doorway now. “Thanks.”

Madison shrugged her shoulders. “Sure,” she said and turned to walk back into her room.

Elaine and Kris, because they had a four bed pod, actually had the luxury of their own private bathroom and shower with private stalls so as soon as Aria got there, Elaine showed her to it, and even handed her the white Clarity hoodie and sweat pants Sara had dropped off for her to change into.

“You can use my hair dryer if you need to dry your underwear, if you’re as soaked through as you look like you are,” Elaine said. “We’ll let you have the whole bathroom to yourself. Take as long as you need, okay?”

“Thanks,” Aria said. “This is all so... I keep wondering if I died out there in that storm and this is heaven, except heaven wouldn’t hurt this much.”

Elaine giggled, giving Aria that same knowing smile Kris liked to give her, but didn’t say anything, just closed the bathroom door behind Aria so she could have her promised privacy.

She leaned her back against the door and breathed deeply. Something smelled like lilacs and coconut, an odd combination, probably soap and shampoo? But more importantly, one of the rocks the octopus had been juggling had just suddenly turned into a dove, and two of the eight legs had decided it was better to work together.

Sure enough, when she stripped down and entered the shower, the default option soap, something she’d never used in the boys’ dorm, smelled strongly of lilacs. The coconut smell seemed to be coming from the shampoo dispenser.

She made copious use of both, scrubbing away any last remnants of the Lewis mask and watching as they washed down the drain under the gentle, almost spa-like tap of the rain shower heads - ironically giving her soul and body a much needed healing moment after the icy rain and hail stone assault from earlier in the evening.

***

When she finally emerged a full 45 minutes later, scrubbed clean, dry, and warm in her Clarity hoodie and sweat pants, the girl in the lacey pink bra had returned, wearing an Abney Park tee shirt now, and she was balancing three big bowls of popcorn in her hands.

“Jess’ roommate in 405 fired up their popcorn machine,” she said, passing out bowls to Kris and Elaine before approaching Aria with the third, the smell of salty butter and dry kernels, the perfect icing on the proverbial cake that she needed.

“Thank you so much. Can... Can I ask you a stupid question?”

‘Shoot,” the girl said, grinning. “You want to know if I’m related to Heather?” Aria nodded sheepishly, taking a bite of popcorn as she laughed. “We’re twins. Nobody believes it at first because we’re so different, but we like to joke she got all the creativity and I got the athleticism. I’m Cassandra, but everybody calls me Sandy.”

“I’m Aria,” Aria said without thinking.

“Well, Aria,” Sandy said, “if you need anything else don’t even hesitate to ask. I’ve got a mini fridge full of Black Cherry Dr. Pepper and 401 has Pepsi Zero if you want one.”

“Can I have a Black Cherry Dr. Pepper?” Aria asked. “I love those things.”

“Sure thing. I’ll be right back.”

Aria slowly eased herself onto one of the unoccupied beds. Elaine’s was obvious by the fencing trophies on the headboard, and Kris was relaxing on hers, looking at her tablet, but there were two more, one of which actually had a blanket and pillow on it while the other just seemed shoved sideways to get it out of the way until someone came along to claim it.

“Aria huh?” Kris said, looking over at her. “That’s pretty.”

“Thanks,” Aria said. “It’s funny. It’s a solo, but I don’t feel like a soloist anymore.”

“You belong here more than I do,” Kris said bluntly. Aria looked up at her. She waved a hand at the air. “Don’t think too hard about it. I’ll explain when you’re less frazzled. I don’t think you could handle another surprise tonight anyway,” she said, as Sandy reappeared, holding not a can, but a 20 oz bottle.

“Thank you so, so much,” Aria said. “I’ll pay you back later.”

“No, you won’t,” Sandy laughed. “I’m the only one on our floor who likes these things - or I was. Having someone else justify my weird tastes is payment enough.”

Sara: Hey chambers just letting you know I’ve talked to Director Winters and
your student link is authorized once the NFC is fixed you’re officially
our guest until further notice because the north quad is trashed
its just too dangerous [smiling face emoji] [school house emoji]

Aria sat up, looked at her phone, and let out another squeak. Elaine glanced casually over at her. “I just became a permanent refugee ‘until further notice’ because my dorm’s a mess, apparently.”

“One of us, one of us,” Elaine and Kris chanted in unison. Aria groaned, but laughed as she wrote a response. The Martian octopus finally found a reef to cling to.

Lewis: OMG thank you Sara! [folded hands emoji]