[center][h3][color=00a99d]『𝔼𝕣𝕟𝕖𝕤𝕥』 [/color] [color=a187be]『𝔸𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕠𝕟』[/color][/h3][/center]
[center][img]http://i68.tinypic.com/63x8xz.jpg[/img] [img]http://i68.tinypic.com/mhf02b.jpg[/img][/center]
[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/3R5vYYi.png?2[/img][/center][hr][center][color=silver]𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥. 𝟙𝟚, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘   / /   𝕌𝕊𝔸ℝ𝕀𝕃ℕ 𝔼𝕒𝕤𝕥   / /   𝔹𝕦𝕚𝕝𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝔹   / /  𝟙𝟘𝟛𝟘[/color][/center][hr][center][sub]Collab with [@VarionusNW] and [@banjoanjo][/sub][/center]

The week had been a pretty mixed bag for Ernie. Plenty of ups, thanks to new friends like Brent and Angel. Far too many downs though. Ernie was fine with forgetting those more negative moments. Completely erasing them wasn't possible, but drowning them out certainly was. So it was on this fine Saturday morning that Ernie plugged his Karcher CV 30/1 into his room's power socket and began his weekend cleaning routine.

Ah, what a calming yet powerful roar this machine produced. Ernie could feel his spirit lighten as dirt and grime werelifted from the disgusting berber carpet that occupied his dorm. Within minutes, the small dorm was freshly cleaned, with a stripe pattern decorating the carpet of the room once he finished. Good god, he really was in denial. Or he was just bored. He really needed to make some more friends. All these aimless days were going to get to him before long.

Ernie glanced at the power socket, lamenting the briefness of his cleaning time. Urgh, these East dorms were so stupidly small. There was barely anything to occupy his time. Unless...

The Aberration peeked out from behind his door. The hallway was empty. And carpeted. That was the important detail. Ernie felt anticipation build, an excited smile slowly creeping up his face. This would be a worthy time-waster.

The vacuum was quickly plugged into one of the hallway's outlets. His noise-blocking headphones were worn this time. Such lengthy tasks demanded some sweet jams.

He vacuumed as he sang, completely uncaring of anyone he would be disturbing. It was 10:40am anyway. What kinda loser would still be snoozing in their room at this time?

Allison mumbled in her groggy state, the sounds of the previous night replaying in her head. She had been up late into the night with Angel, re-learning how to play the guitar. Allison didn't remember when the stopped, just that she had walked back to her room tired, with aching fingers, and collapsed into her bed. She was now slowly waking up, the sound of the guitar still humming in her ears.

As the girl continued to lay in her half awake state, she began to notice that what she was hearing sounded less like the familiar miserable strumming of the guitar at her fingertips, and more like a constant hum, aided by some other loud, obnoxious noise. Someone was singing. The obnoxiousness grew louder and louder as she regained consciousness, finding it more unbearable as time passed. She threw her pillow over her head and tried to lull herself back to sleep to no avail. Allison's peaceful rest had been stolen from her, and there was only one thing to do.

Allison rose from the covers, mournfully wiping the sleep from her eyes. She put on the first clothes she could find, a sleeveless purple shirt and jeans, and shuffled her way to the door. She felt gross and uncomfortable in her lack of sleep, which only helped to worsen her mood. She was ready to destroy the property of whoever decided to vacuum the hallway of the aberration dorms. Who in their right minds would thing such a thing was a good idea? And whilst singing, no less. Allison threw open her door.

The obnoxious singing and constant hum of the vacuum cleaner only got louder once Allison stepped into the hallway, the culprit in clear view, though facing away from her. Long hair, relatively tall, and clearly smug despite his face not being visible. Ernie Mars. Of course it would be the guy who stabbed her in the eye, no one else one floor would have the complete lack of concern for others required to fill the halls with such pointless noise. She had half a mind to walk up and smash the machine, but the reasonable part of her told to at least give the monster that was Ernie a chance to prove himself to be not a complete asshole.

[color=a187be]"Ernie!"[/color] She spoke up, too tired to force a full yell.[color=a187be] "Hey Ernie, can you quiet down, please?"[/color]  Despite her attempt, Ernie kept on vacuuming, his music probably drowning out Allison's half-hearted call. [color=a187be]"Ernie!"[/color]  She called again, her voice still not piercing the boy's ears. Allison, having given up on calling out to Ernest, walked over with all the grace of someone who had just woken up and tapped him on the shoulder.

[color=00a99d]"[i][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiywE99c6mk]I[/url] tidy up your room! You tidy up my--[/i] huh?"[/color]

At the sudden tap on the shoulder, Ernie turned to see a rather irritated girl. Allison, the girl he'd kinda accidentally stabbed on that first day. That 'accidentally' part was debatable. He'd definitely meant to stab [i]someone[/i], just not her. And he'd tried to apologise--uh, sort of. Okay, he might have been a bigger dick than he needed to be on Monday. Ernie tugged his headphones to his neck, shouting over the roar of the vacuum.

[color=00a99d]"Allison, right?"[/color] Ernie was barely audible, [color=00a99d]"Did you need something?"[/color]

[color=a187be]"Could you not vacuum the hallway in the morning, or at least get a quieter vacuum? Actually, why are you vacuuming the halls in the first place?"[/color] Allison's assumption was that Ernie was just being a dick,  but there were much more affective ways of being a dick than vacuuming the hallway. Allison found herself both tired and confused.

[color=00a99d]"Uhh, cos it's super dirty and gross?"[/color] Ernie answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Dozens of Aberrations would have tread this hallway daily, and Ernie didn't trust anyone to keep things clean better than himself. Really, the school should be compensating him in some way, having him do the work for whatever poor excuse the USARILN janitorial team was. Besides, Allison's complaining made no sense. Ernie switched his machine off to better talk.

[color=00a99d]"What kinda slacker is asleep at almost 11 in the morning anyway? And no, I'm not gonna pull out the quieter one. It doesn't have the power to get the shit out of the carpets like this baby does,"[/color] Ernie tapped the side of the vacuum fondly.

[color=a187be]"Fair enough" [/color]Allison said to the comment on the floor, staring down at the ground around her. It really was rather gross. It wasn't cleaned all that regularly, and the janitorial staff was likely too underpaid to care. [color=a187be]"It's 11 already? How late were we up?"[/color] Allison mumbled to herself. She stifled a laugh at Ernie's fondness for his vacuum. [color=a187be]"Alright then, Ernie the janitor. To think there'd be a student here willing to vacuum the miserable floors, and the guy who stabbed me in the eye, no less."[/color] Though Allison was still angry about being stabbed in the eye, she mentioned it lightheartedly, her overall mood seeming to lift at the strangeness of Ernie's character.

[color=00a99d]"Oh yeah, that,"[/color] Ernie cringed at the memory. Guess it had been too much to hope that she'd let go of it easily. Still, he'd prefer to minimise the number of people who hated him in this new environment. Now that his Stigma was cleared and he was lucid enough to think things over, Allison didn't seem like someone who deserved to get temporarily disfigured like that. She'd reacted reasonably enough to his cleaning ruckus. For starters, she didn't try to destroy his vacuum unlike [i]some people[/i] he could name at West. He'd realised a lot of the wrong things he'd done this week. So even if he didn't mean it (though he probably did), a proper 'sorry' was what she deserved.

[color=00a99d]"That was a really shitty apology I did on Monday. I shoulda put a lot more effort into it,"[/color] Ernie scratched his head. Apologising was... awkward, [color=00a99d]"Me with the table leg... That was just a really stupid overreaction and I got caught up in the fight and lost my cool. It's a pretty obvious rule to not stab classmates but..."[/color]

Geez, this sounded really bad out loud.

[color=00a99d]"It was a dick move. Way outta line. Sorry for hurting you like that."[/color]

[color=a187be]"Thanks."[/color] Allison, though she didn't let it show, was shocked that Ernie could actually seem sincere, considering her last encounter with him. Of course, some part of her still thought he was lying, but she pushed that down as much as the thoughts that permeated the back of her mind. Maybe Ernie wasn't as bad as she originally assumed. She remembered her conversation with Zoe from Tuesday, how she had given Zoe a second chance in her mind, and refrained from just calling her a monster outright. How could she not give the same treatment to Ernie. Maybe there was some good to Ernie. Allison knew for certain that truly good people didn't exist, maybe the same held true for true evil. [color=a187be]"I think I can understand why you did it, and while I'm still angry about being, you know, stabbed in the eye, I don't hate you. I certainly can't hate a guy who vacuums this disgusting floor, even if he does it without regard for people sleeping in late."[/color] She let off a light chuckle with the last line.

Ernie smiled gratefully. So Allison wasn't going to stab him in his sleep. Wonderful! He could definitely use more friends in this new environment. However, he had no sympathy for late sleepers. Ernie was tempted to call her out but settled for a milder approach.

[color=00a99d]"Yeah, you might wanna get that sleep schedule checked out. You never know when you might get sortied so you don't wanna be fighting monsters on only a few hours' sleep."[/color]

[color=a187be]"Alright, alright. I'll tell Angel that I can't hang out with her at night by authority of a janitor."[/color] Allison remarked. After she said it, she wasn't sure if Ernie knew who Angel was, realizing it was probably dumb to drop her name.

[color=00a99d]"Oh hey, you're friends with Angelique too? We should all hang out sometime! There are still some places in town I wanna check out,"[/color] Ernie beamed excitedly, [color=00a99d]"And yeah, janitor's orders. Don't want any pesky kids dirtying my floors at 3 am."[/color]

[color=a187be]"I'm surprised you know her. Yea, I guess we'll have to hang out at some point."[/color] Allison laughed at Ernie's last comment. [color=a187be]"Well, Ernie the Janitor, I guess I should leave you to your work. You don't get payed to stand around talking to people. Well, you also don't get payed to vacuum loudly and sing, but that's besides the point."[/color] Allison stretched her arms, realizing that she had completely failed at what she had come to do, and ended up completely awake as a result.  She wasn't getting her beauty sleep, it seemed. [color=a187be]"Oh, and your singing is absolutely terrible. You sound like you're choking on a dying cat. You're not choking on a dying cat, are you?"[/color]

[color=00a99d]"Getting paid, huh?"[/color] Ernie rubbed his chin, considering the possibilities. He'd done something like that at West, helping people clean their dorms and such. Whether or not he had their approval was a different matter. But when they did ask him to do it, he usually got paid in snacks or cakes and such. It wasn't like he was short on cash or anything, but the thought of hoarding favours did appeal to him. Allison's next comment caught him off-guard, leaving that train of thought for another day.

[color=00a99d]"Aw man, you're hurting my feelings!"[/color] Ernie shook his head ruefully. He didn't know he sounded that bad. Ah well, he wasn't aiming for a music career or anything. It was all in good fun, [color=00a99d]"Ew. No cats here, they shed like crazy."[/color]

[color=a187be]"Would just mean more for you to vacuum up."[/color] Allison shrugged.

[color=00a99d]"Not just vacuuming, clothing too! I don't wanna have to buy a bunch of lint rollers for my shirts just because of some nasty fluffball."[/color]

[color=a187be]"Alright, second decree of the janitor, no cats allowed. Do you want me to write that down? How many decrees should I expect? Will it be 'Ernie's 10 Janitorial Commandments'?"[/color]

[color=00a99d]"What, like 'Thou shalt not leave your washing machine unattended'? Stuff like that?"[/color] Ernie laughed, [color=00a99d]"I could think of a lot more than ten in that case."[/color]

[color=a187be]"Guess I should ask for a really big stone tablet, then."[/color]

[color=00a99d]"It'd be pretty easy for you, yeah? With your power and all,"[/color] the boy nodded, [color=00a99d]"A [i]really[/i] big rock. You'd have to update it often too."[/color]

[color=a187be]"Alright, guess I'll carve it into the side of a mountain, then. Will Everest be big enough?"[/color]

Another round of laughter. [color=00a99d]"Hahaha! Hopefully!"[/color]

Man, this was an important lesson he learnt today. Don't stab people before you get to know them. He didn't think that Allison would've been so fun to talk to. He hadn't thought anything of her, really. He was glad to have been mistaken. Ernie glanced at the ground, reminded of his earlier chore.

[color=00a99d]"Yeah, guess I really should get back to work. I might do the other floors of this building too, if this one goes quickly. Talk again some other time?"[/color]

Ernie paused briefly, thinking.

[color=00a99d]"Can we swap numbers? I was serious about hanging out. You seem alright."[/color]

[color=a187be]"Yea, sure."[/color] Allison said, realizing that her phone was still in her room. She had barely touched the device all week, spending very little time aclimatizing herself to the strange thing, and even less memorizing her own number. [color=a187be]"I'll have to go get my phone, though, be right back."[/color] She went to grab her phone from her room as quickly as she could, returning just as fast. 

[color=00a99d]"Sweet!"[/color]

The two Aberrations exchanged contact details. While he could, Ernie snapped a picture of an offguard Allison for her contact page in his phone. Hm, he'd have to do the same for the others too.

[color=00a99d]"I'll see you around then?"[/color]

[color=a187be]"Yea, see you around. I'll let you get back to work."[/color] Allison walked away, leaving the strange boy to his vacuuming.

Ernie waved the girl goodbye, getting back to work like Allison had suggested. Ah, he would have never expected mornings at East to be so refreshing. He restarted the vacuum, popped his headphones back on, and began singing again with even more vigor than earlier.