"What notice?" Zen and Madilyn asked in unison.

"Here, I clicked a pic," Nadia tossed her phone to Zen, then went to rummage through a mass of unorganised stuff on her study desk for some chocolate cookies.

"What is it?" The ever-so-curious Madilyn jumped down from her bed and strode to Zen's side. She placed one of her free arms over Zen's shoulders and glued her eyes to the phone screen.

"Dorm attendance timing, 8:30-9:30 pm. Curfew from 8 pm. The boarders will be..." Zen read the rules aloud without paying much attention until she reached the 4th rule. "If any student is detected engaging in any form of provocation/intimidation/threat to any other dorm residents, she will be asked to vacate the dormitory immediately. In this regard, the decision of the Head Warden is final and binding on the individuals involved."

"What's this ridiculous rule?" Madilyn scoffed. "Why does it seem like they're treating us like gangsters?" she questioned, earning a shrug of the shoulders from Zen.

This was her third year staying on campus, Zen counted in her head. She had been residing here since her freshman year of university but couldn't recall a single time when the dormitory was adamant the students follow the rules like their whole careers depended on it. When they first arrived at the dormitory, there were some pre-existing rules they had to follow as residents, but the sudden unexpected changes and the new additions threw her over the edge. The dormitory's rules were becoming more stringent than those of the military. How she wished she could go back to high school. Things weren't as hectic back then.

"But guys, tell me," Nadia chimed in, munching on a cookie. Her voice caught Zen's attention who was waiting for her to continue. "Who among us do you think is most likely to get kicked out of the dorm for breaking the rules?" she asked mischievously.

"Why would you even think that? We're not troublemakers," Madilyn replied, crossing her arms and then furrowing her eyebrows at Nadia.

"That." Nadia pointed a finger at Madilyn. "That gangster attitude will get you kicked out, Lynny dear," she continued.

"Like I care." Madilyn shot back. "You're the one who's most likely to get kicked out, and the reason will be because you play around with too many men." Madilyn teasingly stuck her tongue out at Nadia.

"Shut up, Madilyn." Nadia threw a nearby pillow at Madilyn out of embarrassment. "I hate you," she seethed.

"I never asked you to love me," Madilyn fired back.

"Stop it, you two." Zen rubbed her eyes in irritation and the two quieted down. Her two friends bickering like an old married couple was giving her a headache, especially Madilyn who didn't know how and when to stop insulting people, but despite her aggressiveness and pompous demeanour, Zen had always known Madilyn to be a friendly person.

"But come to think of it," Nadia spoke again a minute later. "I think Zen is the most unlikely one out of us to get kicked out," Nadia pondered aloud.

"And what makes you say that?" Zen lifted her gaze from the phone screen and focussed on Nadia, waiting for her response.

"I mean, look at you," Nadia began, "You are introverted. You're quiet. You don't disturb others, unlike some people." Nadia flashed an eyebrow at Madilyn and continued before the latter could protest, "You mind your own business. You are always in your own world. You never fight with the students in the dorm. Though you get crazy sometimes and we all know you have two personalities, but you are a very kind person-"

"So basically, you just want to say I'm a freak," Zen concluded Nadia's statement.

"No. I don't mean it like that," Nadia countered.

"Hey, look. Rule 5 is also equally ridiculous," Madilyn interrupted. Zen and Nadia immediately shifted their focus to Madilyn, their earlier conversations forgotten and thrown out the window. "Celebrating birthday parties inside the dormitory is strictly prohibited," Madilyn read out the fifth dorm rule.

"What?" Nadia shouted. Zen and Madilyn winced at the outburst. "Of all the rules, why that one?" Nadia whined, angrily throwing the empty cookie wrapper into the dustbin.

"You heard it loud and clear. No more birthday celebrations." Madilyn made it clear.

"But my birthday's coming up next month." Nadia climbed on top of her bed, tossing and turning with pent-up frustration, and then screaming into her human-sized pink plushie which had the picture of a K-pop idol printed on it.

"Leave Taehyung alone," Madilyn stomped back to snatch the plushie from Nadia and brought it to her side of the bed.

Zen was too busy going over the rules to notice the commotion between her friends. After having read the last rule, she looked up. "Hey, I think this is important. They're cutting off electricity at eleven every night."

"What? Why?" Both Nadia and Madilyn exclaimed.

"To ensure we sleep early and wake up early for class?" Zen assumed.

"They cannot do that. This is not jail!" Nadia exclaimed. Madilyn nodded furiously looking at Nadia.

"I think this is too ridiculous," said Zen, getting up from her chair and passing the phone back to Nadia.

"It is ridiculous. What if we have exams? We need to study. Come on, they can't do this to us. I'm complaining. Who's with me?"

"We'll be with you, honey," Madilyn said to Nadia, "but if it's just the three of us, I doubt it'll be of any help. We need to discuss this with the others."

"You're right," Nadia surrendered. "Then let's have a meeting now. Call everyone."

"Easy. We can deal with this later," Zen intervened.

"Right, right. Come Zen, let me help you with your novel," said Nadia, making her way towards Zen. But a sudden and harsh knock on the door alerted the trio in the room.

"Zen?" came a gruff, angry voice. "Zen?!" The person outside raised her voice and started banging on the door repeatedly. "Come out, Zen! I know you're in there."

"Shit!" Madilyn cursed. "It's the Head Warden."

"What? But why?" Madilyn was at a loss for words. "I thought room checks weren't scheduled until next month."

"Zen? Open up!"

Zen inwardly groaned in agony. Scurrying to their feet, the trio then rushed around the room in a circle, making sure everything in the room was spotless and presentable. Madilyn picked up the mountain of clothes from her chair in a flurry and discourteously tossed them into her wardrobe. Courtesy of her laziness to do laundry, her clothes had been piling up every second of every day.

Nadia hurriedly went on to organise her table, which was littered with empty packets of junk food, soap, shampoos, detergent, utensils, and other weird miscellaneous stuff that couldn't be identified with the normal human brain and then proceeded to dump them all inside the washroom attached next to it. After clearing away the table, she stacked some random notebooks atop it and sat down on the chair, pretending to study.

Zen had been observing her two roommates with an entirely lost yet unbelievable expression. To someone as organised as her, the present scenario – though it was nothing new – came out sort of as a shock, but she couldn't blame her roommates for acting the way they did no matter how funny it looked. The dormitory took discipline and order way too seriously than her own liking. Every month, credit points were allocated to every student based on their moral conduct. If any student had credit scores less than average, graduation would be impossible for them. And the person who was in charge of assigning credits was the Head Warden – a person they should never ever cross heads with.

"Zen? Open the damn door!" Startled yet again by the outburst, Zen inhaled deeply and walked up the door.

"W-W-Wait Zen." Madilyn stopped her at the last minute. Zen restrained herself from cursing out loud, seeing Madilyn kick three empty bottles of beer under her bed.

Zen couldn't bring herself to imagine the consequences had the warden found out about their secret late-night affairs. Zen watched, her face contorting into a grimace at the frighteningly unpleasant clinking sound as the bottles rolled away far beneath the bed's darkest and most barren corners, never to be seen again. If the loud hammering of her heart was any indication of some cruel and ominous foreboding, she desperately hoped not.

Praying and hoping the warden hadn't just heard the dreadful clinking sound, Zen twisted the doorknob and flung the door open only to be welcomed by a sprinkle of rain- Nope.

"Zen? Do you know how long I've been standing outside your door?" the head warden shouted.

Zen winced and automatically shut her eyes. To be drenched in saliva was nothing unusual for her or the other students in the dorm. Everyone knew their head warden had jagged, or to make it sound nice, genetically flawed teeth, and the words coming out of her mouth were always accompanied by a torrent of spit it could even put any existing water sprinkler to shame.

Resisting the urge to slam the door in the warden's face, Zen slowly stepped back a safe distance to avoid another rushing stream and offered an apology.

"If a mere apology can resolve everything, then why are there police? Why do we have laws?"

Here we go again, Zen thought, preparing herself for yet another long endless lecture session in which the warden would start talking about the rules and regulations, and repeat the same boring stuff over and over again until she finally ran out of spit, which was also an extremely rare case. Zen suddenly regretted not paying attention in biology class back in high school. Who knew, maybe she could've learned something back when the biology teacher was lecturing about the salivary glands in the human body; that would've provided some sort of explanation for their pitiful warden's condition.

The moment Zen saw the warden opening her mouth, she zoned out. Instead of listening to what the warden was saying, Zen was more interested in characterising her appearance; she would make an excellent collection for one of her characters in a horror novel. Before she knew it, Zen found herself staring up and down the warden's noticeably large physique. Her enormous forehead was bigger than their university's largest football field. Her frizzy uncombed hair streamed from her head in a giant mob of golden brown and Zen was suddenly reminded of the broom back at her house, and that hideous mole under her nose made her wonder just how much it would cost to surgically remove it.

"Zen, are you listening to me?" the warden yelled, cutting off Zen's thought process.

"Yes, ma'am," Zen answered. She was ready to roll her eyes when the warden pushed her away without warning and invaded her room. Nadia and Madilyn came forward, greeted the warden without even making eye contact, and quickly skittered behind Zen.

"Nadia. Madilyn." the warden acknowledged, giving them cold, icy stares before sweeping the room with her angry hooded eyes. Seeing nothing out of place, the warden then turned around and glared at Zen. "I need to talk to you. Come," she ordered, exiting the room.