e i g h t e e n ;

They were back in the dorms by seven at night and the team had three hours before their mandatory curfew for the night. Most went straight to their rooms for the night, except Raven and Roseanne. They went to the private study rooms in the library. The library normally closed fifteen minutes before the curfew was enforced and there weren't too many people there at that time of night. Most of the crew members at the facility used the last three hours of their day doing homework in their dorms. But there were those few that borrowed study rooms. The study rooms were on the first floor of the library, which was actually two floors down from the ground floor. The training facility was located at the top of a mountain. 

Most of the buildings had their floors on the side of the mountain. The third floor was the ground floor of the library, which meant that no one really went down to the first floor. That was where the archive room with ancient texts was located, as well as the rolling stacks, a set of rolling bookshelves to make space for more books. Raven and Roseanne took the elevator down to the first floor. At night it was very dim, and it was pitch black looking out the windows onto the side of the mountain. 

They entered the room and Roseanne walked to the far side next to the holo board. The room was small, with a table in the middle and four chairs. It had a holo board, a podium and outlets to connect computers and projectors. Raven closed the door behind himself, but remained standing by it. It wasn't too much privacy--the walls and door of the study room were made of glass to allow for instructors to be able to see what all students were doing in there. The only positive thing about it was that there were no cameras or microphones in there so anything they said to each other wouldn't be heard by anyone else. 

Raven leaned up against the door and crossed his arms over his chest. Roseanne gulped as she barely seemed to notice that his shoulders had gotten broader. When he had just joined the elite team at nineteen years old, he was smaller and scrawnier despite being taller than her. He was still a kid and now he was a man at twenty two years old. When she took several minutes and said nothing, he pressed her on the topic. "You said you wanted to tell me something?" He eyed her with curiosity, eyebrows furrowed. He still seemed a bit hurt and even slightly frustrated with the picture he had in his possession of her and Indy. They weren't in a relationship. They couldn't be because it wasn't allowed. But he had to admit to her and to himself that it really bothered him when he saw them together like that.

"I know from the angle the picture was taken it looks bad. But he leaned in to whisper something into my ear." Roseanne tried to explain the picture before anything else. He merely watched her, giving her the opportunity to explain things despite knowing that she didn't really owe him an explanation if she didn't want to give one. But if she was willing to give one, he was willing to hear it. "I don't want to go too much into details because that's his business to tell and not mine. But he basically told me he likes Ivory, and they've been flirting with each other. But Cedar thinks you're after Ivory because he always sees her around you."

"So..." He started a bit nervously, completely overlooking the fact that Indy knew Cedar didn't like him and did nothing to correct him. His mind seemed to care more about another part in all of this. He was debating with himself whether to ask the question or not. "You and Indy aren't dating or anything?"

Roseanne crinkled up her nose at the thought. She wasn't sure if Scarlet actually meant it whenever she claimed she only loved Raven like a younger brother. But Roseanne definitely only loved Indigo Blue like a younger brother. He always came to her when he needed help and when he needed advice, and she was happy to help him. The only one she had romantic feelings for was Raven, but she was too shy to tell him anything about it. For the moment, she was perfectly happy merely being friends with him. And if he was only trying to be her friend in the end, she'd be happy with that as well. 

Giving a shake of her head, she replied. "Indy and I are definitely not dating."

He seemed to heave a sigh of relief. "Good." He said, but had said so more to himself than to her. She hadn't even heard him.

They stayed in the study room a few more hours--Roseanne went more into detail about what happened between Indy and Ivory, and what was causing Cedar to hate him so much. He in turn told her about the horrible things Ivory was telling him about Roseanne while at the beach and even on the way back. He assured her that he didn't believe any of it. 

Before they knew it, they had lost track of time and the lights shut off in the first floor of the library, announcing that the curfew was now in place. Raven cursed under his breath to himself and Roseanne grabbed his arm so they wouldn't lose each other. Her eye sight wasn't too good to begin with and it was even worse in the dark. Raven on the other hand had perfect eye sight and led her out of the study room towards the stairs. He once again cursed under his breath when he saw that the stairs leading up to the second floor were locked for the night. None of the librarians had come down to make sure there was no one on the first floor.

With the lights off for the night, they couldn't take the elevators to the second floor either. The second floor had an exit that went towards the dorms. The second floor was the only part of the library that was open twenty four hours a day for anyone who wanted to study long into the night. 

"I think we're stuck down here until tomorrow morning." He whispered to her. Roseanne let out a small gasp. But he still grabbed her hand a reassuring squeeze. "We could probably sleep in the lab in the back." He told her and led her to the other end of the first floor. There was a door with a number combination lock to open it. For the third time that night, he cursed once more when he noticed the number lock wasn't going to work if there was no electricity.

That was when Roseanne had an idea of her own. "The room with the rolling stacks is  always open and it has a couch. We could sleep on it until tomorrow."

He nodded and led her in the direction of the rolling stacks. The couch in the room was old and dusty, the cushions were work out and weren't comfortable any more. But no one really went into the rolling stacks room, so no one thought to change the couch out for a new one. Roseanne sat down first and Raven sat down next to her. It was warm and stuffy, since it was mid summer time, and the electricity was off which meant the air conditioning was off as well. 

Still, Roseanne moved closer to Raven and leaned her head on his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders as they both got comfortable.

"Goodnight Raven." She said to him tiredly, her body begging her for sleep.

"Goodnight Rosie." He replied to her.

-

The next morning they were woken up by a library instructor at around eight in the morning. They had just missed breakfast by about two hours. She had shaken Raven awake first and then Roseanne, startling them both. "Did you two spend the night down here?" She asked them with concern. But it was more concern for the fact that no one had checked the first floor to make sure everyone was gone for the night.

The two nodded tiredly and gathered themselves to go up to the cafeteria for breakfast. But since breakfast time was over, they were left with the option of going to the campus store where they got some snacks to hold them until they could eat lunch later. They didn't even bother showing up to physical training for the day, since it was from seven to nine in the morning and it was already nearly nine. Raven instead walked Roseanne to her dorm and then headed for his own to take a shower. The previous night he had lost track of time talking with Roseanne in the library that he hadn't even taken a proper shower yet after their beach trip.

Honey returned to the dorm for a bit around nine thirty, which gave them about two and a half hours before lunch time. She smiled politely at Roseanne, but didn't ask where she had been all night. She didn't want to pry in her room mate's business. They merely said good morning to each other and Honey went back to texting with Seville on her holo phone. 

No one else seemed to notice that they were gone, other than Honey and Ciel, since they were Raven and Roseanne's room mates. Neither of them said anything to anyone, and no one else found out about it. 

That upcoming weekend, the group asked permission to go hiking and camping higher up in the mountains. Their instructors thought it would be a good idea, since it would teach them to put their survival techniques to good use. It was surely different surviving out in the wilderness than surviving in space, but they also thought it would be good in helping them work together. The group of ten made the one hour trek up the mountain on Friday and set up their camp. This time they had split up into groups of two and only packed five tents, one for each pair. The agreed upon pairs had been--Cedar and Ivory, Raven and Roseanne, Ciel and Indy, Honey and Seville, and lastly Mauve and Scarlet. 

After setting up camp, the group decided to explore their surroundings. Raven and Roseanne had read up in the library about how there were some ancient abandoned animal cages from a zoo that had existed there about a thousand years prior. It was said to be haunted and that one could still hear the animal noises when inside the cages. Everyone thought it would be fun to explore the old cages. Everyone except Ivory.

She complained the entire time they were wandering through the cages, telling her team mates that she could talk to ghosts and that the spirits didn't like what they were doing. Scarlet, Seville, and Cedar sided with her and refused to go any further into the old cages. While Ciel, Indy, Mauve, Roseanne and Raven rolled their eyes at her. "Relax, its not a big deal." Roseanne told her, and Raven agreed with a nod of his head. That caused Ivory to grow angry with them and she mostly gave them the cold shoulder for the rest of the night.

Cedar told Roseanne with hints of an accusation in his words. "Why are you being so mean to Ivy today? She admires you and you're hurting her feelings."

The girl with pink colored hair once again could not help but feel sorry for Cedar and she almost rolled her eyes, except she manage to stop herself from doing so. He was so blindly in love with Ivory that he couldn't, or was unwilling to, see her true colors. Cedar was convinced that Roseanne was the one being mean to Ivory and not the other way around. He was genuinely convinced that Ivory could do no harm to anyone. She was the victim in everything.

After checking out the cages, they went higher up the mountain still to see what else they could find. They stopped when they reached an old rusty ladder that went high up into the hills. Ivory immediately started climbing it and grabbed Raven by the arm, tugging him along with her without even asking him. Raven looked to Roseanne, begging her to go with them and he reached for her hand too, but she refused with a firm shake of her head because she was afraid of heights. The two ended up going alone, with Raven going against his will, and they disappeared for several minutes until Seville urged Cedar to go find them. But Cedar was hesitant, being afraid of heights just like Roseanne was.

At the top of the ladder, Ivory had succeeded at purposefully getting Raven up there with her alone. 

-

in this chapter, the library scene is made up. the hiking trip was real though. we didn't end up camping bc everyone got scared. but we did go hiking at the ruins of the old zoo and the other hiking trails. and yes, ivory DID claim she could see and talk to ghosts. and scarlet kept saying "we should listen to what ivy says. she knows what shes doing." it was mad annoying tbh. raven and i were trying to catch ghosts on camera and the bitch kept telling us to stop. she knew from the start that the trip was specifically for ghost hunting and she still went. so she needed to stfu and sit tf down.

and yes, the thing with the ladder was real. instead of taking her man with her, she took my mans, forcing him to go with her. raven tried to get me to go but i appreciate my life. so i stayed behind.

omg at the beginning of the hiking trip too, we took three cars bc it was a lot of us. and she got lost. it was her and cedar and scarlet in her car. it was me, raven, seville, and honey in my car. and it was mauve and ciel in ciel's car. indy didn't go that time. and when she found us, she grabbed raven by the collar of his hoodie and yelled at him "for making her get lost" like if she didnt know how to use a gps. and she threw a water bottle at him. so what i did was i picked it up and threw it right back at her. thats why cedar was saying i was being mean to ivy.

no regrets though. she does what she wants bc scarlet, seville, and cedar let her. i wasnt gonna let her mistreat my boy. fuck that bitch. but i left that whole part out bc i couldnt fit it in with the story.

-clary