[h1][color=Crimson] Oliver [/color][/h1]

 Oliver was alone, completely alone, and that was bad. He scanned the room wildly, where was she, and how could she have moved without him noticing? He internally kicked himself, wringing his hands in frustration. Alice would never wander off alone, the entire time he’d known her she’d stuck to his side like glue, barely uttering a word to anyone except him, this wasn’t like her, unless… no. He couldn’t allow himself to go there. This place was [i]safe[/i], he’d promised her they’d be okay here, and  when it came to Alice, a promise wasn’t something he’d ever taken lightly. After a split second decision, he got to his feet and headed towards the door, maybe she was outside? 

 The door was heavy, but he got it open, flinching slightly at the sudden onslaught of noise and light. It’d had been a long time, almost three months, since he’d been anywhere similar, and in truth, he kind of missed it. Taking a moment to orient himself, he quickly conducted a visual search of the grounds. There were all sorts of people; a girl with a pink umbrella who appeared to be being attacked by a chicken, an extremely tall man who was apparently both shirtless and incredibly muscular, a rather large number of limousines parked outside the school gates, but no Alice.  

 He bit down on his tongue to avoid crying out in frustration. This was getting worse by the second, and showed no signs of getting any better.  Any one of these hundreds of people could have taken her, and it was so busy, nobody would have noticed.  Incredibly tense, Oliver once more examined the surroundings. Nothing stood out as being overtly suspicious, but he could have easily missed something, especially seeing as he was nowhere near as powerful as most attendees of the school. 

 “Excuse me?” 

 Oliver nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of a dull monotone voice. He whipped round to see a teacher, standing there looking concerned.

  “Sorry,” he mumbled quietly, “I didn’t see you there…”

 She smiled in a warm, welcoming way that gave Oliver the creeps, before speaking, ”That’s quite all right, it seems you just missed the welcome speech by Madam P, telling the students about the welcome feast in two hours, also, I have room numbers,”” she handed him a slip of paper with his room number on, and a key, before turning to walk away.

 “Wait!” Oliver called, suddenly thinking of something, “I need to find my friend, Alice, she disappeared earlier!”

 The teacher’s expression faltered for a moment, before she replied, “I’m sure she’s fine. If she doesn’t turn up at the welcome feast, you should let somebody know, until then, I suggest you take your bag to your room and try to get settled in. Your friend probably just needed some space.”

 Oliver hesitated, before nodding. She was probably right, Alice probably needed time to unwind; he did have a tendency to be rather overbearing. He adjusted the straps of his backpack, before heading towards the dorms, a vaguely uneasy feeling settling in the pit of his stomach.

[hr]

 Oliver barely noticed the fact that the door to the room was open when he walked in and dumped his rucksack on the available bed and sat. The room was spacious, and sparsely decorated, except for the possessions its other inhabitant, a man with long hair, a suit, and fascinating eyes. Also, snake. Oliver blinked a couple of times, only just noticing his presence, before quickly jumping to his feet again,

 “Sorry!” he exclaimed, uncharacteristically loudly, “I didn’t notice you, I guess I’m pretty stressed out at the moment,” he flashed a smile that tried to be charming but came out sheepish, attempting to slip back into the persona he’d abandoned months ago, “I’m Oliver, and, err, I guess we’re roommates?” he offered a hand to shake, “Sorry, I’m not usually this awkward…”