Morbid

The next day, Dalla was back very early and didn't park in the space reserved for her mistress' dorm room. She parked fairly close, thanks to no one else being there that early. She went into the dorm building carrying a large bag and no one was behind the counter, which meant she didn't have to explain the tasty food smell.

She rode the elevator up to the top floor and walked down the silent hallway. She used the key that had been on the table, since it was her job to keep track of her mistress' things, and went inside the dorm room. She went into the kitchenette and put the bag on the counter, opened it, and quickly sorted out the contents. Freshly baked tea biscuits, a block of real butter, and a large tea service came out and were set on the table.

Dalla felt a little guilty about bringing the entire setup, then remembered that Miss Ida's father wanted her to be as comfortable in the strange place as she possibly could. It made Dalla's job harder to make everything so accommodating; but, that only made her want to do her job even more. It wasn't that she was paid well, it was because she genuinely liked the people she worked for and it gave her satisfaction to make them happy.

She quickly boiled up some water to set up the tea service and while she waited for that, she put away the piles of dried goods she had brought. She left out the pancake mix and lifted out the waffle maker. She carefully put it on the counter, plugged it in and turned it on, then did up the batter mix for it to the right consistency.

Dalla thought she heard something like cloth sliding, so she turned around to look at the beds and see if her mistress was up. She caught her breath and froze, because Arnold stood right in front of her and she hadn't heard him cross the room.

“Good... good morning.” Dalla whispered.

Arnold leaned in and gave her a quick kiss. “Good morning.” He whispered back and picked up a tea biscuit. “Will you make me a waffle, too?”

“Y-yes.” Dalla whispered and then watched in fascination as Arnold split the tea biscuit with only one hand and buttered it with the other, which inadvertently showed off his dexterity. It impressed her.

Arnold ate the biscuit in barely a few seconds and then went to the bathroom.

Oh, my. Dalla thought and poured some of the batter into the waffle maker and closed it. I really should tell him to stop kissing me.

Dalla adjusted the temperature on the waffle maker to make it brown, popped the waffle out onto a plate, then turned the temperature back down and added more batter. She heard the shower and it seemed really loud, so she turned her head to look at the bathroom.

The door's still open! Dalla thought in surprise and walked over to shut it, then saw what the shower contained. Her mouth dropped open at seeing Arnold completely naked. Her eyes immediately dropped down to look at all of him and she gasped at seeing that he was erect. She closed the door silently and walked back over to the waffle maker, did her browning trick, and popped the waffle out.

Dalla's thought of telling him to stop kissing her had mysteriously disappeared from her mind. She made more waffles and emptied the bowl of batter. She made more than she should have, because she forgot that she was only making them for Miss Ida and herself and was supposed to cut the recipe in half.

It's a good thing that Mr. Strickland asked for some. Dalla thought and then the bathroom door opened. She tried to resist looking, she really did. Her head turned against her will and she looked at him. He was wearing only a towel and as he walked by her, she caught a wonderful smell and her heart sped up.

“Something smells good.” Ida said as she sat up in bed and stretched her arms.

“It's the waffles!” Dalla exclaimed nervously and Ida laughed.

“You always spoil me in the mornings.” Ida said and slid out of bed and walked over to the table. “Is the tea ready?”

“Yes, mistress.” Dalla said, happy to get back to familiar territory. She poured out the tea for Ida and added a drop of milk and one cube of sugar. After that, she gave her a plate to serve herself as many waffles as she wanted and put a bottle of expensive syrup on the table. She was happy that she had let Ida serve herself, because at the moment over her mistress' shoulder, Arnold removed his towel and tossed it on the bed.

Dalla successfully stopped herself from gasping as he started to dress barely ten feet away from her. What is he doing? He can't... it's just... why is he... oh, my god. She thought as Arnold gave her several more flashes of himself and he consulted the clothing schedule his mother gave him.

“You can eat, Dalla. You don't have to wait for me.” Ida said and poured syrup on her waffles.

“Yes! Right.” Dalla said and barely managed to tear her eyes away from Arnold to take a single waffle to put on her plate, then she put two of them on another plate and put it aside.

Ida gave her an inquisitive look and Dalla discretely pointed to Arnold. Ida nodded in understanding and started eating. Arnold finished dressing and came over to the small table, added some butter and syrup to the two waffles, grabbed a fork, and sat on the corner of Ida's bed.

Ida let it go the night before and now she had to ask him. “This is the second time you've let Dalla sit in the other chair to eat.” She said and turned to Arnold. Her eyes widened slightly at the stylish shirt and the half-rolled up sleeves he wore and her eyes went down to see what looked like expensive dress pants and black dress shoes.

“I always sit off to the side when there's two other people.” Arnold said and started eating.

“It doesn't matter to you who those people are?” Ida asked.

Dalla's face went a little red at the implied insult of her only being a maid, even though she knew Ida didn't mean it that way.

“No.” Arnold said and kept eating.

Ida gave him an odd look, then kept eating herself. Dalla did as well and finished first. She offered another waffle to Ida, who declined. She looked at Arnold and he walked over to the table to take another tea biscuit.

“These are good.” Arnold said and did the same one hand trick to split the tea biscuit and rubbed it in the melted butter and syrup still on the plate.

“Thank you.” Dalla said and watched as he ate it and put his plate in the sink.

“She bakes them fresh eywery few days.” Ida said. “She is quite the cook, I must say.”

Arnold looked at the time and decided that he could get a head start on everyone else. He needed to show up at the main concourse in the registrar's office to make sure that his name really was in the master's course for Biology, then he had to visit the individual teachers and get his class assignments. He emptied his new backpack of almost everything, except for what he believed were the essentials, and he left the dorm room.

“Arnold!” Pam said as she stepped out of her room. “It looks like we had the same idea of going early.”

Janet came out of the room and yawned. “I need more sleep.” She said and locked the room door.

“Did you get your work done?” Arnold asked.

“Thanks to brainy over here.” Pam said and put her arm around her best friend. “Both of our year end summary reports are done and we can pass them in to the teachers when we get our class schedules.”

“You're just lucky...” Janet paused and yawned again. “...that they let us take the extension.”

“Definitely.” Pam said and squeezed her shoulder, then the three of them walked down the hallway towards the elevator. “I thank them as much as I can, without seeming like I'm brown-nosing.” She said and laughed. “They might think that anyway, considering how many times I need extensions on the work they assign.”

“They know how much you work to stay in college.” Janet said and they stepped into the elevator. “They give you a lot of leeway because of it.” She turned and looked at Arnold. “Good morning.”

Arnold gave her a kiss. “Good morning.”

“Gooood morning!” Pam said exaggeratedly and kissed him, too.

They rode the elevator down to the ground floor and stepped out to see that Doris was there already.

“You're all up early.” Doris said when she saw them.

“I've got stuff to pass in.” Pam said.

“Same here.” Janet said.

“I'm trying to be first in the biology course line.” Arnold said, which made the three women laugh.

“There's not going to be too much competition for that this early, so you're going to be first.” Doris said. “Just make sure you look at the course list they give you. I'm sure your requirements are going to be different since you're going for the full ride with everything covered.”

Arnold thought about it for a moment. “Does that mean my electives will be chosen for me?”

Doris had to think about that, too. “It's possible. Or they might recommend that you don't take any extra courses, that way you can focus solely on the biology course work.”

“Will I be able to take electives if they say that?” Arnold asked.

“I don't see why not, as long as they can schedule the extra classes around your main courses.”

“Okay.” Arnold said and he, Pam, and Janet left the dorm to head to the main concourse.

*

“He seems like a nice man.” Ida said as Dalla helped her dress in a stylish white sleeveless dress that hugged her curves tightly. It covered her from the neck to her knees, and yet, it didn't leave too much to the imagination. She had to wear a strapless bra because of the tight fabric, so it looked like her breasts were floating out in front of her with no support.

“Who?” Dalla asked as she gently poked the bra to see how much jiggle room it had. Ida's breasts didn't move much and she nodded in satisfaction.

“Arnold Strickland.” Ida said.

Dalla caught her breath and turned to pick up the thick black belt that would highlight Ida's waist and the shiny belt buckle would draw people's eyes away from her assets, even though Ida was showing them off. She didn't want to be too blatant about it, though. Beautiful people seemed to want attention; but, it had to be the right kind of attention for them to be flattered by it.

“What do you think of him?” Ida asked, knowing her maid wouldn't have reacted like that if she didn't have an opinion.

“I... well, he...” Dalla started to say and then paused. I saw him naked. She thought, then pushed the image of Arnold's erect penis aside. “I'd like to observe him for a few more days to form a full opinion.”

Ida nodded in agreement. That was why she said that Arnold seemed like he was nice, not that he was nice. “We should both keep a close eye on him to find out what kind of man he really is.”

Dalla was going to warn her about what she might see if she looked too closely, then changed her mind. “We should head out to try and beat the rush of new students.”

“And old students.” Ida said. “At least they won't take as long to get their business done, since they are mostly adwancing their preyweous courses.”

Dalla nodded and handed Ida her purse, then slung a large backpack across her own back. They left the dorm room and went down the hallway, that just happened to be the same scene that Arnold had seen so many times during the last three months. Girls half dressed and in towels stood around and chatted, then they all stopped talking as Ida and Dalla walked by.

“Hello.” “Hi.” “How are you?” Ida said as she passed each of them. She didn't wait for a response and just walked on, because she would never get out of there if she stopped to talk to each of them on the way by. She could do that later when she wasn't in a hurry.

What Ida didn't know was that nearly every single one of the other girls in the dorm were both envious and jealous of her. If she did, she would be assuming it was for the wrong reasons. It wasn't that she was tall and gorgeous and rich, it was because she was going to live in the same room with the object of their affection. He was the only man to ever treat them as people and not as only sexual objects, which endeared him to them unlike anyone else had ever been.

*

“Welcome to the registrar's office.” The pretty clerk said as Arnold approached the desk. “Is this your first time doing something like this?”

“Yes.” Arnold said and handed over the paperwork he had received when he accepted the job from Professor Crenslav. “My name is Arnold Strickland.”

The clerk took in a quick breath as she finally laid eyes upon the young man that had rumors and outrageous stories flying around the entire campus practically every week. She took the paperwork and gave it a cursory glance.

“I've heard so much about you.” The clerk said as she remembered the leaked pictures of him being discreetly sent around to everyone. If she had been honest with herself, she barely looked at the face in the pictures at all. She only had eyes for the rippling muscles and the lower things that had been showcased in a few of them. She kept her head down to stop herself from ogling the poor boy like she wanted to.

The clerk felt bad and was a little disappointed in herself, because all she could think about was sex when she saw those pictures. It wasn't difficult to imagine seeing him rising and falling above her as he made hot and passionate love to her, and her face flushed red as she thought about him hopping over the counter and taking her right then.

“I'll just... give me a moment to...” The clerk couldn't finish her sentences. She took a deep breath and let it out. Come on! You're a professional! Get it together! She thought and berated herself over being so hot and bothered by him, even though he hadn't done anything to her or implied that he would. She entered his name into the system and then she gasped at the results it gave her. She shook her head as the sex haze in her mind faded and was replaced by astonishment as she used the file number and received the same results.

This can't be real. The clerk thought to herself. She picked up the phone and called her supervisor. “Hello. I'm sorry to bother you.” “Yes, I think it's important.” “All right, I'll wait.” She hung up and looked at Arnold. “My supervisor will be right out to handle your case personally.”

Arnold stood there and waited for the supervisor for several minutes, then an older lady with greying hair tied up in a bun, came out of an office at the back of the room. She had hawkish features, with sharp cheekbones and a pointed nose, wore small steel rimmed glasses, and had hazel eyes that seemed to bore into you when she stared at you for more than a few seconds.

“What is this about?” The older lady almost snapped at the clerk, who winced. “I am quite busy.”

The clerk didn't say anything and just waved at her computer screen.

The older lady leaned over and looked at it. “You must have recalled that improperly.”

“I used the file number and his birth name.” The clerk said to defend herself. “It's the same result.”

The older lady frowned and picked up the telephone. “What's Professor Crenslav's number?”

“The exchange for the biology department is 616.” Arnold said.

The clerk paused in looking it up and the older lady gave him an odd look.

“I worked there for the summer term.” Arnold said.

The older lady punched the numbers into the phone and had a terse conversation with the professor. To her surprise, he confirmed the information on the screen and also told her to expedite Arnold's approval. She hung up the phone and her odd look didn't change.

“Come with me, please.” The older lady said to Arnold as she took his paperwork and walked away.

The clerk hopped up and went to the wood divider and unlocked it to let Arnold pass, then she waved him through to follow the supervisor. Arnold did so and the older lady opened her office door and held it for him. He stepped through and she closed the door.

“Even with the evidence Hamil provided, I still have a hard time believing your grade point average.” The older lady said and walked over to her desk and sat down. She brought up the same information on her computer and she shook her head. “How did you get such a high score?”

Arnold explained what he had done to get it and the woman stared at him as if he was a particularly interesting specimen that she was trying to mentally dissect.

“Why weren't you valedictorian?” The older lady asked and started to do out his paperwork.

Arnold explained about several teachers trying to get him to blow his exam results to raise the class average, then him discovering it was wrong for them to do that, ignoring them, then passing the exams with full marks. He also said that the vice-principal had to step in to make sure they marked his exams fairly. Because of that, they wouldn't vote for him as valedictorian.

The older lady stared at him over her folded hands and stayed that way for several minutes. “Young man, I am sorry that they tried to reduce your brilliance to make the mediocre students seem brighter.”

Arnold raised his eyebrows slightly and she smiled.

“It always irks me when teachers try to cram individual students into a mold to spit out carbon copies of themselves.” The older lady said. “When I saw your marks, I thought they were somehow hacked or altered. They are just so spectacular that they are unbelievable.”

Arnold didn't say anything in response and she finished up his paperwork and slid it across the desk.

“I was tempted to accuse you of cheating or gaming the system until I talked to Hamil.” The older lady said and gave Arnold a chance to claim that he didn't. “Even then, I was tempted to ignore his words.”

Arnold remained silent as he took the paperwork and she nodded her head slightly.

“It wasn't until he said that he petitioned to have the established rules bypassed to allow a first year student to work in his lab while taking the class.” The older lady stared deep into Arnold's eyes. “That has never happened before, and that alone told me everything I needed to know about you.”

That got Arnold's attention and he tilted his head slightly.

“You object to that assessment.” The older lady said and he nodded. “Why is that?”

“My academic record doesn't show that I can make you scream with pleasure as we have sex.”

“E-e-excuse ME?!?” The older lady stood up. “WHAT did you SAY?”

Arnold stayed seated. “I can bend you over this desk and make you yell my name within ten minutes.”

The older lady opened her mouth to respond hotly, then she realized something. He wasn't boasting or exaggerating as he stated the truth. She lost some of her bluster and tried to compose herself.

“How dare you insinuate that...”

“I can prove it if you want me to.” Arnold said and stood. “I don't see a ring on your finger and if you are as busy as you claimed, then you don't have a boyfriend, either.”

Boyfriend? The older lady asked herself, surprised. I'm too old to have a boyfriend! “Now see here, I'm old enough to be your grandmother!”

“So?” Arnold said and the older lady seemed to stagger slightly.

“You... you can't really mean...”

“By the looks of your skin tone and the excess hair growth on your arms, you've passed menopause and there's no danger of getting pregnant.” Arnold said. “I'll still wear a condom if you want, just in case.”

The older lady stared at him and she couldn't believe what she was hearing. “Are you for real?”

“I am standing right in front of you.” Arnold said.

“I... well, I... can I think about it?”

Arnold shrugged. He already had his paperwork and he turned and reached for the door handle. The older lady let out something like a squeak and he turned back to her. He saw her shake her head, so he opened the door and left the office. He had some individual classes to finish registering for and to fit them into his preset schedule.