Arnold returned to college on Sunday night without incident, much to Detective Tanner's dismay and Dalla the maid's delight. Both of them had been waiting for him to try something and only one was disappointed. Just like the last time, Arnold made sure Dalla was satisfied and kept quiet, then snuck out of his own room in the morning.
Of course, Janet and Pam were also waiting for him, in the hopes that he would repeat his appearance from last week. When he did show up, it was Pam's turn to be first. They knew that Arnold was spoiling them and they tried to not take advantage of his good nature. They did their best to help him in other things, like interacting with other people in the class and the teachers, even when he didn't have to, and everyone noticed the difference.
Arnold wasn't being as cold or indifferent towards people that he didn't know. This was the most prevalent during their relaxing art class on Tuesday. After his particularly brilliant fix for Pam's horse, that actually worked, the other students asked him his opinions and views on different things. The teacher let it go on for a while, then she let out a laugh and interrupted everyone.
“This is supposed to be a relaxing class for everyone.” Miss Josephine reminded them and a few of them nodded, some smiled, and Pam gave Arnold a kiss on the lips. “Not that relaxing, Pam.”
“But that is relaxing.” Pam said, a little smugly. “If my best friend wants a kiss, I'm going to give it to him. Right, Arnold?”
“Yes.” Arnold said.
“I thought Janet was your best friend?” Heather asked with a bit of vindictiveness.
“She is.” Pam responded. “She's also Arnold's best friend, too.”
“Wow, really?” One of the other girls said. “Can you really be best friends with a guy?”
Pam chuckled. “Before you start assuming things, no we aren't dating and we don't plan to date at any time in the future.”
That surprised quite a few people in the class, including the teacher.
“Well.” Miss Josephine said and couldn't help go over in her head what the sociology teacher had told her about her student. “Let's all get back to work, shall we?”
The class passed without anything else notable happening and the trio of Pam, Janet, and Arnold had Chemistry class, then to the lab in the afternoon. They did up a lab report for it and passed it in and had the rest of the day off. They ate out at the Chinese restaurant and Arnold didn't offer to pay for everything. The three of them split the bill equally and Pam was very horny afterwards because of that.
Being frugal was just something that did it for Pam and Arnold helped her with the problem. They went back to the dorm and both Pam and Janet enjoyed the solution. Arnold knew better than to leave Janet out, even though she said that she was okay with not participating. Once she was involved, though... she was just as eager as Pam was.
After that, Arnold returned to his dorm room and asked to borrow the van. Dalla didn't ask where he was going and just handed him the keys.
“I'm going to be late.” Arnold whispered in her ear. “You can stay over.”
Dalla's face flushed red and she nodded in understanding and acceptance. Arnold left the dorm and waved to Doris as he passed her desk. She was even busier this term with all of the new students that had moved in and she regretted not having the time available for her young lover.
Arnold hopped into the van and checked the gas gauge and saw the vehicle was full, so he drove the very familiar route all the way back home. He didn't go to his place, however. Instead, he went to another address and parked down the street. He had to confirm the details he had found on the receptionist's computer and nodded when an expensive car appeared on the street. It pulled into the driveway that he expected it to.
He waited a short time, then drove part way across the city to another address. There was already a car there and he couldn't confirm the right time; but, it was close, so he had to accept it. He drove all the way back to the college campus and parked the van. Just over five hours had passed since he left, so it was pretty late at night. He entered the dorm and went up the stairs, down the hall, and quietly entered his dorm room.
Arnold stripped off and climbed into bed to see Dalla was wide awake. “Thank you.” He whispered and kissed her, then he made slow and passionate love to her. He stared into her eyes the entire time and she stared back as they shared an occasional kiss.
Dalla had become accustomed to this treatment already and her body desired it each time, even though this was only the third time. She wasn't sure why she was so eager to let him have his way with her, except that it felt great and he never demanded anything from her. She hadn't told Ida what was happening every time she stayed over and she hoped that her mistress didn't suspect anything.
Ida laid in bed and played with herself. She could hear the low and muffled moans from under the blanket of the bed that wasn't quite that far away from her. She had thought about saying something the first time and exposing Dalla for breaking her word... then she had realized that Dalla hadn't really broken it.
Dalla had promised that Arnold having sex with her wasn't going to interfere with her taking care of Ida, and so far, it hadn't. It was just a bit maddening that her maid was already getting laid and having the perfect college experience, while she was still trying to navigate through the social niceties to find someone to date and to get the same experience.
Ida came at almost the same time as Dalla's muffled squeal of pleasure and both of them relaxed at the same time. They drifted off to sleep with one hoping to experience it for herself and the other in the arms of her not-so-secret lover.
Arnold was up and gone in the morning before either woman woke up, stopped briefly in Janet and Pam's room to shower and change, then he went to class. He had Physics with Leann first thing and when she entered the room, he saw that she was dressed a little nicer than normal.
“Hi, Arnold.” Leann said and walked over to him. She bent down and gave him a two second kiss. “Francine said to say hi.”
“Give her a kiss for me.” Arnold said.
That surprised her, because he had never kissed Francine, then Leann realized what he meant.
“I could swear you just made a joke.” Leann chuckled and gave him three more quick kisses. “I'm sure she owes you a lot more than that, though.” She said and gave him several more.
“Oh, geez. Get a room.” Tanya said with a laugh as she entered the classroom. “What's Francine going to say?”
“You should let me do that.” Leann said with a smirk, then they both laughed.
“Okay, yes. I bet she would.” Tanya said and sat down beside them.
“So would you.” Leann said smugly.
“Only if I wasn't dating Richard.” Tanya said. “A kiss isn't worth risking our entire relationship.”
“Would it be at risk?” Leann asked with a chuckle. “I think someone is envious that it might be.”
“A kiss from the kissing bandit?” Tanya laughed. “I think anything could happen.”
The physics professor walked into the class and had heard Tanya's words. “You mean it's true?” He asked and the three of them looked at him. “Ah, I mean... forget I said anything.”
Leann and Tanya exchanged looks, then gave the teacher the same smirking grins.
“Yeah, never mind.” The physics professor whispered and went to his desk to drop off his book and a few papers, then he went to his toy box and took out a pretty elaborate mechanism. Leann would remember it as one of the best classes she had that term and Tanya would remember it as the opportunity that she had missed to kiss the kissing bandit.
The rest of the day passed without incident, even with Kelly's sociology class that afternoon and the teacher and her pretty much staring holes through Arnold. He easily ignored the attention and went about his day.
The next day, Arnold spent with Sarah in two classes, one of which was Latin, and her heart kept going pitter-patter when Arnold showed his knowledge of the subject. She knew it was the hopeless romantic inside of her that was reacting and she couldn't help herself. She was going to have to try and distance herself from him, to save herself some embarrassment... then the two of them were assigned as partners to translate a lengthy passage in Latin for the term's project.
Sarah didn't argue or show that she wasn't going to be comfortable spending so much time with Arnold, especially when her boyfriend found out. She wasn't going to lie to him, though. She met Wayne at lunch and she told him about the assignment and her misgivings.
“All right.” Wayne said, a bit dismissively. “If you're worried about it, then tell Arnold or the teacher.”
“I can't.” Sarah said with a sigh. “I should have said something when it was assigned...”
“...but, you didn't want to bring attention to it.” Wayne said and she nodded. “Then suck it up and do the assignment.”
“But...”
“It's the term project. I assume it's going to be a good portion of the class mark.”
“Thirty percent.”
“Whew, that's a good chunk.” Wayne said with a chuckle. “So, you have a choice. Blow off the assignment and do everything else to pass with seventy percent, or do the assignment and then coast through doing other things to get a passing grade. It's pretty simple.”
Sarah took a deep breath and let it out, because she didn't want to tell her boyfriend that Arnold was turning her on because he was smart and was just as passionate about Latin as she was.
“What are you going to do?” Wayne asked, knowing what she was going to say.
“I'll do the work with Arnold.” Sarah said in a defeated tone.
Wayne laughed as he gave her a hug. “That's my girl.”
Sarah closed her eyes and hugged him back. I hope I still am by the time the assignment is over.
That afternoon, Wayne was in quantum mechanics class with Arnold and didn't mention Sarah's misgivings about the Latin project. It was something that they had to work out on their own and Wayne was sure that Arnold wouldn't cross a line with Sarah that he hadn't crossed with anyone else.
The next day, Arnold, Pam and Janet had their biology lab and continued working on the chicken specimen. The three of them discretely checked the other specimens and saw that the proposed alterations that Arnold had submitted, had actually been performed on the specimens.
“They did it and saved the specimens.” Janet whispered into Arnold's ear. “I'm so glad.”
Arnold turned to give her a quick kiss, then turned the other way to get a kiss from Pam, who was a bit more enthusiastic and it wasn't quite as quick as Janet's kiss had been.
Amy, Cissily, and Professor Crenslav stared at them when they had the opportunity. Unlike the two lab workers, Hamil wasn't being malicious in his observations. He was genuinely curious as to how someone like Arnold, with his odd quirks, was able to procure and sleep with so many girls with little to no effort.
That wasn't quite true, however. There was actually quite a lot of effort on Arnold's part, it was just so subtle and disarming that it almost went unnoticed. The girls responding to his advances also weren't sure how he had worked his way into their hearts and minds, either. It didn't matter to them, though. He was there now and they wouldn't give him up for anything.
This effect would also explain why Cissily had reacted so badly to him sleeping with her mother, finding out all the rumors about him, and the crimes he might have been involved in. There was nothing as hateful as a woman scorned that wanted to get back at someone. It was just too bad that she didn't have the time or the patience to watch him all the time and only when she was available. To her surprise, none of her other friends wanted anything to do with trying to spy on Arnold.
To her credit, Cissily didn't get angry at them, even when they argued about the circumstantial evidence. Maxine responded that if he was smart enough to get away with killing all those people, there was no way that she wanted to be involved with trying to trap or catch him. The black woman with dreadlocks was actually more intrigued by Arnold after the arguments, almost for the same reason. She had a thing for bad boys and knowing he wasn't the clean cut guy she thought he was, turned her on.
The girl that wrote the dissertation on Arnold had absolutely refused and warned Cissily and Amy about messing with him, if he really was what they suspected he was. His sociopolitical powers were too advanced for anyone to navigate, let alone overcome. She had received her mark for it and had only come back to the college for her final credit, a course that she had dreaded taking for the three years that she had been there.
Liberal Arts and their Impact on Society.
She was glad that it was only one class a week and the course load was fairly light. The problem she had was the teacher that was so laid back and lackadaisical that she couldn't stand the woman's teaching technique. To her, each class felt like sitting through an hour and a half of fingernails on a chalkboard and her irritation was so high that she needed all the free time she could get to relax each week.
The rest of Ciccily's friends just didn't want to be bothered doing extra work of observing Arnold between and after classes, even if it meant they got to see him in compromising situations. Cissily had reached out towards the frat house that Arnold had a brief tussle with, and every single one of the members had refused to even speak to her. She tried to approach one of their girlfriends and was warned to stay away from both the frat house members and Arnold, if she knew what was good for her.
That response only made Cissily even more determined to find out all of the wrongdoings that Arnold was involved in and not avoid them. She followed Arnold after his class and waited outside the dorm to see if he was leaving on the bus early again. She didn't make the connection that he had most of the day off every weekend and only reported when he actually did leave on the bus.
*
For Detective Tanner and her helpers, it was another wasted weekend. She was almost fine with that, because in two weeks was Kevin's transfer and there was no way that Arnold was going to get into the prison to take care of him. Olivia had failed to prevent the other deaths and she was going to do as much as she could to save Arnold's last victim.