Excitement and nervousness coursed through Lucy with every minute spent staring out the passenger seat window of her father's Chevy suburban. What had been two and a half hours into a three hour car ride was spent in all but silence. She had the radio speakers blasting local stations she had never heard of before, she would sing along if a song she knew came on, and her father wasn't complaining about the noise for once. Instead, he would occasionally try to talk over the music. His conversation topics were much more sentimental than usual, but Lucy didn't mind humoring him and listen to stories of her childhood just this once.
The blond turned her head to looked into the trunk of the truck. All of her boxes still sat perfectly in place. Nothing had fallen over yet, despite some risky turns on the highway. Lucy had a massive grin on her face. She looked back out the window. She had already seen the urban neighborhood she was so familiar with turn into country, city, and back again. When they passed the wooden sign on the side of the road saying "Welcome to Magnolia", she had all but screamed.
"I can't believe we're already almost there." Her father, Jude, began. "Why don't we take another loop around the city or something?"
Lucy looked at her father with a scowl. "Dad. You said you wouldn't stall."
"I know, I know." Jude stopped in the turn lane at an intersection. He glanced over at the GPS on the dash before making his turn. "I just wish you would think about your father a little more here."
"Oh please. You're being way too dramatic here" Lucy rolled her eyes. She then became distracted with the timer on the GPS saying that they were only twenty minutes away from their destination. The eighteen year old let out a deep breath. She focused on everything outside the window. Once more, the scenery turned from stores and restaurants to green fields and farms. Trees lined the sides of the road. As the countdown got lower and lower by the minute, the trees on her side were replaced with a large river. On the driver's side, they approached a large banner over a driveway.
WELCOME TO MAGNOLIA CITY COLLEGE!
"We're here!" Lucy rolled down her window. She nearly jumped out of the car right then. Her father didn't make any comment as he turned into the driveway. A few feet up a male student wearing a bright red shirt, standing next to balloons, holding a sign waved at them. Jude pulled up next to them.
"Hey there you two!" The guy had one of the biggest smiles Lucy had ever seen on. "Are you moving in?"
"Yes!" The outburst was overflowing with anticipation.
"Great!" The student matched Lucy's enthusiasm. "What building are you looking for?"
Lucy had memorized every detail of her room assignments. She didn't even need to look for the paper she had printed out saying the building name or room number any more. "Fairy Tail Hall."
"That's where I stayed my freshman year. You'll have a blast there." The boy's face was full of approval. "Take the first turn on your right, then a left immediately, and you'll get to a circle. You can park there if there is space, you you can go around it to the parking lot. All the buildings are labeled, and there are a lot of other students wearing shirts like mine who can help you out if you have any questions."
"Thank you young man." Jude nodded and began driving. He mumbled the directions once over. The first turn came up very quickly, which means the second was even sooner. The road opened up into a round-about like instructed. The circle was surrounded by chaos. Students in red shirts matching the boy's from earlier guided parents and others who were moving in towards buildings and parking spaces. Many men were seen carrying large boxes and mini fridges while girls and women carried lighter looking bags and potted plants. Although there was what looked like a mother-daughter pair trying to carry a large TV across the grass hill in the middle of the circle.
Three matching buildings were oriented with their front doors facing the inside of the circle, while a fourth with very odd architecture took over what would have been the leftover space. Each of the three buildings had massive signs with their names hanging over the doors.
Fairy Tail Hall
Lamia Scale Hall
Quatro Cerberus Hall
Jude wasn't able to find a spot to put the car in the circle, and instead drove into the parking lot and found the closest open space he could. He parked and cut off the engine. "Alright." He looked over at Lucy, who was already gathering her things she had with her in the front seat. "Alright."
Within seconds Lucy was out of the truck. Her white and blue striped backpack was on her shoulders, and she had her favorite doll tucked into the bed of her elbow. She walked around the the back of the truck. Her father had already beaten her to opening up the trunk and pulling out her large suitcase and placing it on the ground. Lucy grabbed hold of the handle and pulled the suitcase towards her as her father grabbed one of the boxes that were stacked up in the back.
"Let's just start with this." He said, looking towards his daughter. "Lead the way."
A large smile was plastered to her face as she marched back toward the circle. She followed the past to her assigned dorm building. The front door was held open with a cooler of water bottles. Lucy lifted the wheels of the suitcase over that first step and passed over that threshold. Once inside, there was a large lobby area. Four people in red shirts with the school logo on it stood at a foldout table in the middle. "Welcome to Fairy Tail." They called when they saw her and her father.
"Hello." Lucy said as she approached the table. "I'm moving in?"
"Right you are." A boy with short brown hair and a goatee spoke first. He reached out a hand to Lucy, who shook it quickly. "I'm Max, I'm one of the Resident Assistants for the boys halls here. What's your name?"
"Lucy." The blond said, suddenly feeling a little shy. "Lucy Heartfilia."
A girl with purple hair who sat at the table flipped through a clip board. "Alright, you are found. She's one of yours Mirajane. Room 314."
"Oh goodie!" A girl with long white hair stood up from her seat and clapped her hands together. "I'm the RA of your hall, so come find me if you have any questions about anything ever."
"Right. I'll do that." Lucy smiled. She looked over this woman named Mirajane. She looked very sweet with the way her long hair was loose down her back and her bangs were tied up. The smile on her face was also very welcoming.
"Here's your key." A guy with long green hair passed her the key. It was already attached to a lanyard with a keychain of school mascot, a red and black dragon, and a card holder. "Your ID is already in there. Here are some pamphlets that will help you out as well."
"Thank you." Lucy took the folder of papers that were given to her, and slipped her arm through the lanyard for the time being.
"I'll show you to your room, alright?" Mirajane walked around the table, and began walking towards one of the hallways that were on either side of the lobby. There was a set of wooden swinging doors that the trio passed through before entering the hallway. Almost immediately, the turned into a stairwell and went up the steps. "The third floor where we are is all girls, and the second floor is all boys. There are two single sex bathrooms of each floor, and then there is a gender neutral bathroom in the lobby." Mira explained. "Also, if you go into the basement, there's the common room, kitchen, and laundry room which are all open 24/7. There's a study room down there too, and that usually stays unlocked too."
"Can anyone use the kitchen?" Lucy asked.
"Yep." Mirajane nodded. She held open the door at the top of the stairs for Lucy and her father. "So if you want to use the refrigerator you're going to want to write your name of whatever you are putting in there."
The older student quickly took the lead and walked Lucy all the way to the end of the hall. Lucy noticed them passing by the bathroom. She also took note of the pieces of colorful construction paper shaped like what was either a fairy tail or a bird skiing on each door. Each had a name written on it. Some of the doors they passed were open, and Lucy could see girls rearranging furniture. She made eye contact with some of them, with whom she just smiled.
As per her luck, Lucy's room was the very last one on the hall. Her door was on the right corner, farthest from the bathroom. Lucy saw her name written in beautiful cursive on a pink symbol. Next to her door deck, on a second white one, was the name 'Levy'. Lucy knew that was the name of her roommate. The two had been talking on Facebook for ever since roommate assignments were released.
Mirajane got out of the way so that Lucy could do the honors of opening the door. The blonde felt her hands shake as she slipped the key into the lock. She turned it and heard a click, and the door popped open. Lucy pushed it open.
The room was pretty bleak on its own. There were two sets of furniture: Two beds that were raised so the mattresses were a little over three feet off the ground, two dressers with three drawers, two desks with chairs, and two wardrobes. Everything was made of wood, save for the mattresses.
"Your roommates not here yet." Mirajane said. "You actually got pretty lucky with this room though. Corner rooms are a little bigger than the rest, and you get two windows. Feel free to move around any of the furniture. It's your room after all."
"Thanks Mirajane." Lucy smiled as the white haired woman left the room.
"Alright then." Jude spoke for the first time since entering the hallway. "Welcome to your first dorm room." He put down the box he had been carrying and hugged his girls side. "Your first college decision is to pick which side of the room you want. I'll go start getting other boxes from the truck."
"I'll come help you in a minute." Lucy smiled. She began looking over the furniture option. She settled on placing her backpack on the bed against the left wall, thus taking claim over all the items on the right. Her dresser was already placed under her bed, which was good for optimizing space. Her desk was arranged so that the back was pushed up against the wall. The two wardrobed were on opposite sides of the door. The setup of the other set of furniture was identical, only a second window was in the middle of her wall, at the foot of the bed. The second window was in between the beds, over an air conditioning unit.
A large grin was spread over Lucy's face. She quickly ran out of the room and down stairs to help her father. She passed him walking back into the building. He was carrying another box. Lucy headed to the truck, and pulled one more box towards her and hoisted it into her arms. She looked over what was left in the trunk. One more box besides the one she was carrying, a mini-fridge, and a laundry hamper filled with random toiletries, snacks, and roll of posters. Lucy was thankful she hadn't packed too many things. She had been so worried about room size, that she made sure only to pack what she knew she needed. Now she was starting to think she had been too cautious.
It took three more trips to bring everything into her new room. Jude ended up enlisting the help of Max to get the mini-fridge up the stairs. They were able to push it into the space under her bed as well, and found an outlet there to plug it in and get it going. "Well, that's everything you have, right?" He asked his daughter.
"Yeah. I don't think I missed anything." Lucy kneeled on the ground and unzipped her suitcase.
"I'll go take one more look, then lock up the truck."
"Sure." Lucy began taking her clothes out of the suitcase and organizing them between her dresser and wardrobe. The drawers were smaller than what she was used to. Because of this, Lucy ended up choosing to hang up most of her shirts rather than folding them and using her acquired tetris skills to somehow fit them into a drawer. As she worked of filling up drawers, there was a knocking on the door.
A small girl with short blue hair and wearing an orange sundress walked into the room. She was carrying a pile of books in her hands. "Lucy, right?"
"Levy?" Lucy ran up to the girl. Both girls smiled widely. Levy placed her books on the first surface she could find, then the two ran together and hugged. "I can't believe you got here before me. I thought I had left pretty early."
"I left at the earliest possible minute." Lucy smiled. She looked over her roommate's shoulder to see a man and woman, both with dark hair, came into the room.
"Oh my." The woman sat down in one of the desk chairs. "This is such a nice little room!"
"Mother, are you not even going to pretend to help?" Levy turned around, puffed out her cheeks and threw a hand to her hip.
"I am helping." The woman said. "I'm planning out what your room will look like."
"Oh boy." Levy sighed.
"Do you need help carrying anything up here?" Lucy offered.
Levy looked at the blond for a brief second, then to the rest of the room. "Nah, it's fine. You keep unpacking. It's not going to take long to get all of my stuff here."
"It would take less time if you didn't need so many books." The man, who Lucy assumed was Lavy's father, dropped a large trunk in the middle of the floor.
"Yeah. Like that would happen." Levy slid the trunk closer to her so it was more out of the way. She then followed her father out the door to go get the next items from their car. Lucy took the opportunity to get back to unpacking. At this point, her father had returned and was sitting in she second desk chair. He had offered to help Levy's father, but the man said he had control of it all. It wasn't until Levy's father same upstairs with an IKEA bookshelf to set up that Jude actually was able to help. In this time, Lucy had set up her bed spread. She only had white sheets, but she had a very fluffy, pink comforter, and a cranberry body pillow.
After finishing with her bed, Lucy decided to take a little break. She sat on top of her bed and watched at Levy still moved boxes around the room, looking for a good spot for the bookshelf.
"Now where the hell is this thing going to fit?" The blue haired girl asked.
"Um…." Lucy tried to think about it too. The book shelf was set of as a total of eight square box shapes, four up, two across. "We can try moving furniture around so it will fit on the wall?"
"Do you think the dresser will fit inside the wardrobe?" Levy's mother asked the room. Everyone stared at the woman for a moment before metaphorical light bulbs appeared over everyone's head. It didn't take much effort to relocate the dresser that had been under Levy's bed to inside of the wooden closet. It took even less to turn the bookshelf onto its side and slide it under the bed. It was a snug fit, but it worked. "Look at that. Magic."
Levy rolled her eyes, then continued unpacking all of her clothes and started working on her books. "Action books can go here, the romance can take up these two, and mystery is going to need two, but that's fine because language books only take up half." She muttered to herself as what looked like random novels were thrown in what would have been random places to anyone else. Lucy loved books very much, and had brought many of her own, but not nearly as many as Levy.
Lucy watched Levy for only a few more minutes before her father stood up from the desk chair he had stolen. "Well, I've got to be getting back. It'll be a long drive back on my own."
"Oh." Lucy got off her bed and followed her father out of the room. More students had filled into their rooms at this point. Some looked like they were finished moving in already, while others scrambled to get their items out of the hallway. Jude led the way back to the car.
"I'll miss you Lucy." He smiled down at his daughter.
"I know Dad." Lucy hugged her father.
"Call me sometime?"
"I will when I can."
"I'll have an intern drive your car up by next weekend or something."
"Thanks for that."
"Alright….." Jude looked at the truck in silence. "One more hug?"
Lucy laughed and granted her father's wish. "I'll see you in a few months. It'll go by before you know it."
"I doubt that." Jude smiled at his daughter and climbed into the driver's seat of the car. "Stay safe, make good choices, and don't spend too much time in the boys hall."
"You know there's an all guys dorm right across the circle right?" Lucy watched as her father's face turned white.
"You definitely can't go there."
"Sure thing Dad."
It took a few more minutes of convincing her father that everyone was going to be just fine before he finally drove away. She made sure to wave until she couldn't see the car anymore. The second he wa out of sight, Lucy began jumping up and down, and throwing her arms out with excitement. "Yes!"