A freshly dressed Waverly Earp flops down on her back on her now bare bed, and surveys the room around her. Eighteen years of accumulated life crap, and it's condensed into three boxes and two bags, 80% of which is the books she couldn't bring herself to part with. Kind of depressing when she thinks about it. Which she purposely doesn't.
"This day is depressing enough without you getting nostalgic about walls, idiot," she tells herself. Under the excitement that beats through her, there is a current of sadness as she prepares to say goodbye, not only to the people of Purgatory but to the place itself. This town has its flaws (okay, some huge flaws, she admits), but it was the last place her family was together and alive and happy. The people who grew to be her family after she lost her own are here. It's everything she's ever known. In a big way, Purgatory is family. And now she has to let go of that family and find a new one. Again.
Gus slams the door open, making Waverly jump so high she falls off the bed. "It's today Waves!" Gus exclaims, her eyes wide with excitement.
Waverly peeks her head up from the side of the bed, feeling slightly apprehensive about the level of enthusiasm being shown by the usually subdued woman. "I'm only coming out from down here if you promise to take the volume down by 30%."
Gus lets out a laugh and counter-offers, "20%."
"25%, final offer," Waverly grins. Gus sticks out her hand in agreement, and Waverly rises from the floor, rubbing her bruised elbow and shakes the woman's hand firmly.
"We're just, I mean - I'm just so proud of you Wave," Gus stumbles, not yet used to being a single rather than a couple. "And I know Curtis would've been. He'd've been up at 4am, making you pancakes before your big trip, you know that."
Waverly smiles sadly and swipes quickly at a tear threatening to spill from her left eye. "I know you've said no, but I don't have to go now. I can do my classes online, help with Shorty's, at least until you – "
Gus cuts across the girl's sentence, "I swear to God, Waverly Earp, if you offer that one more time, I will hit you. I know I'm old and that's probably some sort of child abuse, but I will take you down. You're leaving today and that's that."
"Okay, okay, no need for threats. I just… don't want to abandon you. I mean, I'm an Earp, I wouldn't be the first one of those to not leave Purgatory, it wouldn't be a big deal."
"Wave. I know this is big and scary, but you were made to get out of this town. You've been destined for big things from the moment you tackled the alphabet. I remember, you learned to read and spent the next, well the next 15 years really, with a book or six in your little hand. Your daddy used to tell me, 'Gussy, that girl is something else. She's going to do something with this life of hers.' And he was right. So don't you hesitate for a minute, love."
Gus plants a kiss on Waverly's head, turns and grabs one of the boxes from the stack by the bedroom door, starting to heave it down to the truck waiting at the front of the house.
Waverly glances at herself in the mirror, as if capturing a last look at herself in her Purgatory life. She's wearing her favourite jeans, old and dependable and frayed at the kneecaps. Her sweatshirt is older than her jeans, with Shorty's printed across the chest and sleeves rolled up because otherwise they fall past her fingertips. She sighs. Even her appearance screams that Purgatory is home. But Gus is right, she's been dreaming of this day for her whole life. She steels herself, grabs her bag and a box, and heads down the stairs to her new adventure.
Four hours stuck in an uncomfortable truck with an overly enthusiastic Gus behind the wheel, who insisted on playing motivational pop songs the entire drive, and Waverly bursts out of the door, simply overjoyed to be free.
"Were you trying to make me glad to leave you? Because you just might have succeeded," she calls over to the older woman, who is staring around them in awe. Waverly follows Gus' eyeline to the buildings that tower over them, and her jaw drops. This is be her new home? From tiny Purgatory suburban house to huge ancient building, complete with stone and ivy?
She notices a peppy blonde standing by the side of the truck toting a clipboard and whistle, and snaps her mouth closed, not wanting to look like some gaping small town fool. "Hey there, I'm Steph, you must be one of our new freshman! Welcome to Ghost River University! We're so totally psyched to have you here, you're defs going to love it, I swear."
Waverly grins and introduces herself, thinking of how Wynonna would tear this girl apart. She can just imagine the snarky comments that would spill from her sister. Or would have back in the day. She remembers again that she hasn't seen Wynonna in years so wouldn't really know anymore. "If you want to grab your stuff and head upstairs, you'll be in…oh yep, 22B. I'll get you some help, one sec," the blonde finishes her sentence with a sharp blow on the whistle hanging around her neck, and a shirtless frat guy hustles over and grabs a box from the back of the truck.
"Hey, careful with that, that's my entire life savings worth of first editions in there," Waverly cautions, eying the guy now walking off with her belongings. Gus winks over at the young Earp, "I might have to come back to college, he can carry my boxes any day."
Waverly groans, "Excuse me, you're meant to be bereft. Quit perving on teenagers." Gus laughs, knocks her hip to Waverly's, and they follow the frat boy to room 22B.
After saying a teary goodbye to the older woman, Waverly spends two hours setting her room up just right and how she had always imagined her college dorm room to look. She remembers that she had drawn a floor plan of this very room when she was 10, and had been scouring the Purgatory thrift shop since about that age for bits that would combine to create the perfect room. There was an antique globe settled on her bookshelf, holding up the much loved copies of her favourite books, and the few first editions she had been able to afford with her (meagre) Shorty's income. She would deny it to anyone who asked, but it took her half an hour to organise her books alone. Her desk was set, with notebooks, pens and freshly sharpened pencils ready to get learning. She looks around the room, satisfied with her decorative efforts, and feels pride and excitement welling up in her. Maybe this college thing won't be too hard. Maybe it will be everything she dreamed it would be.
She'd read online that there would be some orientation events in the quad on moving day and decides to check it out, so she doesn't seem like a creep just sitting in her room waiting for her roommate to arrive. She wanders down the hall, in no real rush, taking in her new surroundings. She's knocked to the side by what she thinks is a red floral blur at first. 'Is this The Flash?' she thinks stupidly, catching herself against the hallway wall. Looking up, she realises the blur is a human, a redheaded woman, to be specific. "OH, I'm so sorry, that's completely my fault. Are you okay?" the woman stutters out.
Waverly looks into the brown eyes of the woman who's just barrelled through her, and any anger that she felt melts away. She herself also melts slightly. And loses all ability to speak.
"Did I break your voice? Hello?" The woman smiles at her.
"Oh um sorry, I'm fine," Waverly stumbles over her words, and mentally chastises herself. What is her problem? The first person she interacts with here and she's making an absolute fool of herself.
"You certainly are that," the woman grins. "I'm Nicole, just by the way. I might see you around, uhh?"
"Earp. Uh, Waverly Earp. I - My name's Waverly."
"Okay, Earp Waverly Earp, you look after yourself now, alright?" Nicole spins on her heel and leaves Waverly in a cloud of floral shampoo and confusion. The bewildered girl shakes her head, as though literally clearing her thoughts, and watches the red head make her way down the hall. 'What in the hell is my issue?' she thinks. Okay, so she might not be the most popular person in the world, but she has friends. She can make friends. She's pretty charismatic. But apparently she had a momentary stroke or something, because that was ridiculous.
"Oh well," she shrugs. A school this size, she figures, she probably won't see Nicole again.