JJ - Sophomore - 20
Penelope - Sophomore - 20
Alex - Senior - 21
Emily - Junior - 20
Mia - 4 months old
Elle - Freshman - 19
Ashley - Freshman - 18
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AN: So once again I have been plagued by another story idea. And I will warn ahead of time that Ashley and Elle will probably be OC, but I wanted to include them. This is very AU.
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Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.
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August
JJ's POV
Today is the day I tell myself as I throw my arm out to turn my alarm off. I don't know why Penelope scheduled the first interview so early in the morning. Sunday is the only day I don't have soccer practice. It is my one morning where I allow myself to sleep in past the sun.
"Good morning Sunshine!" Penelope calls from my doorway.
I burry my head further into my pillow. "To early," I mumble.
Penelope ignores my protest and plops down on the bed by my feet. "I have coffee," She offers holding the mug in the direction of my head.
With a sigh I sit up and take the offered mug. To my surprise Penelope is still in her kitten pajamas. "What time is it?" I ask too focused on getting the caffeinated liquid in my body.
"8:00 a.m.," She replies glancing at my alarm clock.
I groan knowing I only have an hour before our first interview. "Remind me again why we need two more roommates?"
"Because you had to cut down your hours at the pizza place, and all I can find or shitty jobs that pay crap," Penelope replies.
She wasn't wrong. In preparation for classes to start back I had cut down my hours. Now our two bedroom apartment had become harder to pay for. Our solution was to get two roommates. We have a full day of interviews ahead of us.
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"Well she was..."
"Interesting," I finish for her.
We just finished with our sixth interview; a senior named Cat Adams. I went ahead and marked her name off the list.
"So far we've eliminated all of our candidates," Penelope states scanning over our list.
I push my chair back from the table and stand up. "We got a few minutes. What would you like for lunch?"
"I think there's still some take-out from last night in the fridge," Penelope replies over her shoulder.
I open the refrigerator to find it full with take-out containers. Thankfully only two from the place we had last night. I grab the two containers and bump the door with my hip to close it. I talk to Penelope as I start to heat our lunch, "We should really clean out the fridge. There's a container from Leo's in there, and we haven't ordered from there in months."
Before I can get a reply a frazzled voice calls from the propped open door, "I'm sorry I'm early, but my boss needs me to come in early and-"
Penelope cuts her off, "It's fine. You must be Emily Prentiss?" I can hear the hint of surprise in Penelope's voice.
I turn around to find what had surprised her. Sitting on the floor next to our next candidate's feet is a car seat. I grab the containers and make my way back to the table. "You don't mind if we eat while we talk?" I ask handing Penelope her lunch.
Emily shakes her head. "Go ahead."
I allow Penelope to do the introduction. "I'm Penelope and this is JJ. We're looking for a roommate we think will be a good match. Can you tell us a why you chose this place?"
"I was hesitant to apply at first since this is kind of a two for one deal," Emily starts throwing a glance to the car seat.
"What changed your mind?" I asked.
"I was running out of options," She admits.
Penelope quickly cuts in to lighten the mood, "So you're a Junior?"
"Yes ma'am, I'm getting my degree in linguistic," Emily replies with a practiced professionalism.
"Do you have a job?" I ask next.
"I'm waitress on the weekends," She answers.
"Do you smoke?" Penelope ask making her way down the list of questions we had compiled.
"Not since I was sixteen."
"Do you party a lot?" I ask. Penelope and I liked to have a good time, but we know where the line is drawn at too much.
Once again Emily glances to the car seat. "Not anymore."
We spend about ten minutes going back and forth between Penelope and myself asking questions. I do have to say I'm surprised the baby hasn't cried.
"How old is she?" Penelope ask once she's made it through all of our planned questions. I should have known Penelope was excited about the baby.
Emily smiles and bends down to release the baby from her car seat. "Mia is four months old."
Penelope's eyes light up. "Mia, that's such a cute name!"
Emily seems taken back by Penelope's excitement.
"Penelope gets excited when it comes to kids," I inform Emily seeing her reaction.
"May I hold her?" Penelope ask extending her arms across the table slowly.
Of course Penelope would ask to hold a baby she's known for less than twenty minutes. I can see the hesitation in Emily's eyes as she agrees. "Don't scare her off yet," I tell Penelope joking. Everything considered Emily was the best candidate we had that day. I was definitely adding her to our list of consideration.
Penelope turns to me with a pouty face. "But she's an adorable little gumdrop."
"It's okay," Emily cuts in as she stands up to allow Penelope to hold Mia.
Penelope instantly starts cooing over her. While she's occupied I stand up and turn my attention to Emily. "We still got some interviews, but we'll give you a call and let you know," I tell her with a smile and a handshake. "It's time to give Mia back," I tell Penelope as Emily gathers the car seat and her bags.
Reluctantly Penelope hands her back to Emily. "Thank you for letting me hold her."
"You're welcome," Emily whispers before leaving the apartment.
I sit back down as Penelope speaks, "I liked her."
"Me too," I admit, "but we still have a few more interviews before we make a decision."
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The next person to sit across from us was a young blonde named Ashley Seaver. I did introductions this time. "I'm JJ and this is Penelope. We are looking for two roommates that will fit in around here. Can you tell us why you chose this place?"
Ashley folds her hands on the table as she speaks, "Would you believe me if I said your place found me?" She stops and I give her a glance to continue. "I was just walking when the flyer floated down in front of me."
"It's a sign!" Penelope squeals bringing her hands together in a clap.
Ashley blushes and tilts her head to hide it. Her hands fall back into her lap as she does. "I guess," She mumbles.
"So you're a freshman?" I ask.
She almost jumps back to her early posture as she smiles. "Yes ma'am. I'm studying criminology."
"That's cool," Penelope tells her. "What do you job wise?"
"I work at a paintball arena," Ashley replies with a side ways grin.
I chuckle. "Sounds like fun."
"It's okay, but the pays good and employees get discounts," She says with a glimmer in her eyes.
I could totally picture her running around on a paintball field dominating everyone. "Do you smoke?" I ask, though I feel like I already know the answer.
"No ma'am. I don't really do things like that."
"How tidy are you?" Penelope ask.
"I keep my space decently organized," Ashley replies.
When we've finished our questions and Ashley has left Penelope turns to me. "She likes videos games and the gym. She's perfect."
I glance down at our list. "We still have two more girls to interview," I remind her.
"But they're so perfect," She almost wines in attempt to persuade me.
I shake my head. "Either way we still have two interviews."
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As we finish the next interview I'm starting to think maybe Penelope was right. It wasn't that the next girl, Elle Greenaway, was bad she just had an air about her. She was hiding something that I just can't put my finger on. I don't know what the lie could be because she was pretty upfront with everything else: she smoked, liked to party, and wasn't the neatest person to name a few things.
I was fixing to share my thoughts with Penelope when there's a knock at the door. "Come in!" Penelope instructs.
A brunette wearing a pant suit walks in. She looks slightly familiar; I'm pretty sure she's the president of at least three different organizations on campus. "Alex Blake," She introduces herself shaking our hands before sitting down.
"JJ"
"Penelope, It's nice to meet you," Penelope says sending me a side ways glance.
"The origin of "nice" is 12th century Middle English, meaning 'foolish' or 'stupid'," Alex rambles neatly folding her hands in her lap.
"That's interesting," Penelope says with more enthusiasm than I could have shown. "You're a Senior?"
"Studying Linguistics." She nods.
Penelope and I share a glance. "You're the second linguistics we've talked to today," She comments.
"Well the school does have an excellent language program," Alex tells us.
If I thought Emily was put together I didn't know how to describe Alex. "Do you mind sharing why you chose us?"
"I wasn't too keen on roommates at first, however, I think saving money is more important. You two seemed like kind individuals that would make good roommates," She explained.
"Do you have a job?" Penelope ask.
"Yes, I work at a bookstore downtown after class."
Once again we were presented with the perfect candidate. "She'd be like having a living encyclopedia," Penelope states once Alex had left.
I looked at our list, "So we have four options; well more like three."
"Emily, Ashley, and Alex," Penelope says gathering her papers. "I wish we could have all three."
I stopped my own gathering of papers. A light bulb went off in my head. "We could."
Penelope turned to me with a look of surprise. "What?"
"We could choose all four of them," I state more clearly.
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AN2: What ships would y'all like to see? I'm up for writing almost any pairings: F/M, F/F, and M/M. The BAU guys will make guest appearances.
Edit: There is now a poll on my profile where you can vote for pairings. This way it'll make finding the total easier.