Sansa Stark was a freshman at the Westeros university. And she was sharing a room. She had the Kings' Landing dorms, and knew nothing about her roommate, Margaery Tyrell, who was a junior. She'd originally been in the same dormitory as her brothers - Robb and Jon, twins, who were both juniors, like Margaery. Her father had come to help her unpack, and her siblings were supposed to come, but Arya, her fifteen-year-old sister, wouldn't miss karate - it's not like the two were close, anyhow. Bran, who was thirteen, was in hospital with a broken back, and Rickon, who was nine, found the whole idea of Sansa leaving utterly ridiculous, and was insistent she'd come home within the week. Sansa had been alone when she'd exchanged a tearful goodbye to her father, and was now sitting on her bed without the slightest idea of what to do.
Robb and Jon had invited her to a party tonight, at the Winterfell dorms, with her cousin Theon and Jon's friend Samwell and Robb's girlfriend Jeyne. But that started at nine; it was barely lunchtime. She'd heard of Highgarden, a beautiful place, but hadn't the slightest idea of where to find it. She sat there on her bed feeling terribly sorry for herself, wondering where the frat parties and drinking and studying would come into the picture - that's what she'd heard in the stories, at least.
And then the door creaked open, and a too-beautiful woman, slightly taller than Sansa, walked into the room. Thick curls fell to her shoulders, and her warm brown eyes matched her hair in colour. She didn't seem to be wearing make-up - she didn't seem to need it. Her skin was soft and pale and remarkably unblemished. She radiated confidence. She wore a black v-neck that showed off her rather large breasts. Her skinny jeans came to her waist, held up with a leather belt. Bangles jingled on her wrists, and she wore a rose pendant. Sansa felt horrible in comparison - underdressed, almost, if you can be underdressed for relaxing in your room. Sansa's thick auburn hair was brushed, yes, and plaited back. She wore one of her brother's grey hoodies, and loose jeans. The girl smirked when she saw Sansa, and Sansa's whole face went a bright shade of red.
"Sansa Stark, freshman, yes?" The other girl inquired. Sansa realized with a jolt this was her roommate. Sansa blushed and stood up quickly. Sansa's eyebrows met the other girl's bottom lashes.
"Yes, I'm Sansa Stark." She nodded quickly. "Nice to meet you - Margaery." Margaery's smirk softened into a smile.
"And nice to meet you, Sansa. I know your brothers. They've mentioned you." Margaery kicked off her shoes and lounged back on her white bed, fingers tracing the red roses that covered it. Sansa gave a nervous laugh and awkwardly shuffled into a hopefully comfortable-looking position.
"All good things, I hope?" She mumbled. Margaery's eyes lifted to meet hers from across the room, and her eyebrows raised as she saw Sansa's pose - luckily she didn't comment.
"All good things." Margaery agreed. "I've been looking forward to meeting you. As for your brothers - they're real runamucks? Cute, one would suppose, attractive, but to Hell, they're reckless."
Cute? Robb and Jon attractive. Sansa wasn't completely oblivious - Robb and Jon had always had a lot of female attention, but it was a bit of a reality check to have her new roommate comments on her brothers' looks.
"I'm going to a party of theirs tonight." She blurted out, "You could come, if you like." Margaery, surprisingly, just shook her head.
"No, no, I don't want to get involved with them. I mean, yeah, they rock, they're the royalty of the North section of the campus, Jeyne and Robb and all that, but down here? The King's Landing dorms are the most involved in stuff, and the North never do shit for anything. Anyways, I'm already booked for tonight." Margaery leaped off her bed and seemed to be looking around frantically for something. "I'm going to another party - the Lannister crew, Joff - he's, like, the main dude on campus - it's their party, it'll be awesome." Her curls bounced as she shook her head around. "Do you know what the time is? I'm due for lunch with Renly at 12:30."
Sansa swallowed, and checked her watch. "Er - ten past twelve." Margaery nodded.
"Okay, ten minutes to get down there - Damn! Ten minutes to get ready. Do you have anything nice to wear?" Sansa blinked, as Margaery said this all very fast, "Well, do you? You aren't wearing a hoodie to The Coffee Shop. No, no, no."
"Wait, what?" Sansa frowned, "I'm coming?" Margaery rolled her eyes.
"Well, yeah, if you want to. Do you have any other plans?" Margaery bustled over to her mirror and quickly began to apply foundation to her face.
"Yes, I'll come." Sansa swallowed hard, not really sure what she was going to do at The Coffee Shop. It sounded like Margaery was going on a date, and what would Sansa do, coming along on Margaery's date with a guy she's never met?
"Good. Get dressed." Margaery didn't seem to be paying her any attention.
Sansa knelt next to her bed and pulled out her drawer of t-shirts. There were a variety of shirts - some nice, comfortable shirts with animal or water designs; skin-tight pink tops with a plunging neckline that she only wore to parties; one of Arya's shirts, white with a grey wolf staring out at her, a huge muddy grass stain up the back of it. Sansa shuddered. Then there were her shirts for these days, plain coloured shirts. She pulled out a neatly folded blue shirt, put it on her bed, and closed that drawer with a bang. In the next two minutes she fished out nicer jeans and a green-and-white cable knit sweater.
Sansa then realized she would have to get changed in the same room as Margaery. They had a bathroom - with no lock, that they shared with the room next door. Someone forgets to knock, opens the door, she's changing - oops. Sansa's chest tightened, but she attempted to ignore it, pulling her jeans down, kicking them off and pulling the other pair on. She took off her brothers hoodie and threw it into her pillow, sliding off her Royale Wolf shirt and chucking it and the jeans into her clothes hamper. She stood only in jeans and a bra, and realized Margaery had been watching. The other girl's eyes were hovering at Sansa's chest, and Sansa went a bright red, shoving her t-shirt on almost immediately. Margaery looked slightly disappointed, but went back to glancing at herself in the mirror like she'd never looked.
Sansa quickly pulled on her sweater and tried to remember where her brush was. Damn. There were two sets of her stuff that were coming, and she must've packed her hygiene stuff in day two. So Sansa had no choice.
"Er, Margaery." She tried to swallow her bubble of anxiety, but it refused to go down and hovered in her throat. "Could I borrow your hairbrush?"
"What? Oh, sure!" Margaery pulled out of the drawer under her mirror, and threw a red hairbrush at Sansa, who tried to grab it, but if flew past her and hit her wall. Sansa gasped as a little mark appeared on her wall and dived onto her bed, wrestling with the blankets to get it. When she did finally find it (down the back of her bed) she barely had time to do anything with it and she was still trying to put her hair up when Margaery was dragging her out the door.
"Margaery! I was trying to do my hair!" Sansa grumbled, pouting. Margaery grabbed her wrist and practically dragged her down the corridor.
"Ugh! We're going to be late! Five minutes, we have to be there in five minutes!" She sounded frantic, and yet somehow seemed to know exactly where to go - down winding stairs, which lift to use, what corridors to go down - and Sansa could barely see straight, they were going so fast.
They ran into a carpark, and straight across the road. Margaery was panicking, and Sansa swung her head around wildly.
"Where are we? What's even going on?" She yelled as they hurried up the pathway and past another looming brick building.
"Hush, I'm thinking! Two minutes!" Margaery snapped. They continued to race and rush across roads and down pathways and even through alleyways until they arrived at a giant red, flashy building, with "THE COFFEE SHOP" written in flashing neon yellow. Sansa swallowed and Margaery grinned.
"Two seconds early. Go me!"