Tacka-tacka.
Peridot's fingers clipped busily away at the nullified light of her smartphone screen, turned down for the convenience of the sleep-deprived bus passenger to her left. It wasn't exactly dark out, but she just thought it would be nice for the snoozing person to open their eyes to natural light instead of the bright artificial kind.
The red fingers of dawn were only just beginning to unfurl over the horizon, painting the distant hillsides and little cityscapes in a warm amber glow as night was chased away. She admired the illusion of colour, the birth of a new day, before it got incredibly boring and she went back to scrolling through her personal collection of articles that would help her over the next few days.
"5 Secrets to Make People Like You."
A truly remarkable article title.
Already, Peridot could feel her conscience slipping away into overthinking at least twenty-three different scenarios where she would fail at absolutely everything when it came down to making acquaintance at her new university. She let out something between a whimper and a groan just thinking of all that she'd be subjected to soon.
Her previous place of education, Empire State University, had lacked the extensive computer program courses that Peridot's desired field of pursuit demanded. Or, rather, the courses that her mother demanded she be trained in. Not that Peridot didn't enjoy tacking in numbers and generating programs and applications; if anything, the way that the codes would fit so crisply together and exploit themselves, it was a pacifier.
After some ridiculously extensive research, though to Peridot it seemed like nothing more than looking up the recipe for the tamest of souffles, she landed herself at Beach City University. Not nearly as expansive nor as notable as the profound Empire State bureau, but it fostered all of the classes that Peridot would need if she was required to take up role in her mother's company.
Key word, required. Not wanted.
Tacka-tacka.
The bus ride had been pleasant enough. No one had dared bother her in the five hours she had spent crammed between the smudged window and the dozing human beside her. Who would want to bother the small girl with the permanent frown crossing her lips?
Peridot supposed she should have been thankful for her cold semblance; then again, it didn't seem to help her case when it came down to social confidence in oneself.
Eventually the Greyhound did stop. With surprise slackening her taut features Peridot looked up from "Eleven Brilliant Ways to Turn Strangers into Friends" and saw a few people standing from their seats as an automatic feminine voice spoke, 'Beach City University'.
"Crap," Peridot spat, gathering together the scraps of paper she'd strewn across her small lap and stuffing the items into her worn leather satchel. Carefully, tediously, and most of all, awkwardly, she maneuvered herself around her snoring not-so bus companion and followed the rest of the students out of the bus and to its undercarriage to retrieve their things.
Naturally, Peridot's suitcase was easily discernible because of the small alien keychain she kept tied to its zipper. Oh, and the fact that it was a bright enough green to make people who named green as their favourite colour reconsider at least eighty percent of their life choices.
She blinked with surprise as a gangly girl with obviously black-dyed hair that would make any My Chemical Romance fan proud (with an edgy outfit to match, mind you,) nabbed a bright pink-and-white zebra case from the undercarriage. Talk about breaking character. The thought made her smirk half-heartedly.
Peridot listlessly trailed after the other group of students, keeping to the back of the small crowd that just seemed to keep growing.
The campus was nice enough. It lacked the elegance and prestige that Empire State so proudly boasted, but what it did have was things that were green and alive. A grassy courtyard stretched out, dappled with trees that were already beginning to mottle and molt with autumn yellow. The architecture itself was grandiose, she supposed, and the roses that seemed to crowd around every streetlamp and bench added a unique flush of colour.
Before she realized it, she had followed the group into a large hall, where she was victimized by a whirlwind of unfamiliar faces, packets of paper shoved into her fumbling arms, and worst of all. . . a whole room packed to the brim with people. Lots of them.
Thankfully, because she was generally familiar with university life and all the blights it had to throw at the miserable people otherwise known as its students, she felt obligated to skip out on the second half of the introductory seminar. She stuck around long enough to learn when campus tours were scheduled for the next week and what times they served breakfast and lunch in the mess hall. Last but not least, Peridot was able to snag her time table in addition to her dorm key.
Her back was aching, her left foot prosthetic's gel cap was rubbing the wrong way, and her temples were throbbing from the rumble of inane chatter that seemed to permeate every inch of the Beach City University campus. All she wanted to do was head back to her dorm and unpack, and take maybe a few days for herself to recuperate from getting caught in the thick, constricting net of socialization.
As she moved across the courtyard, following one of the cobblestone pathways that directed ambling students from building to building, she began to rifle through the papers that one of the staff had handed her.
"Peridot Diamond," she had said when she reached the long grey desk where a tall, middle-aged blonde woman in a mint-blue blouse beamed as she shuffled through the piles of paper before her. "Diamond, Diamond. . . Aha!" She pulled out the sheets with amazing precision, right out of the middle of a daunting stack of papers. "Here you are. And the name's Barbara, by the way. If anyone gives you a hard time, just call for Ol' Miller and I'll be on their case in a heartbeat. Got it, hun?"
All Peridot could do was dumbly nod and try her best not to grimace as she turned on her heel and exited the facility. If the staff here were already showing such fervid behavior, were the students she was going to be working alongside be just as. . . err, earnest?
She picked out her dorm key and followed the buildings until she came to the C wing, where she practically sprinted inside and searched for Room C:217. When the golden numbers finally appeared, thank God only on the second floor like the namesake suggested, she wasted no time in unlocking the door and rolling her things in.
The room was barren. Two simple beds sat parallel to one another, naked and grey in all their sheetless glory. An upside to them was that they were, literally, up. They sat on clean tawny drawers, and desks sat at the foot of each bed. Even though this was information Peridot had already known, courtesy of the magnificent internet, seeing it in person instead of in a student interview video alleviated some of the first-day-jitters anxiety.
Other than that, the dorm was quite plain. It wasn't cramped, per se, but it could have been a whole lot bigger.
Her first thing on the checklist: fix her damn prosthetic, because it was rubbing her stump of a limb in all the wrong ways.
Once she had re-centred the device and practiced the kneading exercises her physical therapist had instilled in her years ago, she got to work unpacking. By the time half of her suitcase had been dissected and thrown into the corresponding drawers below the bed on the right wall, the sound of a key card pinging made her jolt.
She snapped her eyes to the entrance as a short, stout girl with curly blonde hair stepped inside. She donned khakis, pink vans, and a faded green shirt with a rock emblem Peridot didn't recognize, topped off by a jean jacket. She had a large duffel bag slung over her shoulder.
When she met Peridot's eyes, she immediately became sheepish. "Oh, hi, um-" She stammered off, putting up a small hand to cup her cheek. "You must be my roommate! I'm Sadie."
"Uh- I'm surprised," were the first words to tumble out of Peridot's mouth. She was quick to palm her lips as heat filled her face. "Sorry! Peridot. My name is Peridot."
Sadie laughed, and Peridot would have shrunken in like a turtle into its shell if it hadn't been full of innocent knowing. "Well, heya Peridot. I guess I'll be taking the left bunk, huh?"
Peridot glanced over at the empty left bed, feeling a rush of culpability flood through her. "I didn't think about which bed you would want. Though, I suppose since I've already begun the unpacking process. . . "
"Oh, a bed's a bed. I don't care which one I end up crashing in," Sadie consoled as she closed the door quietly behind her and dropped her duffel on the naked mattress. "Guess I'm gonna need to go buy a bedspread. Day one and we're already en route to IKEA."
Peridot watched Sadie curiously as she rustled through the folds of the duffel and brought out a pile of slightly disheveled, but nicely folded, clothing. "It would be best if I did too," she tried, mentally fist-pumping when she spoke without the shrewdness that usually plagued her voice.
It was hard when you were just an incredibly cynical person in a world with arms held open far too wide for your liking. You ended up sounding like an egotistical jerk most of the time, even when you were just stating the blatant facts.
"You wanna go together? Since we're gonna be rooming and all."
Oh. Peridot hadn't been expecting that. She set down the green flannel pajama pants she'd been fondling and frowned to herself.
Pros of going out to shop for dorm necessities with Sadie: find said necessities, see a bit more of the town with someone who might be familiar with the environment than she, and a new friendship.
Cons of going out to shop for dorm necessities with Sadie: a new friendship.
As much as she wanted to tell herself that she was here to get her degrees in engineering and software production and nothing else. But the idea was really tempting. Plus, those articles she'd read on the Greyhound were still running across her mind and giving her some pretty crazy ideas about how to dazzle Sadie with friendship things.
And step one of that magical routine would be learning to answer questions sooner, because Sadie was now peering at her with dark eyes and a nervous little smile. "It's okay if you don't."
Peridot shook her head. "No! I'd like to. Really."
Sadie's smile widened. "All right! How about we unpack first? That way we can just tackle dorm things when we get back later."
The two ended up lapsing into a comfortable idleness as they finished unpacking, with them sharing brief backstories as to where they came from, what their majors were, what they wanted out of life. Peridot learned that Sadie was only a junior, and her mother was the zealous Barbara woman from the new student seminar. Sadie learned that Peridot came from Empire City with all its big, flashy lights and glamour.
"Don't expect the same out of Beach City," Sadie had chuckled as she dug out a small bag of hygienic tools. "It's cozy but it's remote. I've lived here all my life, so it's home."
There was something calming about Sadie's presence. She was immensely grateful for whatever that was: she seemed mature, but also kind spirited. Maybe this whole roommate thing wouldn't be so bad.
When it was time to roll out, Sadie offered to drive.
"Are you positive?" Peridot was asking as they made their way down the steps, which she focused on with all her might as to not trip and fall from disrupted balance. "The Greyhound returns in only-" she checked her wristwatch when she reached solid ground, "-twelve minutes now."
"Yeah, it's fine. My mom's not using it because she's still handing out papers to freshmen."
"If you say so."
They made their way across the campus, since Sadie's car wasn't parked in the dorm parking lots. More people were outside now, gathering together in groups and already forming friendships that would last for the rest of their college lives. If they were lucky.
As she walked with Sadie, her eyes raked over the clusters, scanning from face to face like she would see someone she recognized. There was no such luck.
Sadie's vehicle was a white Toyota Venza, with a mailman icon plastered against the driver-side door. Peridot quirked a brow as she rounded the vehicle to reach the passenger side window. "Are we gonna be making some deliveries today, as well?" She sniffed as Sadie unlocked the car and laughed. "No, but my mom works as a mailwoman. She's a real people person, so she's always pitching in with opening days all over town."
Peridot grunted with a begrudging reverence for the older woman. "Understandable. Extroverts tend to flock to where the people are, after all." How extroverts did it, however, was a mystery to her.
Sadie sighed in agreement. "Preach." She started the car and began the drive off into town.
"I wasn't aware it was possible to be caught in the kitchen section for so long," Peridot huffed grumpily as the two girls entered a pizza parlor off of the boardwalk. "My sudden fascination in napkin dispensers was out of place. And out of this generation of millennials' time frame, apparently."
"You can't top the old lady who was complaining about how that blue chair didn't have a back. The poor employee didn't have the heart to tell her that was a table for toddlers."
Peridot scrunched her nose with a snicker as she shoved her round glasses back up onto the bridge to scrutinize the restaurant. "You're right. I would have told her myself if you hadn't suggested she take a look at the chair section across the walkway."
Sadie laughed, a noise that Peridot had come to appreciate in the past two hours of furniture hell. "You looked ready to. Oh, let's sit here!"
There weren't many tables, thanks to the parlor's diminutive size, so the table Sadie suggested was right next to a table over-packed with college kids. They were talking loudly and excitedly about something, with more than one of them making erratic hand gestures to prove something.
Peridot seated herself on the chair farthest from the group while Sadie went up to the counter where a pretty dark-skinned woman scribbled their order down.
"Hey! Fluff!"
Her head snapped at attention as she noticed a few members of the other table beaming at her. The cat-caller was a short with mildly dark skin, but had a mane of lavender hair and enough ear piercings to make any old conservative have a stroke. She thought that the taller woman, dark with a rich afro, was looking at her too, but with her aviators she couldn't be sure. The third was a fair-skinned willowy woman, with short-cropped peach hair and an unsure smile.
The fourth member of the table hadn't even spared Peridot a glance, though. Peridot thought that the feeling should be mutual, then, but the more she eyed the mystery girl with the shock of blue hair, the more her longing grew.
Why it was growing? Stars if she knew. She'd give a Nobel Peace Prize to anyone who could coin the reason for it.
"Yeah, we're talking to you, friend."
"Uhhf-" Peridot sputtered, realizing she'd been staring. "Excuse me, friend? And, for that matter. . . Fluff?"
The girl with the wild dyed hair put her hands up in surrender. "Sorry. Is buddy better? Or compadre?"
"As far as I'm concerned, we are neither of those things," the blonde retorted.
This earned a snort of laughter from the blue-haired girl, who looked up to give this new sardonic stranger a proper look. Peridot blinked as she briefly met eyes with her. She had heavily freckled olive skin, bright yet indifferent brown eyes, and a messy bob cut with dark roots just becoming visible on top.
She almost missed the lavender-haired girl's next remark. "Ehh, can't diss ya there, sister. But you look new around here, is all I'm sayin'. What's your name?"
"Peridot," she supplied simply, subconsciously tucking her prosthetic foot behind her real one. She did wear men's jeans, so the extra folds in the legs would hide the truth from anyone who wasn't looking for it, but it was just a nervous habit she had picked up from her earlier school years.
"Ha! Told you she'd have a rock name! Pay up, P!"
Now it was the peach-haired woman's turn to groan. "You should know that I was never going to give you money over a silly bet on a name."
The large woman with the aviators chuckled as she leaned on the table as she fixed Peridot with an expressionless face. Or, at least, Peridot thought she was looking at her. Sunglasses always made it harder to read people, especially for her.
"You'll need to excuse them. My name is Garnet, and these two are Amethyst and Pearl." She gestured to each person respectively. "And this is Lapis Lazuli."
"Just Lapis," said blue girl corrected, looking at Peridot again. And again, Peridot could feel her body seize with that sensation she couldn't name.
"Yeah, I was just, like, really sure you were named after some kind of gemstone, too," Amethyst butted in. "It's super common, apparently. So, Peri, what bri-"
"Peridot."
"Okay, Peri, what brings you to Beach City? You going to University like the rest of us?"
Peridot didn't have to answer any of these questions. She wasn't obligated to, and where in the name of all that is good and holy was Sadie? Did she ditch her? When it looked like Amethyst wasn't going to let her get away with not answering, she sighed and humored her. "If you must know, yes. I'm getting my bachelor's degree in engineering technologies."
Pearl perked up. "Oh? What a coincidence! My major is in technical engineering, as well."
Peridot did have to admit that seeing another woman in the field was a comfort. Far too many times was she shoved into a classroom full of incredibly nerdy men, but on the other hand, she was just a very nerdy girl when it came down to bare bones.
"So, does that mean you're good with technology and machines and stuff?" Asked Amethyst, who had a knowing smirk on her face. Peridot should answer with pride, she decided.
"I'm good with technology and machines and stuff because it's my major, yes. It'd be stupid if I wasn't." She combed her fingers through her short, thick blonde hair exasperatedly. She was really nailing this establishing relationships thing. That was sarcasm.
"Awesome! Garnet, she should totally join the Crystal Gems!" Amethyst pounded Garnet's shoulder enthusiastically. "The missing link!"
"Amethyst," Pearl twittered, shaking her head at the darker girl, "it must be her first day! She can't possibly take that role on- look, she's as pale as a ghost!"
Pearl wasn't wrong. Peridot had dropped at least twenty degrees and as many shades paler. She didn't know what this Crystal Gems society was, but she knew she wasn't interested from the moment it was suggested.
"Hmm. She should hear about it before you make that decision for her, Pearl," Garnet surmised. "The Crystal Gems are Beach City University's one act play group. We travel from city to city, competing against their respective campuses for title crowns. Our latest lights technician graduated last year, and we've been searching for his replacement since he walked the red carpet to receive his diploma. If we're to advance this year. . . "
"We're going to need a light person," Pearl finished with a sigh. "We can't go on without one. Backstage lighting can only provide so much."
Peridot sent Pearl a questioning glance. "Why don't you do the lights then?"
Pearl nervously tittered. "No, they need me backstage to direct the cast! The last time I tried to operate the booth, a curtain fell and Alexandrite missed two of her costume changes!"
Peridot's lips twisted into an uncertain scowl. She came to the college to get her degree and graduate. Meeting a few people along the way, perhaps, but nothing would deter her from getting her education sealed with a fancy red ribbon. Maybe a robotics club meet or two, but nothing more.
Besides, a theatre troupe? She would be more out of place there than she would in a junior wrestling competition for the ages.
Fortunately, she didn't need to deal with the rambunctious lot any further because Sadie slid back in, holding a small box of deep dish pizza. "They were all out of pepperoni, apparently, so I just got cheese. Hope that's fine."
Peridot sighed with relief. With a name like Fish Stew Pizza, her primary concern was that every dish served would be served with some sort of seafood. "No, that's a relief if anything," she relieved.
Sadie's intervention seemed to alleviate some of the attention from the other table. While she was munching hungrily on her slices, however, she did spot them giving her thoughtful glances every once in a while.
Everyone but Lapis Lazuli. Why did that disappoint her?
"We can take what's left back to the dorms," mused her roommate after a second slice.
"We'd better hide it then. I hear that college kids can smell pizza from a mile away," Peridot remarked.
Sadie bit her lip as she resealed the box after Peridot had plucked her third and last slice from it. "We'll hide it in the shopping bags, then! They'll be deterred by the scent of shampoo and toothpaste."
Peridot stuffed the cheesy morsel between her lips, folding up the flimsy paper plates into neat squares as Sadie bid farewell to the other people in the restaurant. They made way to the entrance, and Peridot shoved what she didn't finish of her slice into the trash can.
Before she could leave, she felt a warm hand clap her shoulder. Her head spun as she glowered at Garnet, who towered over her measly 5'2. "Give it some thought, Peridot. You can find us in the theatre department, in the art district of campus."
Peridot ducked out from the tall woman's grasp and turned to give her table a watchful glare. Pearl and Amethyst were bickering over something, but she noticed with a slight heart palpitation that Lapis Lazuli was watching her. As soon as they met eyes though, both quickly darted their gazes away.
"I'll- I'll think about it," Peridot grumbled as she weakly nodded to the woman and left the pizza parlor. She wasn't going to think about it. Her, joining some drama group?
Ha! That was ridiculous.
The blonde sagged with reassurance when she saw Sadie waiting for her in the car at the end of the pier, flashing her lights on.
"I take it you made some friends while I talked with Kiki," the driver commented as Peridot clambered into shotgun. Kiki must have been the girl behind the counter.
"I wouldn't call it making friends," Peridot scoffed. "It was more like a one-sided battle against theatrical peer pressure."
"Yeah, the Crystal Gems can be like that." Sadie started the ignition and reversed out of the boardwalk parking lot. "Especially when they're desperate."
Peridot blinked. "You know them?"
"Well, yeah. They're pretty popular. And they're always looking for new recruits; I've considered joining them, but. . ." Colour flushed the short girl's cheeks. "I couldn't stand being on stage. Never have. Especially not after the incident at Beach-a-Palooza."
"Beach-a-what now?"
Sadie shook her head. "A story for another time. Let's get back before dorm refills when everyone gets back from scrounging for food."