"You're sure you don't want help unpacking?"
"I can handle it, Mother. Thanks for helping get my stuff up there." Wendy Darling forced more confidence into her voice than she actually possessed. Suddenly she was not so sure she could handle anything without her parents. Who decided that at eighteen people were suddenly capable of going to school with no parents to guide them?
"Well, I guess this is it then," Mr. Darling said with a sigh. "The house will be awfully quiet without you."
"You've said that to me on move-in day for three years now," his oldest daughter Belle laughed as she unsuccessfully tried to push a few stray hairs back into her otherwise perfect dark brown ponytail. "I'll get us home for a weekend sometime next month."
"You be sure to call us if you need anything," Mrs. Darling said, her voice strained with the effort of holding back tears.
"Don't worry about us; we'll be fine. Bye, Mother . . . Dad," Belle said, briefly hugging each of her parents in turn. While she loved her parents dearly, she had learned to love the independence she had away from them, and frankly would be rather relieved when they left. It was just weird, having them on campus. As weird as it would be to go home and find Dr. Cogsworth, her strict History of Literature professor last spring, lying on her couch, his rather fat body hanging over the sides, and asking her to get him a beer.
Wendy on the other hand found herself struggling as much as her mother was not to cry. She whispered to both of her parents that she loved them as she gave them each a long embrace, and the next thing she knew, they were gone.
Belle turned to go to the junior apartments, but saw her sister uncertainly staring at Lillian Dormitory, the underclassmen girls' dorm. Gently laying a hand on Wendy's arm, the older girl said, "Hey, I know it's hard now, but give it a week and you'll feel better." When Wendy apparently refused to be comforted by this, Belle told her, "Text me if you want to eat dinner with me tonight," and promptly left for her on-campus apartment. She wasn't a particularly motherly sort of person, and she figured her sister would be better off she weren't coddled.
Wendy half smiled at Belle's retreating back and crossed the parking lot and went in the main door. The lobby was in a state of pandemonium. Luggage and bedding and laundry baskets were strewn across the floor, sophomore girls were shrieking with delight as they saw their friends, freshman girls stood uncertainly against walls, wondering where to go, and Carlotta, the dorm mom, was running about, trying to maintain some semblance of order. Wendy gingerly stepped over various suitcases and shower caddies and eventually made it to to her hall. Room 8103 was the second one on the left, and Wendy saw that there was a set of purple luggage and several cardboard boxes just to the right of the door that had not been there when she and her mother had carried her stuff in. Nervously she opened the door.
In the center of the room stood a girl with beautiful blond hair that hung to her hips. At the sound of the door, she turned around to face Wendy. The two girls stared awkwardly at each other for a moment before simultaneously saying, "Hi, I'm-"
They both giggled and the ice broke. "You must be Rapunzel."
"Zel," the girl smiled. "And you're Wendy. I was just trying to figure out how to arrange the furniture in here to open it up a bit more. Any preferences?"
Wendy was looking around the room, trying to come up with an idea, when a pretty Asian girl stepped in. "Hey, I'm Mulan, your RA. I'm in the room right across from you, so if you need anything just let me know."
"Just one question: What does RA mean?" Zel asked, her head tilted slightly to the side.
"It stands for Resident Assistant," Mulan laughed. "My phone number is posted on the bulletin board in the lobby; be sure to put it in your phones in case you lock yourselves out of your room or anything."
After the door had once again clicked shut, Wendy turned to Zel and said, "I haven't got a clue what to do with a space this small. Any ideas?"
Her green eyes lit up. "I might have a few. Let's hurry up and get done before dinner."
oooooooooo
Belle Darling's eyes scanned the crowded cafeteria tables. Shifting her heavy dinner tray in her arms, the girl glanced up at the clock on the far wall. Five o'clock. They said they would be here. And then she spotted them sitting at the table directly beneath the clock. Happily she began to weave her way through the tables claimed by the athletes, the nerds, the populars, the frat boys and sorority girls. On the car ride, Wendy had expressed her excitement about college being so different from high school with the tightly-knit system of cliques. She would be disappointed.
As she passed by one of the football players' tables, she heard a familiar whistle. "Hey there, beautiful."
Belle forced herself to ignore the arrogant voice and walked calmly to her destination. "Hey, girls-and Thomas." she added hastily.
Shrieks ensued from her friends, except for Thomas Bale, who managed to give her a friendly greeting before she was attacked with hugs. When everyone finally settled back into their seats, she queried, "How did we end up over here? You know I like to stay at least thirty-five feet away from Gaston."
"Mmm, because some freshman girls took over our old table," Jane Porter, an aspiring photographer and Belle's best friend, managed to say around a mouthful of salad. Belle looked across the room and saw that the table was indeed occupied by her sister and several other girls. A couple of guys started talking to them and sat down as well. Good. She smiled. It was hard to begrudge the loss of her friends' old hangout, for just one meal, anyway.
"Hey, where's Rory? I figured she'd come in with you." Jasmine Amari, a Middle Eastern beauty with large brown eyes, had been lab partners with Aurora "Rory" Costa, Belle's roommate, last spring and the two had quickly hit it off.
"She had to-"
"Go to the bathroom," the whole table groaned and burst out into fresh laughter.
"Who, Rory?" Mulan Fa asked as she sat down next to Jasmine, who squealed with delight as she hugged her best friend. Belle smiled at the two sophomores and stole a glance at Thomas who rolled his eyes and muttered, "Girls."
"Oh, come on, Tommy. You know you love us," Rebecca Bedard said from across from him. She expected Thomas to groan or complain or inform her that the last time he checked his name was not "Tommy" but "Thomas," but he merely gave her a small smile and continued eating his lasagna. Both of them had no siblings, and had practically adopted each other from the day they met. The other girls sometimes wondered if he'd be okay with Rebecca graduating this year, as he would still have two years left without her.
"Rory!" Jasmine shrieked as Aurora finally joined them. Everyone was friendly towards her, but since Belle has already spent a couple of hours with her organizing their apartment, Jasmine was the only one of who could be said to be excited to see her. The slender blonde was shy and reserved when she wasn't dancing onstage, and she spent most of her time with a commuter, Ella, usually only joining the group when Ella wasn't on campus. Jasmine wished that it weren't just her and Belle who actually tried to get to know her. It always took time and effort to get her to open up, but when she did she was so sweet and surprisingly really fun.
"So, Becca, have you seen a certain John Smith yet?" Jane shot across the table, smiling mischievously.
Rebecca blushed. "He won't get here for another hour. He got caught in two traffic jams today." First Jane and then Mulan began to send her a barrage of questions about what the two had done over the summer. Rebecca had never had a boyfriend until she and John met last April. He was a football player, so they didn't have any friends in common, a fact which sometimes made Rebecca feel a bit awkward about talking about him with her friends. Jane was a bit of a hopeless romantic, and though Mulan always meant well she had never been known for her tactfulness, so it didn't look as though either would be ready to let up very soon. Thomas suddenly cleared his throat and asked what everyone's class schedules were. Jasmine and Belle quickly caught on and soon had the others comparing their fall courses. Aurora, ever the quiet observer, watched in amusement. She was happy to see everyone, but if she were honest with herself she knew that she'd have preferred to spend her night with Ella. She often felt lonely even surrounded by friends.
oooooooooo
Andy Stockwell stared at the number above the door. Room 807. This was supposed to be where his freshman orientation group met. But why would a room full of eighteen-year-olds be so quiet? He pushed open the door and quickly realized he was probably in for a very boring orientation. Already there were at least a dozen people sitting at desks, and all of them were staring fixedly at their phones.
All except one dark-haired girl who sat primly on top of a desk to one side of the room. She was so pale that for a moment Andy wondered if something was wrong, but as she was calmly watching all the others with mild interest he decided she was just naturally fair-skinned. As he walked over and sat down on the desk next to hers, she watched him, her expression unchanging except for a slight tilt of head.
"Hey. I'm Andy."
"Your nametag says 'Ferdinand,'" the girl observed.
He chuckled nervously. "Yeah, I put 'Andy' as my preferred name on all my paperwork, but they still put 'Ferdinand' on this thing."
"I don't understand why you'd prefer to be called something other than your name-it's a perfectly acceptable one. My name is Sara White. I'm sure you can read, and as I am also wearing a name tag it is unnecessary for me to tell you my name. But our society's current etiquette dictates that the proper way to greet someone one has not previously met is by introducing oneself. So actually it's the name tags that are unnecessary." She said all of this seemingly in one breath, and in so serious a manner that Andy began to consider pulling out his phone like everyone else. But then he noticed that her eyes were alight with mischief.
"Ah, yes," he agreed, copying her serious tone. "It seems a waste to use resources to create items which so interfere with our social customs. Just think of what else these could be used for."
"Showing off our favorite movie quotes."
"Displaying our blood types in case we're all injured in an explosion."
"Assuming said explosion does not destroy the blood type tags, I'm sure the medical community would find that quite useful."
As they continued discussing the potential uses of name tags, Andy marveled at this Sara's peculiar sense of humor. She was, frankly, weird, but in a Luna Lovegood kind of way, and he was actually having a lot of fun. Maybe this orientation thing wouldn't be so boring after all.
Sara, for her part, was thrilled that this guy seemed to enjoy talking to her. She was used to people finding some excuse to quickly leave the conversation after meeting her. Before they became friends after discovering their mutual love of Stephen Sondheim musicals and Twizzlers, she had been able to tell that her roommate Ariel had wished she weren't stuck with her. It would be nice to have a friend among this group of text addicts for the next couple of days.
oooooooooo
Ella sat back on her heels and inspected her work. The kitchen floor was now literally shining. It had better be; I've had plenty of practice scrubbing floors, she thought grimly. She stood up and and stared in disbelief at the clock on the oven. It was almost midnight already, and she had her first class at eight o'clock in the morning. Muscles aching, the girl passed through her living room and into the bathroom. As she brushed her teeth, she examined the living room out of the corner of her eye. The apartment was still just so dirty. Maybe she could stay up awhile longer and work on it some more.
No. Bad idea. School had to be her top priority, and to do well in it she needed her sleep. Ella knew she should be grateful she had a place to live at all. While scholarships covered the cost of tuition, and an assortment of cleaning jobs put food on the table, the fact was she simply couldn't afford housing on her own, and her family refused to help her in any way. Somehow her godmother Farrah had pulled some strings and found her this tiny apartment for a ridiculously low rent. The kindly older woman had also found Ella her apartment she'd had the previous year of school, but a few weeks ago Radcliffe, the owner, had decided to sell the apartment complex. This new place needed some work, but overall Ella rather liked it.
After the girl had pulled on an old t shirt and pajama bottoms and snuggled into bed, her phone went off. Groggily, she flipped it open and saw that she'd gotten a text from Aurora: "Missed seeing you today! I'll drop by tomorrow morning before your first class to see your new place. :) "
Ella smiled. She'd never really had any friends before she met Aurora-her family had always gotten in the way-and she'd missed the girl over the summer. Still, even though her friend was truly the best she could have ever hoped for, she sometimes still felt lonely, as though there were a place in her heart that could just never be filled. Wait, now she was just being melodramatic. Like, a Hallmark movie melodramatic. Or was she? Ella mulled over this till she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
This is my first Disney fanfic; I'll be including most major characters from the first fifty Walt Disney Animated Studios films (aka through Tangled), so if you haven't seen your favorite character yet, fear not! They're probably on the way!
Anyway, I'm gonna try to update about once a week, at least till school starts up again. Reviews would be seriously appreciated! I'm also willing to take requests for a scene you'd like to see-if it doesn't conflict with my plot outline I've created I just may put it in here!
Thanks for reading!