AU; Naomi and Emily love story. Enjoy!
Chapter One: Late Arrival - Tuesday
Emily finished unfolding her clothes and storing them in the wardrobe beside the door. She slid her suitcase beneath her raised bed and turned around to see the completion of her efforts. She crossed her arms and smiled before reaching across her bed to fix a picture of her family that hadn't been hung properly. Today, she had just moved into her dorm, a term late from having traveled across America before deciding to begin her studies. Freddie, the tall and lanky boy, with shaggy black hair and olive skin had helped her bring all her belongings up to her room. He lived in the room across the hall and seemed like a nice boy. He had left her for a while when she began unloading her clothes but returned now with a knock at the door.
The small brunette was snapped out of admiring her room and brought her attention to the knock. She answered the door, smiling once it revealed the helpful boy, and stood aside to let him in. "Come to see the finishing look have you?" Freddie was smart enough to know that the correct behavior was to say something nice about the room. She was looking for validation of her efforts and he gave it to her, "I think it's great, Emily. I uh… especially like what you did with your photos here." He pointed to the wall behind her desk, opposite her bed. She had covered that wall with her personal photography, mostly only of nature with occasional snapshots of random people from afar. He acted as though he was paying attention to specific ones and noticed her proud look.
"Thanks." Emily mumbled shyly before her stomach rumbled. "Hungry, eh?" Freddie turned to her amused. "Actually, yeah. I haven't eaten since breakfast; I'm starved." "Well, I'm sorry I can't join you for dinner. I've got a band meeting in fifteen, but I could walk you down to the cafeteria?" The girl frowned but hid it well and grabbed her iPod and phone and stored them in the back pocket of her tight jeans. "Don't forget your room key, it's an arse getting a new one if you get locked out of your room or lose it." Emily put her key card into the case on her university lanyard that also held her student I.D. and hung it around her neck. Freddie held the door open for her and closed it behind them before guiding them towards the elevators. "Where's the staircase?" The girl asked, not interested in getting lazy during her college career. Freddie rubbed his neck sheepishly and turned away from the elevator and led her through the nearby side door.
They went down six flights of stairs and Emily still had an easy spring in her step but Freddie was a bit winded. He was definitely out of shape but Emily avoided embarrassing him and looked the other way while he caught his breath. A moment later they were slowly walking through the lobby that was crowded with students. "It's nearly seven, which is right after all the day courses end and an hour before the evening courses begin so it gets most crowded now. I tend to avoid the rush but it's good if you want to meet new people. So… on that note, I'll leave you to it. Have a goodnight, Emily, was nice to meet you." "Yeah, thank you so much for helping me move in and showing me around, Freddie." "No problem. See you around?" "Sure." Freddie nodded and gave her a small smile before passing a group of students and exiting the building.
Emily took a deep breath and watched the intimidating crowd herd themselves into the food court, each taking their turn to swipe their student I.D. at the doorway. She couldn't even see inside the actual room because there were so many people in the way. Her shorter height, not below average, but still not exactly that close to that majority of students here, was also contributing to her lack of ability to see over them. She maneuvered her way closer and realized they were in some kind of haphazard line and settled in. It moved quickly and she made sure to have her I.D. ready to swipe. The student at the desk had his feet propped up and wasn't even paying attention to them, letting people swipe their own cards as they passed him. She noticed several people dishonestly not even bothering to swipe at all and bit her lip when it came her turn. Being her first time using her card she wasn't sure what side she was supposed to use, ultimately affecting how smoothly the line had been moving. A few people behind her mumbled and complained while the person at the desk finally looked up from his magazine to rescue Emily from her discomfort. She was expecting him to be rude and impatient with her lack of experience but instead he asked her if she was new and then showed her how to do it. Emily moved aside for the others while he kindly explained what to expect in the cafeteria. She understood though that despite his kindness this guy wasn't going to be a valuable friend because he kept glancing at her tits between words.
"Uh, yeah, thank you, I think I've got it." She shuffled away from him quickly and found herself standing in a massive room full of tables and more lines of students. She almost wanted to leave because of how socially intimidating it was for everyone to be talking so loudly and knowing so many people. She inwardly cursed herself for missing the orientation and starting late, clearly missing the point when many other people would be just as socially out of the loop as she felt right now. Emily practically jumped when someone from behind tapped on her shoulder. "What the fuck?" She whispered before turning around and seeing a brightly dressed girl with blonde hair. "Ello! I noticed you were new here and thought you might need some help!" She was shouting and her enthusiasm caused Emily to glance around and see if anyone was staring; surprisingly, they weren't. Slightly embarrassed, Emily answered, "Yeah, I started late after traveling America for a bit. Haven't had much time to get to know the campus and how it works yet." "Whizzer! Traveling America? I want to go to Hollywood one day and meet all the celebrities; Zac Efron is so lush I just want to make monkey and eat doughnuts with him all day long!" Emily choked on her tongue a bit when she said, "make monkey" but managed to recover. The blonde was oblivious to Emily's reaction and introduced herself. "I'm Pandora Moon by the way, my friends call me Panda though! You can be one of my friends and call me Panda too, if you'd like." "Uh yeah, sure, I'm Emily Fitch."
Together they moved forward and grabbed trays while Panda guided Emily through the various types of food available. "They make amazing pancakes here! You've got to try them!" "For dinner?" "Oh Emily, if you restrict yourself food based on time relative norms you're going to be missing out some magically delicious meals." "Isn't magically delicious attributed to Lucky Charms cereal?" "Exactly my point Emily, cereal makes an excellent dinner!" The brunette followed the blonde towards the cereal line but didn't make a bowl like her counterpart. She watched bewildered as her new friend took a sampling of all twenty of the cereals available and mixed them together before adding milk. "I like to call this the 'Pandapop Mix,' you've got to try it, it's fantastic Emily!" "I think I'm going to pass Panda, I may just have some pasta and the grilled vegetables that smell like fucking heaven…" Pandora shrugged and tailed Emily as she allowed the drifting scent lead her to their source. After taking a questionably large serving for her actual petite frame, Emily grabbed some cold water from the dispenser and avoided a careless student that almost knocked her tray over.
Despite Emily's protests that it would be impossible to find, Pandora found them an empty table among all the other filled ones. They sat across from each other and began their ravenous attacks on their food. After a couple minutes of silent eating, the brunette leaned back in her chair and rubbed her stomach, preparing it for the next few bites, and smiled at Pandora who was humming in delight with each munch. "So Panda, what are you studying?" Her face lit up excitably at Emily's question, "I was going to be a cosmetologist but after taking a few courses, they turned out right boring. This term I switched my courses into the culinary arts program. We do loads of cooking everyday and it's very hands on, it's loads of fun! The professor is like a mad scientist when it comes to flavors! He's always pushing us to create new things. He's brilliant! One time we spent an entire day just trying random things with melted chocolate, you would not believe some of the combinations that ended up tasting mouth-watering good!"
"That sounds wonderful Panda, you may even tempt me to join you. I love chocolate." Emily smiled. They each had a few more spoonfuls before Panda returned the question. "I'm minoring in photography and majoring to be a nurse, I think." Although it was definite she was pursuing those degrees, Emily added "I think" because most people she met had not supported her decisions and made her less confident talking about them. "Wow, that's blinkin' hard work doing two degrees; you must be crazy smart!" Emily blushed, shocked at the positive and unexpectedly encouraging response. "Well photography is more of a hobby that I just want to learn more about. I don't think I'm that smart." "Hogswash! I bet you graduated at the top of your college! I bet you'll make an amazing nurse, Emily!" "Thanks, Panda, you're too kind," Emily added genuinely. After an hour of meaningless chatter they both emptied their plates and returned their trays to the washing area and left the cafeteria. They realized Panda lived only a few doors down from Emily and swapped numbers before agreeing to meet up the following day and going their separate ways.
Emily smiled to herself for successfully making a new friend even after she had doubted her luck. Panda had an infectious enthusiasm that would be healthy to be around and cheer her up when she needed it, she thought. Just as she was about to take off her clothes and call it a night after a long day, she noticed music playing across the hall. Emily held still for a moment to try and make it out more clearly and realized it was not someone's iPod or stereo; that someone was actually practicing a relaxing melody on a ukulele. She was reminded of the iPod she had in her pocket because she had thought before that she would just listen to it while eating alone if she had not met Panda, or anyone for that matter. Removing it from her pocket she placed it on her desk and plugged it into her laptop to charge, along with her mobile.
Emily opened the laptop and logged into her student account and checked her courses to make sure the university had not made any surprising changes. As soon as tomorrow she would start taking physics, which she was dreading, as well as a few other science and English oriented classes. Tuesdays and Thursdays looked to be her most busy days of the week starting at nine a.m. and ending at five p.m. She was glad that her term was starting on Wednesday so she would have at least an easy day to get back into the taking notes and learning mode before the more studious days ahead. An hour and a half later, Emily had memorized the directions to each of the buildings her classes were taught and had learned the names of surrounding places to eat. She also checked out some job listings, realizing she was going to need a steady income to be able to go out to the city and have some fun on the weekends.
The petite girl closed her laptop and removed all her clothes aside from her underwear, thankful she didn't have a roommate to force her to adapt to wearing actual pajamas to sleep. She turned off the lights and climbed into bed. As she snuggled under her black comforter and closed her eyes she mentally planned out her next day, like she did every night, and decided she would make time to give her resume to the pizza shop across the dorm. Only a few anxious thoughts about hoping to meet more people tomorrow entered her head before the sound her mobile vibrating on her wooden desk startled her. She sleepily scooted to the edge of her bed and slowly removed the gap between her feet and the floor before dragging herself to her desk. Her eyes squinted at the brightness of her mobile until they adjusted and made out that she received a new text message. She opened it and read the long text tiredly, "Hey Emily, it's me, Panda, in case you didn't realize… I'm going to bed now because I start classes early tomorrow, but I just wanted to wish you a goodnight, especially because it's the first time your sleeping in the dorm! If you get scared of monsters in the closet feel free to intrude my room, my roommate isn't around much to complain! Sweet dreams! HUGS AND BUTTERFLIES – PANDA" She quickly replied, "Thanks Panda, same applies to you and the monsters and intruding… goodnight! – xo Emily."
Not wanting to be disturbed again when so close to drifting off, Emily turned her phone to silent before crawling back into bed. It was only a matter of a few minutes before sleep consumed her wandering mind in preparation for the next day…
Thank you for reading! Feel free to comment/review and make my day! I'll do my best to update soon.