Chapter 2: New friends and risp Autumn leaves
Sleep came fitfully that night, owing to the fact she could feel Ymir's unsettling brown gaze glowering into her back as she faced the wall. She wasn't afraid of her new room-mate, far from it in fact. She was just a little... Different than Christa had imagined. Not only had she woken up the minute Christa finally decided it was safe to go to sleep but she was intend on staring at her, arms crossed, until Christa had finally had enough and turned away.
The alarm sounded for a mere five seconds the following morning. Ymir had decided she didn't want to wake up at 7AM with the rest of the world and had subsequently thrown a pillow across the room and slammed the poor clock into the wall. Christa had spent nearly twenty minutes collecting her files and books, previously stacked neatly beside Ymir's latest murder victim, and placing them back on her desk. The clock-murderer had naturally gone back to sleep the moment the deed was done and no matter how much the blonde nagged her she would not wake up.
Exasperated and too late for breakfast, Christa hastily grabbed a notebook and a pen, resisting the urge to flip Ymir's mattress with the taller girl still on it and left to find her timetable. Standing outside the room (and slamming the door as loudly as her tiny arms could manage) she took a moment to look down the hallway. The other blonde from yesterday had just exited her room, looking to be in about a good a mood as she was yesterday when she saw the room assignments. Christa offered a tired morning smile to which the other woman nodded curtly before disappearing down the stairs.
Just as the shorter blonde began her journey down the hallway the brunette from the sandwich duo rushed out of her room.
"Morning!" Christa called out as happily as she could manage.
"I missed breakfast!" came the reply and Christa could swear she saw tears welling in the other girl's eyes.
"Umm," Christa started, "I'm sure you can find something. But let's go get our timetables first okay?"
A single tear escaped the brunette's eye but she grudgingly agreed and together the two girls made their way down to the entrance to the dorm.
"I'm Christa by the way"
"I'm hungry," the brunette sobbed.
"Well Hungry it's nice to meet you now let's go to the atrium to collect our class list," Christa chuckled. The brunette returned her laugh.
"My name's Sasha. Sasha Braus, I need to meet up with my friend Connie first but then we can all go together right?"
Christa nodded, happy to have a normal conversation finally. According to the notice-board at the bottom of the stairs class timetables could be collected from the Atrium any time after 10AM. Christa checked her watch, it was already half past. There was a loud crashing sound coming from upstairs. Christa turned sharply and almost dragged her new friend through the doorway.
"I think my room-mate's up," she said pulling Sasha even faster, moving towards the silent fountain in the middle of the campus.
Sasha was panting heavily when they reached the still stagnant waters of the water feature.
"Jesus what was all that about?" she asked through deep breaths.
"We...don't get along very well," was the only answer the blonde could give, taking a moment to sit on the edge of the fountain, wrinkling her nose at the smell of mould seeping up from it, "and I did kind of wake her up," she added sheepishly.
"Her and the rest of the hall. But you must really not get on if she made you run away like that after just one day."
Christa just shrugged. She didn't know why she felt so uneasy at the thought of Ymir seeing her, aside from the obvious rude awakening of course, but before she'd given herself the chance to over-think it they were joined by the male half of the sandwich duo.
"Morning Sasha," he called out happily. When Sasha didn't reply he looked a little concerned, "what's eating her?" he asked, jerking his thumb at his taller companion.
"I think it's more of a case of what she didn't eat," Christa replied.
Sasha pouted and looked like she was about to cry again. A small smile appeared on Connie's face.
"SHE didn't eat breakfast? Guys I think I just witnessed my first miracle!"
Christa couldn't help but chuckle out loud but quickly stopped when she saw that Sasha was indeed shedding another tear. She reached into her small bag and pulled out a cereal bar she was going to eat yesterday when she had returned from her exploration but immediately forgot about after meeting her clock-murdering room-mate. She held it out to Sasha.
"Here, it's not much but you can have it."
The brunette's cry of joy could have woken the entire campus if they weren't all already in the atrium collecting timetables. Her arms were wrapped tightly around Christa's neck faster than the blonde could duck out of her way and held her so tight she could swear Sasha was trying to break her neck. But she was glad the other girl appreciated it.
With Sasha's appetite sated, for now anyway, the three freshmen meandered their way through campus, stopping several times so Connie and Sasha could attack each other with leaves that had fallen from the trees overnight. At one point Christa was accidentally caught in the cross-fire and found herself picking damp foliage from her hair for the rest of the day.
The atrium was heaving. Hundreds of people were bustling around the large entrance hall, trying to protect the papers they had just received. One of the staff members, a tall blonde man with an even sterner gaze than Reiner, was attempting to shoo several groups of students out of the doors but with little luck. The three companions quickly split apart, yelling at each other to meet back at the fountain when they were finished and before they suffocated, and tried to find the stand where their timetables were being kept.
Christa found hers after being crushed several times by larger students. She instantly recognised the staff member behind the desk as the woman who had grinned at her yesterday while Reiner was getting the dorm assignment list.
"Hi I'm Zoe, the college councillor, and I'm guessing you are Christa Renz?" The glint in her eye unnerved Christa slightly but she said nothing merely nodded.
"I bet you're wondering how I know your name, nothing special you're just the last freshman at this desk to collect their timetable and I wanted to freak you out a little," she laughed loud enough to be heard over the drone of the other students and staff members in the room and handed Christa a hot pink piece of paper.
"If you have any scheduling problems or want to take any extra classes speak to Erwin Smith," she waved enthusiastically to the stern blonde man having a shouting match with a particularly reluctant group of students and he nodded shortly in acknowledgement, "and classes start on Monday! Good luck."
Christa nodded once more and turned to begin her journey back to the outside world when Zoe called out to her.
"Oh and any other problems come and see me, I'm here to make your college life more comfortable!"
You couldn't be making my college life more uncomfortable right now, she thought but smiled gratefully and began pushing her way through the throngs of people still arriving even though it was nearing the lunch rush. On the final push out of the atrium her head smashed into something solid, almost knocking her off her feet.
"Why the hell do you have so many leaves in your hair?" came the rough voice. Christa's heart dropped into her stomach.
"Connie and Sasha decided to have a 'leaf-ball fight'," the blonde gestured with her fingers, "I got caught in the cross-fire."
The rough voice laughed causing Christa's heart to sink further. Then a large hand began roughly pulling at some of the larger pieces of leaf jutting out of Christa's hair. The blonde swatted the hand away dismissively, turning away so they wouldn't see the tiny blush etched on her cheeks.
"It's fine Ymir I'm not a monkey I can do it myself when I get back to the dorm later. I am glad to see you're finally awake though."
Ymir blinked slowly, as if unsure how to take the familiar name-calling. Her face quickly returned to being as stoic as ever, even beginning to show the signs of that smirk that the shorter woman was starting to think always lead to trouble.
"Well yeah, no thanks to your stupid alarm clock. Who sets an alarm for seven in the morning anyway?" she said, folding her arms.
"Someone who wanted to get a head-start on her first day here," Christa answered, waltzing around the taller girl and beginning to walk away.
Ymir scoffed.
"Oh and by the way," Christa called as she moved further from her room-mate.
"What?"
"You owe me a new alarm clock!"
Christa spent the rest of the day with Sasha and Connie, who were both fortuitously on the same history course as she was. They explored the campus a little more, discovering the enormous library that would be opened to students on Monday when classes officially began. After an hour or so of exploring Sasha forced the group to head to the canteen for some 'well deserved' lunch.
They found a table they could have to themselves and sat to eat. Connie pointed his fork somewhere off to the other end of the long lunch hall.
"Hey," he said through a mouthful of food, "aren't they the two girls in our orientation group that really seemed to hate each other?"
Christa and Sasha both nodded in unison. The girl with the scarf on and the blonde from the orientation group were sat on separate tables but appeared to be facing each other purely to glower at each other more. The three new friends watched as the staring match continued for an awkward amount of time until, eventually, the black-haired girl with the scarf looked away and began talking to her companions; a scruffy-looking brown-haired boy and a blonde with a precise bowl cut. The blonde girl shrugged dismissively and continued eating.
"Hey, what's your name, Christa?" Connie asked.
"Yes, what is it?"
Connie stifled a laugh and repositioned his fork so he was pointed at the bowl-cut boy.
"He looks just like you!" He was holding in tears of laughter. Christa rolled her eyes at the childishness of it all but when she looked again she could almost see it. She wasn't going to tell Connie that though.
They spent the rest of the day outside in the grounds, Connie and Sasha having another 'leaf-ball fight' and the three new friends discussing their room arrangements.
"Wait so those two girls are actually in a room together?" Connie laughed, throwing himself down onto the dewy evening grass.
"Yep, they've already had one almost-brawl. They really don't seem to get along," Christa explained, looking to Sasha for support
"Oh yeah they almost knocked me flying down the stairs when I was trying to carry my case into my room."
Connie uttered a noise that sounded like 'huh' and yawned widely. They sat in contented silence for a while until the sun had well and truly set. The bald boy stood up first and helped each of the girls to their feet with a cheeky grin.
"What a gentlemen," Christa teased softly, giggling. Sasha just hit him on the shoulder and got up on her own, sticking her tongue out.
The short boy split off from the girls at the fountain and began his journey back to the boy's dorms which were further away from campus than the girl's. They all agreed to meet tomorrow to hang out again since they still had a few days before classes officially started. A bitter wind had picked up as the two girls shivered into their dorm and waddled up the stairs to their rooms.
"I'll see you tomorrow for breakfast?" Sasha asked hopefully.
"Of course, I wouldn't let you miss breakfast a second time!" Christa chuckled, waving her new friend off and finding the door to her own room unlocked.
A large body wrapped in a fluffy grey sweater was sleeping soundly when the blonde entered. She clicked the door closed as quietly as she could and silently changed into her pyjamas (a rather childish set with penguins on) and climbed into bed. Reaching up to her bedside table she pulled her mobile phone from the small bag and made sure to set an alarm for seven the next morning. Smirking slightly she replaced the phone in the bag, lest Ymir's killer aim claim a second victim so soon, and turned over to sleep. As soon as her head hit the pillow she was in the land of dreams.
The alarm droned on into the morning air. Christa rubbed her eyes and looked around, surprised to see her room-mate already gone. She dressed quickly and left to go and find Sasha for breakfast. Passing several people in the hallway the blonde was subjected to more than the average amount of staring, some girls even pointing and giggling to themselves.
She knocked on Sasha's door, still completely perplexed. The brunette opened and stared at Christa.
"Christa did you know there are a giant pair of boobs drawn on your forehead next to the words 'good morning sunshine'?"
The scream that followed was loud enough to wake half the college.
"YMIR I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"