Aerith: Ah, character development. It's kind of like coffee. Too little, and you feel deprived and hungover. Too much is just bad for you. That was a terrible analogy, I know :P but you know its true. Anyways, enjoy this chapter...the plot is about to get started...
Yuna: Speaking of bad analogies...ah, never mind. The two roommates are presented in this chapter (yay!), and we more special guests. And as Aerith said, it's pretty much character development. We tried to make it interesting, though. Hopefully we'll update soon...otherwise, enjoy! (I know, I suck at author's notes...)
Chapter 2: Roommates
The walk to the dorms was relatively quick with the map we were given. We passed throngs of students, all who seemed to take notice of us, much to our chagrin. Whispers followed us like mosquitoes as we made our way up a curving staircase and into the hallway that had a plaque labelled, 'Dorms'. It was low ceilinged compared to the rest of the school, with dim lighting and carpeted floors. At the far end, I could see a lounge and a group of students leaving it. We were just entering the hallway when the group passed us...actually, make that crashed into us. They didn't seem to come within a five foot radius of us, so they just stopped and stared at us like we were circus attractions.
"Oh, whaddya know..." A blonde-haired girl with large hairpins and excessive makeup sneered, glancing appraisingly at the two of us. "...Newbies." She was currently hanging onto the arm of a spiky haired redhead, who smirked widely at us and looked us up and down in an entirely uncomfortable manner.
"Look at them, they're so small," said a tall silver-haired girl who somehow managed to make the chaste uniform look like a clubbing outfit. Despite myself, I wondered how in Gaia's name she had managed to get past school regulations wearing it like that.
"So is your uniform." I remarked, smiling at her.
"Ooh, they're sassy, too," she hissed, baring her teeth in a cruel looking smile. "Well, we'll teach them their place here, won't we?" There were murmurs of agreement and a few evil sounding laughs. These kids sure weren't your normal clique, that was for sure...
"What, that we're above you?" I questioned.
"Yeah, who says wearing way too much horrible makeup makes you any better?" Nila added icily with an innocent smile up at the girl. Despite the fact that she still looked about fourteen, with her dark hair in a braid and wide brown eyes, Nila could fend for herself surprisingly well.
Another murmur went around the group, this time rather angry sounding. "You've got nerve, shorty," the tall girl said disdainfully, an ugly expression passing over her face.
"The both of them, they think they're so good," the blonde girl said with a stone cold look at the both of us.
"The only egos I see are the ones belonging to all of you." I replied, crossing my arms and leveling her gaze. I had a good four inches on her, which helped.
One of the boys, a belligerent looking guy with strikingly blue hair, stepped forward, his fist raised as if to punch me. I felt Nila flinch slightly and she muttered, "Let's not cause trouble on our first day here, Ari."
"Me, trouble?" I asked, grinning.
"Come on," Nila said, grabbing my sleeve and dragging me around the group of people. Turning back to them, she smiled again and said, "Sorry, we don't want to catch the weirdness...we've heard it's contagious." Before they had time to retort, she marched down the hallway with me in tow. "Wow, we've made some great first impressions," she remarked dryly as we walked quickly in the opposite direction, not bothering to look behind us to see if they were following.
"Oh, come on. That was totally fun." I said sarcastically.
"Yeah, getting on the bad side of the most popular kids at school...that's great fun." Nila sighed exasperatedly. "Oh, look. This is your room, I think."
"Oh, that's sweet." I said, smiling at the engraved nameplate on the door. I fished through my bag and pulled out my keycard. Sliding it in, the door unlocked, and I stepped into a large room with polished wood floors and light blue walls. Obviously the girl who lived here was very beachy; the wall around her was covered with hangings of shells, and her comforter was hibiscus print. I turned back to Nila. "You can go to your room if you want."
"Sure...see you later." With a nervous smile at me, she turned and walked further down the hallway. I heard a click as her door unlocked, and the quiet sound of her shutting it.
I turned back to the room, sighing. Upon further inspection, I found that my roommate had a summoning staff. Cool...I would have to ask her about it later. There was a certain calm around her area, and I glanced back at my own bare part of the room ruefully. Time to get to work.
First, the uniform. Quickly changing into the perfectly ironed one that matched everyone else's, I opened my suitcase to the mountain of neatly folded clothes. First I organized the shirts, hanging them up on the provided hangers. I folded my gym clothes, and then hung up my jeans and shorts. I placed my shoes at the bottom, and then my towel and toiletries on the shelf. That done, I closed the closet after putting one empty suitcase in. I turned to the bed, and grabbed my sheets. After putting my sky blue mattress cover sheet on, I placed my white sheet and blue comforter on.
I was putting my suitcases under my bed when I was startled by the sound of the door opening. In haste to get myself straightened out, I whacked my head on the bed and turned to see my roommate standing there, an amused look on her face. Her chocolate brown hair was cut shoulder-length, and a long blue earring decorated with beads hung from her left ear. Her eyes were two different colors; one was blue, and one was green.
"Salutations," I said, rubbing my head and sticking my hand out. "You're Yuna Braska?"
The girl laughed. "Yes. I assume you're Ariana?" At my nod, she grinned. "I've been waiting for so long to meet you! I finally have a roommate!"
"As you saw, I'm a bit of a klutz." I said, sighing. "Also, I may look like a neat freak, but give it a day or two and everything will be strewn all over the place."
"Oh, that's alright. I'm not great at keeping things organized either," Yuna replied with a friendly smile. "You caught me on one of my better days, actually."
"Ah, that's good, I guess." I said, glancing at her side of the room. "I like your setup though."
"Thank you..." she glanced at her watch. "Hey...dinner's soon. Do you wanna head down to the dining hall? I want to introduce you to my friends."
"I think I'd like that." I said, smiling.
I timidly knocked on the door of my room, and when nobody answered, I quietly slid my keycard in and entered. The room was built in the same style as Ari's, and was certainly much bigger than the ones we had lived in at Timber Prep. Upon further inspection, I found that there was a small area to the left of the entrance for washing up, with a slightly cracked sink and shelves for storing toothbrushes and the like. A door to the bathroom to the left of the sink had been left slightly ajar.
My roommate had gone out of the way to decorate her side of the room with numerous posters of famous martial artists. A pair of leather gloves with some nasty looking metal studs lay on the desk, the only blot on an otherwise perfectly organized room. Her bedspread was decorated with chocobos; I had to stifle a laugh.
Well, it looked like my roommate would be...interesting, to say the least.
Sighing, I went to my side of the room and opened the closet. Two freshly pressed black skirts and two blue blouses hung on the hanger, and I grabbed one to try on. It fit me perfectly, surprisingly. Smiling to myself, I walked over to unpack my luggage. I had brought my old posters from my room at home, and a wave of homesickness almost drowned me as I hung them up in exactly the same places they had been before.
The desk chair I was standing on was a bit wobbly, and I almost fell off when the door suddenly unlocked and somebody walked in. I must have looked strange, with a poster of a howling wolf half on the wall and myself almost falling off the chair. Curse my affinity for bad first impressions.
"Hi." Her voice sounded friendly, at least. I turned around to smile at the girl, who admittedly was not the person I'd pin as a martial artist. She wasn't much taller than me, and was very pretty, with dark brown hair to her knees and maroon eyes accentuated by pale skin - but she looked more like the type who liked reading. "You're...Nila?"
"Yeah, that's me!" Grinning, I jumped off the chair and shook her hand. "Tifa, right?"
"Yup. You need help with those?" Tifa laughed softly at the slightly crooked job I had done hanging up my posters. I couldn't help it; I laughed too. "That would be great, thanks."
Smiling, Tifa hopped up onto the chair and straightened out the poster decorated with blue flowers I had hung above my bed. Leaving her to it, I unlocked my suitcase and sighed at the sheer amount of stuff I had to organize.
First things first. I threw my slightly worn down stuffed wolf onto the bed, and my flowery bedsheets after it. Tifa laughed again and I turned around to see her holding my stuffed toy. I blushed slightly - most eighteen year olds still didn't sleep with toys they had owned as long as they could remember...
"This is cute," she said, grinning and putting it down. Somewhere in the back of my mind, in the part that told me who was good and who wasn't, it clicked that we would become good friends. Laughing sheepishly, I replied, "Yeah...I had to bring him, even though I'm too old. Reminds me of home, you know?"
"Yeah..." There was a trace of wistfulness in her voice. "What's his name?"
"Fenrir. Tough name for a cute toy."
"Fenrir?" Tifa said, laughing slightly. "...That's the name of my friend's motorcycle."
"Oh...wow, that's so awkward." I burst out laughing despite myself. "Introduce me, I'd like to meet him and tell him that his totally masculine motorcycle shares a name with my stuffed toy."
"The fact that he never stops talking about it is kinda the funny part." she replied, her wine-colored eyes twinkling mischievously. "So I think I will."
"Oh, I'm sure..." I was giggling uncontrollably by now. Leaning against the closet door to catch my breath, I grinned and said, "Excellent, I have something to look forward to. Unpacking really puts a damper on your day, hm?"
"Yeah," she said sympathetically, moving out of the way as I threw my bundle of multicolored quilts onto the bed. "...Hey, do we have any classes together?"
"See for yourself, I haven't a clue how to read this schedule," I said dryly, reaching into my backpack and handing her the piece of paper. I resisted the childish urge to stick my tongue out at it; the brightly colored blocks of text and arrows could have been written in a different language. She examined it as I quickly stuffed my clothes into drawers, slightly embarrassed at my relative lack of them. Where I came from, having more than three different outfits was considered wasteful. I had managed to put together six, but half of them were casual sundresses that I wouldn't be wearing much anyways. I just hoped I hadn't forgotten anything at home...that sounded exactly like something I would do.
Toothbrush, check. Soap and shampoo, check. Accessory box...oh, I would kill myself if I had forgotten this one...I sighed in relief as I dug it out from the bottom of my bag. Extra pair of shoes, check. Phone...oh, Gaia, no...never mind, it was in my pocket. I quickly went around organizing my stuff, not wanting to appear like too much of a slob.
"You've got Phys Ed, Physics, and History with me," Tifa called out as I organized the area around my sink. "Thank Gaia I have someone in History now, the teacher's a bore..."
"How did you read that?" I said in awe, poking my head around the corner to look at her. "Seriously, it all looks like a bunch of letters and numbers and colors to me..."
"Yeah, it takes a while. It's not so bad, though...I know a lot of the people in your classes, I can probably get them to help you. You got a pencil on you?"
"Yup!" I scrabbled around at the bottom of my backpack and handed her one. She scribbled some things onto my schedule and handed it back to me. "There. I put all the classrooms on there and such."
"You're a lifesaver, Tifa," I said with a sigh of relief. "Thanks for all your help..."
"No problem," she said with a warm smile. "I'm glad I got you as my roommate."
Touched, I spontaneously threw my arms around her in a hug. "That's the nicest thing anybody's said to me all day, thank you!"
Laughing, she replied, "I speak the truth. Now...oh wow, dinner's in about ten minutes. We should get going...I want to introduce you to my friends."
Grinning, I dropped Fenrir back on his resting place on my pillow, and hauled my bag onto my shoulder. "Alright, let's go. I have a boy to embarrass the hell out of."
The dining hall was huge, with tables that stretched out in front of me as far as I could see. There must have been thousands, or at the very least hundreds, of students there. I felt rather overwhelmed...Timber Prep hadn't even been half this size, but Tifa looked completely relaxed. She did this every day, after all. "Let's go claim our table. This way..." She guided me through the mess of students to a table at the far end of the cafeteria, where it was exponentially quieter. "Just leave your stuff here."
"Sounds good!" I said cheerfully, dumping my bag down the bench.
"Oh, look...my friends are coming. Hey, guys!" Tifa waved her hand and dragged me over to the large table. At least a dozen people were seated there. "Okay, so there's Quistis, Selphie, Irvine, Zell, Paine -" I wanted to tell her to slow down, I had been lost at the first name, but she seemed to be on a roll. "Squall, Cloud, Yuffie, Rikku, Tidus, Yuna, Zack, and-" She stopped as she saw...Ari. "Do you know her?"
"Yeah...that's my friend, Ari. She just transferred here too." I said, waving at her. She grinned and waved back, then resumed her conversation with the brown-haired girl sitting next to her.
"Oh, well then she must be Yuna's roommate." Tifa concluded, sitting down and motioning towards the lines of people standing in line for food. "Go get something to eat! You must be starving."
"Not really, actually." Excitement did wonders for your appetite. "I'll grab something when the lines get smaller."
"If you say so..." Tifa gestured to the seat next to her. "Here, sit - oh, hey, Cloud." She smiled at a blonde boy who took his seat across from her in a way that immediately told me she had a crush on him. I grinned to myself as they struck up a conversation and turned away, not wanting to intrude.
Sitting on the other side of me was an extremely tall guy with spiky black hair and bright blue eyes. Good looking, too, if you wanted to go there. He grinned at me, and I returned his smile shyly. "Hi."
"Greetings." He stuck out his hand for me to shake, but there was a roll in it. "Sorry...hiding that from Tidus. I'm trying to chuck it at him but Irvine's head is in the way." Putting it on his knee, he stuck his hand out. "Zack Fair, senior at Deling Academy and hero in training. Nice to meet you..." He paused, realizing he didn't know my name.
"Nila...Nila Resnin. I just transferred here." It occurred to me suddenly that this was probably the guy Tifa was talking about...he certainly seemed the type, although he reminded me of a puppy more than a wolf. On an impulse I asked, "Hey, I think Tifa mentioned you..."
Tifa turned around from her conversation to see us talking and grinned. "Hey, puppy dog!" Apparently I wasn't the only one who had drawn that analogy. "She's got a stuffed wolf with the same name as your motorcycle!" she called, smirking at his dawning expression.
"And the best part is that your motorcycle will forever be mixed up with a cute and fuzzy stuffed animal," I said cheerfully to him, struggling to keep a completely straight face.
He groaned and fell dramatically onto the shoulder of the guy sitting next to him, who had long brown hair tied in a ponytail and currently had a girl with short brown hair under his arm. "Zack, get your spikes off me!" The guy said indignantly, shoving him.
"Yeah, sorry to bust up the whole, 'I'm so cool because I have a motorcycle with an amazing name,' thing you must have had going on there," I said before cracking up.
Zack leaned over, sticking his face uncomfortably close to mine. To my credit, I didn't move away. "You're evil." he managed to say before starting to laugh at my hurt expression. "Nah, I'm just kidding. I like you...you've got some spunk."
Blushing slightly at the compliment, I laughed and looked down, embarrassed. "Thanks...you know, you actually took that a lot better than I thought you would..."
"Eh, if you had said that to Cloud, or especially Squall for that matter, they would have gone ballistic." The blonde boy Tifa liked and a brown haired guy with a grumpy expression etched into his face glared at him, and the blonde flipped him off before resuming eating.
"...I can see that happening," I said, grinning. "Are they the, 'I am not compensating for anything!' type?"
"...Possibly. I wouldn't know." I had to fight the urge to say that I sincerely hoped he didn't. "Ask Tifa about Cloud." Oh, so I had been right about that. Wow, my guesses today were pretty lucky.
"Oh, well, that's awkward. So what, should I just turn around and ask, 'Hey, Tifa! Is Cloud compensating for anything?' That's not weird at all. In fact, it sounds like exactly the kind of thing I would say." Smirking and turning to Tifa, I asked, "Hey, Tifa, is Cloud compensating for anything?" I didn't miss the faint blush that appeared, although she tried to hide it. "Ask Zack if he's compensating for anything." she replied nonchalantly, looking bored.
"Hm, good point. Are you?" Fighting back a laugh at his expression, I raised an eyebrow at him. "She's got a point, you know."
"Just because I have a huge broadsword - and a rather large motorbike - does not mean I am compensating!" For a moment, he sounded like an indignant toddler.
"Broadsword?" I smirked, putting a hand over my mouth to stifle a laugh. "You do realize that did absolutely nothing to convince me, right?"
"Well, at least I don't ride in a sidecar like Cloud." He muttered mutinously, ruffling his already messy hair so that it stuck up at the back. "...Jeez, you say one thing wrong and you never live it down in this group."
"You still haven't answered my question!" I said in a singsong voice.
"Think of it as directly proportional." he said, grinning triumphantly.
I stared at him for a second before going beet red and putting my face in my hands. "Ugh," I groaned. "I should have known that one would backfire on me."
"Oh, so you're one of those math people then." Zack grinned suggestively. "I've always been interested in your species." And he was one of those sporty types, which meant that his previous statement was completely valid. Jocks were interested in my species, but not usually in a good way, as I had found out from experience. This boy didn't seem the type to bully, though. "What gave it away? My permanently distracted expression?"
"Lucky guess." He handed me a roll of bread. "Want something to eat?"
"Um...isn't that the one you were hiding from him?" I said hesitantly, pointing at the blonde-haired boy.
"Hiding from Tidus? No...I eat a lot of bread." he replied sheepishly, ruffling his hair.
"Oh, so that's where you get all your energy...the carb overload." Grinning, I took the roll from him. "Thanks, anyways."
"No problem." He suddenly grinned as if an idea had hit him. "Hey...I'd like to get to know you better...do you wanna meet up sometime?"
Willing myself not to blush, I replied innocently, "Did you just ask me out? Cause that's sure what it sounded like."
"Call it what you like. It's not everyday I meet a girl like you."
I really did blush this time...which was unusual, since I usually wasn't this easily embarrassed. "Aw, thanks...that was really nice of you. And yes, I'd love to meet up sometime."
Zack stood up, kissing my hand lightly. "I'll email you the time. I'd love to stay, but I need to leave..."
"Quite the gentleman, hm?" I said, tilting my head and grinning at him. "Hey...I don't have your number...here." Grabbing a marker out of my bag, I scribbled down my number on his hand. "Because I'm going to forget to check my email, just watch me."
"See you around." He grinned at me one last time before disappearing around a corner at the far end of the cafeteria. I found myself staring at the place he had vanished, and I mentally scolded myself. Don't go crushing on boys the first day here, Nila... He certainly was cute, though. Anybody sane could see that.
Glancing over, I saw that Ari had gotten something to eat, and was currently conversing with Tidus and her roommate, along with Cloud, and the guy I presumed to be Squall...except he looked more like he was ready to murder someone. His name certainly fit his personality...and I had thought that I was antisocial. Smirking slightly, I walked over next to Ari and sat down next to her. "Hey, what are you guys talking about?" I asked brightly.
"The mean kids," Ari said at the same time that Cloud said under his breath, "War."
"Um...what?" I asked apprehensively. War never sounded good...in any context.
"A declaration," Squall muttered, glaring at me with icy blue eyes. "...of war. Basically they will go out of their way to make your lives as miserable as possible."
"Bring it on." Ari said, glaring across the tables, her green gaze fixating on one in particular. I followed her line of sight to spot the clique sitting some distance away, laughing and talking like everybody sitting around them. "They're a bunch of amateurs. Where are they, anyway?"
"We'll get them back later," I said to her cheerfully, smirking slightly at all the possibilities of pranks.
"Well, I want to go to the library." Ari said, smiling slightly. Tapping the brunette guy, Squall, on the shoulder, she asked, "Can you show me?"
"...Yeah, I guess," he muttered after a noticeable moment of hesitation.
Read and review, please! Every critique is immensely appreciated!