Malia stared at the nail in the wall like it had personally offended her. Couldn't the old tenants have at least took all this out before leaving? She just hoped the landlady would charge them instead of charging her.

Malia sighed rolling her shoulders and went back to work. She heard the door open and voices of two people, floated through her open door. She tried not to eavesdrop, but it was hard with her super senses.

"This looks decent. Much roomier than mine for sure." A girl's voice echoed in the still empty living room.

"Yeah the rent was cheap on this one, so I grabbed it before anyone else could," The boy who answered laughed.

"Looks like your roommate has already moved in. Have you met them yet?"

"Nope. Doesn't sound like their home though."

Malia didn't move to show she was present. She got off the ladder quietly, and took out her headphones, putting a song on repeat so it would block out any sound. Plus she could use it as an excuse for her lack of presence in the living room.

It's not like the kid needed a Greeting committee or anything. She shrugged to herself and went back to work, switching her tool of choice, when the broken nail wouldn't come out.

She was absorbed in her music enough, that it took a couple moments for her to notice a presence in the room. She turned around and saw a boy leaning on the doorframe grinning at her.

"You must be my roommate."

Malia took off her headphones and replied, "Actually, I'm the one hired to patch these walls up," she deadpanned pointing to the walls in front of her.

"Funny," her new roommate gave her a look that said he was well versed in sarcasm.

"Well that is what you get for stating the obvious." Malia turned back to her work. She heard him shuffling forward.

"I'm Stiles by the way,"

"That can't be your actual name." Malia replied, struggling to get the stupid nail out. She sighed frustrated and retrieved another tool from the box.

The boy was watching her amused still, "Well, no it's not, but my name is hard to say, so I decided… Nevermind. Just call me Stiles,"

"Nice to meet you Stiles."

The room went quiet and Malia hoped it meant Stiles was discouraged to continue this ever engaging conversation, but movement told her Stiles had entered her room. She turned around holding a hammer in her hand and a screwdriver in her mouth, to see him pick up a sweatshirt that was slung on her chair.

"This is mine. Why do you have my sweatshirt?" Stiles asked confused. He narrowed his eyes, looking at her, "Topless girl?"

As her jaw dropped, the screwdriver tumbled down from her mouth and fell down the ladder steps with a loud clang. Malia pursued her lips, fighting the heat she could feel on her cheeks. This was not the kind of first impression she would have liked him to have of her. Yes, this was definitely the same boy. All his clothes smelled of the same laundry detergent. She needed to find the name of the brand.

"Not completely." She replied instead. To say this was a weird beginning was an understatement.

Stiles didn't know how to react to this situation. He was awkward by nature, but meeting your roommate for the first time and finding out she was the girl at the party was something out of a movie.

Not like something embarrassing had happened, like getting drunk and actually making out with her, but it was definitely going on his continually growing 'things I would rather didn't happen to me again' list. He played with the sweatshirt in his hands, searching for something to say.

"Weren't you going to return this to me? It's been like…a week!"

"Four days. It was four days ago," Malia said in a matter of fact tone.

"Yeah. Almost a week."

Malia made a face, sitting down on the ladder's top step. "I tried giving it to Jason to return it to you, but he said he couldn't really work with locating a 'possibly dark eyes, 5'10ish, fit and brunette' guy and he has a point."

She studied him quietly saying, "I was right on most parts. You are maybe an inch or so taller than me, plus the hair gives you the extra inch," She said gesturing above her own head.

Stiles had to grin at that, agreeing on the vagueness of his looks, since that description fit half of the male population in the party. And she had referred to him as fit. How she could have known that in the dark room was a mystery.

Malia seemed to be able to read his thoughts on that because she said, "That's how I knew you weren't Charlie. Charlie does not have abdominal muscles. He has what they call… A beer belly?"

Stiles laughed, "Okay. Right. Well this has been a sufficiently awkward second meeting. I hope for your sake, that no one ever asks about first impressions and how we met. Both times." He added.

Malia grinned thinking of her dad's reaction, if she ever told him. She was sure hearing someone refer to her as 'topless girl' would not go over well. She took a deep breath, "In that case let's start over," she reached out her hand. "Hi, my name is Malia. I am your roommate this year."

Stiles took her warm hand in his shaking it formally, "I'm Stiles. Nice to meet you, Malia." Stiles dropped her hand, looking around the room, "Well after you're done with that," he pointed to the wall, "Want to go get some lunch?"

Malia smiled. "I'll come get you,"

Stiles nodded and went into his room to unpack. Malia climbed the steps, returning to her task. She noticed Stiles had mentioned her playing with the nail at least twice, but had not offered to do it himself, once.

When she had been moving in, boys would see her struggling even a little bit and would offer to do it for her. Stiles looked like he had been around enough girls who could take care of themselves, to know not to offer unless he was asked.

She had a feeling they would get along just fine.

Malia was sitting on the one ugly couch in the living room, when Stiles came and sat on the armrest beside her. He waved a pamphlet in her face, making her jerk back to look at it. "I've found three things we could possibly do today. I say we do the Talent Show Café thing first, and then tackle the others later depending on our mood."

Malia groaned, "I told you I'm not doing any Orientation Week things. I will be so glad when it's over—the campus has been so noisy. You wouldn't know, you just got here." She curled up sitting with her feet pulled under her, her favourite book in her hand.

Stiles snatched it from her so she would give him her undivided attention, "We need to make friends, Malia."

"I have friends. Give me back my book."

"More friends."

"I have you and Andy. Isn't that enough? Why do I need more?"

Stiles opened his mouth to answer, when a short girl with curly brown hair walked in unannounced, "Okay, I checked out all the floors and didn't find a single cute guy." She gave Stiles a quick once over and turned back to Malia, "Not a single one."

"Thanks," Stiles said insulted, "like I didn't have an inferiority complex already." Who was this girl?

Malia looked between the two, sensing negative vibes, "This is just Andy's opinion. That girl who helped you move in thought you were cute," she offered hoping to diffuse the situation.

Stiles frowned, "I thought you were too busy to hear me come in? Were you eavesdropping?"

Andy looked between the two, as Malia searched for some explanation to cover her blunder. "My point still stands. That girl thought you were cute."

"Cute? Like I want to be thought of as 'cute'. People think babies and puppies are cute. Guys don't want to be known as cute."

"I am simply stating what I thought she might have been thinking. I don't actually read minds, Stiles. Maybe we should just ask her what she thought of you. Would you like that?"

Andy rolled her eyes, "As fascinating as this conversation is, Malia and I have to go." She took Malia by the arm but the other girl didn't budge.

Stiles smiled smugly, crossing his arms on his chest. "Good luck. I've been trying all evening to get her to leave."

"Why do I need to meet more people?" Malia repeated, "I have you two. That's more than enough for me." Malia pulled away from Andy's grip.

"Do you really want to limit yourself to the two of us?" Andy pointed to herself and Stiles continuing in her dry tone, "I don't know him, and even I can see your roommate is not exactly a ball of sunshine." Stiles grunted, but did not oppose her.

Malia tried searching for the right words, so her friends would stop asking her to leave with them. She had found in the days that she had been here, that people immediately would ask where she was from and what school she went to. As soon as she mentioned she was homeschooled, people would get weird around her, like that limited their chances of finding common things. It was becoming enough of a common occurrence for her to be sensitive on the subject.

"I share some things with people, and then they just are weird after. I don't wish to repeat the experience personally. You two can go though,"

Malia yanked her book back from Stiles, doing her best to ignore the two people looming over her.

Stiles' eyebrows shot up surprised and he exchanged a glance with the other girl. What could people possibly have already said to make Malia not feel like socializing anymore? It seemed like the subject really bothered her, so he tried teasing her with something random.

"What did you share? Is it something kinky like bondage?" He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Malia, instead of answering back the way he was expecting, turned toward him curiously, "What is bondage?"

Stiles cleared his throat, "Uh… I guess that's not it." Malia however did not seem to clue in to his discomfort. Or if she did, didn't understand why—looking at him like she was expecting him to explain to her what he brought up. Stiles' cheeks coloured.

"Is it binding something?"

"Sort of. More like someone. But it's done for fun?" Stiles swallowed, looking at Andy for help. Andy though seemed like she was thoroughly enjoying this.

Malia looked thoughtful, "That sounds like torture, not fun."

"Oh God," Stiles turned his eyes up to the ceiling, "I don't really know much on the subject…"

"Sure," Andy smirked.

Stiles glared at her before turning to Malia, "…it's like I tie your hands, and it's consensual because you are willingly giving up control. And then I take care of you however you like, possibly sexually. But not," He gestured to the two of them, "me and you. You as in people like… me and you." he finished, his face a bright red.

Malia nodded, "Okay. Sex with props."

"Basically." Stiles said, eager to be done with this subject. He clapped his hands, "Okay, get ready. We're going out" he said briskly.

Seeing Malia protest, he cut her off. "No. It's beautiful outside, the sun is still out. We're at least going to explore the campus if not attend some of the activities. Now go get ready," Stiles pointed to her room, clearly not taking no for an answer. Malia huffed in annoyance, but got up and left to change and get her things.

Once she left Stiles turned to the other girl, "Thanks for no help at all! Did she go to an all girls school or something? She's even more socially awkward than I am."

"I'm guessing that's saying something?" Andy said. Stiles rolled his eyes. "I'm Andy by the way."

"Stiles," he then paused, remembering something, "Wait. Andy? As in the one 'falling all over the place' at the party?"

When Malia came back she didn't question why Andy was glaring at her, or why Stiles looked so happy. She already knew these two would never be friends, so she shrugged it off. "Okay, let's go. But if it's boring, I'll leave." she warned. Stiles nodded just happy that he had succeeded in persuading her.

As they headed out, Malia turned to Stiles, "I meant to ask, what laundry detergent do you use?" Stiles' laugh could be heard echoing down the hall.

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chapter Lovelies! There's so much more to come ^^