Chapter 3:
The first two weeks of college flew by. Monica and Rachel got used quite fast to the new system. The lessons went way faster than high school and they had to write a whole lot faster suddenly. Although Rachel's notes were almost unreadable, thanks to Monica's need to be neat, she always had a copy of the notes Monica had rewritten after the lessons they had together. She had no idea where Monica found the time to make two copies of each paper of communication, basic advertising and basic economics. Unfortunately, Monica refused to rewrite any of the notes Rachel had written. She tried to do it two times, but both of the times she got really frustrated because she couldn't figure out what Rachel had written. She would stay up most of the night and Rachel would find her in the morning asleep on her desk with the desk lamp on. Tonight, they were sleeping their first night in their dorm again after the weekend.
Rachel woke up and her stomach was rumbling with hunger. She tried to stand up quietly so she wouldn't wake Monica. When she was out of bed and she checked Monica was in the same state of sleep as she was in when Rachel was still in bed, she took a couple of steps to her desk. Most of the time she had a couple of emergency snacks. She opened the drawer and found an empty waffle package. "Shoot!" she shout-whispered. She turned around and saw Monica's desk at the other side of the dorm. She glanced at Monica and decided to take the risk. Her stomach was actually aching at this point. At the last step, she stubbed her toe against one of the legs of the desk chair. "Ow!" She clasped her hands in front of her mouth and looked to her right.
"Rach?" Monica couldn't really see much, because she just woke up, actually jumped awake, so her eyes could only make out contours. She could see someone standing next to her desk. She looked to her left and saw Rachel's bed empty, so chances were good it was her in front of her. She got to her elbows and narrowed her eyes. "What are you doing?"
"Hi, I'm so sorry I woke you! I was really trying to be quiet and I almost succeeded, but then this stupid chair got in the way and I stubbed my toe to it."
"Okay… but why?"
"I'm just really hungry and I don't have any emergency snacks left. I wanted to see if you got any."
"Uhm, no, I don't think I have any, but Rach, it's four in the morning. Can't you wait for three more hours? The breakfast buffet is open at seven."
"No, Monica, my stomach literally aches! I can't stand it any longer. Can we please get something? Pleaseeee?"
"Damn it, you know I can't resist your pleading please. Get our key." Rachel smirked and went to her the cabinet next to her desk. She took the keys which were in a basket. Monica put on her robe and handed Rachel's robe to her. She took her slippers and followed Rachel outside their dorm. "Where are we going? It's four in the morning, nothing is gonna be open." Monica asked while going down the stairs.
"Do you have any money? We could take something of the vending machine?"
"No, it's Sunday night, well actually Monday morning", Monica shook her head to gesture it didn't matter, "Ross brings my money for the rest of the week and he always comes on Monday mornings instead of Sunday evenings so he can use dad's car."
"Shoot, my dad blocked my credit card until Wednesday, because I bought too much, so I don't have money either."
"Rach, you can't use a credit card at vending machines."
"Oh, right. Well, I don't have any cash at the moment either."
"Great! Now, what are we gonna do? Breaking into the cafeteria?" Monica jested. Rachel's face lighted up. "Oh my god, Mon, that's genius! Come on!" Monica's eyes went wide "Wait, Rach!" she almost shouted, but she just managed to regain herself and shout-whispered instead. Rachel was already on her way to the cafeteria so Monica had very little choice but to follow her. After a few fast steps, she caught on with Rachel. When they wanted to turn around the corner to get to the doors of the cafeteria, they almost crashed into someone. "Oh, I'm so sorry! Are you alright?"
"Yeah, thanks, I'm alright." The woman took a step back and a ray of moonlight fell on her.
"Phoebe?"
"Monica? Rachel? What are you guys doing here?"
"Uhm, Rachel is really hungry and we haven't any snacks nor money, so we, no she, decided to go to the cafeteria to steal food."
"Oh, good, I'm not the only one who does that," Phoebe said with a relieved sigh. Monica stared at her and Rachel smirked. "How do you guys get in? I have a key 'cause I work here. Do you have one too?"
"Damn it!" Rachel stamped her foot and crossed her arms.
"Oh, you don't, have you?" Monica and Rachel shook their heads, "I can let you in if you want. You can just never tell anyone about this. I'm not supposed to do this either, but I was starving and I figured if I only eat every two days, they won't notice."
"You only eat every two days?!" Rachel looked at her in disbelief.
"Yeah, I mean it's better than when I lived on the streets. If I ate once or twice a week I was really lucky."
"You lived on the streets?" Monica looked at her with her mouth wide.
"Yeah", Phoebe shrugged, "I saw this advertising in the paper someone left on a bench that they were looking for someone to work in a cafeteria at a University. I went to an interview the day after and they told me if no one else was going to do an interview, they would give me the job. I slept the following week on the bench in front of the university and Tuesday morning, the week for the start of the year, they said I could work for them. Because I was homeless they offered to give me a room to sleep in instead of money. That first night was magical! It was the first time in over eight years I slept on something soft." Phoebe stopped and looked at the shocked faces in front of her, "What?"
"What?! Phoebe, didn't you listen to yourself?" Monica said when it was clear Rachel wasn't going to say anything at the moment.
"Eh, it was okay. Now come on, if you want to eat something we better hurry." She began to walk to the cafeteria and Monica and Rachel followed her. "So, what do you want?"
"Is there some chocolate or something?" Rachel said, finally a bit recovered from what she just heard. "Sure! There you go. Monica, do you want something too?"
"No, I'm good. Thanks."
"Alright, I'm gonna head back to bed. I only have two more hours at most before I need to get up for my shift."
They walked out of the cafeteria and stepped into the hallway. Rachel was opening the package of her chocolate while Phoebe was closing the cafeteria. They walked to the end of the hallway and turned to their right. Rachel and Monica were walking to the stairs when they noticed Phoebe wasn't following anymore. Monica saw her walking past the toilet, waving at her. "Wait, Phoebe." Monica jogged silently toward her, "I wanted to ask if we maybe could see your room."
"Oh, sure!" Phoebe smiled and when Rachel had rejoined them she led them past the toilets to the last door on the right.
"Oh, you sleep here? I've been wondering what was behind this door from the moment we were here", Rachel said.
"Yeah, welcome", Phoebe opened her door and they entered her room. The room was really small, not bigger than one and a half meter by two. There was a mattress tossed on the floor that just fitted and the seventy centimeters of spare space were used for her work uniform and a box that said crap from the street. Phoebe looked happily at them. "So, what do you think?"
"Uhm, it's a little cramped," Rachel said. Monica decided to keep quiet a little longer. If she would start to speak now she wouldn't be able to stop about what would need to be cleaned.
"Yeah, it's not big, but I'm really happy to have my own place. I mean, sure, the bench on the left side of the big lake in central park was known to be mine, but this is a little different you know." They saw how excited and happy she was and they realized Phoebe really found this cramped, not really clean place amazing. "I think it's great!" Monica said, pretending to be excited. Phoebe smiled widely at her. "Well, though this was really great, I think we should head back to our dorm now to get at least some sleep before we have to wake up again", Rachel suggested. "Yeah, I'll see you at breakfast", Phoebe answered, "Goodnight, you guys."
Monica and Rachel stood still for a moment when they were outside. "I can't believe she thinks her place is great." Rachel broke the silence. "I know! You know, I was thinking. She's really nice, right?"
"Yes…" Rachel said tentative, sensing Monica was up to something.
"Well, I thought, maybe we could ask her to move into our dorm. She could take her mattress and put it between our bed. We have space enough and she'll be able to sleep somewhere clean."
"I knew you would comment about that. But, Monica, we barely know her. Yeah, she's cool and fun, but we've known her for a little over two weeks and this was the first time we actually had a conversation with her."
"I know, but still. Plus, she doesn't have much stuff so everything can be placed in my closet. My clothes don't take much space. You won't have to make any place in your closet."
"Alright. That was a cheap shot, but you win. Come on, let's get this over with so we can sleep." Rachel said and Monica smiled widely.
They knocked on Phoebe's door. "Hey, are you lost?" Phoebe asked.
"No, we have a question. I know we don't know each other for that long, but we wanted to ask if you would want to sleep with us in our dorm. We could sneak your mattress in now and put it between our beds I have enough space in my closet to put your other stuff." Phoebe began to clap in her hands and make little jumps while smiling the biggest smile Monica had ever seen.
"You guys! This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me", she hugged them, "Thank you!"
About half an hour later, everything was moved to Monica, Rachel and now also Phoebe's dorm. "Wow, I thought my place was pretty big, but this is gigantic! Thank you so much!"
"You're welcome. At what time do we have to set the alarm for you?"
"I have to wake up at six-thirty, but if that is too early I can try to wake up by myself."
"No, that's alright, don't worry. You just have to not talk to Rachel when you're awake because she won't do much other than grunting if you talk to her before eight."
"Alright. Sleep well! I'll see you in about an hour."
"Goodnight! Or morning? I really don't know what to say."
"Mon, stop thinking, start sleeping."