There we go. A bit shorter chapter, but I felt like where I stopped was a pretty good place to end the chapter. I hope you like their first day in their dorms and meeting their roommates for the first time.

Chapter 33: Off to college we go

"Yes?!" Piper answered her phone that had been ringing for a bit, still half asleep.

"Hi Piper, it's Michael. Is it a bad time?" Michael greeted her.

"Ugh, what time is it?" Piper asked, she had no clue.

"About two. In the afternoon. Did I just wake you up?" Michael said a bit incredulous.

"Oh, wow. Uh, well I was half awake already, I guess." Piper told him "You just sped up waking up. What's up?"

"Well, you asked me to tell you how telling my parents was." he reminded her.

"Oh right. Tell me!" she said a bit too loud which caused Alex, who was still asleep next to her, to grumble and pull her blanket over her head.

"Haha, was that Alex grumbling? You two had a long night as it seems." Michael laughed. "It actually went really well. They already suspected that I might come to them with something like this. They said it's been a bit too suspicious how I brought up the topic in different situations again and again. I am soooo relieved that it's finally out and they know. And I am so happy that they were so understanding and open." he went on sounding truly blissful.

"That's great. I am so happy for you. Have you told them about Jack?" Piper replied, knowing how he felt, she had been so relieved after telling her parents too.

"I did. And their first question was when they get to meet him. So it went so much better than I expected." Michael said. "They really didn't give anything away so far that they would be as accepting as they are about homosexuality."

"That's great to hear." Piper said sincerely.

"So, I've gotta go, but we'll talk soon again, okay?" Michael shortly said, seeming distracted by something.

"Sure. Bye." Piper replied and the call ended.

She turned to Alex and slid under her blanket that still covered her completely. She snuggled up to Alex, who had fallen back asleep but began to stir a little now that she felt Piper moving next to her.

"Good morning, my beautiful girlfriend." she whispered.

"Morning." Alex mumbled back, without moving or opening her eyes. "And I doubt that. I am sure if I got up I have a big pillow impression over my face and very messy hair."

Piper chuckled, "You still look beautiful." She gave Alex a kiss on the cheek and just stayed like that snuggled up to her and embraced the moment. This moment so cosy and comfortable was way to nice to disturb it. Even if she felt hungry, she also didn't want to get or move at all.

They stayed like that until Alex's stomach started grumbling too and they eventually got up to get something to eat.

XXXXX

The rest of their time until they had to pack for college went by pretty fast. They celebrated this years birthdays together as they had done so many years. Only this year they went all out, having a huge party with all of their friends and the whole family. It was not like they wouldn't be home for their birthdays the following year, but this felt like they finished a big and important chapter of their life and they both agreed this deserved a huge party.

A week after Piper's birthday they went on vacation together again and had the best time, and just like the last time they had gone to the beach. Only this time they decided to go to a place more in the mountains but also not too far from the coast so they could go to the beach but also go for a hike as they planned to do. They took a two day hiking trip and slept in the tent, which they had borrowed from Alex's parents. That night of all nights was unexpectedly cold and both girls found themselves lucky, as they had borrowed the sleeping bags from Diane and Louis too and they were built to be joined with the zippers in the middle to make one sleeping bag for two people. That helped with the cold a lot, as they could cuddle up and keep each other warm. After their cold night that hiking trip went on as they had planned it and seeing that they had five more days of vacation they spent most of the remaining days at the beach or exploring their surroundings.

After they came back from their trip, they started planning what both of them needed to take with them, when they moved into their dorm rooms. Piper, as she was the more organized of the two, made a long checklist of things they needed to bring and might still need to buy. She had organized everything in different topics from stationary stuff to clothes to entertainment and toiletries. First Alex made fun of her for planning everything so detailed and taking that list so seriously, but later when it came to actually packing, she was quite happy that she had the list and apologized to Piper. Eventually they had packed everything into the car Piper's parents had given her for her birthday and the graduation and said goodbye to their families and friends. Or rather Nicky, as Polly had already left for LA a week before as their moving in day was earlier. Both sets of parents had trouble saying goodbye to their daughter. They had known that this day would come but still letting go of their oldest child wasn't easy for either of the four.

While Piper and Alex were driving both felt nervous and anxious but at the same time excited for their new ex perience. Both were so immersed in their thoughts that no one said anything. The drive wasn't very long as they didn't live very far away, unlike Polly who had applied at and gotten into UCLA and had a much longer way to go home.

"What is it that makes you nervous the most?" Alex asked Piper after a while.

"Mhm. Good question. I don't know. Maybe that everything is going to be different and too many things will change. I know change is good and it makes us move forward, but it can be quite scary if your whole life changes all at once. I'm a little nervous about how it will affect us and our relationship, to be honest. " Piper honestly told her. "But I am also happy we go through all this together. It's nice knowing that you'll live in the same building and I can just go down the hall and visit you when I feel like it."

"I agree. I like the thought that you aren't so far away and we aren't living on opposite sides of the campus. I don't know how it'll change us or our relationship. But I know that no matter what will be, I will fight to be with you if I have to. I'm confident though, that, if we're honest with each other and talk about everything, changes in our life won't affect our relationship." Alex explained.

"You're right. Maybe I'm just worrying too much." Piper replied.

They kept talking until a couple minutes later they arrived at the campus. Alex was proud, that Piper felt comfortable and safe enough to voice her worries like that. If both of them managed to communicate their worries and feelings like that in future, Alex didn't worry about keeping their relationship as close and strong as it had been so far.

Piper parked the car in a parking spot close to their dorm and they walked to the office they had been asked to report to upon arrival. There they would get their keys and a short introduction.

In the office they met a whole group of other girls their age, some in company of a parent or friend, who obviously had just arrived too. The lady from the housing department introduced herself as Mrs. Talbot.

After she gestured everyone to calm down and stop talking she shortly stated a few things:

"Hello every one. Welcome at Smith. I hope all of you have a good start at our great college here. I will ask you, as so many students arrived at the same time, to make a line beginning here at my desk. Please state your name, the house you'll be living in and the room number. You should've all gotten a letter with your house and room assignment. I'll hand you your keys and a pamphlet with all the basic information and the rules you'll have to obey, if you want to stay in the dorms. After that please report to the office for the department of your course of studies. There you'll get information about when and where your introductory courses will be. That everything from me, now please get in line and come pick up your keys."

It took about ten minutes until Piper and Alex both had their keys and could go on. As they had to go to different offices for their information about the introductory courses they agreed to meet at the car to move their things into their rooms as soon as they were trough with all the paperwork and could go over to explore the dorm.

Piper was done first and waited leaned at her car for Alex to have finished with everything. About five minutes later she saw her girlfriend strolling over, she was talking to someone and seemed quite occupied with their conversation.

When they came closer Alex turned to look at Piper. "Hey, Pipes. This is Ashley, my dorm mate. Funny coincidence but we picked the same major, so we met at the office to pick up the infos. Ashley, this is Piper, my girlfriend. She's living in the same dorm but a couple rooms away, so basically down the hallway or so." she introduced them.

Piper replied with a short "Hi." and a friendly smile.

"Uh, hi. Girlfriend? So you are gay?" Ashley asked. "I mean, not that it matters."

"Yes, I am. Is that a problem?" Alex looked at her questioningly.

"No. Absolutely not." Ashley hurried to state. "But I really don't want to walk into anything, but I guess we can talk about that later."

"Sure." Alex shortly said.

"You know what I just realized, it's actually a bit unfair, you know, I mean you can visit each other just down the hall and everything, but according to the rules, I couldn't even invite my boyfriend over, as it says girls only in the dorms. Wouldn't happen often anyway, he studies at King's college in New York, you know? Oh and that means, I'm fully hetero. So don't worry that I'll steal your girlfriend or anything." she said half turned to Piper. She seemed to find her own blabbering quite funny. Alex and Piper just gave a polite smile.

"Uh, good to know, I guess. But I actually trust Alex." Piper said a bit surprised by her blabbering. It was true, she trusted Alex to not cheat on her, but if she was really honest, hearing that calmed her a little too. Not that she would ever admit that to Alex or anyone.

"Okay. I'll go get my stuff. See you in a bit. I guess, we'll get to know each other better over the next time. See you." and with that Ashley was gone.

Piper chuckled. "Seems like quite the talkative roommate."

"I guess. I don't want to make a judgement too quickly though." Alex replied.

"Well, she said it. Guess your going to get to know each other soon enough, if you want or not, I guess." Piper chuckled.

"We'll see. Have you had a chance to meet your roommate already?" Alex asked, guessing the answer would be no.

"Nope. Guess that'll happen soon, when I get my stuff into the room. All I know from the letter we got is her name… wait…. gosh, it was something I hadn't heard before except for that, uh video game my used to play… Oh right. Zelda. Cal used to play Legend of Zelda. I think he doesn't anymore though." Piper replied.

"Well let's go in and meet the legend, I guess." Alex joked.

They collected their things and got the first things up to their rooms. They both had rooms on the first floor. Alex had the room number four and Piper was in number twelve. As they had seen it on the map it was really just down the hallway. Soon they had gotten everything out of the car and into their rooms. Piper's roommate Zelda wasn't there yet, so far she still had the room to herself.

"Look at that. We've never lived that close. From my to your house wasn't as close as this." Piper laughed, feeling a full flash of excitement, at being here, moving in and having Alex so close.

"That's right." Alex smiled, Piper's good mood was contagious and she liked how her girlfriend was smiling widely and seeing her happy. "It's true. And if we decide to move into our own place next year, we'll be even closer. We're slowly, but surely, moving closer to each other."

"I like that. I guess I'm gonna go and unpack and leave you here so you can do the same." Piper replied.

About an hour later, Piper was almost done putting everything into place, she heard a knock on the door.

"Come in." she said, expecting Alex to have finished faster and checking to see how far she was. But it wasn't Alex.

"Hi. You must be Piper. That is if I have the right room." a girl with curly red hair said as she came in.

"I'm Piper, you must be Zelda then." she replied and held out her hand to greet her.

"Indeed, that's me." Zelda smiled and shook her hand. "Nice to meet you. I see you're almost done moving in already."

"Yeah, we've been here for about two hours now and I didn't bring too many things." Piper answered.

"Well, I'm going to get all my stuff up here and decorate this side of the room." Zelda said and moved to the door.

"Do you need a hand?" Piper offered after a short moment of hesitation. But seeing that Zelda was obviously alone to do all carrying she thought she could be so friendly.

"Oh, that would be amazing." Zelda said grateful and gave Piper a big smile.

"Okay. Just let me put my shoes back on." Piper replied.

After two trips down to Zelda's car they had all her stuff in their dorm room. Both roommates kept talking while unpacking. Soon Piper was done and about to excuse herself to see how far Alex was when she heard a knock on the door. This time it really could only be Alex.

"Hey. I am done. How about you?" she asked Piper.

"Just finished. So, uhm, Alex this is my roommate Zelda. Zelda, this is my girlfriend Alex." she introduced the two.

"Hi. Nice to meet you." Zelda smiled at Alex, who returned the greetings.

"So I was thinking maybe we could go and get something to eat. I'm really hungry." Alex turned to Piper.

"That is a really good idea. I'm basically starving." Piper agreed and picked up her bag and put her shoes on. "Let's go. See you later." she said turned to Zelda.

"Bye." they heard Zelda reply when they were already half out the door.

They went out and found a nice little pizza place that was near by and went in, ordered and sat down and talked.

"Zelda seems quite nice. I mean we only talked for a bit, but I got a feeling we're going to get along. She's studying Literature as well, so I guess they put people as roommates that study the same thing so maybe you can help each other out." Piper said.

"Ah huh. I guess that makes sense. Ashley literally kept babbling how excited she is and what her plans are for the next weeks. You had the right feeling, she is very talkative. I already know way more than I asked for." Alex chuckled. "But anyway. How does your schedule for the coming week look like?"

"Well, as far as I could check the time table earlier, I've got my courses for the first week all between 8.30 am and 3 pm. With a lunch break of, I think, 45 minutes. Friday is a bit shorter. And I guess we'll get our schedule for the rest of the semester this week, depending on the classes we signed up for. I was planning to look into that later. I think we can put together that time table when we have which class by ourselves." Piper explained. "What does yours look like?"

Just then the pizza arrived and they noticed how hungry they really were.

"Eh, pretty much the same as yours, I think. But now enjoy your pizza. Gosh, I'm hungry." Alex exclaimed, her mouth watering already.

"You, too." Piper, who had taken a big bite already, mumbled.

When they came back to their dorms it was a bit late already and both of them were exhausted from the day. They agreed to meet the next morning and said good night before they went to their respective rooms to sleep. They had the whole sunday to explore the surroundings and the campus left before on monday their first week of classes started.

When Piper had changed into her pyjamas and brushed her teeth and was laying in her bed, she shortly recapitulated the day. Then it came to her mind, that this was the first time she slept in the same room as someone else, except for Alex, who was usually laying in the same bed and right next to her. At home she had always had her own room. She wondered if Alex felt the same. Thinking of Alex she wished they had put them in the same room so they could be roommates. But then Piper thought, it might be a good thing everyone had their place to retreat if one needed a minute to themselves. Well they still had their roommates but that was different.

Zelda came in a couple minutes later and they kept talking for a bit until both girls were so tired they fell asleep. Piper though had the feeling they'd get along well. Zelda pretty much had the same schedule except for one or two courses, so they could go to most of their classes together. She also found out, that Zelda was into girls, which wasn't a problem for her, but she wondered if Alex might have one seeing that she lived with Piper. Alex would never admit it, but she could get pretty jealous if it came to Piper and someone who could possibly flirt with her. Alex prefered to call it protecting her, but calling it differently didn't really change the fact, that jealousy was behind it.