Thought I'd give this a crack. Sorry if you have a hard time with all the UK vernacular, but I didn't want to embarrass myself trying to sound American. I've got all sorts of plans for this fic, but updates are likely to be slow due to the amount of coursework I currently have going. Hope you enjoy.

Adora

Thump. Thump. THUMP.

The banging from next door woke Adora up with a start. She groaned inwardly and rolled over to check the time on her crappy old blackberry. 7:04AM. Apparently Bob and Carol fucking loudly in the next room had done a better job at waking her up than her pathetic excuse for an alarm. Adora sat up and rubbed her eyes. She felt seriously rough, but a lumpy single bed, draughty windows in October and an overwhelming smell of damp will do that to a person. The tired, grumpy 23-year-old was just putting her feet on the frayed grey carpet when she heard Bob's horrid grunting start to come through the paper-thin wall. She had to get out of there.

Adora Kahane had moved to Bright Moon from London two weeks ago to start a master's degree in social work at Bright Moon University. She had fully intended to find a room for rent in a flat or a house with other students before the start of the semester, but she hadn't found a single place that was affordable enough for her. She was living off a loan from the government (most of which was going towards tuition) and a scholarship from the university that would cover rent and groceries so long as the rent was cheap. So, lucky Adora had no other option but to rent a room in a seriously run-down motel an hour away from the University by bus. She'd met Bob and Carol on her first day there. The gross middle-aged couple were arguing outside their room and had stopped to ask if she wanted to have a threesome with them as she was hurriedly unlocking her door. Adora shuddered at the memory.

As she pulled on a white t-shirt, maroon hoodie and jeans, Adora mentally scolded herself for not looking hard enough for a proper place to live. She was supposed to be sorted by the start of the semester – today. At this point she'd be willing to move in anywhere as long as it was far, far away from Bob, Carol and their gross sexual exploits. As she opened the door out into the empty corridor, the photo on the bedside table caught Adora's eye. Razz. Adora's heart sank a little. Her late adopted mum would have cried if she saw Adora's living situation – she always just wanted the best for her.

"No," Adora whispered to herself, "she would have been proud of me for trying to make something of myself."

Today Adora was due to meet her new academic advisor, Professor Angella Colins, and make her first steps to becoming a real social worker and making a difference. She wasn't going to let her dismal living situation ruin that for her.

"Well Adora," Angella looked up from her laptop and peered over her glasses to look at her new student, "as I told you in my last email, your personal statement is very impressive, and moving."

Adora looked at her feet. She knew where this was going.

"I am a little worried that your own history in the public childcare system might make the practical side of social work difficult for you."

Adora held her breath, waiting for Angella to tell her she'd have to leave the program before she'd even started. This was not what she'd planned to do today. Scenario upon scenario began to run through her head of all the depressing situations she could find herself in if she had to leave this program. It wasn't like a politics BA qualified her to do anything more than working in a bar these days.

"If you're going to get through this year, you're going to need a support system."

Adora's head snapped up to look at her advisor who was sporting a kindly, concerned look on her face. Maybe she wasn't being rejected after all.

"Do you have any friends here? What's your living situation like?"

Oh. This is where the other shoe was about to drop.

"Um," Adora started nervously. She considered lying, but Razz definitely wouldn't have approved of that and she definitely didn't want to start her relationship with her advisor on false terms, "I don't know anybody here, and I'm staying in a motel on the edge of town."

"I see," Angella's concerned look deepened.

"To be honest professor," Adora continued, "it's pretty grim."

The professor took a long pause.

"This is a little unorthodox, Adora, but I'm going to give you my daughter, Glimmer's phone number. She's a medical student here and she lives in a flat I bought near the university. Her and her friend Bow are looking for a new flatmate to help pay their bills and I think you should call her. You wouldn't have to pay any rent, just contribute to the bills and you're going to need people to lean on if you're going to make it through this program. Will you do that for me? I know this might seem weird, and maybe a little overbearing."

Adora could feel tears prickling at her tired eyes. Nobody had done anything kind like this for her, certainly not since Razz passed.

"Are you okay my dear?" Adora realised she'd been sitting in silence for a while. Angella's hand was still outstretched in front of her, holding out a piece of paper with her daughter's phone number scrawled on it.

"Yes, thank you so much, professor," Adora croaked through her tears, "I won't let you down. I promise!"

"I'm certain of it, Adora. And please, call me Angella."

The call with Glimmer was a surreal experience. Not wanting to squander Angella's incredibly generous offer, Adora had called the girl as soon as she'd walked out of the social work department building. She figured the over-the-phone introduction had gone well because she was making her way to the flat within minutes of hanging up, but the call itself was such a whirlwind conversation that Adora felt like she had whiplash.

"Hello?"

A surprisingly upbeat and eager voice answered quicker than Adora had expected.

"Hi, is this Glimmer Colins? My name is Adora Kahane, your mum gave me this numb-"

"Uggggggghhhhhhhhhh," Glimmer was clearly annoyed already. Adora wondered what she had done wrong to anger the girl, "I wish she would stop trying to run my freaking life, I mean serio- wait…" she trailed off and Adora found herself holding her breath again, "Did you say your name was Adora?"

"Yes?" Adora responded hesitantly, internally cringing at her lack of confidence in confirming her own name.

"Okay, two things," Glimmer shot back, her annoyance clearly forgotten in a rush of newfound excitement, "First, that name is freaking cute! And second, my mum texted earlier that you were new in town and were looking for somewhere to live."

Adora was confused. How quickly after she left the office must have Angella texted her daughter if she'd had time to read the message before Adora called? Or had she guessed Adora's living situation before they'd even met? Either way this was weird, but what the hell, she needed a place to stay that wasn't plagued by gross, old people sex noises.

"Um… thanks, I guess," Adora tried (although she suspected she hadn't succeeded) to sound upbeat, "Yeah that's right. She said you might be looking for a new roommate."

"We are! That is, my best friend Bow and I," Adora could practically hear the sparkles and rainbows pouring out of this girl, "It's been kinda hard finding someone actually. Nobody wants to live with the professor's kid."

"Well, your mum seems super nice, so if you're anything like her then that seems like a bonus to me." This was genuine. Adora was really touched by Angella's offer and if Glimmer was half as nice as her mum then maybe she had a shot at making a friend here after all… although Adora did not want to get ahead of herself on that front. Hoping for a half decent roommate was about as optimistic as she was going to allow herself to get for the time being.

"Awwww," Glimmer sounded genuinely moved by Adora's compliment, "Well I'm excited to meet you already, and so is Bow, aren't you Bow?!"

"Yeah! Best friend squad for the win!" Came a muffled shout from someone else on Glimmer's end of the call. Adora assumed this must have been Bow, but she was more concerned with his shout of "best friend squad". Who were these ceaselessly excitable people? What the fuck was she walking into?

"You can come over and see the flat now if you're free," this was Glimmer again, "I'll text you the address."

"Um, okay," Adora responded quietly, "yeah, I can come now."

"Awesome, see you soon." Glimmer squealed and immediately hung up.

And that was how Adora found herself trudging through the windy streets of Bright Moon, looking for what might be her new home, terrified about the onslaught of aggressive niceness that awaited her inside.

The building itself was pretty non-descript. It was a regular British high-rise made from rather unflattering yellow bricks, but the name was pretty intriguing – Whispering Woods Apartments. Adora took a moment to steady herself. She'd never been particularly good at making friends, not since Razz took her in at 16 and she had to leave her school behind. That's not to say that Horde Military Academy was a nice place for an orphaned teenager to grow up. In fact, it was pretty damn traumatic. Adora had always been a good student so she got by okay, but her closest friends weren't nearly as lucky. She spent years watching Sgt. Weaver and the headmaster Colonel Hordak emotionally abusing her friends, and not doing a single thing about it for fear of bringing their wrath down on herself.

The school was horrible, but Adora and her friends (one friend in particular) were bonded through their suffering. She thought they'd be close forever, but all that changed when Razz came along with the promise of a better life. Horde Military Academy had a strict policy against outside communication for its residents, and Adora was never able to contact any of them again. She wondered sometimes whether she'd ever be able to make friends again without going through something horrible with new people first. It's honestly why she thought she'd make a good social worker – shared trauma felt like the only way she knew how to connect with people.

Glimmer and Bow seemed incredibly nice over the phone, but it wasn't hard to imagine a scenario where they'd get tired of trying and failing to connect with her, and she'd be stuck in a flat with two people who couldn't stand her. Adora could feel herself starting to spiral. Suddenly there were a bunch of increasingly terrifying scenarios running through her brain, and she couldn't make them stop. She was just about to turn around and walk away entirely when her piece of shit blackberry started buzzing in her pocket.

Adora pulled out the phone and answered the call.

"Hey Adora, it's Glimmer. Is that you, standing outside our block?"

Adora took a deep breath, trying to slow her heartrate back to normal, and looked up. Poking out of the third story window above her was a mop of sparkly purple hair, which Adora surmised must have been Glimmer.

"Yeah," Adora breathed slowly, "it's me."

Adora savoured every second of her lift ride up to the third floor. The amount of affection thrown her way in the few short hours since leaving the motel was already overwhelming. It wasn't that Adora had no experience with people showing her love and kindness, she had just learned never to expect it.

"This is a new start," Adora took a moment to remind herself, "you don't have to shut everyone out here."

The lift lurched to a stop and Adora felt her stomach drop as the doors began to open with a ding. She had expected to have time to herself during the walk down the corridor to the flat but there, waiting for her on the other side of the lift doors, were two twentysomethings with brightly coloured clothes and even brighter smiles.

"Glimmer and Bow?" Adora asked hesitantly as she stepped out of the lift, and before she knew it, she was being enveloped in a tight hug from the two relative strangers. Without warning, Adora felt tears rolling down her face, and all of a sudden, she was racked with sobs. Bow and Glimmer slowly released her from their grip and took a cautious step backwards. Adora was sure that if she looked up at them she'd see looks of horror or disgust on their faces, but when she slowly lifted her head she was surprised to see the same look of kindly concern that Angella had given her earlier.

"I'm sorry," Bow started. Adora noticed that the young man, sporting a bright pink crop top and short shorts (in October!), had an American accent. That explains a lot, she thought to herself. "Did we cross a boundary?" He sounded genuinely worried.

"N-no," Adora managed to squeeze the word out through her sobs. She slowly straightened her back, bracing herself against the wall with her arm. She took a long, heavy breath. "It's just been a long time since I've been hugged like that."