Title: Familiar Faces

Disclaimer: Just the usual, don't own anything that you recognise.

Feedback: Yes please, anything constructive would be really appreciated.

A/N: This is my first fanfic, so please be gentle and if it is really bad then I am sorry.

 Emma POV

                "You have got to be joking? Someone, somewhere must really hate me!" was all that I could say looking into the room that would be home for the next year, I inwardly laughed at the irony of it all. I leave one of my pet hates at home, namely my mother, only to come here and get confronted with the other, namely ice hockey. It was all over one side of the room, obviously my roommate was a hockey fanatic, just my luck.

                I was about to step further into the room when I was hit from behind by something. Stumbling forward, I fell over my bag that had been dropped on sight of the room, and the fact that it was heavy. Who would believe how much clothes could weigh, but I digress. Anyway, after falling ever so gracefully over my bag, I turned over expecting to see a girl, but there was a Latino boy leaning over me, with a classic flirtatious smile plastered on his face. I know that type of look.

                "Never gonna happen, now if you don't mind GET OUT OF MY ROOM!" Ok, maybe that was a bit harsh, but who did he think he was, knocking me over in my own room, in the girls dorms, and then hitting on me, some blokes. Though looking at him, I might have found him attractive if he didn't have an ego visible from a mile off.

                "Ok, we believe you, you can skate fast off the ice too." Another male voice, have I gone into the wrong dorm or something.

                "And it seems you can't stop either, man you have so gotta learn" was another voice as a group of  4 people rounded the corner. Well, she is definitely female, so I might be in the right place.

                " I would have been fine if she wasn't standing in my way" must have hurt his ego with that turn down.

                "She happens to belong in this room, unlike some people." You could see by the look on his face that he was not gonna take that. He was about to reply when he was cut off by the only girl in the room, "Sorry about him, doesn't know how to stop."

                "What flirting or skating?" harsh again, I know but this situation was really winding me up, I was surrounded by 5 strangers, with me splayed out on the floor.

                A little taken aback, she replied with a smile, "both, but we are trying to help him with the latter, flirting is a lost cause now. You must be my roommate?"

                With that she offered her hand as a friendly gesture, but my independent streak would not let me take it. Getting up on my own, the only thing I wanted to do was get away. "I'm gonna go where I have more chance of walking without being run over." Pushing past a very bewildered boy wearing a cowboy hat, I left the room not looking back, and not caring what they thought. Just angry with myself, what a great start to my new life.

Julie POV

                "I take that as a yes then?" I whispered as I stared at her retreating back. That was Emma, my roommate, if first impressions are anything to go by, then it was gonna be a fun year!

                "She seems real friendly, sharing with her looks like fun!" Only Russ could say something so blatantly ladled with sarcasm, although it did state exactly what was going through my head.

                "Give her a chance, when we first met you, we thought you were a mouthy, arrogant kid, but then we found out that you were just mouthy. Anyway, she did just get ploughed by speedy over there." Looking round the group, you could just tell that they were all thinking of when they first met the Ducks and realising what their first impressions had been then. When my eyes fell on my TV, I remembered what we were here for. "Anywho, I think it best if we use another venue for our videos, how 'bout yours Ken? Even if your roommate does come back, I don't think that Guy would really mind."

                After the initial shock of being talked to had flashed through his eyes, he quietly said "Erm, sure, haven't got a wide selection of videos though, so could you bring some of yours please?" Still shy, not as much as when we first met though. The Ducks do that to you, the friendship helping you grow as a person. I'm sure after going to high school together, we will each be a better person, although if last year is anything to go by, there will also be a lot of drama.

                "Hey Jules, you still with us?"

                "What? Yeah, sorry, fazed out for a minute there," shaking myself back to reality, I grabbed a few videos, careful to get the action ones, not the chick flicks, no way they would agree to watching 'Titanic' but maybe 'Mission Impossible'.

                Having made my selection I headed for the door, but stopped when I remembered, "Russ, can you pick up the box on the desk for us please?"

                "Why me?"

                "'Cos your probably gonna eat most of it!"

                "No way, they already sent you a care package? I love those cookies your mum makes." The anticipation laced through his voice, and bounce as he ran over to the desk.

                "No, but when I told her how much you liked the cookies, she made a whole load, but made me promise that other people would get them too, not just you." Trying to say this with a stern look on my face was hard, I broke after a while and all of us were laughing as we left my room.

Emma POV

                I may not have cared what she thought a couple of hours ago, but now that I was standing outside our dorm, I was a quivering wreck. I hated meeting new people, always worried about first impressions, and the one I gave was diabolical. What if she hates me? What if she tells everyone that I'm a bitch? What if no one ever speaks to me? Stop it, your getting yourself worked up over something and nothing yet again.

                Another round of inner arguments, they were always fun, NOT. Stuff it, I couldn't change rooms for a couple of weeks anyway, some rule that the alumni set so that people would give it a chance before changing, so I might as well try again and see if I could make a better second impression. With that decided, I entered the room, only to be disappointed that I wasted that much time arguing with myself when she wasn't even here.

                Well, I have nowhere to go, two hours of walking round campus, I now know my way around and there isn't really anywhere worth going that I hadn't already exhausted. So that left me with the lovely task of unpacking my bags, just the two, don't have much to call my own, just a bag of clothes as mentioned before, and a bag of personal stuff, such as walkman, tapes, couple of photos and my box. The clothes went into the dresser on my side of the room, photos got tacked to the wall by the head of my bed, and the box got put into my desk. My side looked so plain and bare compared to hers, but I didn't mind really, it reflected me, plain and boring.

My stuff set, this was gonna be my new life and with school starting in a couple of days, I needed to go and get my supplies. Gathering my bag, making sure I had my money and walkman, I left the room. My mother had basically disowned me when I told her what I was planning on doing, so it was down to the little money I had saved last year with my part time job of tutoring the jocks in my old school. It would seem that they also had this system here, though it was not just used for the jocks, anyone could apply for a tutor, and the student paid for it, or their parents, unlike my old school, where they paid, and it was only for the jocks, so that they could stay on the teams, favouritism or what. But if they hadn't noticed how well I had tutored those jocks, then I wouldn't be here on scholarship, so I had to be grateful for small mercies.

Knowing where that line of thoughts were heading, I put an end to it with my headphones,  turning on the tape that was inside, Queen, the best to clear my mind of things that I didn't want to think of. Me all set, I headed down the road into town to get my bits.

Julie POV

                Having got through 3 videos, it was fast approaching 6pm, and although we had managed to get through the whole box of cookies, we were definitely ready for some real substance, though I doubt that canteen food comes under real substance. So the TV got turned off and we all headed down to the canteen.

                On entering you could smell the food, and so we queued, waiting to see what slop they would serve us today. And when we got our plates, it was definitely slop.

                "It looks like dog food, smells like dog food, what's the betting it is dog food?" Russ's typical remarks.

                As we headed over to our usual table I spotted Emma in the corner, eating on her own. Seeing as we didn't really hit it off brilliantly earlier, I came to the resolution that it was best if I try again, and if she bit my head off, then I could always sit with the guys.

                "Er, guys, sorry to dump you, but I'm gonna have another go at getting to know my roommate. See you after dinner."

                "Don't leave us, we'll come as well." Typical, he gets knocked back by someone and they immediately become more desirable.

                "No, not after this morning's performance, I think it would be best if I get to know her first, before I let you loose on her."

                "Say hi from us then, see ya later and good luck." There goes Ken, always being nice, no matter what the person is like.

                "Will do, and behave yourselves, I'm still gonna be able to see you." With that I turned around and walked over to Emma. As I got closer to her, I slowed down, was this a good idea? Well, I was stuck rooming with her for at least 2 weeks, so I might as well try. "Hi, look, I'm really sorry about earlier in the dorms. Please will you give me another chance?" I was slightly nervous but I wasn't gonna let it show.

                "Erm, yeah, but I think that it should be me apologising, I was the one that was rude to your friends and stormed out of the room." Hang on, this is a completely different character than I met this morning.

                "I think that you had every right. I don't know what Luis said or did to you, other than knock you over, but I'm sure he deserved all that you did, though, he will probably still be after you, what you can't have and all." Seeing the smile flicker across here face I think it is safe to say I've got another chance, so I sat down next to her.

                "I thought for sure that you would hate me, and never give me a chance to get to know you."

                "Tell you what, why don't we start again." Sticking my hand out, I continued with "Hello, my name is Julie Gaffney, a sophomore and your roommate."

                Suppressing a giggle and shaking my hand, she replied "Emma Nash, also a sophomore and also your roommate."

                "Well, we are definitely getting somewhere. As you could probably tell by my side of the room, I am madly into ice hockey, I'm on the JV team here on scholarship." As the words ice hockey left my mouth I saw her tense, "Are you alright?" Concern laced through my voice.

                "Not really, it may seem weird, but ice hockey is something that I hate with a vengeance." On seeing my look, she continued, "it's a long story, well not really, but not something that I would like to discuss right now."

                "With that in mind, I think you chose the wrong school"

"Well, it is also well known for its academic side, I'm on scholarship too, an academic one"

Seeing a look in her eyes that I recognised, I knew that it was time for a change of topic..... "How 'bout this food, it looks and smells like dog food?" Well it works with Russ.

                "Believe me, for school food, it is a lot better than my old school, there it would also taste like dog food" A smile, yes, she doesn't look so down anymore and she cracked a joke. I think that we are gonna get along just fine, and maybe I would be able to get to the bottom of this hockey thing sometime soon.

Emma POV

                Once we had both finished dinner she turned to me, "Look, I've been stuck with 4 guys for the last day or so, and I watched 3 action movies this afternoon, how 'bout we go back to our room and watch a chick flick? I've even got some chocolate that my mum hid in my bag."

                "That sounds better than what I had planned," off her baffled look, "I was gonna spend the evening twiddling my thumbs, but I can do that tomorrow." I completely forgot that I had only known this girl for a few hours, it seemed like a lifetime, so there was no chance that she would get my sarcasm.

                "You are so like someone on my te.., someone I know." Yeah, I knew that it was gonna be difficult, but I think that we will get there.

                "Come on then, lets go, I suddenly have a craving for chocolate." Our trays got dumped on the stack and we headed for the door. Just as we were about to leave we heard a shout, "Hey Jules, you gonna say bye or anything?"

                "Sorry guys, bye and I'll see you sometime tomorrow." Julie turned back to me and so we left, but not before I heard an "I think we have been dumped guys."

                By the time we got to our room, I was starting to feel guilty, "If you would rather, you could go and be with those guys, I don't mind, you hardly know me."

                "No way, I have been with them for too long and I need a good dose of femininity, 'cos Luis on his own doesn't cut it." That had me in stitches, she really knew how to make someone feel better.

                We spent the next few hours watching video after video, having changed into our pjs and snuggled down on Julie's bed. Stuffing ourselves with chocolate and watching the romantic comedies that girls love so much, we started to talk about our ideal guy. How we would love to be in one of these movies, have it happen to us, and after swapping our dreams we thought it best to get to sleep, seeing as it was 2 in the morning. Surprising how the time flew.

                I went to sleep with a sense of ease, today had not gone as badly as it could have done and I think with a friend like Julie, the year was gonna be fine.