"What a mess!" sighed Cecily as she headed towards her boarding house on the evening of her first day of school. She had spent the whole afternoon in a crowded and noisy hall at Queen's, completing various procedures of admission and filling out a whole lot of paperwork, and now she was finally a bona fide Queen's girl. In her inexperienced life, Cecily had never handled so many forms or such a large sum of money, and the nagging feeling of having lost something, which started as soon as she left home, was still troubling her. Thankfully, nothing seemed to have gone wrong—yet.

The boarding house was owned by a certain Mrs. Campbell, a friend of Sara Ray's mother. She was to board with two other girls, also studying at Queen's, and these were all Mrs. Ray had told her. Cecily did not like the thought of living in a boarding house. She had never seen one, but intuitively she thought it would be a crowded, smelly and dingy place, with strange and often unemployed people living in it, and she imagined the landlady to be some cranky old woman who would bitterly complain whenever you do anything slightly differently from her expectations. So her hand trembled as she rang the doorbell, when a tall and pleasant-looking girl, about her own age, answered.

"Oh, you must be Cecily King! Come with me!" said the girl warmly.

Cecily felt relieved as she nodded, but she was too surprised to say anything. Who is this girl? The landlady's daughter? But does she have a daughter? Or maybe another boarder like her? But she surely doesn't act like a boarder! How does she know her? And where is Mrs. Campbell? Cecily had tons of questions she wanted to ask, but no word came out of her mouth, and instead she just stared as the girl hustled here and there and brought her into a room with plenty of pictures and various ornaments—until she remembered that staring was very impolite.

Then the fascinating girl gave her a piece of candy and said smilingly, "Tongue-tied? Oh, you must be finding this room rather strange, right?"

"No, not at all...but..."

Cecily had want to ask who the girl was, but she could not find a polite way to do it. The girl described every picture in her room to awe-struck Cecily, but finally she seemed to understand the questioning face before her.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Mary Robinson."

Robinson? Then she couldn't be Mrs. Campbell's daughter. Cecily gathered some courage. "Are you err... studying at Queen's?"

"Of course! I'm also boarding here, you know. What did you think?" said amused Mary.

"I thought you must be related to the owner of this house... Mrs. Campbell?"

Mary laughed heartily. Cecily had not met any girl who could laugh as heartily as Mary could—not even the Story Girl, and the laughter comforted her greatly.

"Oh, Mrs. Campbell is out visiting some relatives. She will be back the day after tomorrow."

Cecily looked at her with admiration. So Mrs. Campbell had left the house in her charge? She had not supposed that a boarder could do that.

"I think there is another girl boarding here, right?"

"Yes, she's called Molly... Molly Bryant."

With a satisfied yawn Cecily unpacked her last bag. When Mary pointed her to the little room that was to be hers, it had seemed a strange place, even though it was neat, not a bit as dingy as she had imagined. But when everything were in their places it began to look livable—actually quite homey. She also remembered the supper she and Mary cooked together with a smile. For all the charm Mary had, her cooking skills were worse than the Story Girl's, and Cecily was glad she could finally be of some help. Even though Cecily appreciated Mary's warm welcome, she could not be totally comfortable without having a share of the work that she could do.

And at that moment another girl came. It was Molly. With a rather pudgy figure and a pair of glasses, she did not look very bright or very pretty.

"But I do think we can get along really well." thought Cecily after their brief introduction.

When the clock struck ten Cecily said her prayer and snuggled into her bed. It was comfortable. Why, it's just as comfortable as the bed at home—almost, she added hurriedly. Surely it wouldn't do if she thought a mere boarding house as good as her home! But the reality was that Cecily did not feel terribly homesick, at least on that first day. The beautiful campus of Queen's, the nice boarding house, Mary's warm welcome—it had been a good day, after all. Even the messy afternoon looked better now, since nothing had gone wrong. With such pleasant thoughts she soon drifted into sleep.

A/N: Thank you all for your kind reviews!