Gathering all the officers of LIG together, Belle went over the part of the new year everyone looked forward to, the assigning of the Big/Littles. This was a LIG tradition from the very beginning for LIG, as well as their brother fraternity, Alpha Delta Theta. Each officer and senior member would "adopt" a new member in secret, leaving little notes, presents, and other small tokens throughout the year until the big reveal at the End of Semester/Christmas banquet. While the other officers had been looking forward to this moment their entire time in LIG, Elsa had dreaded it. She was no good at coming up with creative things, especially for other people. When the time came, each senior member was asked to draw a name from an 20's style ladies lounge hat, apparently belonging to some founding member's great-great-grandmothers or something like that. Belle began calling the officers up one by one to pick their Littles.
"Okay, Meg, how about you start us off." A tall thin girl with exaggerated curves, Megara stood up and stuck her hand into the hat filled with the info cards each new recruit had filled out a the beginning of the meeting. Fishing a card out, Meg read aloud the name. "Snow White. Ah sweet, I got the baby. This'll be fun!" The girl sat down, obviously scheming all the fun things she would do to surprise her Little.
Belle turned to the next girl. "Okay Aurora, your turn." Reaching into the hat, Aurora picked a name reading aloud. "Jasmine. Huh, I can have some fun with that. She was wearing blue, maybe I could make her something blue, or pink." The fashion major sat down and smiled to herself, clearly happy with her pick.
Mulan was next in the line up and reaching in, the first name she pick was clearly the one she was hoping for. "Sweet I got the tall one with the awesome tattoo!" It took Elsa a moment to figure out who Mulan was talking about. Obviously it was was Pocahontas, or Tass as Elsa had heard the girl correct someone earlier. Her tan sleeveless dress had shown off her even tanner skin and red arm tattoo perfectly. Not something Elsa would have thought would excite the usually reserved Mulan, but the girl was full of surprises.
Turning to Elsa, Belle gave a quick smile. "Okay blondie, it's you and me. You wanna go first or should I?" Elsa mock bowed her head and sarcastically retorted, "Ladies first." Belle either didn't pick up on the sarcasm in her friends voice or chose to ignore it. Either way she fished around the hat between the two remaining names. Elsa knew which two were left, and that terrified her. If she was paired with Anna, she would have the perfect opportunity to get to know the girl better. On the other hand, if she was paired with Anna, how would she be able to control herself if the strange feeling she experienced at the activity fair returned? One on one time made Elsa nervous to begin with, how would she manage if the one she had to communicate with made her stomach do flip flops every time Teal met Blue?
Feeling a card fall into her hands, Elsa looked at Belle who was also holding a card in her hand. "Let's open them together," the brunette exclaimed holding her still folded card in her hands. Elsa sighed and picked up her card, ready to unfold it. "On the count of three," Belle said. "One. Two. Three!" Unfolding her card so quickly Elsa thought she would rip it in half, Belle smiled broadly with satisfaction. "Yes! I got the Scot! I've always wanted to read some traditional Scottish literature, not to mention try all that yummy food!"
Elsa sighed, realizing what this meant for her. Unfolding her card, Elsa's spirits rose and her stomach sank. Greeting her eyes was the familiar handwriting, each letter carefully written with care and precision. Each letter in the short name flowed continuously in a penmanship Elsa could almost call calligraphy. Scanning down the page quickly, Elsa skimmed through the card until something caught her attention. Anna's room number and building were scribbled on the card and Elsa couldn't believe it. 'Englehard 129? That was my room freshman year.' Elsa gasped at the realization. Looking around at her fellow officers, they were all consumed in reading their own cards and sharing the information they found with each other to notice her slip away into the hallway to read her card in private. 'Okay, so she lives in the same room I did. I bet we won't have anything in common.' Skimming down the page farther, Elsa couldn't believe what she was seeing. 'Damn it! It's like reading my own card!' Written on the list were some of Elsa's favorite things. 'Anything to do with chocolate, her ideal night was split between either a quiet night in with a book or movie (scifi, comedy or adventure were tops), going on an adventure with friends. 'Well I think we found our great divide' Elsa muttered as she continued reading. 'Playing guitar, classic rock groups, i.e. The Rolling Stones and The Snow Mountain Trolls, two of Elsa's favorite classic rock groups, riding horses, Chinese food' Elsa sighed and leaned against the cool white wall behind her. 'Why did it have to be The Snow Mountain Trolls?' Elsa sighed and shoved the list into her pocket for safe keeping and quietly as possible snuck back into the room.
Elsa walked quickly towards the chair in the corner of the room that held her backpack. She had a long night of studio work to get started on and wanted to get over to the Architecture building as soon as possible to get started. Slinging one strap over her shoulder, and briskly heading towards the nearest exit, Elsa heard Belle call her name and somewhat begrudgingly turned to see her friend half running towards her.
"And just where do you think you're going?" the brunette asked. Her face gave away she already knew the answer, but she wanted to make her friend stay and talk for a bit longer. Belle missed her friend, and she felt like she never got to spend any time outside of LIG meetings with her anymore. Elsa looked at Belle with a 'don't make me say it' face, but the brunette was set and Elsa sarcastically replied, "The Snow Queen is retreating back up the mountain to her palace now."
Belle cringed at the name her former roommate used. Belle knew how much the name had bothered Elsa Freshman year, and she hated the ADT boys for constantly calling her that. At first the name hadn't bothered Elsa, who had shrugged it off as some kind of immature joke the boys came up with to get under her skin. But when the teasing didn't stop, Elsa grew tired of always being on the defensive and eventually she accepted the name, even referring to herself as the Snow Queen when she got mad or frustrated. Belle could see her former roommate was anxious to return to her palace of isolation atop the hill, but she had responsibilities to LIG she had to fulfill. Shaking her head, perfect brunette curls fell in Belle's face as she grabbed her roommates hand. "Nope. Sorry Miss. Workaholic. You have duties to your new Little Sister and are required as VP of LIG to go to the orientation mixer." Belle noticed the subtle smirk that crossed Elsa's lips but pushed on with the persistence. "Please Els, we never spend any time together anymore." Elsa did feel bad about that. Even when the ADT boys teased her most, Belle had stood beside her like a true friend, even taking a bit of abuse herself, but it never lasted long for the brunette. Smiling at her friend, truly smiling for the first time in weeks, Elsa finally relented. "Okay fine. I'll go to the stupid mixer. But only for an hour. Then I really do need to get to work. This final project is huge and I haven't even begun to sketch the rudimentary designs yet." This was both true and false. Elsa had tried to sketch the basic design of the structure she would one day build, but she had unintentionally turned the building into an embarrassing tribute to her new Little by accident.
Belle's face lit up as she hugged her friend tightly, jumping up and down. "Oh thank you thank you thank you thank you Els! I know it's not your favorite thing to do, but you'll like it once you're there! Maybe take this time to get to know your Little a bit better. Oh! Maybe since your Little and my Little seem to be friends we can all go out for pizza or something sometime!" As Belle rambled on about the plans they would have with their Littles, Elsa toyed with the idea of getting to know Anna better in a more social setting as opposed to being stuck with her alone for an extended period of time. 'Who knows' Elsa thought as she, Belle and the other senior officers left the Great Hall to meet the new recruits at the mixer. 'Maybe I'll get some new ideas for gifts while I'm at it.'