Ello poppets. I'm glad to find that my story has had such a warm reception and I thank you for it.
Welcome to:
Chapter One: Semi-Orientation
"Uh...hullo." Greeted the girl; she suddenly wished she hadn't, as the eyes that had flickered to the purple haired boy returned to her. She resisted the urge to swallow nervously and busied herself with closing the door behind her. The eyes still followed her, so she plopped her backpack on the floor and then took a seat on her bed.
"That one's your roomie." The purple haired one stated and pointed to the redhead. "Any ideas how this happened?" He questioned as the rest continued to stare.
She paused to think. "Generally, the co-ed thing only happens if someone puts in a specific request for someone of the opposite gender..." When the stares sharpened, she quickly clarified, "which I didn't!" The girl observed them quizzically.
The boys mentally braced themselves for when she recognized them.
"...oh." She murmured as realization struck. "Well, that explains why you lot look familiar at least..."
They stared, then braced themselves again. When, after a few minutes of silence, she only stared back, the boys were confused.
"I'm rather confused..." She murmured, unconsciously echoing their thoughts. "I didn't even know you were coming here, let alone request you...so how did..." She paused, thinking; her expression then morphed from puzzled to annoyed. "...that motherfucking bitch!"
"What?" Ian yelped.
"What, never heard a girl curse before?" She asked. "Anyway, the only way this happened was because of Hayden. Ya see, during orientation last semester, we somehow got in an argument about the national beyblade competition from, what...five?...years ago. I was the only one who defended you guys' team, so that bitch prolly thought it'd be funny to scribble one of your names on my roommate request sheet..."
"That's far-fetched." Ian stated flatly.
"Considering she's the only one who had the chance to pull this? I'd say nah. She's the RA's pet and gets some privileges 'cuz of it."
"Like?" Ian demanded.
"Like, access to the filing cabinet where these are, motive and plenty of time to do it in." The girl replied. "At any rate, once she figures out what happened, brix will be shat."
All of the boys, save Ian, stared blankly.
"...do we wanna know why?" The purple haired boy questioned warily.
"Hayden's room is, to put it bluntly, a shrine to Tala. I kinda don't wanna know where she got the photos of you shirtless." When the redhead's eyes bugged out, she winced. "Or mebbe they're photoshopped. ...now that I think of it, that's creepier than if she had the actual photos...anyway, were I you, I'd watch out for her." She yawned. "At any rate, I've an early class tomorrow, so I'm gonna try to catch some Zs." The girl promptly cocooned herself in her camo comforter and then flopped down on her side. "Night!"
The five exchanged glances, then began to talk in Russian. Tala, who was unabashedly staring at his strange roommate, did a double take when she cracked an eye open.
"If you keep staring at me, your new nickname will be 'Edward'." She stated before yanking the blankets over her head and flopping around like a fish out of water until she faced the other wall.
Ian promptly fell off the bed and cracked up while the other four exchanged glances.
"Dude, if she gets people to call you that, you will be royally fucked!" He crowed before dissolving into laughter again. Tala glared, then decided his laptop would be a more suitable resource. He cracked it open and typed "Edward" into Google whilst Spencer and Kai, having tired of the conversation, left for their own rooms. Bryan peered over Tala's shoulder, eager to find out what had caused Ian to lose it.
Ian, still snickering, soon left. Bryan watched as Tala read up on "Edward Cullen". When the lilac haired teen noticed his friend's left eye twitching, he beat a hasty retreat to the room he shared with Spencer before he, too, cracked up.
"Very funny." The redhead fumed as he slammed his laptop shut; he smirked when his roommate's blanketed form jumped. He found himself disappointed when she merely awarded him a bleary-eyed glare before rolling over to face the opposite way again. He made a face at her back, then rolled over so he could face the opposite way as well.
-x-x-x-x-
When he awoke, he had to take a few moments to re-orient himself; the posters hadn't done much in the way of dispelling the Abbey-esque look of his side of the room. He jumped slightly when the door opened to reveal his roomie; her hair still dripped water and she was clothed in nothing more than a bathrobe. She gave him a bland nod before she turned her back on him and slipped on a pair of jeans. He found himself smirking as he watched her wrestle with her shirt and bathrobe; eventually, she got her shirt on without him seeing much more than the inch of back above the waistband of her jeans.
She yawned slightly, then began to pack her backpack. Tala turned his attention to his schedule; he discovered his first and only class of the day was at 11am. He was half tempted to roll over and try to go back to sleep, but he knew from experience that once he woke up, he would only go back to sleep after at least 10 hours had elapsed. A silent sigh escaped him as he rose and quickly shucked off yesterday's clothes; he then deftly slid into a clean t-shirt and jeans.
He turned to find his roomie brushing out her hair; she then carefully braided it from the nape of her neck down, then wound a hair thing around the end of it. Her eyes flicked in his direction, though her face gave no indication of her feelings about his observation.
"Kali."
He blinked as she turned, flipping her braid over her shoulder so it rested between her shoulder blades.
"That's my name." She clarified as she bent to put on and tie her sneakers. Her eyes, however, remained on him. "I figured since I knew your name, it was only fair to share mine."
"Sound reasoning." He commented as he finished dressing.
"You and your friends wanna come with me to the dining hall?"
The redhead stared.
"You guys are new, right?"
He nodded.
The corner of her mouth quirked in what could have been a slight grin. "That means I ought to at least show you some of the ropes before leaving you to get tangled and tripped up on 'em."
Tala shrugged. "They should be down here soon anyway."
She nodded, then stretched her arms in what appeared to be an unconscious movement.
"You two up?" Ian questioned as he marched in without knocking; he was followed by Kai, Spencer and Bryan.
"No, we're an optical illusion provided for your viewing pleasure." Kali returned calmly. "Anyway, I'm assuming you guys want some grub?"
"It'd be nice." Bryan muttered with a roll of his eyes.
"Okay..." She paused in thought, then clipped her key to her left belt loop near her hip and slipped her lanyard on which her ID hung over her head. "You guys'll need your IDs if you want breakfast."
Five minutes later found her leading the five across a small section of what was known as the quad. The building which housed two of the campus's dining halls loomed in front of them in the weak morning sunlight.
"Alright, this's the Ariadne building. It's got the Dwyn Caf. and the Taranis Caf. Dwyn's akin to a grocery-store type caf and is in the lower half of the building. You walk in, get whatever's on the meal plan up to $4 for breakfast and head to check out. Taranis is located in the upper half of the building and is all-you-can eat...also, no matter what anyone tells you, the bathrooms for both places are located over there." She pointed past some of the seating for Dwyn.
"Gotcha." Ian acknowledged once he noted his teammates' blatant silence.
"You guys can do whatcha want, I'm headed for T." With that, she calmly swept past them to the stairs and ascended without a backward glance.
Ian stared after her. "She's weird...but blunt. So far, so good." "Well?"
"As much as I hate to follow the bitch who compared me to a pansy-stalker-fairy, let's." Tala growled and led the way.
Kai and Spencer shot Bryan and Ian questioning looks when they were sure the surly redhead wasn't looking. Bryan mouthed "tell ya later" and ignored the glare from their captain when said surly redhead realized he was out of the loop. All five had their IDs swiped; one meal was subtracted from their weekly allowance. They then split up according to what they desired for breakfast, but found themselves standing together awkwardly when they searched for seats.
"Dammit, must be breakfast rush hour..." Tala grumbled as they scanned the area for any empty tables.
"I see a spot." Ian commented.
"Where?" Spencer asked.
"There's five empty seats at the table Tala's roomie is at."
The redhead's eye twitched, but he led the way to her table. He sat down at the farthest seat from Kali and began to eat without acknowledging her. Ian plopped in the chair next to her; the other three took the remaining seats.
"So..." Ian poked cautiously at the sausage on his plate.
"Wouldn't eat that if I were you. That's one of the veggie sausages."
"Wha-how can you tell?"
"I work here, part time." The girl supplied. "It's the reason why I no longer have to pay the labels in front of the food any mind." She added, eyes dancing wickedly.
Ian stuck his tongue out at her and pushed the sausage to the edge of his plate. "You seem up-to-date on some fads...as well as some decent bands." He considered her Breaking Benjamin t-shirt.
"If you're proposing a music exchange, I'm all for it. My last trading partner ran out of new music a while ago."
"Sweet!" The purple haired imp grinned. "By the way, what's your name? ...unless you prefer to go by 'Tala's roomie'..."
She made a face. "I'll pass, thanks. It's Kali."
"Ian."
"Nice ta meet ya. ...so, you heard of Nightwish?"
"Nightwish? No..."
The other four silently dug into their food while they listened to the two of them swap band names and debate Evanescence vs Switchfoot.
Kali smirked. "Symphonic metal pwns all. No arguments."
"No way. Alt. rock is the way to go."
"There's a symphony playing and sounding epic in a metal song. This renders your argument invalid." She stated.
"Don't you dare start dragging memes into this!"
"Why you no like memes?"
Ian glowered as she burst out laughing; the four others decided they didn't want to know and focused on finishing their food. The purple haired boy followed suit and soon all six of them made the trek to the drop off area for dirty dishes.
"Where are you lot's classes?" The girl inquired as she and Ian led the way down the stairs.
"What's it to you?" Bryan retorted with a touch of venom.
"I still have time before my class; figured you guys might wanna at least know where your classes are...if not, though, that's fine."
The four exchanged glances while Ian explained why he needed no assistance.
"I've got a class in..." He paused, checking his watch. "10 minutes. Later!" The purple haired boy sprinted off towards the Daedalus Building, leaving his teammates in what he was sure were capable hands.
-x-x-x-x-
"Evander Complex." Bryan stated.
"That is...this-a-way." She calmly grape-vined towards an intimidating hulk of a building. "That's the Complex. I'd grab a map on the way in, were I you."
Bryan nodded mutely, then headed in.
"Where to next, mm?" Kali turned to Spencer, Kai and Tala.
Kai met her gaze squarely. "Charon Building."
"Ah, writing. This-a-way." She continued her grape-vining up the sidewalk, but paused at a stretch of thick bushes. Her eyes scanned them carefully and she then jumped into them.
Tala rolled his eyes. "I doubt the building's in there."
"Of course it's not." She re-emerged, brushing leaves from her bangs. "But my backpack was."
"The fuck...?" The redhead stared; last he saw her backpack, it had been sitting innocently on her side of the room.
Kali smirked. "Don't bother asking; there is no answer. Anyway, Charon is this way." She led them up the street, pointing out other buildings along the way. "Zhere you are."
"...thanks." Kai replied distantly before he calmly vanished inside.
"Next sacrifice?"
Spencer raised an eyebrow; Tala glowered.
"Helios." Spencer supplied after a few moments' silence.
"Ah, Astronomy. Nice. This-a-way." She began to grape-vine her way across the street, but Tala grabbed her arm and forced her to walk with him. In order to keep up with his longer legs, she had to walk or be dragged.
"Also." The redhead commented as he kept his grip on her arm.
"Yar?"
"Stop saying that."
"But that's the first time I've said-"
"Not that. 'This-a-way'."
"What's wrong with saying that?" The girl questioned.
"Nothing."
"Then why can't I say it?"
"Because you said it too much!"
She frowned. "Says who?"
He gritted his teeth and barely managed to stop himself from tightening his grip on her arm. "Will you just shut up?"
"Why?"
Spencer, forgotten by the two, observed their bickering. "This is a first...she's almost being dragged along by him and he's definitely pissed...but she doesn't look scared at all...in fact, she looks like she's having fun...and...wait...he's not that mad?..." He took a closer look at his tour guide's face. "No, he's not...or else she'd be wincing because his hold on her arm would probably be bruising her..."
"Aaaaaand here's-"
Tala clapped a hand over her mouth. "Just go." He growled wearily. Spencer complied, a hint of a smirk causing the corners of his mouth to twitch. The tall boy did smirk when the two resumed bickering almost the moment they started to walk away.
"Maybe this roomie-mess will turn out in our favor..." Spencer hypothesized as he entered the building. "Note to self: punch Ian for using that word so much that it's in my vocabulary now."
-x-x-x-x-
Inside the Box: I agree, wholeheartedly. Ian is like the crazy, unstable element of the team. I tend to like to have him act as a devilish prankster who seems to have no regard for others. He does, he's just good at hiding it X3 Thanks for your review.
AquilaTempestas: It's always nice to find another Rise Against fan, though I'm afraid I've only just begun to delve into their large repitoire of songs. xD If you check out my OC corner (located on my profile), you'll find out a tad more about the OC of doom. Thanks for your feedback.
crystal tomoe: xD Like I mentioned above, Ian is the "crazy, unstable element"...meaning he'd totally do that with no shame, lol. I intend to update as often as is possible with decent chappies~...though I may end up trading off updates between this story and another.
Hope to see y'all next chapter.
Thanks for readin'.
Emma