Metamorphosis

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N: Made it to Houston so here's your chapter in a story of my choosing.

Chapter 4 (The Roommate)

Outside the bedroom door was an archway that stood before a set of stairs leading up to the walkways at the top of the walls. When Trina passed them, she stopped to consider whether she wanted to head up.

While true that the view out her window was astounding, she still had a concern that she might grow nauseous standing on top of the wall. It wasn't as though the walkways would be skinny, the hallway she was in had to be at least ten feet in width.

The bile in her stomach started to swirl as she thought about how high up they were. The altitude was high enough ground level, and she was fairly certain her side of the compound was resting near the edge of a steep incline. "Must be about a fifty foot drop or more." Her hands trembled violently and her eyes darted to her bedroom door. "I think I'd better wait around for my roommate. Still haven't met her."

Trina pushed the bedroom door open and glanced at the small brown desk in between the two beds. With a smile she moved toward it and sat down. She folded her right forearm on the surface and slid her hand across the glossy top.

The texture was smooth like the desk in her bedroom back home, and it was wonderfully polished-to the point she could see herself sliding a drinking glass along it as a bartender might do.

Her fingertips stopped at the edge of a stapled document. Trina turned her hand over and pulled the paper towards her, reading over the top title. "The schedule Jason mentioned." Her breathing slowed as her eyes trailed the page.

Class ran from eight to eleven o'clock, leaving an hour between that to rest for lunch. The cafeteria closed at one o'clock and all the groups were to get together for whatever activity the group leaders decided on. Group play lasted until five, leaving an hour window before supper. The cafeteria would close again at seven.

Essentially students would have from five to ten o'clock to do whatever they pleased. It appeared a tight schedule, but there was some elbow room, and that was a good thing. She could schedule in some time for herself to do some exercises, jog around the perimeter, and do some other activities.

Of course she'd be smelly and dirty by the end of the day, so she would likely end up showering at night rather than the morning. Whatever the routine was, she would work it out with her roommate.

Trina glanced to the empty mattress next to her and sighed; it was a shame her roommate hadn't checked in yet. Not everyone had when the counselors were doing the name selections, since several names had been called and no one walked up.

Even then, there had been some still standing at the check in counter. It was very likely her roommate was still lingering around there.

To pass the time, Trina grabbed her notebook from her pack and carried it over to the desk. She planned to uphold her promise to write back to Tori and their parents, so now was as good a time as any.

She tapped the pen on the side of her jaw and flicked her eyes up in contemplation. "Dear Tori…" She hung her tongue out partially on the left corner of her mouth and brought the pen down to the paper. "First day's been interesting so far. Hard to be a diva in the middle of a martial arts camp, by the way, haha!" She smirked and slowly looked out the window.

"Already here and people were making fun of me because I decided to wear that stupid dress. I should have rethought that. Stupid, stupid, stupid." Her shoulders fell and her eyebrows pushed together, shoving a small wrinkle up between them. "Anyway, it is beautiful here, you would love it. There's a walkway along the walls that border the campgrounds, but I'm just a little scared to go up there. It's high up, but I bet the view would be worth it. I wonder if I should venture up there? I'm not good with heights."

Trina brought her pen up and thought on the day's events. Jason entered her mind, with his handsome smirk and his casual pose leaning up against the wall. Her eyes shut down and she let the sound of her heartbeat pull her into a world of luxury.

A soft breath rolled off her tongue like the wind and her eyelids pulled up halfway. "What are you thinking, Trina?" She glanced at the paper and pressed her lips together.

"Tori. I met that boy you were talking about. Your teacher's nephew, Jason. There's a little something about him, a deepness in his eyes, it just pulls you in when he looks at you. He's definitely the lead counselor, and he's also the group leader of the group that I am in. I hope I'm on good terms with him, because I kind of embarrassed myself with him earlier. We got into a little bit of an argument, though it was more of a simple disagreement, and then I realized who he was. I couldn't help myself! He saw me wearing the dress and said I looked like a fashionista. Can you believe that? I mean really. I get that it might not be appropriate attire for a camp, but a fashionista?"

He was probably right for all she knew. It was a hard-pressed thought, but she should have known better than to wear a damned dress at a martial arts camp. What did that say about her level of devotion?

Her eyes narrowed and she pressed her fingers hard against the pen, scowling as the color in her forefinger and thumb started to drain.

"I'm sick of doing the wrong thing, but how do I even know what's right? 'fashionista', 'diva', that isn't who I am is it? Who am I, Tori? I don't even know anymore; if I ever knew. I've been on my own for so long, trying to do what you do and trying to get involved with your friends despite that they don't want me around. Then there's mom and dad. Too busy to take notice. Everyone's too busy to care, to pay attention, so why the hell do I care so much?"

"How do you do it, Tori? I encouraged you to not give up on Hollywood Arts. It didn't take long for you to become some superstar. Why? Why did it come so easily for you? Why did all you have to do is bat your eyelashes and everyone suddenly wants to drop to their knees for you?"

At this point she was writing so quickly that she wasn't focusing on legibility. Her heart was racing and her body heating up. People only noticed her when she made a fool of herself, and it pissed her off.

Several lines of paper later, she took a moment to stop and breathe, reading over some of her more frantic lines with disdain. She knew they were difficult, but she wanted to keep her letters raw, so this was the draft she would send.

She wanted Tori to know how difficult things were for her, and how confusing life had become over the years. It wasn't Tori's fault that she felt like she'd been living in her sister's shadow, and she let the girl know. It wasn't Tori's fault that she got all the guys looking at her and Trina only got men who wanted to treat her as their doormat or some piece of tissue not good enough to wipe their ass with.

Tori would know just how she felt like she had to be somebody in order to gain notice. "Your friends say I'm a nobody. I'm a nobody because I can't act and I can't sing. So it falls that I must be talentless. Apparently singing, acting, it's the only way to gain any kind of opportunity. Who am I if I'm not that? I'm nobody. Tori. I don't want to be nobody. I want to be somebody, I want to mean something to people. Why is that so hard? Why can't I find anyone who cares about me, for that matter? I sometimes wonder if I should give up…give up on men, give up on trying to be somebody-anybody…if you ask me, I'm destined to be a nobody."

She continued on until she reached a point that she could end off with a few good notes. She did wish Tori's friends well and wanted to know how things were going back home, and if they were all having a decent time.

As she folded up the letter and pushed it into the envelope, there came a knock at the door. Her head jerked up and her heart skipped joyously. "Finally, my roommate's here." She hurried and opened the door, raising an eyebrow when she saw Jason in the doorway.

Her heart skipped a beat when their eyes connected. Trina's breath rattled in her throat. "You?" Hair was covering the right side of her face, so she brought her hand up to pull it from view. "You can't be here."

"Disappointed?" He laughed once and shook his head. "No, I'm afraid I'm not the roommate."

"Oh." She pulled her head back and glanced out into the hallway. "Was there a problem? Is my roommate not going to make it?"

"Nah, I just had to show your roommate the way to the room," Jason replied. Her lips moved in a circle and Jason motioned to the right. "She was a little late checking in, but she's here now, so I hope you two settle in all right." Did this man ever stop working? She had to know. "If you have any questions, you know where my office is."

Her hand slid down the door frame and she squinted at him. "I'm afraid I don't." Jason pointed upwards and her heart started to sink.

"In the corner tower. Just take the stairs up to the walkway and head down to you right. The door leads into my office." He crossed his arms and swayed to the right. "Or you could walk down this hallway to the flight of stairs at the far end, that would do just fine."

"Thanks."

"Now…" He stepped to the side and Trina watched a girl moving towards the room. The minute she saw her, an image of an old friend from her childhood flashed before her. This girl had long brown hair, she stood at approximately five feet and six inches, had an olive complexion and shimmering green eyes.

"They had some trouble with her paperwork, I guess because originally she was meant to be put somewhere else but the room assignment changed when she requested you by name. Strange."

The girl smiled brightly at her and started to wave. "Trina! Do you remember me?" She could recall a younger looking version of this girl, with a rounder face but the same confident and dazzling eyes. Unfortunately Trina couldn't put a name to a face.

"I um…it must have been some time."

"Lindsay Peters." Her eyes grew and suddenly she remembered her old friend. Lindsay had been a friend from elementary school, the two had numerous sleepovers and shared so much of their lives-she was ashamed to not have remembered her best friend. The girl moved away to Florida several years ago and they lost touch. a

"Oh my god! Lindsay? How?" She hurried forward to hug her friend, the two girls screamed together and Jason started cringing.

"Yeah okay," He muttered while rubbing his ear, "I'm going to go now. Is there anything else you need?" She shook her head and waved him off. Once he was gone, she pulled back from her friend and examined her with some suspicion.

"How did you even know I was here?"

"Well you know the website where you register?" She ran her thumb across her chin and nodded. There was a place on the site to see the roster and figure out if the seats were all filled up. It was also handy for those that wanted an opportunity to request a roommate. "I saw your name and saw that the room still had an open slot, so I had to run the roommate request."

"It's so good to see you, though." She grabbed Lindsay's bags and pulled them inside. "I'm sorry we lost touch. I was a misguided impression that you didn't want to talk to me anymore." Lindsay pursed her lips and Trina sat on the edge of her bed.

"Whydid you think that?"

"Long story." She folded her fingers over the edge and pressed her nails into the cloth covering. "I just-things really started going downhill for me." Her gaze fell with her heart and she took a slow breath. "Things are still hard."

When Lindsay left, she was one of the last friends Trina had. Tori and her friends thought she didn't like her anymore, so that made Trina suspect they were right.

"By the way." She lifted her head and smiled slightly at her . "I didn't realize you we into martial arts. What belt are you?"

"Purple belt, but I'm close to obtaining brown."

"Oh! I'm brown." Now she could have someone to spar with without feeling nervous about asking Jason. "Thank god, the only other person I know around here is Jason, and that's just cause I ran into him before everything started."

"What happened?"

"Long story involving a dress." Lindsay winced. Her hands fell to her hips and her head shook from left to right.

"That was you? I thought it was some other girl they were talking about."

Trina lifted her hand and pushed herself back on the bed, pressing herself up against the wall. "Guilty as charged." She could deal with the jabs well enough, since she was so used to hearing it from her sister's friends. "But yeah asking Jason to spar? That's…I'd like to, but he's a black belt and it has been a while since I've actually been promoted a color."

"Still you should. I bet he could teach you a lot. He's one of the counselors, right?"

"Yep. He's the group leader directly in charge of the group I'm in too." Remembering that she still needed to make sure Lindsay would know to check, she snapped her fingers and pointed to the girl. "Do you know your group leader?"

"Yeah. Michelle Garland."

"Good." Catching up with Lindsay was going to be fun. There was so much she remembered about the girl, but so much she missed out on. She didn't seem like much, but the girl had always been tough as nails-someone that Trina looked up to.

She guided Trina through a lot of crazy childhood adventures, which usually involved the duo getting covered in mud or other debris that pissed their mothers off. Their mothers were the reason they were friends to begin with, both worked at the hospital together.

Unfortunately Lindsay had to move to live with her grandmother. When they were just fourteen, Lindsay's mother contracted a disease from a patient she'd been working on. When she died, the girl had no more family in California. That day was the first she'd ever seen her friend cry.

But even now, Lindsay seemed to have put it behind her. How true that was, Trina wasn't certain. "How have you been since, you know?" Lindsay's cheery demeanor faded momentarily, then her shoulders rose and fell.

"It's been difficult, but I'll make do." The girl sat beside Trina and ran her hand through her hair with a sigh of exhaustion. "Grandma's not doing too well these days. I'm not sure what's going to happen. Might have to move back to California with my dad, but I'm sure I don't want to do that."

"Why?"

"Same reason I couldn't live with him before." Trina's head tilted as Lindsay swept her fingers over her knees. "Dad was in prison. He's out now, but I don't know if I trust him. It's not like he's in for anything really bad, it was some shoplifting thing, but I don't want to put myself in there just to have him go back to prison."

"He has a record?"

"Real kleptomaniac, yeah." Lindsay slouched and slanted her eyes at the ground. "If grandma's health continues going the way it is, I won't have much choice." The girl's eyes darted over to Trina and she cleared her throat. "Let's not focus on that now, though. We have the rest of the evening to catch up."

Now she was talking. Trina pushed herself from the bed happily and flashed a grin. "Good. I'm sure there's lots to discuss."

This was a good chapter, I think. Seems Trina's got an issue with heights (oh she sleep talks too, fun chapter coming), I wonder if she'll face that fear.