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Post by Amethystasheryn on Dec 30, 2012 16:32:33 GMT -8
There was a marked difference between the two halves of this dorm room. The half closest to the door was spotless, its floor clean, its bed stripped bare. But there was an invisible line down the centre of the room, and across that, everything was different. The bed on that side was in total disarray, as if its owner had gotten up very quickly and rolled out of bed, trailing her covers. Most of them lay tangled and rumpled across the bed, but some of them hung down off the left side, almost trailing the floor. A school backpack had been dropped in the corner, its zipper open, tilted partway over and in danger of spilling. The clothes in the closet didn't even look very well-organised, and its door was partly ajar. The only things that looked neat were the pictures on the walls: A few posters of musicians, but mostly portraits and photographs of ordinary, definitely not-famous people.
On the shared desk sat a pair of miniature speakers, plugged into an iPod and playing something that sounded Russian by its lyrics and instrumentation. The girl sitting at the desk tapped her foot along with the beat. She was bent over a sketchbook, a coloured pencil in her right hand, her black curls falling past her shoulders and almost into her way. Whatever she was drawing was hidden by the position of her arms and body.
Cora switched one pencil out for another and began shading, absently humming along with her music. She'd been in here for quite a while, determined to finish this sketch; but the dorm room wasn't that big, and she was getting desperately bored of being alone with only her music. She was just considering leaving the room and the sketch for now when she was interrupted.
((OOC: I accidentally wrote this whole post in present tense, then had to go back and edit it into past, so excuse the egregious passive voice. Heh.))
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Post by Constance Bumble on Dec 30, 2012 18:20:17 GMT -8
Lugging around three heavy bags was utterly exhausting. Especially when Constance had gotten herself lost about three times just searching for the girls dorms. At least she had gotten here, and she had met someone new on the way, there was almost always an upside to something she did accidentally.
"Room four..." She muttered softly to herself glancing around with wide, curious, pale green eyes, around the dorm, her eyes settling on the door she was searching for.
With a small sigh of relief, she made her way over to room four, pulling a suitcase and hauling two large bags along with her. As she approached the room, she could hear music floating out of the gaps between the walls and the door. She pushed gently down on the handle an opened it slowly, as she did so, the music got louder, it was foreign by the sounds of it. A language she hadn't been taught yet. When she had opened the door fully, the contents of the room was revealed.
Constance had never seen anything this messy in her life time, which wasn't really saying anything, since she hadn't really anything messy to compare it with. At home, when she dropped something, it would be caught and put back into it's rightful place. At least the occupant had kept one side clean, the side she would be taking up. When her eyes trailed across the floor, she took in each item, her eyes settling for a second on each poster, portrait and picture, as if she was reading a book, trying to absorb the words. A cold shiver traveled right down her spine at the sight of the bed. It took a while for her gaze to meet the desk, where the source of the music was kept, along with the occupant of the room, who was humming along with the music. Constance found herself intrigued with the stranger's black curly hair. Her hair was the complete opposite, if she didn't dye it, it would be so blonde it looked white, and it was naturally straight, she'd always wanted curly hair.
She'd only had a chance to glance at the sketchbook, concealed by the position of the girl when the stranger stopped and seemed to be thinking about something. Should she say something? She didn't tend to talk to others, especially if they were in thought, but this person was her new roommate, she had been told her name, but obviously hadn't taken it in, the person in the office did make her mind tune out a little.
"Hello." Consance said quickly, before she could stop herself, she tended to over think things, and if she hadn't said it then she'd most likely be standing in the doorway for a while, deciding whether or not to greet her.
[[OOC: Don't worry about it (: It's better than what I could do anywho.]]
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Post by Amethystasheryn on Dec 30, 2012 19:34:19 GMT -8
((OOC: I love Constance's horror at the mess. I hadn't thought about that!))
Cora dropped the pencil across her sketchbook and turned, one hand automatically reaching out to turn down the music. She was momentarily surprised that this stranger had so fortuitously decided to interrupt her just as she was thinking about leaving. Then she spotted the bags Constance was carrying.
She didn't recognise the girl, which was odd. Cora wandered about the school and its grounds as much as she could, partly out of interest in the building itself, but mostly because she loved to people-watch. She liked to think, with pride, that she knew most of the students by sight, even if she hadn't gotten a lot of their names. But this girl with the big green eyes--and pretty eyes they were, too--didn't strike any kind of bell.
She had been told that she was getting a new roommate. Most of the particulars had escaped her, but she'd assumed she would be getting someone who was already attending the school. She wouldn't have expected a transfer or brand new student. But then, it sometimes happened here, she supposed; Gifted children couldn't always wait at home for the new term to start.
"Hi," Cora said, fishing quickly for the girl's name among all the information that had slipped her mind. She remembered Bumble, because it wasn't the sort of last name you heard very often. But the first name just wasn't coming. "Did you pack your whole house?" she asked, gesturing at the bags and case as she tried to remember. "You had to drag those all the way up here, didn't you? I bet you're exhausted."
The name was a definite no-show. Shrugging it off for the moment, Cora shoved her chair haphazardly away and stood up. "Want any help?"
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Post by Constance Bumble on Dec 30, 2012 20:32:00 GMT -8
Constance gave a small, slightly worried smile as the stranger looked up at her. She now felt that it had been rude for her to interrupt her in what she was doing, since the female seemed so surprised at her greeting.
She nodded slightly when the female said Hi, the worried smile still tugging at the corners of her lips. Constance listened to the question as she stared, without realising, at the girl's lovely hair. She hadn't seen hair like hers since her horrible aunt on her fathers side, and her hair was straight, and it wasn't naturally that colour, so she supposed it wasn't really much like her hair at all.
When the female gestured to the bags Constance looked down to them, "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what's in these bags." She told her, looking back up to her face as she spoke. "My..." She paused, not wanting to say maid, "Friend insisted on packing for me." Constance finished, muttering slightly.
She was actually nervous about what the large suitcase contained, she was positive it wasn't clothing. "It wouldn't have taken so long if I hadn't gotten lost." Constance added, laughing anxiously with another smile, although she looked less worried, her smile was still nervous and wonky.
The female then offered to help with her bags , she was considering accepting the considerate offer, but the empty bed was right there in the room, and she'd carried the bags around half the school already so carrying them over to the bed wouldn't take a lot of effort at all, and she didn't really want to be any trouble for her. "I'll be alright." She nodded with a pleasant smile, "Thank you though."
Constance stepped further into the room and pulled the door slowly shut behind her before beginning to move her bags across the room and over to the empty bed, she pulled the suitcase up against it, and pulled the bags off her shoulders and placed them gently on the bed. "I'm sorry, they did tell me your name, but I've completely forgotten..." She announced softly, after she had turned to face the female. Well, that wasn't completely true, she just hadn't been listening when her name had been mentioned, but forgetting was along the same lines. "I'm Constance." she told her, nervously offering her right hand for the girl to shake.
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Post by Amethystasheryn on Dec 30, 2012 20:43:21 GMT -8
On the whole, it was probably a good thing Constance had refused her offer of help. Cora wasn't particularly strong, and definitely not fit. You could see it with one glance at her chubby frame, but that didn't mean she had to advertise it.
She smiled at Cora and shoved that out of her mind. "I hope your friend was good at packing," she said. "I'm not. Everything gets shoved in and if it doesn't fit, I sit on it till it does. Packing neatly is a pain."
The girl wasn't American, Cora could tell that much. She'd never really met an English person; any exposure she'd had to the folks across the pond was from the movies, and who knew how many of those actors were actually Americans putting on a crap accent? So she couldn't place Constance's accent any better than that.
She stepped up and shook Constance's hand. "I'm Cora. Nice to meet you!" Releasing the girl so she could get on with the bag-moving, Cora continued. "You're new here, aren't you? Where are you from? They didn't tell me anything about you." A lie to mirror Constances, though neither of them knew it. "I can show you around, if you want. You know, point out your classes ... And you have to walk around the grounds, too. Everything's dead now, obviously, but they're great in the spring."
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Post by Constance Bumble on Dec 31, 2012 12:35:59 GMT -8
"I hope she is too." Constance replied, laughing lightly at what the female had said. "Don't you prefer packing neatly?" She asked with a large smile, she found it quite easy to talk to her, and didn't feel particularly nervous any more either. "That way you'll know where everything is."
"It's nice to meet you too." She told Cora happily, as they shook hands. She then sat softly on the bed, facing Cora, to look through the bags. "Yes, I'm new." She nodded, and raked her fingers through her full bangs, trying to straighten out the gap that constantly seemed to reappear in her bangs. "I lived in the centre of England most of my life, but my family moved to America four years ago." Constance explained gently as she picked up the bag she assumed had her clothes in and placed it on her lap, running the zip along the side as Cora made the generous offer of showing her around, "That would be brilliant, thank you very much." Constance gave a thankful grin. She buried her hand in the large bag and pulled out a large pile of folded clothing. Three different coloured pairs of skinny jeans, two sweet dresses, and six different kinds of tops, she glanced over to the wardrobe wondering whether or not her clothes would fit.
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Post by Amethystasheryn on Dec 31, 2012 12:52:47 GMT -8
Well, at least she hadn't been wrong about the accent, Cora thought. She caught Constance's look at the wardrobe and realised that she'd probably have to shove her things over to make room for her new roommate's. She kicked her chair out of her way again and pushed the doors open, quickly shoving all the used hangers over to the left side and grabbing sundry items off the wardrobe floor to hang and move. It was probably the neatest she'd ever been in her life.
"I don't care much," she answered, glancing over her shoulder as Constance looked through her bags. "I have to unpack it all eventually anyway. I don't see much point in putting in all the effort to make it look neat when I'll have to take it out again as soon as I get somewhere." She turned, a sweatshirt in one hand, and eyed the clothing coming out of Constance's bag. "Looks like your friend's got it down though. Lucky you," and reached back to hang the sweatshirt haphazardly up, too. "As for that tour, I'm good for it whenever you are, just let me know. In the meantime, how do you like America? It must be so different from England."
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Post by Constance Bumble on Dec 31, 2012 20:18:48 GMT -8
Constance was a little shocked when Cora began rearranging the wardrobe, moving the used hangers to one side, seemingly making room for Constance's clothes. "You don't have to do that." She told Cora, not wanting to be any trouble, but she couldn't help the small smile that spread across her lips at the fact that the wardrobe now looked significantly tidier than it had before.
"That's a very good point." Constance told her nodding in agreement with a pleasant grin, placing her clothing off to one side. "It looks like." She chuckled softly, beginning to haul the heavy suitcase onto the bed next to her, she quickly unzipped it to reveal it's contents, there was around twenty five new books for her, piled for about two thirds of the case, the smile on her face grew, her maids knew her all too well. "Whenever you're free would be fine, I've got plenty of time." She said looking up to Cora happily, at the last third of the suitcase was many boxes of mint tic tacs, around enough boxes to last her about two months, next to the tic tacs was a small, decorated, wooden box, engraved with intricate patterns and spirals, it was just the right size to hold the many letters it contained, all of which were letters from her aunt, the one and only person in her large family that she got along with, but being back in England, they didn't see each other a lot, so they wrote to each other weekly.
Opening the box, Constance noticed the one unopened letter, resting on top of the opened ones. She'd read it later, probably just before she went to bed, so she'd remember it for writing a reply in the morning.
"America is very different from England." She told Cora, shutting the box and placing it on the pillow. "There are quite a lot of words you say that are completely differently to how I would say it." She laughed softly, "Although I haven't met a lot of Americans since I've been here, everyone I have met have been kind." This was partly true, although the Americans she'd met had been kind, the majority of them had been lawyers, who rambled about things she didn't particularly care about.
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Post by Amethystasheryn on Dec 31, 2012 21:17:25 GMT -8
"I'd be happy to do it as soon as you've unpacked," Cora offered, quickly hanging up the last of her clothes and (for once) closing the wardrobe. "But I know when I first got here, I got hammered with serious jet lag the first day, so if you prefer to rest tonight, I won't blame you. I like to think I can count myself one of the nice Americans." She grinned. "And speaking of jet lag, How far did you travel to get here?"
She almost tripped over the chair on her way to her own bed, and dealt the unfortunate piece of furniture another careless kick, sending it skittering back to the general vicinity of the desk. Good enough, she thought, and plopped onto her own bed facing her roommate.
She couldn't see all the contents of Constance's suitcase, but the engraved box caught her eye as soon as the girl pulled it out. Cora whistled and leaned forward to catch a better glimpse. "Wow," she said. "That's beautiful. May I see?"
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Post by Constance Bumble on Jan 1, 2013 18:31:34 GMT -8
"That sounds brilliant, thank you." Constance said in an upbeat tone, smiling to Cora, and watching her as she finished hanging her clothes.
"Oh, it's fine." She told her softly, removing all of the tic tac boxes from her large grey suitcase and placing them against the wall on the the half of the shared room. She smiled, looking forward to the tour she would soon get around the school. "You are one of those Americans." She laughed, grinning also, deciding the placing of the tic tac boxes wasn't right, she picked them up and placed them under her bed, this way they were her secret stash, a stash that Cora knew about, though she didn't mind, she was happy to give away the tiny, sugary mints anytime.
"My family only live a few towns away nowadays, my mother drove me here this morning." She explained gently, "Where in America are you from?" Constance inquired with a casual smile, her eyes bubbling with curiosity.
She jumped slightly as Cora tripped over the piece of furniture in her way, "Are you alright?" She asked her quickly, her gaze wondering to the abused chair as it was kicked towards the desk. That chair had taken quite a battering during the short time Constance had been in the room. Her eyes followed Cora as she moved to her own bed and sat down facing her. She gave another pleasant smile, as Cora asked to see her box of letters, "Of course." Constance nodded, gently removing the box from her pillow and handing it to Cora, allowing her to look at it as Constance began to pull out the many books from her suitcase and placed them in a couple of stacks in the corner on her side of the room, she really looked forward to reading them, she caught glimpses of books she'd been wanting to read for a whole as they were placed in their piles, almost making a small pyramid.
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Post by Amethystasheryn on Jan 2, 2013 13:19:40 GMT -8
"I'm all right," Cora shrugged. "I'm used to it. The chair probably is too, by now." She smiled and took the box, turning and studying it closely. "You didn't have to drive far then," she said. "That's good. I had to fly in. I live a lot further east. Thankfully that was a while ago, so I'm over it now." She grinned, holding the box higher in the light. "This is fantastic! You have a lot of this stuff packed away?"
((Sorry for short post...))
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Post by Constance Bumble on Jan 3, 2013 6:26:17 GMT -8
"That's good." Constance laughed softly when Cora told her she was alright. As Cora spoke, she lifted the final bag off of the bed and placed it on her lap, this bag was slightly smaller than the case, but larger than the clothing bag.
"How long have you been here?" She asked, hearing that Cora had arrived while ago. She peered inside the bag and pulled out the first thing she saw, her ukulele. She had told her 'friend' that she thought brining her guitar to the academy would be too much, so she'd obviously come up with the idea to pack Constance's ukulele. She placed it behind her on the bed.
"Stuff like the box?" She asked, pulling out the next item from the bag, "I have many at home, I get a different box every time I fill one." She told Cora with a smile, the next thing was her new laptop and iPod, she'd never been good at using electronics, she didn't even have a phone. The laptop was expensive, her tutor had told her Mother to get it so she could save her work, and wouldn't loose it, meaning the only thing she could do on the laptop was type. Constance was also clueless about the iPod, it had been a present for her 16th from her grandmother on her mother's side, since the old woman had been told she liked music, she'd gotten her this. There were no apps on it, but there was tons of music her Dad had put on for her in his spare time.
[[ No worries. (: ]]
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Post by Amethystasheryn on Jan 4, 2013 10:33:03 GMT -8
"This is my second year here," Cora said. "But I came back in August this year." She watched the contents of the last bag come out and whistled. "Nice computer," she said. "Now I'm jealous! I've always got to use the school computers, and they aren't anything to write home about." She said it mostly in jest; she'd never much minded the school computers, as long as she was allowed to listen to her own music while she worked. Still, it was a nice computer.
She reached across to hand the box back and nodded at the ukulele behind Constance. "I don't know many people who play that," she said. "How long have you played?"
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Post by Constance Bumble on Jan 4, 2013 17:20:35 GMT -8
Knowing that Cora was in her second year, as she was, Constance hoped that she could ask Cora which way she should go whenever she was lost, which happened very often.
"Why August?" She asked, curiously, she was almost sure that schools started in September, but she never really got holidays, so she didn't really know, that was the unfortunate thing about having a home tutor that her mother was paying, she had lessons every day except Sunday, including when every other child would have holidays, her mother not wanting her to get behind on any work.
She gave a small smile as Cora whistled when her laptop came out the bag, her smile widened as Cora complimented it. "Thank you." Constance said happily, "You can use this any time you like." She told her, holding up the laptop, "If you can excuse the stickers all over the top." Turning it so the lid faced Cora, making it possible for her to see the stickers, they were all vinyl stickers, there were a few owl ones, ones with quotes on, the majority of the quotes from books she loved, the other stickers were of meaningless things such as instruments, pencils and the occasional famous actor or musician. "The password is Sebastian, if you want to use it." She added.
"I won't really use it for much." Constance told Cora, "I'll probably only use it for..." She trailed off, not knowing what she really would use it for, maybe emailing her brother, if he bothered to email her first. "Something..." She finished softly, peering into the bag. "I'm not really good with electronics." She gave a small shrug, the only thing left in the bag was a smaller bag filled with bathroom things.
When Cora handed the box back, she smiled again, "Thank you." She said gratefully, taking it off of Cora and placing it back on her pillow. He eyes trailed to her ukulele as it was mentioned, "Uhrm... since I was about six, so around ten years, I started off with guitar, when I got better at guitar, the ukulele became a lot easier to play." Constance told Cora, "Do you play any instruments?" She asked, her eyes moving to the posters of musicians on the walls.
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