Unread postby Wittgen » June 1st, 2011, 10:16 pm
Lily pulled her bag behind her as she drifted out with the large majority of the students. Everyone around was such a doom and gloom sourpuss. She wondered if anyone was smiling other than her and an interesting young man who had hurridly shook her hand and introduced himself as Othello Maria Tiddles the 18th, Esquire. She'd have to find him at breakfast. She didn't think it would be very hard to pick him out of the crowd. But for now, Lily wanted to find a nice out of the way room.
She gave one last backwards glance as she reached the door, mentally noting those who had resisted the herd mentality and stayed behind. She even made eye contact with a young man in a red coat. His eyes weren't particularly warm, so she just did her best closed eyes, anime style big smile and turned her attention back to where she was going. There were so many interesting people. It was going to be a good year.
Lily hummed to herself as she walked through the hallways. All around here there was chaos. Pleading, screaming, growled threats, hurried conversations filled with darting eyes. The headmaster really knew how to inspire the student body! Eventually she took a small turn off the main path to follow the sound of a low but heated argument. In a short while, she saw two young men glaring daggers and saying the word dibs a lot.
Blithely ignoring them, she looked around them and into the room, setting down her stuff. It was beautiful. A stone room with a wooden ceiling, a twin bed, a desk, and a window facing north, looking out on, wait, a Pagoda? This place was weird. But wait! was that a trap door in the corner. Even if it only led to a small storage thing, it was perfect. Sign me up, she thought. Spying a piece of paper on the desk, she went ahead and did exactly that, claiming the room as her own. After signing, the paper glowed and popped into disintegrating confetti, which after a half second delay, prompted a giggle from Lily.
It did not prompt a giggle from the boys outside, though it did attract their attention. Finally. (Really, some people had no situational awareness. Poor dears. Good to know though.) "Hey!" they said as one with shockingly well matched levels of indignation. It was kind of impressive. "This was my room." Again in unison, though they did take a little time to glare at each other after that one.
Lily's hand went over her mouth and her eyes went wide as saucers. "Oh no. I'm so sorry. I didn't know."
"How could you not know? We were standing with our stuff right in front of the door!" said one. The other just stared at her, mouth agape.
"I just, I mean, there were two of you and the bed means this is clearly a single. And your stuff wasn't in the room or even blocking the door. I figured you were strategizing for where to look for a room for you two."
They sputtered. "But, I mean, we're not rooming together. Why would you think that?"
Lily shrugged and looked at them from under her eyelashes, a small smile slowly returning to her face. "The way you were debating. It was heated, but there was a natural rhythm to it. A chemistry, the kind great friendships and alliances have. Or bitter feuds, I guess. But," here she peered at them closely, making them squirm just a little, "you both look pretty smart, so I figured you wouldn't have stumbled into having a great nemesis ten minutes after arriving. Sorry, I guess I assumed a lot, but I already took the room, and I really do think you two could work great together. Why not try? The headmaster makes out like this place will eat us alive if let it."
They looked at each other for a long moment.
"Sorry, I was kind of rude before."
"No problem, I mean, I can't fault your tastes in rooms," and they shook hands.
Lily looked at her watch. "Oh no, that just wasted ten minutes. I hope that doesn't hurt your chances of finding a good double."
The two boys exchanged a panic filled look, hurridly thanked Lily, and rushed out of the room, grabbing their bags as they went. Lily shut and bolted the door behind them, sat down on her bed, and took a moment to soak in her new room before she got to work. And oh, there was a lot of work ahead.
Lily's full blown smile returned.