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Roommates
Looking down at her schedule, Melanie found the room number where she would be staying for the rest of the year. She stood with her suitcase on the second floor hallway of the girl's dormitories where all the girl's were housed while they attended the Academy. There were four floors with one hundred cozy bedrooms on each, making the hallways crowded and noisy.
Taking a deep breath to calm her frayed nerves, Melanie timidly made her way down the long hallway, with all kinds of loud conversations varying in pitch spilling from the rooms all around her. Loud, thunderous music was blaring somewhere from one of the rooms as Melanie weaved through all the girls walking from one room to another or loitering out in the hallway. Glancing into the opened rooms as she passed, she noticed how every room looked almost the same, save for the variously different furniture placements and decorating styles in each, according to each girl's preference and taste; every room contained the same two twin beds, two desks, and two closet spaces, which seemed fair. It was the most Melanie had ever owned in her life, so she was fine with it. The only thing on her mind was the dreaded confrontation with her roommate. She desperately hoped whoever she'd been given, that they would be nice—nicer than the two people she'd met that day.
Room 314 was located all the way at the end of the main hallway. Double-checking the room number to make sure she had the correct room, Melanie reached out to turn the knob and entered.
"What the hell do you want?" A brash, all-too familiar voice unpleasantly greeted her immediately after she had entered the room. The pale girl stopped dead in her tracks upon realizing just who her new roommate was.
She received a indignant huff from her hot-headed and rather loud new roommate. "You have the wrong room, Ghost Girl. Further up the hall with someone who might actually want a roommate."
Melanie couldn't help but notice the outrage and disbelief in Allison's voice and she involuntarily winced. "Um, I believe this is the right room, number 314. It appears we've been assigned to be roommates..."
Would she ever be wanted?
Ally trudged over to her, ripped the schedule right out of her hands without a word and began to read it furiously. "Damn it... I just got them to get rid of my old roommate, and now they're doing this to me?" She growled in disbelief. She roughly shoved the schedule back into Melanie's hands and stomped away in an angry fashion like some spoiled rich kid she had previously 'claimed' she wasn't.
Taking a deep, nervous breath, Melanie squared her shoulders and attempted the bravest face she could muster. She was really frustrated with how this girl always treated her, and, pissed off or not, Melanie was going to point it out anyway. "Okay, look, I get that you're pissed and you're used to being on your own and keeping everyone at arms length, but chill out. We don't have to talk to each other and act like we're best buds or anything. I normally keep to myself anyway, so I can easily stay out of your hair, I swear. You won't have to worry about me."
Ally raised an incredulous eyebrow at Melanie's change of attitude but quickly regained her composure and went back to being her usual angry self. "Good, glad to hear it." She huffed.
Plopping heavily down onto her bed, she pointed to the other one across the room. "That's your bed and your side of the room. Here are my rules: Stay on your side and I'll stay on mine; no loud music; go to bed when you're supposed to—lights are off at 10 and no later; absolutely NO boys in the room at all, and I'm sure you won't have a problem with that; if you stay out late for some reason, no turning on any lights when you come back into the room and I'm asleep—you're going to have to get ready for bed in the dark; no parties here; go to the other partiers further up the hall. Lastly, don't talk to me. Majority of the time I'm in a bad mood, and I will snap and I'll snap hard, so stay out of my life and I'll stay out of yours. Got it?"
Melanie nodded stiffly, and Ally let out an exasperated sigh. "Good, I'm sure we should have no problems. You seem like a smart human being, so you understand people have boundaries. You can unpack now—just no fangirl-y posters of anything I don't approve of. I have to look at it every day, and if it doesn't please me, I'll get even crankier and rip someone's head off—most likely yours." She advised, with no evidence that she even care whether she had offended her or not.
Melanie's hand tightened on her lone suitcase. "No problem." She owned little to nothing of her own, so Allison wouldn't have to worry about that.
Closing the door, Melanie wheeled in her bag and propped it against her bed and began observing her surroundings. The sheets and pillow were a plain white, the comforter a boring beige. There was a wooden table next to the bed with an old lamp sitting on top, and she noticed the closet towards the foot of her bed held empty hangers and her new school uniform inside. Lastly, on either side of the door, there were two identical wooden desks with chairs, the one on the left was Ally's and the right one was hers.
Allison's side barely had any decoration, which was to be expected, Melanie supposed. Her comforter was black and her sheets red, which definitely suited Ally's kind of character. On the wall above the bed were paintings of beautiful landscapes—oceans, sunsets, forests and meadows. Melanie thought they were absolutely beautiful. It was too bad she couldn't talk to Ally, or else she'd compliment her on the wonderful paintings.
Instead, Melanie turned to her suitcase and started unpacking. What belongings she had once owned when she lived with her parents had all perished in the fire, so the items she brought out from her suitcase had been donated to her from Goodwill. They weren't stylish or anything, just simple t-shirts and jeans, but Melanie had never been the "stylish" type so these clothes would do just fine.
Once she'd stowed away her clothes into the closet on hangers, Melanie brought out the few priceless items she had of her old life; a picture of her parents in a small frame that could easily sit in the palm of her hand, another photo of her parents holding a baby Melanie in their arms, and a jeweled pendant, inscribed with a certain inspirational saying, that she always kept close to her heart—literally. She stowed the two family photos in the top drawer of the bedside table for safekeeping, then she quickly clipped the pendant around her neck and slipped it safely under her shirt. Once she had done that, Melanie instantly felt calmer; she always felt a little bit better when she had it on. It was the only piece if her parents she had left.
Before she put away the picture with just her parents, Melanie gazed longingly at it for a few minutes, brushing a finger down the edge self-consciously. She missed them terribly, and hated that they had been ripped away from her so suddenly, leaving her all alone in a strange world. A tear escaped down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away with the edge of her blue, long-sleeved shirt.
Melanie had no one now. There wasn't anyone who was going to be there to hold her while she cried, to comfort her in her loneliness, to ease the pain. She was utterly on her own, isolated from everyone around her. It wasn't that she was mean to anyone, like Chase and Ally were, it was just that she wasn't used to having many friends or interacting with other people. Though, sometimes she wished she wasn't so withdrawn so that she could have friends to talk to and laugh with. She felt an ache in her chest, a sort of longing that she always felt when thinking about friendship. She'd cry herself to sleep every night just thinking about it.
While Melanie was unpacking, Ally was on her own side going through the clutter that was her desk, grumbling about stupid lectures, math homework, and stupid boys.
"Where the Hell is that cap?" She yelled furiously, digging around in her ratty knapsack. Apparently she was searching for the cap to her pen.
When Melanie heard a loud crash that sounded like an array of items tumbling to the carpeted floor, she glanced over to see Allison had dumped the contents of her bag all over the floor in order to effectively find the cap she was so desperately looking for.
When she didn't find it, Ally frustratedly padded the outside of her pockets. She dug a hand in one of them and brought out a half-crumpled, half-hazardly folded piece of paper. Glancing at it, Ally chucked it over her shoulder onto the floor when she deduced that it wasn't what she was looking for.
When Melanie caught a glimpse of something eerily familiar scribbled on it, she froze. "Um...what does that paper you just threw have on it?" Melanie's voice came out timid and curious, layered with tension.
Ally sent a glare her way, still searching through the mess she'd created. "What are you talking about? That thing? It's just a note from the office telling me I had to show you around." She said nonchalantly.
Melanie shook her head, her lips pressed into a thin, pale line. "No, what's that on the back of the paper?" Her voice shook as her wide eyes stared at it, shocked, like she'd just seen a ghost—she definitely did.
Ally glanced at her, then at the discarded paper and back, confused bewilderment clear on her face. "It's nothing," she said defensively. "I don't know why you care. Have you forgotten the rule that you're not supposed to ask me questions?" Ally voice as sharp as a double-edged sword.
Melanie ignored the girl's fickle anger, getting up and walking over to it, continuing to ignore her angry voice yelling at her to stop and reminding her of the rules. It was all background noise as she picked up the paper and unfolded/un-crumpled it. Staring back at her was just what she had feared.
It was the ghost boy...Braden.
"Don't you listen?" Ally was on her feet, practically towering over Melanie as menacing as she could manage, her harsh voice right in Melanie's ear.
"I know him," was all Melanie said, speaking in a dazed voice. She wasn't really here, seeming to float on some far away cloud up in the sky, lost in her own world.
That caused Ally beside her to go completely still, her angry fury gone, replaced by absolute confusion that Melanie couldn't see. "W-what? How? Who the Hell is he?" She demanded to know.
Melanie attempted to swallow the thick lump in her throat. "He—He's dead. He's a ghost that I see almost every day." She trailed a finger down the rough, penciled drawing of Braden. It was very ominous, as if he were some tortured soul trapped in the nether-some place where he couldn't escape.
Ally looked even more confused. Her voice shook a little as she asked again, frustrated. "Well? Explain! Who is this guy and what's so important about him? Why did I draw someone I've never even met?" She indicated to the boy on the paper, wanting to know.
Melanie struggled to come up with the right words to explain it. The best she could come up with was the most straightforward answer she could think of. "I don't know, honestly. All I do know is his name: Braden. I don't know much about him because he rarely ever talked before, no matter what I did. Today in History class was the first time he's ever spoken to me, and he didn't say much," she admitted. "I'm sorry, but that's all I can tell you. I don't know anything else."
Allison began to pace, brows furrowed in frustration while she grumbled to herself; she was just as stumped as Melanie was, and she also wondered what ability this Allison girl possessed that she didn't want to talk about? Drawing was definitely one of her talents, but how exactly that might fit into this mystery, Melanie wasn't sure—and she definitely wasn't going to ask her in fear that the girl might actually rip her head off.
Ally threw up her hands in defeat, ceasing in her pacing. "I don't know, neither do I care. Let's forget this ever happened and just go on with our lives." She went down on her knees and began sweeping up the items littering the ground back into her bag.
Without a word, Melanie nodded numbly and went back to her side of the room, throwing the ominous paper into the drawer with her family pictures. She'd keep it just in case. Who knew if she might need it again?
She was getting a weird feeling about that drawing, like maybe it was important—or going to be, somehow. Best to be safe. Maybe she could show it to the boy and try to get an answer from him? It was her best and only shot, and she was going to try it.
Just then, an administrative voice came onto the intercom, echoing outside the hall. 656Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9kwjL82A3T
"Attention! All students are to report to the auditorium for a school assembly. All students report to the auditorium for a school assembly..."
Ally groaned. "Great, another boring assembly, listening to my dad drone on and on about academics and crap. He actually thinks we all care."
Melanie didn't say anything. This girl really hated her father, that's for sure. "Guess we'd better get going." She made her way towards the door to leave.
Ally waved her on. "Go on ahead. I'm not in a hurry to get there. It's like a game; I do everything I can to annoy my father—show up late to the assembly's, or any other social school event, turn in my homework late, any other rebellious thing I can think of to piss him off. It's kinda fun." A devilish grin flashed across her face, then it quickly disappeared as her lips formed into a tight line—as if she realized she was spilling her guts to this girl without thinking—as she shot Melanie a glare. "Well? Get going!"
Doing as she said quickly, Melanie exited the room to follow the rest of the crowd down to the auditorium. Her roommate sure was an interesting one; her attitude changed like the wind—like when she'd told Melanie she liked to mess with her father to make him mad, and then she turned all hostile and closed off again right afterwards... As if she'd forgotten she was supposed to keep Melanie at arms length. Maybe she was bipolar or something?
Pushing the confused thoughts aside, Melanie continued to make her way towards her first assembly here at her new school. She silently hoped Headmaster Marks wasn't going to make her stand up and give some sort of speech. That was the last thing she needed—to be made a fool of in front of the entire student body. That would most definitely fuel more gossip for her, something she definitely didn't need.
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