2. Staking a Claim

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I went back to my peanut of a room to finish unpacking and organizing my things. My parents had only stayed to unload the van. I didn’t mind though, I really didn’t want them pawing through my things.

The whole dorm was only a year old, so it was still fairly new and built apartment-style, with a living room area complete with a kitchen and dining room table, four single bedrooms, and two bathrooms. We each could lock our individual doors to our bedrooms for privacy and security, which I greatly appreciated.

I had gone pot-luck on my roommate assignments, not having any friends at this school, or any friends left in general. I had been somewhat popular before my accident, but afterwards, I’d distanced myself from a lot of my friends mostly to keep them safe.

Two of my roommates had already arrived, and we didn’t talk much other than politely introducing ourselves. They were busily unpacking and arranging their things. We’d worry about getting to know each other after we were all settled in. The fourth room in the apartment was still empty, its occupant yet to arrive. The door was open, as all of ours had been upon arrival, but the room was still bare.

Prior to move-in, we’d all received an e-mail listing the names and e-mail addresses of our roommates-to-be so we could contact them if we wished. I was curious to know if we had anything in common, so I found a popular website used by many college students to make profiles and post pictures of themselves and network with their friends. All three of my roommates had profiles on this website and I made one as well.

I learned that Stephanie was a Journalism major from Dallas, Texas, and had many mostly rap listed under her favorite music. In her photo, she was blonde and busty, wearing an extremely low-cut blouse showing off ample cleavage and a skirt barely long enough to leave anything to the imagination. Her makeup was immaculate, along with her shoulder-length bleach-blonde hair, and she had over three-hundred people listed as friends. Listed on the site, her favorite movies were old fairy-tale cartoons that I used to watch when I was little and her favorite TV shows consisted of the entire MTV lineup. The favorite book category was left blank.

My second roommate was named Kelsie and she was a Music major from Houston, Texas. Kelsie had many Christian rock bands and classical artists listed under the section about music. She only had one favorite book: The Holy Bible. She had no movies or television shows listed, and her only ambitions were to either become a music teacher or professionally play church music. She had many pictures of her and several friends dressed in what looked like their senior prom attire and then some more of them dressed in what I suspected to be their church best. She had long, red hair and seemed to wear only a little makeup. She was naturally pretty, while the other girl had to work at it. Kelsie had about thirty friends on the website, most of them also music majors.

The third girl had a rather small profile. Lilith had no photo posted, and very little information about herself, not even her past high school, hometown, or major. Her favorite books listed were very old books, all of them classics, Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and Animal Farm to name a few. She had a few old movies listed as well as some obscure bands I had never heard of.

My profile was pretty standard. I’d tried to find a good picture of myself, even though I’ve never found myself to be very photogenic. The picture I used was new enough. I took it right after my last haircut, since my beautician had done a beautiful job at styling it. It would be the best it would look until the next haircut, so I figured I would preserve the memory, especially for my mom, who wished I would style my hair more often. My hair was brown, like my mom’s natural color and my dad’s before it started to go gray. I didn’t bother with highlights or coloring, because they never lasted more than a month, so my hair was the natural color brown it had always been, a rich, mahogany color. At the time of move-in, my hair was a few inches longer than the hair in my profile picture, it grows faster now than it used to. The stylist had blow-dried and straightened my hair, but it was actually naturally thick and wavy. I often just combed it and let it dry on its own, or put it up in a ponytail. I didn’t really like to mess with my hair.

I also liked the picture because the lighting showed off my green eyes, inherited from my mother. Her eyes were prettier than mine, a brighter green. Mine were muddied a little bit, more brownish-green than true green, but I still considered them green. I preferred pictures that made them seem greener than brown, and I often wore green or clothing with more green in it than brown so that it would complement the green hues in my eyes. I never wore brown; I hated how the color looked on me. My skin was lightly tanned in the picture, and it was a little bit darker now, but not much. I didn’t go tanning, but I enjoyed walking and being outside, so my skin naturally browned a little bit under the Texas sun whenever I went on my long walks.

When I went back and looked at pictures from before my accident and compared them to pictures post-attack, they seemed different. It was almost as if the new me was prettier, more photogenic. I still didn’t like how I looked in pictures, but I could stand them more than I used to be able to. I wondered how much I was changed, if it just wasn’t a terrible affliction, but if it could be put to good once I could control myself better.

As for the other contents of my profile, I left everything to the minimum. I didn’t really have a lot of hobbies, and I hadn’t chosen a major yet. I was basically taking the classes that the school required for any major until I could make up my mind and decide what I wanted to do. I was also waiting to see if I could even make it one semester in college. I didn’t want to get my hopes up too much. I listed my hometown of Austin, Texas, and my relationship status was single, just like my other roommates.

Lilith was the roommate that had not yet arrived, but Kelsie and Stephanie already had definitely made themselves at home. Stephanie had claimed the bathroom closest to my room (and hers as well) while Kelsie had claimed the other, which was closer to hers and Lilith’s. Stephanie’s bathroom was littered with cosmetics, three different hairdryers, several curling irons of different sizes, a flattening iron, and other hair appliances I had never even seen before. She had put a giant shower caddy with a loofah, two different kinds of shampoo and conditioner, and five different kinds of body wash in the shower, along with some shaving paraphernalia as well.

Kelsie had less stuff in her bathroom, but when I peeked inside, it was decorated in bright PINK, with a pink shower curtain, pink towels already folded neatly on the towel rack, a pink toilet seat cover, pink bathroom mats and a pink trash can. The room shone with pink, and when you turned the lights off, it actually glowed in the dark.

Stephanie and I ended up sharing a bathroom, since it was closest to our rooms, not to mention the pink monstrosity gave me a headache. Kelsie was to share with Lilith when she arrived. I didn’t have a long morning routine, so I didn’t plan to have much conflict with Stephanie’s bathroom rituals. A short shower was all I needed in the bathroom, the rest I could do in my bedroom with a mirror and if I got desperate, I could brush my teeth in the kitchen sink.

By evening, Lilith had still not arrived. Stephanie and Kelsie had primped and primed all afternoon after they had finished their unpacking and by evening, they were both gone to begin their college partying careers. I was all alone, but it didn’t bother me. The dorm probably wouldn’t be this quiet for the rest of the year. I curled up with a pillow and blanket on the couch and started a movie, relaxing after a hard day of moving.

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A/N: I went back to chapter one and edited it slightly so you learn the main character's name (Selene) in that chapter, not in Chapter Three like I originally had it.

About the roommates: I have had many different experiences with roommates, and I will admit that I have used a bit of my own situations in this story to make it a little more realistic. Kelsie is a real person (with a name change), my very first roommate ever, and Stephanie is fake, but some of the things she does later on won't be. Lilith is slightly based on one of my roommates last year, but you won't get to meet her until the next chapter. I guess Selene is somewhat based on myself in some ways, but in other ways she definitely isn't. Also, I lived in a dorm very similar to this one, but it had no kitchen, and I lived in another one that was similar, with a kitchen and living room and two bathrooms, but it had three bedrooms: two single rooms and one double room. ^.^ Enjoy! The next chapter comes on Monday.

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