Chapter Text
It had been barely a week after Dad's funeral when Mom told me to pack my bags and sent me away.
I still don't know why, she never really explained it, just said that she'd, "tell you when you're older,"
So now here I am, standing in front of a big and expensive looking courtyard that branches out into paths towards various large brick and white marble buildings. Behind me, I hear my ride turn around and drive away, leaving me truly and utterly alone and out of place in my jean shorts and tanktop.
I tighten my grip on the suitcase Mom had expected me to pack my entire life into and look around for someone who may be able to help me find my dorm or even just generally tell me what I'm supposed to do from here.
There seem to be a couple older students wandering around so I go up to a small group of girls who don't seem busy with anything else and smile at them, "Uh, hey, could you tell me how to get to the admissions office?"
A blonde girl steps towards me with a friendly smile and nods, before pointing out the smallest building in the courtyard. "The admissions office is right over there, are you new? I'm Jamie,"
Her uniform is black with a red tie, which differs from everyone else I've seen, including the two girls beside her, who have red uniforms with black ties.
"Yeah, I'm Y/n." I say, pulling my suitcase closer to me and Jamie's smile widens.
"Well you talked to the right person, I'm a student officer, pledged to aid my fellow classmates and answer any questions you might have." She recites the last part as though it's part of some memorized speech she has to do, and sticks her hand out to shake.
After a moment I take her hand and she continues, "Yeah so basically, all you need to know is that attending the first day of school orientation is mandatory— that's how you'll get your uniform— and you'll likely be staying with a roommate or two in the dormitories."
One of the other girls beside her shrug and add, "Everything else you can probably figure out yourself, lunch is in the commons, your schedule will tell you where your classes are, and the library is that really big church-looking building over there."
With that the girls wander off and I head to the admissions office.
Once there, an elderly Secretary lady waves me forward and hands me a dorm key. "Name?"
"Y/n L/n," and she doesn't say anything but grunt in response.
Dorm number 235. The key reads up at me as the Secretary lady finishes typing up my admissions form and printing out my class schedule. This was going to have to be my new home for the next four years until I graduate. "Well, Y/n, you're good to go, class starts tomorrow at 9:30 AM."
And then she sends me off and waves the next person up, and I just...roll my suitcase towards the dormitories.
It hadn't really hit me until now that I was going to be living here until graduation, in a tiny dorm with stranger roommates and a landlocked city.
Before, I lived right next to a beach with my mom and dad, and dad would take me surfing or swimming pretty much everyday. I hope this place has a pool...it would be nice to have some semblance of home here.
I unlock the door to reveal a pretty much empty room aside from three beds, a couple desks, and a painting of a humming bird. Overall, a nice room. Then, I slam the door behind me and scream into my pillow.
"Oh— rough day huh?" Someone says from the other end of the room and I jump in surprise.
The boy looks to be about average in height, his hair has been tied back into a bonnet, and his eyes are a very deep ruby brown.
He closes what looks like the door to the bathroom and rubs the back of his neck awkwardly.
I blink as my mind catches back up to the present and I cross my arms. "I guess you could say that."
He hesitates, then walks over to the bed next to mine and taking a seat. "Are you...okay?"
I think for a moment, wondering for just a split second if should be honest with him, before my mind catches up to my body and I give him a tight smile, "Yeah, I'm fine."
Before he can ask something like, 'are you sure?' I force on a wide grin and stick out my hand like Jaime had done to me, and say, "Are you my roommate?"
I watch as he opens and closes his mouth before relaxing and taking my hand in his and shaking it. "I was actually just about to ask that, I'm Caleb."
Caleb lets go of my hand and I answer him, my smile slowly becoming real. "Y/n."
Caleb ends up not being my only roommate, as soon we end up being joined by Skye, a short teen with ginger hair cut into a mullet, who pretty much immediately claims the middle bed much to Caleb's pretend chagrin.
It's...nice, to not have to face my Dad dying yet, I realize as I watch Skye and Caleb begin to argue over where to put the inflatable couch Skye had snuck onto the school grounds.
These two don't know me, and I think I can be okay with that. It's nice to just be around people, and I think I'll end up liking Skye and Caleb.
The next day.
Living with roommates sucks in multiple ways, for one, Skye, for some ungodly reason, wakes up bright and early in the 'morning', and by early morning, I mean four thirty am.
And the thing is, despite them trying to open and close the bathroom door as quiet and gently as possible, it doesn't change the fact that their alarm still ended up waking me up, at again, four thirty in the morning.
What purpose does waking up that early even serve?! Class isn't until nine! At least they seemed apologetic about it.
Caleb is still asleep though, in fact, I don't think he even grunted when Skye's alarm went off, which is another weird thing. Caleb was the first to fall asleep, and apparently the last to wake up.
I groan in annoyance as I curl up into my blankets tighter in some attempt to reclaim my rest. Screw Skye's weird waking up time, even if I'm awake now, I'm not getting up until I have to.
...Okay, so I made it about an hour before getting up. But I would have stayed longer! If my stomach hadn't started growling.
I open my backpack to find those snacks my mom had given me before she sent me away. She had gotten me a whole box as an apology I'm pretty sure.
According to my schedule the school doesn't actually serve breakfast until seven thirty, and they close breakfast fifteen minutes before class starts.
Well, I guess I'll just have to sit here then.
From the other room I can hear the shower turn off and I make a mental note to shower once Skye gets out. As I'm doing that and munching on my snack, I happen to glance down at the little surfboard Keychain my dad had given me a couple months before his accident.
And suddenly, my stomach drops and it's like I can't focus on anything else other than the fact that my dad is dead.
I learned how to surf because of him. When I was younger, he used to hold me up high on his shoulders and pretend we were flying. Obviously I've been too big for him to carry on his shoulders for a while now. But me getting too big for him to carry just made him get me a surfboard of my own.
So then whenever I got anxious or sad he would take me out to the waves and tell me to feel the ocean air and let the rest of the world disappear for a moment.
Now my surfboard is back home, I'm nowhere near the ocean, and my dad isn't around to tell me to forget the rest of the world anymore.
I don't think even if I could it would be worth it, because I don't want to forget the rest of the world. I just want my dad.
...I just want my dad. I don't care if I would be too big— I want him to lift me onto his shoulders again and pretend we were flying.
My throat feels like it's closing up on me, and vaguely I'm aware of people talking in hushed voices, but all I can seem to do is try to smother the noise with my hand.
Someone's hand is on me, for a second my brain registers it as my mom's, but that doesn't make sense, she's not here. Wait why isn't she here?
Then the mystery hand leads my own hand to their chest and I feel them breathing for a second before realizing they want me to copy them.
With a start I inhale a shaky breath and try to rub at my face with the back of my free hand, it feels...wet, and some of the tears slip into my mouth before I can wipe them away. They taste salty.
I take in another breath, and the hand lets go of me, "There we go, just keep breathing with me."
Another breath, and I feel my body begin to relax. Then another breath and I can see the person in front of me.
Skye is looking at me with pinched eyebrows and wet hair, while Caleb is standing alert and worried behind them.
"Are you okay now?" Caleb asks softly and I nod quickly before wiping more of my tears away.
"I'm sorry, I woke you up." Before the two of them can rush to comfort me I shake my head, "No, just...can we not talk about it?"
Skye and Caleb frown but reluctantly agree and take a step away from me so I have more space.
"...What time is it?"
Skye checks their watch, "Um, six-fifteen."
Wait, I had been out of it that long? "Oh."
Caleb's eyes dart around for a moment before settling on the inflatable couch. "You know uh, this room could use more green to balance out the...green."
Skye furrows their brows thoughtfully before brightening, and I look at the two of them in confusion.
"Right! We should...put up posters or something, make the room more personalized." They say, and they even hold up their hands in a mock picture frame.
Oh. They're trying to cheer me up. I smile silently and add my own piece, "Yeah, that hummingbird needs some other artworks around it, looks a little lonely."
Caleb and Skye smile when I smile and Caleb starts looking around the room with an actual serious expression. "Where would we get things like that? We had to smuggle in the couch."
I stand up, grabbing my towel, toiletries and a change of clothes before moving towards the bathroom. "I think I'm gonna go get dressed, you two can figure that out."
Soon we're all dressed and ready to head down to breakfast. Caleb is walking beside me as Skye walks ahead of us. He's put his hair into these long twists and a sort of half-up half-down style. He looks good.
"Listen, I know you said you don't want to talk about, so we're not gonna talk about it, but are you okay? You looked upset yesterday too." I look at him as he says this and think.
"...I don't know right now."
He's silent, and then, "Yeah, that's fine too, sometimes I don't really know what I'm feeling either."
"Yeah." I laugh, and he smiles at me, and huh, he has dimples, I didn't notice that before.
"You two! Hurry up! I want to get there before the lines get too long!" Skye yells at us, at some point they had gotten really far away from our group.
"Coming!"
Yeah, at least I won't be alone here.
...Though it kind of sucks that they don't have a pool.