So Your Roommate is a Wizard

Summary: Jess isn't sure what's going on with her roommate, but it's been an odd semester. Excerpts from the journal of Jessica Schultz.

The Laughing Phoenix does not own the Young Wizards series and makes no profit from this work.

Notes: Canon-compatible through Wizard of Mars. Written for the Dai Stiho 2011 prompt challenge on LJ.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

It's late, but I have way too much energy to go to bed. It's odd. You'd think that moving in would leave me wanting to do nothing but sleep, like my roommates. They're across the room from me on the bunk beds right now, out cold.

Anyway, thanks to the overcrowding currently plaguing Columbia College (and most colleges, if Kevin is to be believed), the 'double' I'm living in was turned into a triple. I'm in Furnald 309, one of the corner rooms. We think we can make it work, but space is definitely going to be tight.

Oh, right. What 'we'. I met the girls today. Don't get me wrong, we'd exchanged emails and stuff, even chatted over Skype a few times, but it's different meeting someone in person, you know? Anyway, I met Kimmi first.

Kimmi Baker is tall, British (okay, half-Ugandan, but she grew up in England), wears glasses, and keeps her hair in a mass of braids. Her mom was leaving when Dad and I arrived.

"Oh, you must be one of Kimmi's roommates! Let me see… you must be Jessica."

"Yes, ma'am. Jessica Schultz."

"Well it's very nice to meet you. And you must be her father?"

Dad reached around the minifridge he was wrestling with to shake her hand. "Will Shultz."

"Karen Baker, pleased to meet you." She turned back to Kimmi, who had an armful of clothes. "Kimmi, I'm afraid I have to go. My plane's in four hours and you just know the traffic is going to be terrible. Your father and I will call you when I get home, alright?"

"Alright Mom. Have a good flight."

Kimmi spent most of the time Dad and I were bringing up boxes putting her clothes away. When we'd finished and Dad left, (first making me promise to call home sometime this week) Kimmi and I went and got lunch together. It was fun – Kimmi's got the craziest set of stories. Apparently her parents travel a lot for work: her mom's a scientist and her dad does diplomatic work for the British government, so she's been all over Europe and about a dozen other countries on top of that. She wants to study biology, but "There's so many interesting things to study, I just can't decide!"

We got back from lunch to find our room busy. Juanita Callahan had arrived. It was kind of like walking behind the scenes on opening night of a play. Our roommate was standing in the middle of the room, trying to balance a radio on top of a box one-handed as she took a ring of keys from her dad. A girl who just had to be her sister was at the empty desk, doing something on a laptop, while an older girl was hanging things in the closet.

"Oh, sorry."

Kimmi and I turned around to find a guy our age standing behind us, holding another box. "I guess you're Neets' roommates."

"Jessica Schultz."

"Kimmi Baker."

"I'm Kit Rodriguez, Nita's boyfriend." We shook hands, and then he turned to call into the room. "Nita, your roommates are here."

We found ourselves being introduced to the rest of the group in very short order. Nita's dad, Harry, is a nice guy. He was certainly better about picking up and shuffling boxes around than my dad was. The girl at the computer was Nita's little sister, Dairine, and the one in the closet was Kit's older sister Carmela, who's currently working at a travel agency. Kit's a freshman, like us, but he's starting at NYIT.

Nita's family took her out for dinner once she'd gotten mostly unpacked, and Kimmi had promised a friend of hers from high school they'd meet up for dinner (the friend's at Barnard. Note to self, see about off-campus restaurants). I grabbed a quick meal alone, although the group of sophomores I joined at dinner had some professor recommendations that I need to look into.

After dinner was the mandatory hall meeting. The res staff went over the hall rules and so on. Those of us in doubles were told to set up ground rules now, because "We'd far rather you have a basic understanding than get drawn in to moderate a big fight three weeks from now. Capeesh?"

So Nita, Kimmi, and I went back to the room and hashed out a few rules. Most were pretty easy:

1. Each of us gets our own portion of the room. It is our responsibility to keep it clean, but we can do that to our own definition of clean. If we think that somebody's letting their corner get too messy, then we'll talk.

2. If somebody else is asleep, then you be quiet. Luckily none of us have class before nine this semester, so in the mornings that won't be as much of an issue.

3. Music at a low volume or with headphones, so the neighbors don't kill us.

4. Food is to be non-perishable or kept in the minifridges, and no leaving it around for mice or bugs to find.

5. Windows mostly closed at night, and when it gets cold we'll have a discussion about the heat.

Things got interesting when we talked about having friends/boyfriends/family to visit. Kimmi's got two brothers, one older and one younger, but they're both in England. No boyfriend.

"Although," she laughed. "If I find a guy I like here, then why not, you know? My last boyfriend and I broke up a year ago when he went off to University and found another girl."

"I'm an only child," I said. "I've got a couple of cousins my age who might want to visit, but that's it. I don't have a boyfriend either."

Nita flushed a little. "You've met Kit. Um…Dari may want to drop by. I can almost guarantee Carmela will want to visit. Then there are a couple more people…I have an interesting group of friends."

She didn't elaborate. We eventually decided that about a week's warning would be good if we knew somebody would want to stay the night. No guys spend the night unless we all agree, and that's going to be a case-by-case basis. Day visits are fine with just an hour or two's warning, but if they happen during finals then they'd better respect the studying.

"If you have a boy over and want some private time, make sure to send the others a text message and put a sock on the door or something." Kimmi said.

Nita and I looked at each other. "A sock?"

Kimmi laughed. "I don't know, isn't that how it's traditionally supposed to be? You put a sock on the door if you want privacy?"

"No sexiling for more than a couple of hours though," I said.

"Sexiling?" Kimmi started laughing harder.

"It's what my cousin Meghan calls it." I had to be blushing. Nita certainly was. "Apparently her first roommate did it to her all the time."

Once Kimmi had calmed down, we started swapping stories. Nita knows Manhattan pretty well, being a relative local. I'd visited a couple of times, since Boston wasn't too far, but that was it. Kimmi had been here a grand total of twice.

I think I'm going to stop here for now. It's getting really late, and we finalize our class schedules and pick up textbooks tomorrow. I think I know what classes I'm going to take – Introductory Chemistry, a History course focusing on the Middle East, that Writing course, and a Women's studies course, though I've yet to decide between two options. One is better for my schedule, but one looks a little more interesting.

Thursday, September 9, 2010.

I grabbed an early dinner on the way back to the room tonight. Between the essay due Monday, the test on Wednesday, and the cold I seem to have caught, I didn't think I'd be leaving the room again in time to grab a meal – at least not before the main kitchens close. I slogged up the stairs and into the room to find Nita in a whirlwind of activity. She was scooping clothes off her bed and throwing them back into her drawers and closet, and a bag was lying on its side on her desk, her keys and wallet about to spill out of it.

"You headed out somewhere?"

"Hm? Oh, hi Jess. Yeah, Kit and I are going out tonight."

"Ooh, sounds like fun. You planning on being back late?"

Nita shook her head. "Not too late. I should be back by midnight."

I nodded. "Okay. I'll tell Kimmi." Setting down my bag, I perused the shelf over my desk. Deciding that a big mug of hot tea was essential if I wanted to stay conscious enough to concentrate on an essay about the influence of Islamic thought on gender equality in Ibn Hazm's The Ring of the Dove when I had a Chem test hanging over my head, I grabbed a mug and a teabag and wandered out to the floor kitchen. While the mug was in the microwave, I lounged in the door of the kitchen, idly observing the activity on the floor. (There wasn't much of it. I think everyone was still at dinner.)

I'd just dropped my teabag (Pomegranate, yum. I need to pick up some more, there's only one left) into the hot water when I heard someone slam a door with a loud bang. I wandered back out into the hall, and nearly dropped my mug as I almost ran smack into Kit.

"Holy…" I hissed, getting my tea back under control. "Where did you pop up from?"

Kit gave me an odd look. "The stairs?"

"Warn a girl when you come around a corner like that! Nita's in the room, by the way."

Kit nodded as we walked down the hall. "She ready to go?"

"I think?" I shrugged. "She only had about a dozen things to put away when I went to heat water for my tea."

Nita opened the door ahead of us. By the looks of it she had managed to stow everything since I'd left. "Hey," she said, smiling as she reached for Kit, pulling him into a hug.

"Hey yourself. You ready?"

"I think so." They disengaged from the hug long enough for Nita to turn to me. "See you later, Jess."

"Have fun, you two." I waved as they left, then turned to wander back into the room. There was another loud thump as I was closing the door – somebody slamming the door at the stairwell again. Seems to happen a lot.

Later the same night.

It's nearly 1 am. Kimmi crashed about an hour ago – she's got a test tomorrow, and finally decided to go to bed rather than stress about it anymore. Nita's not back yet. She's not called either. Kimmi thinks they wandered off for some 'private time' and just forgot to call. I'd bet she's right, but I refuse to stress about it until tomorrow. If she is, then we can have fun giving Nita a hard time.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010.

Nita and I were walking back from lunch today when we ran into a visitor. Dairine was standing in the lobby, clutching the strap of her backpack and looking stressed out to the point at which she was either going to break down in tears or hit somebody. Or both.

"Dari?" Nita said, moving forward to touch her sister on the shoulder. "You okay?"

Dairine muttered something under her breath, a short string of what sounded like uncomplimentary names with a hint of profanity. In response, Nita wrapped her arm around her shoulders and nudged her sister toward the stairs. "Come on. Let's go up to my room."

I trailed along quietly behind as they climbed the stairs, talking softly. When we reached the room, Nita guided Dairine to her bed, dropping her backpack on the floor. I dithered near the door for the moment – what exactly are you supposed to do when your roommate's sister is having a breakdown anyway? – then went and set my backpack on my desk chair before slipping outside again to visit the water fountain. When I returned, Dairine was ranting quietly, on the verge of tears. That gave me an idea, and I picked up a mug from my desk, waved slightly to get Nita's attention, and mouthed Water? Nita nodded, and I went back into the hall to fill the mug. Going into the room, I handed the mug to Nita, who gave me a strained smile and mouthed Thanks.

Deciding to leave the discussion going on across the room from me well enough alone, I plugged myself into my iPod and pulled out some homework. Diving into my papers, I was in the middle of trying to decipher a page in my Chemistry textbook when Nita got my attention.

"Jess!"

I looked up.

"I need to go – I've got class in five minutes, and I'm already going to be late. Listen, Dari wanted to hang out with me tonight, would it be okay if she stays here while I'm in class?"

"Sure." I nodded. "I've got homework to muddle through, so I'm not going anywhere until dinner at least."

"Great, thanks. I'll see you later, Dari."

Nita took off, and Dairine and I settled down, the younger Callahan pulling a sleek little tablet computer out of her bag.

About an hour and a half after Nita had left, someone pounding on the door brought me out of my books again. "Alright, alright, I'm coming!" I called, disentangling myself from my notes so I could get the door.

"Yes?" I asked, probably a little more hostilely than was strictly necessary, as I pulled the door open. My half-formed scold died in my throat as I took in the guy on the other side.

Let's be honest. He was gorgeous: tall with long blond hair, longer than most girls', and the greenest eyes I've ever seen off a redhead. He was breathing a little heavily, like he'd taken the stairs at a run.

"Can I help you?" I asked, trying to regain my mental equilibrium.

He didn't answer me. He was too busy staring over my shoulder at Nita's sister.

"What, Roshaun." Dairine's voice was suspiciously flat.

"I – Dairine, can we…perhaps…talk?"

Dairine shut her computer. "Now?"

'That would be preferred." He only just now seemed to register that I was still blocking the door, and gave me this look. It seemed like he considered me at best an interfering nuisance, at worst dirt. My hackles went up in automatic protest.

"Dairine?" I asked, not looking away from the guy and not moving.

"It's okay, Jess, you can let him in."

"You sure? Last thing I want to do is explain this to your sister. She knows where I sleep."

"Yeah, it's fine."

"If you say so." I let the guy – Roshaun? I wondered at the origin of the name, as it didn't sound familiar – in and returned to my chemistry books. By the time I'd settled, Roshaun had dragged Kimmi's desk chair over to Nita's bed, and was perched uneasily on the edge. I kept an eye on them over my book as he and Dairine carried on an awkward, stilted conversation for a while at a volume barely above a whisper.

And then Roshaun leaned forward, voice rising, and my full attention was once more on the conversation taking place across the room.

" – you know that is completely inaccurate, Dairine! I – " he shook his head once, glanced over in my direction, then turned back to Dairine and launched into a language I didn't recognize. Conversation continued in this language for a few minutes, only to be interrupted again as Nita opened the door, Kimmi entering behind her.

"Roshaun?" Nita sounded surprised, but not hostile. "I didn't know you were in town."

Roshaun stood. "I arrived early this morning."

Nita nodded. "How long are you here for?"

"Two days, perhaps three. I have made arrangements for things to continue as normal in my absence."

A slightly wicked smile curved Nita's lips. "Does this have anything to do with why Carl was so groggy when Kit talked to him this afternoon?"

Roshaun flushed, but said nothing. Dairine seemed to take pity on him, slipping her hand into his. "Nita, we'll meet you at the deli on 121st." She led him from the room, still holding his hand.

Once the door had closed behind them, Kimmi turned to Nita. "Soo…" she said, "is that your sister's boyfriend?"

"I guess so." Nita dropped her backpack next to her desk and sorted through it, pulling out her keys, phone, and wallet before reaching for a smaller bag. "They've known each other for years, and it's…anyway. Roshaun lives out of the country and is being groomed to take over the family business for his dad, so he can't visit often. Dari visits him every so often too."

"Ah." Kimmi nodded sagely. "So it's a long-distance relationship. Well darn." She snapped her fingers. "I was hoping he had a brother or a cousin who's single, but no way am I getting into a long-distance relationship again. At least not right now."

I nodded. "Those are hard. One of my best friends was in an LDR. She and her boyfriend managed to keep it going for almost eight months before things fell apart, but it was still really difficult for her."

Nita made a face. "Difficult for Dairine can mean difficult for the rest of us sometimes, I'm afraid."

"You get drawn into their problems? I mean, it's none of my business, but…"

"No, it's okay." Nita shrugged. "There's a fair amount of moderating that goes on, that's all. In fact, I'd bet that Roshaun was talking to Carl before he came here. Carl's an old family friend." She added at our quizzical looks.

"Ah, okay." Kimmi nodded. "Well, if you're going to meet up with them for dinner, then I think Jess and I will run out and get something too. What do you think of Chinese? Because I've been craving some Kung Pao Chicken all day."

Friday, October 29, 2010.

Walking into the room today was like walking into a disaster zone. Clothes were everywhere – on the beds, the chairs, the shelves, the floor…In the center of the room sat Nita, rubbing her temples. Standing next to her was an energetic personality I vaguely recognized from moving day.

"Umm….Hi. Are there any safe places to step in here, or should I come back later?"

"Oh, hi Jess." Nita glanced up. "Do you remember Carmela?"

"Your boyfriend's her brother, right?"

"Yep!" This was Carmela. "Though it took them long enough, if you ask me." She leaned over a pile of shoes to extend a hand. "Jess?"

I shook it. "That's me."

"Nice to meet you. And don't worry about it, the curling iron's the real danger and it's over on Nita's desk."

"Ah…okay then." I edged inside, picking my way through discarded clothing, shoes, and assorted sundry items. "I really came back to pick up some books…I'm dropping a load off at the library, Nita, if you want me to take anything back for you."

"Mm? Oh, that'd be great, actually." Nita picked herself up and dug a pair of heavy books out from the bottom drawer of her desk. "Here."

"Quantum physics?" I raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?" Nita shrugged, flushing slightly. I shook my head and stuffed them into my backpack. "Better you than me, girl."

I got back from my run to the library to find Nita browsing through another textbook as Carmela stuffed the last of the runaway clothes into a medium-sized duffel bag. Considering the amount of stuff that had been floating around the room, I wish I had that girl's packing skills. Zipping it closed, she bounced upright and trotted over to our full-length mirror to examine herself one last time. She pronounced herself "presentable", then flopped down on Nita's bed.

"So when is Ronan going to get here?"

"He said he'd be here around six." Carmela glanced at her watch. "So…ten minutes or so?"

"You should have fun." Nita poked Carmela's knee, causing the older girl to squeak and poke her back.

"If you want to come, I can probably swing another ticket."

Nita was shaking her head. "No way, 'Mela. I've got a test on Monday and I've already got plans to take Sunday off. Besides, that kind of music's not my thing."

"Concert?" I'd pulled out Reserved for the Cat, this week's reward for good behavior, and was making myself comfortable on a pile of pillows.

Carmela nodded. "Yup! I got the tickets, so Ronan's being the transport." There was a knock on the door. "And that's probably him now."

Nita let him in. "Hey, Nita. Ready to go, Carmela?"

Ronan's Irish. At least, I think he is, because he's got the accent.

"You bet I am." Scooping up her bag, Carmela grabbed Ronan's elbow and practically dragged him through the door. "Bye Jess. Bye Nita, see you later."

Ronan chuckled, calling his own goodbyes over his shoulder as he was led away. Shortly after the door swung shut there was a 'thump' – probably somebody knocking something heavy over.

Nita let out a huge breath, flopping back onto her bed. I laughed. "Busy week?"

"Something like that. And as much as I love 'Mela…"

"I think my Mom would call her an 'energetic personality'," I offered.

"Sounds about right." Nita pushed herself up on her elbows. "You have any plans for tonight? Going out or anything?"

I shook my head. "No thanks. Large crowds are not my idea of a good time."

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Today was just…odd. In multiple senses of the word. Kimmi and I were in the room, doing homework and minding our own business after dinner, when there was a loud bang, followed by a dull thud of someone falling against our door. At first I thought somebody had gotten drunk and was stumbling around, but then there were a couple of faint thunks as somebody knocked on our door.

Kimmi got up to answer it. She opened the door, and somebody fell inside the room, nearly landing on her feet as she hopped sideways to get out of the way. "Oh my God…Jess! Come quickly! I think he's hurt!"

I scrambled off my bed and over to join her at the door. "That's…I'm blanking on his name, but he's a friend of Nita's. He dropped by for a few minutes on Friday."

Kimmi was wrapping her hands under his arm in preparation for hauling him upright. "Here, take his other arm. We can't just leave him in the door."

I did as told, and what's-his-name gave an incoherent groan as Kimmi and I hauled him upright. We dumped him in Nita's chair. "Can you tell me where you're hurt?" Kimmi asked, crouching in front of him. Meanwhile I went for my journal and flipped back to last Friday.

"His name's Ronan," I called across the room to her. "I didn't get a last name."

Kimmi nodded in acknowledgement but didn't take her eyes off Ronan. "Ronan, can you tell me where you're hurt?"

"Ribs," Ronan managed to rasp. "An' my head is killing me."

"He's also got some nasty-looking cuts on his shin, here," I said, "and it wouldn't surprise me if he's skinned his palms."

Kimmi hissed slightly, gently taking his hand and turning it over. I was right. "I have a first-aid kit under my bed. Just a second." Letting Ronan's hand rest on his knee, she leaned up and gently felt his head. "You've got quite the bump on the back here too."

"We can patch up his hands and bandage the cuts," I said, "but if his ribs are damaged and he's got a concussion then he's going to need a hospital. Or at least a doctor."

"Should we call an ambulance?" Kimmi asked, pulling out a tube of some sort of antibiotic, gauze squares, and some athletic tape. "Because I don't know about you, but I don't think we can move him on our own. Oh, and we'll need some water."

"On it." I darted out into the kitchen, borrowed a leftover plastic cup from the cupboard, and was filling it when there was the loud bang of someone slamming the door. Nita nearly ran me down as I walked out of the kitchen.

"Have you seen Ronan?" She was out of breath and looked a little ragged, like she'd been running.

"Yeah, he's in our room, do you know – " Nita was gone before I had a chance to finish the question, running down the hall and through the door. I followed her and found her kneeling in front of Ronan.

" – lost you when you turned that corner. I thought you'd come here, but I need to call Kit and let him know."

Ronan nodded shakily, then winced. His eyes were very dilated – not a good sign.

"How're we going to get him to the hospital?" Kimmi asked again, taking the cup of water from me and dipping one of the squares of gauze into it. She set to work on one of Ronan's hands, cleaning off the scrapes. "Because like I was telling Jess, I don't think we can move him on our own. At least, not very far."

Nita stood. "Let me worry about that. I'll call Kit and ask if Darryl's available to help." She stepped out into the hall to make the call, and I went to swipe a piece of gauze from Kimmi and wash Ronan's other hand. Less than five minutes later, Nita was leading Kit into our room, followed by a tall, skinny guy who looked to be a little younger than us. Or maybe he was just a beanpole. "Guys, this is Darryl McAllister. Darryl, that's Jess on the right and Kimmi on the left."

"Hi," I said, still working on Ronan's hand.

Kimmi was more polite. "Nice to meet you, Darryl. Hi Kit."

"You look like you got yourself into trouble, man," Kit told Ronan.

Ronan gave a wheezing laugh, shook his head slightly, and winced again. "You could say that."

"Stop that," Kimmi told him. "You're going to make your head hurt worse." She looked up at Kit. "Do you think you can get him downstairs? He needs to see a doctor, and Jess and I can't move him ourselves."

Darryl nodded. "Sure, we can get him. Shouldn't be too bad."

"Okay," I laid a clean square of gauze over Ronan's hand, taped it in place with the athletic tape, and stood. "One of us should go with – the doctor will probably want all the details."

"You just cleaned his hands, right?"

"So far, but he said his ribs were hurting him earlier and Kimmi's found a goose egg on his head to go with the headache, so he's probably got a concussion."

"You definitely got yourself into trouble," Kit told Ronan.

Nita laid a hand on my shoulder. "It might be better if we take him. You've got a test on Thursday, Kimmi, and Jess, I know you said you had a paper due tomorrow. The emergency room will take hours – what if you stay here, and I promise to keep you updated?"

Kimmi and I exchanged a look. "Well…if you're sure." Kimmi said. "I mean, I could just bring my notebook along and read while we wait, it's no trouble."

Kit shook his head. "If your workload is anything like mine, then you'll need the time. I just had a bunch of tests last week, so I don't have anything big coming up." He leaned down and slid Ronan's arm over his shoulder. Darryl quickly copied him on the other side. "Come on, you." Between them they got Ronan standing, leaning heavily on their shoulders.

"See you later!" Darryl said quickly, before he and Kit turned and led Ronan out of the room. Nita followed quickly, promising once again to keep us in the loop. Next thing we knew, they were off down the stairs, and shortly we heard a bang as somebody up the stairs slammed a door.

It was then that I noticed Nita had left her wallet on her desk. "Oh, shit." I scooped it up. "Nita's going to want this. I'll run it down to her."

I made it down to the lobby, but didn't catch up to the group. It makes no sense. I was all but running down the stairs, and they had Ronan, who was going nowhere fast. We're two flights up – I should have caught them by the time they left the building.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

It wasn't until today that we managed to corner Nita on how things went with Ronan. The information she'd texted us Tuesday night was vague at best, but after having the guy collapse against our door Kimmi and I had something of a vested interest in making sure he was okay.

Nita rattled off a list of injuries – bruised ribs, a sprained wrist, concussion, the cuts on his leg – then told us that he'd been treated, told to take it easy for a while, but would mend fully.

I couldn't leave it alone. "Darryl and Kit must be stronger than I thought. You got Ronan out of here fast."

Nita didn't get it.

"You left your wallet," I explained. "I tried to catch up to you but you were out of the building before I could."

Kimmi had her own agenda. "Did Ronan say what happened?"

Nita shook her head. "Ronan's…got a mouth on him."

"He got into a fight?"

"Pretty much." Nita made a face.

"Must have been close." I mused. "He wasn't moving so well – even using the elevator he can't have been far when it happened."

"Wouldn't the campus police have noticed something like that?" Kimmi wanted to know. "I mean, if there are fights happening…"

Nita interrupted us. "Guys, I need you to leave it." We both stared at her. "Ronan's a good friend, and he's got enough issues on his plate."

Kimmi and I exchanged a worried look. "Nita, are you guys in trouble somehow?"

"Not really," she sighed, and sat down heavily on her bed. "I…had a rough few years as a teenager. The guys helped me get through it. Take Darryl, for example – he helped me break out of the depression I had when Mom died."

That shut us up. I knew her mom was gone, died back when Nita was just starting high school – that much I'd put together. I hadn't dared ask for details. It seemed…well…rude.

"They're practically family." Nita went on. "A weird family, yeah, but family. We're from all over the place and we do so many different things and have so many different interests, but that's just how we are, you know?" She smiled wryly. "We're used to going to each other for anything, anytime. If it's a problem I'll let them know – "

Kimmi and I fell over each other to answer.

"No, it's not a problem at all, don't worry about it."

"Kimmi's right, Nita, don't worry. We just," I shrugged helplessly. "Well, we worry too."

Nita's relieved smile lit up her face. I felt a little guilty – had she really been that stressed about our reactions?

Luckily for my sanity, Kimmi broke the silence. "So who wants to go out for dinner, or maybe dessert? There's this place a couple of streets south of here that does nothing but coffee, tea, and cupcakes."

Nita laughed. "I need to introduce you to Sker."

Friday, December 10, 2010.

Yeesh. I have not been keeping up with this thing at all, have I? In my (admittedly flimsy) defense, the last month has been an insanity of papers and tests and oh my goodness FINALS are looming…but yeah. I need to get back into the habit. Anyway.

When Kit knocked at the door this afternoon, trailed by a small posse, Kimmi just let him in. Since we broke the ice last month, Nita's friends-cum-family have been over often. Our room has served as the site of drama twice since then too: once when Roshaun and Dairine came here to retreat for a while – I gather that there were Problems with Roshaun's parents, and if he didn't get away he was going to scream, and both of them had a mini hissy fit that I managed to avoid all but the tail of. Kimmi was happy to give me details.

The second was the scarier. Nita and Kit had had an Argument – one of the nasty ones where tempers flare, things are said nobody means, and everyone feels miserable afterwards, even those only distantly connected to the problem. It didn't happen in the room, but we got enough of the details from Carmela to have a rough idea of what was going on. Nita had fled to a family friend for comfort and advice, and I don't know where Kit was, but Nita turned up in our room the next day with a covered dish of something that smelled delicious, a small box, and a determined expression. She paced the room for a good half-hour, muttering to herself as she tried to psych herself into doing, well, whatever she had planned, when Kit turned up with his own box.

There was a moment of awkward silence as they looked at each other, edging slightly closer together by turns, but then they finally relaxed, putting their heads together and murmuring so softly I couldn't make out the words. Kimmi and I exchanged a glance, gathered up a few things, and slipped away quietly. Nita and Kit seemed to have figured things out by the time either of us got back.

Back to today: Darryl, Kit, and a rather gangly fellow with a penchant for bright colors – introduced to us as Phil – were in the room, hanging out until Nita got back from class.

"Just don't go looking in her desk." Kimmi cautioned. That got three sets of raised eyebrows, so she went on. "Nita's declared it off-limits until exams are over and presents are exchanged."

"She also told us to shoot anyone who tries to get in," I stuck in.

"Shoot us?" Darryl looked entirely too interested. "With what?"

"Uh…" I felt around my desk, stretching to reach the far side without getting up. "I have a rubber band, that work for you?"

Kit laughed. "Sure."

Nita breezed in shortly thereafter, face pink with cold. Once she dropped off her stuff, the four of them left. Two minutes later, someone knocked on the door. Carmela and Ronan were outside. Kimmi laughed. "They left two minutes ago, you can catch them if you hurry." With twin grins and a hurried "thanks", they were off.

Kimmi settled herself back on her bed, chuckling. She picked up her book, then looked up at me. "You know, I was worried that my roommates would be boring, or that I'd never see them because they'd be out all the time. Now," she shook her head, turning back to her books, "I don't know what I was worried about."

A/N: Credit goes to Rusting Roses for getting me involved in the challenge in the first place, as well as beta-reading for me.