Rule 4 | Stay out of your roommate's business.

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   "ARE YOU SURE there's absolutely nothing you can do, Ma'am?" Clasping my hands together on the smooth wooden desk, I glanced beseechingly at the Office Manager, a slender bespectacled woman who threw me an exasperated look before continuing to ...

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"ARE YOU SURE there's absolutely nothing you can do, Ma'am?" Clasping my hands together on the smooth wooden desk, I glanced beseechingly at the Office Manager, a slender bespectacled woman who threw me an exasperated look before continuing to fuss over the stacks of forms lying haphazardly on her table.

"I'm sorry, student. But you will have to stay in the dorm that has been allocated to you. I really cannot help you, nor, I assure you, can the Accommodation Manager." She stated dismissively, clicking her tongue in disapproval as I desperately clung onto the desk thinking of something to say, anything that would convince her that I was indeed in a serious need of a room swap.

"Surely there's still something you could do about it? I know for a fact that the University gives higher priority to the top students when considering accommodation," I insisted, biting my lip as the lady continued to flip through the forms, frowning and pushing up her spectacles as if they were a nuisance.

"Please... I wouldn't have been pestering you so much had it not been important." I repeated, beginning to feel slightly embarrassed at the unnerving glances other staff was throwing my way.

But I couldn't let their disparaging stares deter me. This was a matter of the four most important years of my life!

I hadn't worked my ass off in high school only to let a couple of disapproving looks make me give up today.

So I stood my ground. "I'll take anything, ma'am; ground floor, top floor, even the farthest dorm if you will. There has to be at least one vacancy somewhere"

I refused to believe there wasn't.

I jumped when the Manager smacked her hand onto the pile of papers, and swallowed down my anxiety as she gave me a long, admonishing look, one that suggested she was finally done with my shit.

Trying not to panic, I clenched my fists and waited for a harsh response but instead the woman simply pulled her bright red lips into a straight disapproving line.

"Do you know how many students request us to get their rooms changed every semester?" She sighed, tapping the pile meaningfully. Her voice grew tired as she pushed her glasses up again, blinking as if in discomfort.

"We've gotten two hundred and seventy nine request forms just this morning, eighty if I count yours; and believe me the management has no time for that. We'd hardly be able to get the classes started if we sat around reallocating dorms at the last moment." She sighed. "You get what I'm saying right?"

I nodded slowly, my heart constricting. "I understand. Sorry for the bother."

Actually, no... I didn't understand. How could the management be so rigid about not allowing any changes in the dorm allocation when they were the ones who had made the mistake of putting me in a boy's room in the first place?

Who was going to take the responsibility for this extremely irresponsible mix-up that was most probably going to make me end up with no accommodation in this god darned city where I didn't know a single soul? I threw a frustrated glance at the form in my hand.

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