Puppets in Uniform ~~ An Apply Fic

𝕃𝕚𝕒𝕟𝕒

Who could have guessed we'd all be part of the same dorm? Definitely not me, but when we had checked the rosters on the big bulletin boards by the front doors, my jaw had dropped when I saw all of our names squished one on top of the other under 'Dorm 206' .

It wasn't just us though, apparently this school admitted 5 people to each dorm and yet that meant their was another person I had to socialize with.

Great.

We had quickly gotten settled, and even though I was drop dead tired I had agreed to going out to eat with the other girls.

Apparently there was a small shopping mall to the west of the school school campus, with cafe's and even small restaurants. Talk about rich people...

"Soooo. Where do you wanna eat?" Anya pipped, a small skip in her walk. Andy and I shrugged.

"Maybe a cafe?" Valerie said. "I'm not that hungry to be honest."

I nodded along, but in reality I was actually very hungry. Maybe I can find a pastry or something filling at the cafe, a coffee would do me good too.

We walked along, Anya skipping ahead and twirling about happily. Zaynab, our fifth and final roommate, smiled and looked about in a gentle manner.

"Be careful! You might hurt yourself." Zaynab warned Anya, adjusting her hijab to the cold. She had really pretty skin, which was a glowing brown even in this horrid weather. Andy snickered, Valerie elbowed her in the stomach and she choked on the laughter she might've released.

"I won't hurt myself!" Anya replied, grinning happily. She then ran into... a pole?! She fell onto her bottom and everyone ran forward to check on her. Andy stilled her head, supporting it gently and checking for bruising and such. Zaynab shook her head, a small smile on her face at the innocence of the girl in front of her.

"Her heads fine, she's probably just dazed." Andy said, no emotion leaking through her own mask. Anya nodded along with Andy's words, standing up shakily.

"That was surprising!" She giggled, smiling brightly. We all agreed, laughing along with her. Valerie helped her up, Zaynab dusted her off and we all agreed to just walk for now.

Andy scrolled absently scrolled through her phone, then the sound of dialing came from it. We went silent, letting her talk into the phone.

"Hello, may I please make a reservation at your cafe?" She asked, the sound of a man voices chirping back through the phone with a cheerful tone. "Mhm... Oh my names Andy, my pronouns are fluid." The man's voice came back through and her smile widened. "Oh great thank you! Yeah, we'll be there in a few minutes. Thanks again." She ended the phone call looking up at all of us.

"What was all that?" Valerie asked, pulling her coat closer around her. Even though she was wearing a hoodie and had on jeans. Andy looked up from her phone, their smile still very bright.

"I got us a reservation at a cat cafe, they have a burger joint on the base level and the cats on the next level. We have five minutes."

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The cafe was definitely worth it! There were so many cats, Valerie even talked about adopting one of the older ones. The food was great and we walked around some more, Anya and Andy ran into a plant shop. They were in there for not even ten minutes and came out with arms full of plants and pots! Zaynab enjoyed her food too, but she thought it was very greasy.

"I still can't believe how many plants you two both bought!" Valerie stated, looking over all the succulents, orchids, lavender and daisies for some reason. Andy even had two wimpy looking plants, he claimed that one was a peony plant and the other was a rose plant. I'm not sure if I believe that.

"Our dorm room is going to become a green house at this point." I pointed out, teasing the two girls a small bit. Valeria snorted, then sighed. She stretched and we all began to slowly realize just how tired we were. It was almost five o'clock, and the days had been filled of long travel for all of us. The days to come were filled with new adjustments some of us weren't ever exposed to! Andy yawned as well, then yawned.

"Let's just hail a cab, we have too many things to carry anyways." They stated it, pulling over a cab that was driving by. It screeched to a stop,and then we slowly piled in. Valerie  gave her a pointed look.

"We, or you?" She teased her, but Andy seemed a little hurt. She looked away, nodded and made a very forced laugh from the choking sounds in between it. Zaynab told the driver where to go, and the car drove off.
Soon the sky began to dim, turning orange, pink and deep red, dark tree tops began to pierce the sky. The town, which was slowly beginning to light up behind their receding car.

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The five of us piled into our room, divvying out our things and some of us just falling into our beds aka, Valerie. Zaynab went to use the bathroom muttering a prayer to her God and then entered it.

"Anya, we should get permission to put up some shelves for our plants if there's not enough room on the window sill." Andy suggested, and then the two were off talking about it.
I began to change, slowly and lazily taking off my clothes and throwing them into a corner. After that, I scratched the parts of my body that I wanted to, put on a bathrobe and then went to use the washrooms.

The water was warm, steamy and also was done after three minutes. My conditioner was still in my hair so I ended up washing it out in the sink. I towel dried myself and then went back to the dorm. For such an old building, it did not creak.

Whispering came from other girls rooms, some of them rude and others just idle chatter of new people meeting each other.

I got back to the room, finding most of the girls asleep. Zaynabs dark hair was sprawled out in a fan on her pillows, wet from the shower. Andy was reading, not even looking up when I came in. She had a small light on and even kept it on for me while I changed into some light silky pants and a comfy bra.

Tomorrow, classes would start.