Wonderwalls {HS}

III

After a good half hour, my mother and I finally find Broadview Hall. The entire street, just as I suspected, was lined with brick buildings making it quite difficult to find. Once we found the general area, it was clear this was a dorm house, with the giant "Welcome Freshman!" banner hanging on the doorway complete with maroon ink and the phoenix logo to illustrate the school's sense of spirit. I pray finding my room isn't another challenge; there is no way I'm going to spend another half hour looking for that.

"Finley, you've barely said a word this entire walk," my mom says quietly. I still don't want to face the emotions inside of me from before. I know I'm going to miss her so much, but I've never been the type of person to out and out talk about how I feel.

"Yeah, I'm just tired," I lie. "Long walk you know." She nods.

Luckily finding my dorm isn't too much of a challenge.

"Here we are. C5," my mom says. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah," I say, letting out a breath I had been holding for what seemed like hours. I wasn't so ready. Actually I wasn't ready to let go at all, but I knew I needed too, and quickly. I turn the key and open the deep brown wooden door which is obviously old considering it makes a very loud creaking noise.

"Hi!" a petite girl with chocolate brown hair squeals as she runs to the door, greeting me with a hug. "I'm Sammi! Welcome to UC! You're gonna love it here." Sammi is very small, probably around 5'2, and is wearing a grey UC sweatshirt which is way too big on her, swallowing her up like a immense grey storm cloud. She has a huge smile plastered on her face, however it does seem pretty genuine.

"Hey I'm Fin," I say looking around the room. I see my stuff has already arrived and is sitting in a corner next the bed which I'm assuming is now mine. The room is surprisingly large for a dorm. Three decently sized windows are on the wall opposite me. The view is alright, however, as I can see multiple brick buildings and dozens of old oak trees, with their forest green leaves beginning to turn turn a deep maroon color.

I turn towards my new roommate. "I'm just going to go say bye to my mom now, I'll be back in a sec."

"Take your time," Sammi says cooly, flopping down on her bed and grabbing a magazine. I walk into the hallway with my mom.

"Well she seems nice," she says sweetly. Nice I guess. More like perky. Very very perky. She wipes a tear from her eye, darkened from her mascara.

"Yeah..." I reply. "You know I'll miss you a lot."

"I know, Finley. I'll miss you so much myself." She hugs me tightly. I'm going to miss her hugs. "Don't forget to call me every once in a while."

"I won't," I say. "Bye Mom, I love you."

"Bye Finley," she says and hugs me once again. "I love you too. Your dad would be so proud." She walks down the hall, and I don't know when I'll see her next. I hold the paper plane pendant around my neck, and let out a sigh before walking back into the dorm.

Sammi turns on her stomach to face me. "So roomie. I just realized I know absolutely nothing about you, and that's kinda a problem since we'll be spending a lot of time together." She tucks a strand of chocolate hair behind her ear and giggles. As I said before, perky.

"Um okay," I say hesitantly as I flop on my bed. "What do you want to know?"

"Well for starters what does Fin even stand for?"

"Finley."

"Oh, cute! Well I'm Samantha Sage, but please don't call me Samantha. Call me Sammi or like Sam or something. Wait what's your last name?"

"Martin."

"Oh ok. Yeah that really fits you. I--"

"Listen I should really unpack..." I interrupt, looking at all the boxes around us. Jesus I have a lot of work to do.

"Ok I'll help you!" Goodness this girl is a ball of happy.

I grab one of the large cardboard boxes from the corner and set it on my bed. Inside is the bedding from my room back at home. I toss the cream colored comforter to the side along with the matching lacy pillows. Sammi grabs a smaller box and starts to unpack it.

"So where are you from, Fin?" she asks ands takes out some ceramic bowls. I really hope I didn't over pack.

"Iowa City, Iowa. They actually call it Mini Chi-town, oddly enough. It's a college town itself so I guess I'm kinda used to the college atmosphere," I grab another box. "You?"

"Canton, Ohio. Hate the place. I actually came to Chicago for a vacation back in like eighth grade and fell in love. I knew I was going to move here ever since." She pulls out my measuring spoons. "Plan on baking much?"

"Err... yes actually." I reply suddenly feeling self conscious. "It's just something I do when I'm stressed I guess."

"Not a bad stress reliever," she laughs.

The conversation continues like this for another two-ish hours or so. Sam tells me a lot about herself, like how parents divorced when she was four, and how she's really close with her dad, stuff like that. I hold back telling her about my dad's death, but I'm sure that conversation will happen at some point. Finally we finish unpacking. I look around at our newly finished room and let out a breath. Sammi is right. I think I'm going to like it here.