Home Away From Home

Farewell My Love

             Months ago, when Maggie's parents had told her about this school, and handed her the pamphlet, the first thing that stood out was the fact that they held onto their phones. There were days when they gave them back for a day, but those were only around once a month (and of course vacations) and other very special occasions. This of course translated to Maggie as straight-up hell. How was she supposed to survive without her best friend? (Sorry F.A.M.S). It seemed an impossible feat at the time, but maybe it would get easier.

      It was apparent that it would never ever get easier as long as they lived. She watched as Sam, Emily, and Erin, who, from what she could gather, had been here for years, and gone through this many times, dragged their feet just as much as she did and it kind of made her feel better, but at the same time, it made her lose hope that this year would be any good. 

"you should write down the numbers," Emily said out of nowhere, 

"ohh yeahhhh," Erin agreed, 

"huh?"Maggie said very eloquently, 

"of people you wanna call," Emily started to explain, "there's this ancient phone in the common room of all of the dorms, if you write down their numbers you could call your friends or family or something,"

"Oh! oh ok," This was wonderful news to Maggie 

"So Maggie, got a boyfriend your gonna call?" Sam asked slyly, Maggie flushed red, was this another thing she wouldn't have in common with these girls? 

"oh, er no."she said shyly,

"Jesus christ sam could you please ask normal people questions?" Erin complained,

"It's a valid question!" Sam yelled, Maggie picked up her sighing streak as they started to fight again 

"none of us have boyfriends Maggie,"Emily told her "Especially not Sam!"She said louder to make sure Sam would hear.Sam stopped fighting with Erin and turned towards Emily and Maggie. 

"Hey!" Sam exclaimed, but she had a small smile on her face,

"Oh Samantha we were just talking about you!" Emily said with an innocent smile on her face,  Sam started chasing her up the path and Emily started running to the main building as fast as she could. 

"Oh crap."Erin yelped from her side, 

"whats wrong?"Maggie asked, 

"we are gonna be late!"And with that she started running off behind Emily and Sam. After blinking in shock, Maggie also starting running after them. 

       When they made it to the front of the main building that Maggie had been a few hours earlier to get all of her documents, the doors were closing as they were running in.Panting, they all fell over laughing in the lobby. 

"We made it!" Maggie cried in joy

"and we didn't even get in trouble," Sam said smugly,

"In trouble for what?" A voice said from behind them, they all jumped up off the floor, hearts racing. The voice came from a short women, black curly hair, tanned skin, she couldn't be older than 25, she stood there with her arms crossed, her eyebrow raised, and a smile on her face. 

"PUENTES!" All three girls ran towards her and hugged her. Maggie stood there very confused... never in her life had she hugged a teacher, or called them by their first name. Maybe she had judged them too quickly... maybe they were crazy and were gonna put her mattress on the nearby lake as she slept. Oh god what had she gotten herself into. 

"Welcome back girls!" The women, Puentes, said.

"Oh, Puentes, this is Maggie, our new roommate." Emily introduced her, 

"Hi Maggie, I'm Ms. Bridges, I'm the English teacher here, very nice to meet you." Ms. Bridges said, which really confused Maggie, how does one get Puentes from Ms. Bridges? Emily must have seen the confusion on her face, 

"It's spanish," She said, Maggie tilted her head in confusion again, "Puentes means Bridges in Spanish, I don't remember where we got it from honestly."She explained 

"Oh, nice to meet you," Maggie waved 

"You girls had better get going if you want to see those phones in the next month," Ms. Bridges warned, the girls traded alarmed and depressed glances as they said their goodbyes to their teacher and made their way into the main lobby. 

        Once they got into the room, Maggie noticed that the room was set up in the same way, tables with initials on them. 

"Maggie whats your last name?" Emily asked, an odd sense of hope (?) in her eyes 

"Winz, why?" Maggie answered, 

"Ugh," Emily walked away and the other girls laughed, leaving Maggie in confusion

"Come on, we are in W too," Erin said, 

"What's her deal?" Maggie asked, what was wrong with her name? 

"Nothing against you, she just wanted someone to be able to walk to her table with her,"Erin explained. 

"We're both W's and now there's you so she's all by herself,"

"oh thats sad" Maggie said sympathetically, 

"she'll survive, c'mon, you have all of your numbers?" Sam asked,

"Oh yeah I'm-" Maggie cut herself off as she caught sight of him, her heart stopped. She didn't usually believe in love at first sight, especially when the first sight was across a room and not a conversation but woah. This was different, she could feel it in her bones. He caught her eye and she could have sworn he smiled at her. Just when she thought she could work up the courage to wave, a stern looking teacher tapped him on the shoulder taking his attention off of her. She said something to him that made him frown and roll his eyes, but as she raised her eyebrow at him, he pulled his pants up, which now that Maggie paid attention to them, had been pretty low down. 

"You okay Maggie?" Erin pulled her out of her trance,

"Oh um yeah I- I'm good," Maggie stuttered. 

        They waited in line mournfully, Maggie could have counted at least 15 kids in her line alone physically kiss their phones goodbye. She couldn't blame them , she would probably be wishing she did the same thing in about 15 minutes. Even Sam's rock project sounded good right now. 

          When it was her turn, the lady handed her a yellow envelope with her name and dorm on it. Maggie took it said one last goodbye and put the phone in the envelope and handed it back to the lady sitting at the table.

           She walked back to her new friends (Hopefully?) who all seemed just as mournful as her. There were a bunch of booths around the hall, Emily tapped her on the shoulder and motioned to one of the tables towards the back of the room. Maggie walked in a daze behind them, How could she possibly survive without her phone? It went with her everywhere, saw everything she saw... it was her best friend...Well, she thought, not anymore. 

         Maggie heard everyone talking around her, so she figured it was time to stop being emo and snap out of it... only to be thrown directly into another trance when her eyes landed on that boy again, who was getting yelled at by a teacher once more. 

        Once she got her nerves back, she turned back to both of them and asked "do either of you know who that kid is?"  

"Which one?" Erin asked, 

"The kid standing next to the teacher and the kid with the big neck," Maggie described his location, not wanting to point, because that would be odd and Maggie could never be odd.

"Oh I know him." Sam said " He's was in my study hall last year,"

"What's his name?" Maggie probed

"Nelli. Mikey Nelli.