Finding Joie de Vivre

chapter II // viva la kappa alpha theta

There are three bedrooms in the house. Melanie greets me at the door and gives me a tour of the house (even though we've all been here before when we put all of our suitcases off stuff in). Just as I remember it, there are the three bedrooms upstairs, each one accompanied by their own bathroom, and a wooden balcony that looks out over the backyard. A table with an umbrella and four chairs sit around it. Lights are strung around the edges of the balcony, thanks to Madi's insisting that we have them. There are two bedrooms on one side, and one bigger one on the other. We walk downstairs, where the kitchen, living room, and rec room are.
"We're going to have a meeting at the table to decide who gets what room. Once Jetta gets back, of course," she says.
"Okay!" I say, walking into the rec room. It has lots of windows and an all-glass wall that leads out to the huge patio with many chairs and a fire pit. We have another rec room downstairs, as well.
"It's so big in here," I say, throwing myself into one of the beanbag chairs.
Melanie sits in and old rolly chair.
"I know, right? And look at this," she says, rolling her chair over to a plug in the wall.
She takes out her phone and connects it to the cord.
'Crybaby' immediately begins playing over speakers installed in the ceiling.
She taps her screen and the lights go off. She taps it again and the blue and red neon lights that line the room light up.
"Woah, I don't remember that ever being there," I say.
"We just got the lights and stuff put in, that's why," she laughs.
"How much was it?"
"It was actually not that bad, Jacky and I found a really cheap service that does it for you."
"Huh, that's so cool."
"Anyways, we might as well wait until Jetta gets home. Let's go to the living room," she suggests.
"Everyone else is home?" I ask, following her to the spacious living room.
"Yeah, everyone except for her."
"Where is she?"
"She's in class."
"What class?"
"Drawing and Painting."
"Who takes classes this early?" I wonder aloud.
"Apparently Jetta," Jacky laughs.
"But, at least it's a fun class," Melanie points out.
"Yeah, you've got a point." I say.
Melanie groans.
"What's wrong?" Jacky asks.
"I just remembered. I have a class soon."
"So do we," Jacky says, pointing to herself and then to me. "And so does Mercy."
"Oh, right. I wonder what we even do in-"
Melanie stops mid sentence at the sound of the door being opened.
"Hello, it's me," Jetta's voice calls, echoing into our rather large house.
"Hi, Jettaaa!" Melanie calls as she runs to the door.
I follow her.
Jetta places a jar of paint brushes onto the table.
"What did you do in class?" Madi asks, following Melanie into the dining room.
"We didn't really do much, it's the first day, remember?" she laughs.
"I know that, but you brought that jar of brushes home."
"Yeah, she just gave us supplies and talked about what we would do in the class."
"Was it exciting?" I ask.
"Umm.. I mean, not really," Jetta answers. "We did this painting warm-up thing which was pretty fun," she says, taking three brushes with various warm colors of paints on them out of the jar.
We all watch as she walks over to the sink and begins to wash the brushes.
Melanie takes a seat at the end of the large dining room table.
"Jetta, when you're done, we're going to have a meeting. To decide who gets what rooms."
Jetta nods her head, signifying that she heard Melanie.
Jacky takes a seat near Melanie's, on the left side, as Madi and Mercy sit across from each other. I take the seat in front of Jacky and next to Melanie on the right.
I look up to see Jetta put the last of her brushes into the jar, then set the jar in another spot on the large counter.
She sits next to Mercy.
"Okay," Melanie begins. "Let's see. I'm sure the big room will be the main concern. I don't need the bigger room, so that's already fine. I want the room closest to the balcony, if that's fine with everyone."
She looks around, as we nod at each other, agreeing that Melanie can have that room.
"Madi, do you want to have one of the smaller rooms, or the big room?" she asks.
"Well, I think the people with the most stuff should have the big room," Madi replies.
"You have a lot of books and DVD cases. Plus your TV," Jacky points out.
"Yeah, but do you see the living room right now? Most of the bigger things belong to Jetta. Plus the small room closest to the stairs already has a big bookcase in it, so I can put all that stuff in there," Madi says.
"Okay, so Madi, you will have that room. And Jetta will have the big room, right?" Melanie clarifies.
"Yeah, I guess, I mean, as long as it's fine with you guys. So who is sharing the room with Melanie?" Jetta asks.
"Adi, you could, right?" Madi says. "Melanie could put her typewriter on your desk, cause you brought your desk."
"Melanie, why do you even have a typewriter? It's not 1955," Jetta laughs, playfully teasing Melanie.
"It's a vintage Remington! And it still works, and I use it for my writing."
"Writing?" Jetta asks.
"I do journalism in my free time!" Melanie says peppily.
"Oh, okay. But Adi has a keyboard, like I do. So, here's my theory. If Adi shares a room with me, she won't need her keyboard because we can share. So then, we can sell it."
"Yeah, and since there will be one room with no TV in it, we can use that money to buy a TV for us. Thanks, Jetta!" Melanie says.
"Can I share with Melanie? I literally have art supplies and that's it. Besides, my desk is better than Adi's anyways. So I can fit Mel's typewriter AND all my art stuff on it and still have some room. No offense, Adrena."
"It's all good. Good idea though. Jacky and Melanie can share, right? Everyone is good with that?" I ask.
In response, I receive back a chorus of yeps and yeahs.
"Okay, settled. And I guess I will have the big room. I don't really need it though, are you sure you don't want it, Madi? You have those really cool speakers."
"I know, but I'm putting the big ones in the rec room downstairs, cause there's no speaker system down there. And they light up, so we can have, like, a bunch of cool light-up stuff down there. I can put the small ones in my room."
"So you don't want the big room?" I ask.
"I mean, it's cool, but I don't really have a use for the extra space. And it's just a room, anyways, and it's not even that much bigger."
"True. So Madi and Mercy will share, Jacky and Melanie will share, and me and Jetta will share? Sound good?" I clarify, one last time.
"Yep. Let's go put our stuff away," Melanie says.
Now, how am I supposed to lug all this stuff upstairs?