New Girl - The Creatures

Chapter 2

I started with unpacking my duffel bag since it was easily the most compact of all my luggage. Within it was my computer tower (it took me about 20 minutes to get that fucker in) cushioned by a plethora of clothes, ethernet cables, my mouse and track pad, my headset, USB cables, phone charger, external hard drive, and my favorite travel coffee mug. It was 10 inches tall, with a black leather exterior and an iron cast version of the Imperial guard logo from Skyrim. I had yet to play Morrowind or Oblivion, though they were waiting idly by in my Steam Library.

I then opened up my massive backpack, withdrawing the remainder of my clothes, a small bag of my toiletries and makeup, some posters, and my favorite books and movies. My clothing was a weird mixture of the indie coffee house meets bohemian meets vintage 80s and early 90s styles. The posters consisted of a 'Louder Than The Bombs' album cover by The Smiths, a replica map of Skyrim from the special edition release of the game, an old school black and white blueprint poster for a film camera, the end game still of Commander Shepard in the first Mass Effect game, and the poster of Far Cry 3 with Vaas on the front. My movies were mostly cult classics and Wes Anderson films, ranging from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou to Heathers, from Rushmore to American Beauty. I had the Harry Potter and Twilight films as well; many bash Twilight, but it's definitely my guilty pleasure. I had the books for both series in my bag, as well as some of my favorite novels; The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, The October Country by Ray Bradbury, and Walden by Henry David Thoreau, to name a few.

Organizing all of my items into separate piles, I began to carry them over to the shelves in small increments, and slowly filled up half of the shelving. I made a mental note to visit a both an ordinary bookstore and a comic book store in downtown Denver when I had the chance. I grabbed my camera bag and unpacked it, placing all of my supplies onto one cube easily and stowing the bag itself on another. I made yet another note to order a tripod from B&H Photo online, and maybe a Polaroid camera for the hell of it, but Polaroid film is almost 30 dollars for just 8 photos.

I was so immersed in arranging my things and trying to think about what else I should order online that I didn't even notice when James entered the room. I nearly had a heart attack when he randomly yelled, "HEY!"

"Holy fuck, you could have just knocked," I protested, my hand over my heart. He laughed at my reaction and set down a pretty wide monitor onto my desk.

"I guess Max didn't tell you, it gets pretty loud around here. Especially when we do family game night; we're having one tonight on the Wii," he said with a grin. "Oh! That actually sounds really fun. Do you guys need me to stay up here while you record? I don't mind." He shook his head, and said, "Nah, we're not recording this one, it's just for shits and giggles. Besides, your face is already on the channel, so I don't think it'd matter much."

He pulled up the YouTube app on his phone and showed me the most recent video on the channel, appropriately named, 'The New Girl! (We Didn't Pay Her).' I chuckled and said, "Well, I hope they liked having my face on screen for about 5 seconds." James smiled and said, "Yeah, most of the video is just Dan talking about how you're going to be staying with us indefinitely and that we should all welcome you, blah blah blah."

He looked around the room at the progress I made and gestured to my computer tower and mess of cables. "Do you want help setting things up?"

"Yeah, that would be awesome!" I said, smiling. He grinned, and then walked towards the open door, leaned over the railing of the stairs, and screamed, "SEAMUS! GET THE FUCK UP HERE AND HELP SAM!" I started laughing and heard someone moving across the wood floor below. "Fuck you, James. I'll be there for a second, Sam," Seamus called out. James grinned at me and left the room. Suddenly I heard a smack and James' over dramatic retaliation of "OW! YOU DICK!" James was definitely one of my new favorite people, he made me laugh so easily.