AN: There is a reference to the Hindi-symbol-turned-German swastika. We do not mean to offend any readers and this was not written with the intention to.
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The silence was nigh on overwhelming in the little apartment- the only noise being the bathroom sink as Andrew brushed his teeth. Then-
"WHAT THE FUCK, MADDIE?!" He stormed out of the bathroom, standing in front of the two girls with his gangly arms thrown up in the air.
"Ha!" Maddie exclaimed triumphantly. Marked doodles of swastikas, dicks, and a large mustache covered his face, along with little notes like haha and loser. One very distinctive message read punk ass squeaker.
Emy started giggling, and fell off the couch, hitting her head on the concrete floor but continuing to roll about in a fit of laughter.
"You- look- stupid," she wheezed out. He balled up his dirty jeans and shirt from the night/morning before and threw them at the girls, before stalking back to the bathroom, grumbling something about what the fuck and dammit, Maddie.
Eventually, Emy got off the floor and made her way over to the kitchenette. "Maddie."
"Yeah?" The taller girl asked, looking over from off the couch. She has discarded Andrew's clothes to the floor, and looked very satisfied with her artwork.
"We have no food," the brunette said bluntly.
"Okay, then we're going to have to go out and get some," Maddie replied, as if it were obvious. Emy blinked, then said, "Oh. Right."
Wandering dazedly aware from the kitchenette and shaking her head with confusion, she knelt next to her suitcase and pulled it out from under the bed. In the blink of an eye, everything was on the floor, all dumped out. "You said to get unpacked, right?"
"You said to get unpacked," Maddie answered.
"So I did," Emy grumbled, starting to sift through her things. "You might as well too, we need to get something done lest we bore ourselves to starvation." The taller girl shrugged and said 'okay', getting off the couch and going to her suitcase. It was in the corner of the room, where the wall that the bed backed up to and the wall that the window was on met.
There was a clatter of plastic on the floor, and the shorter girl let out a little curse. She swept up her flute case and hurriedly flipped it open, letting her fingers graze over the pieces of the instrument to check it for damage. Behind her, Maddie peeked over the bed, and asked, "Did you seriously bring your whole flute?"
Emy blushed and shot back, "Yes I fucking did." Maddie shook her head and laughed, and drew something out of her suitcase. Her friend leaned around the bed (she was too short to see over it) and squealed, "Ooh, the drawing book!"
Dumping all of her things back in the suitcase, Emy dragged it over to Maddie and set to work again. Clothes were unrolled, folded, and put into piles. A small stack of notebooks and books appeared, along with writing and drawing utensils. From Maddie's suitcase appeared an alto mouthpiece and two reeds, and from Emy's a package of brand-new Solo cups and a singular Mason Jar.
As Emy got up to put the Solo cups and the jar in the kitchenette cabinets, Andrew finally walked out of the bathroom. His face was red and there were still visible marks from the Sharpie.
"You will regret this, Maddie," he swore, shaking a finger at her. And on it went.
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"Do we still have money from last night?" Maddie asked. Emy's shoulders went up and worry glinted through her eyes.
"Andrew?" She asked. He tsked at them and said, "Yes, we do."
"Okay," Maddie said. "Let's go." She pulled open the door, letting the other two of them out and locking it behind them.
"Where, though?" Andrew persisted.
"I don't know, McDonald's or something, I guess," Maddie responded. Emy's jaw dropped and as the three of them walked down the stairs, she exclaimed, "You didn't want to go to McDonald's for Homecoming, why would you want to go now?!"
"Yeah, Maddie," Andrew jibed.
"You are never going to give that up, are you?" It was hardly a question- they all knew the answer.
"Nope!" Emy said definitely, popping the p. Maddie sighed, and they began their trek through the streets of Berlin. They wandered for a good twenty minutes before finding a McDonald's, not because it was far but because the streets were already crowded. It was a Thursday morning in a big city- people had places to go.
The variety of people- it was like being back in high school, although that was only a few months ago. Though, unlike their high school, there was a good bit of racial diversity. Had it not been so crowded, the shortest of the three would have ran through the sidewalks, jumping and squealing.
Inside the McDonald's, the crowd was much thinner. There were a few teenagers, but like Americans, the rest would probably show up at lunchtime. It was only 10 in the morning. They escaped the fast food restaurant having spent 8€, and walked a block until they reached a park. The sign read Volkspark Husenheide, and the first thing that they happened upon was a strange building.
"What's that?" Andrew wanted to know. Maddie turned and squinted at it, and shrugged, saying, "I don't know. Do you want to check it out?" The boy turned and waggled his eyebrows suggestively, replying, "Hell yeah I'll check it out, that's a sexy building."
"You know it is," Maddie answered, lifting her chin and making a goofy face. Emy laughed, and tagged Maddie, leaping aside and crying, "No tag backs!"
Maddie sighed, and Andrew ran the other direction. A laugh could be heard in the background, and when the taller girl went to look, she saw an old lady smiling at them. She seemed to be chuckling lightly to herself, seeming to be entertained by our presence. She walked up to Maddie with a smile.
"Oh, how I wish I was your age again. I remember doing this with my friends a long time ago," The lady spoke in her native language. Maddie smiled, scrounging up the right words to say, and finding the sentences that she'd studied for German before she moved."We're just trying to distract ourselves from the trouble. We're starting college today," she explained the best she could in German.
"I see. You're not from around here are you? I can tell by the accent," the lady replied.
Maddie laughed awkwardly, "No. My friends and I just moved here from America. We're attending college here in Berlin," she answered firmly.
The old lady chuckled once more, "Well have fun, don't get too drunk!" She joked, and bid Maddie a farewell. She waved and they parted ways. The tall girl then went to look for her friends who had ran away.
"Ready or not, here I come," Maddie whispered to herself, back in English, beginning her search.
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1150 words
YOU ARE READING
Dream Life: College in l'Allemagne
General Fiction"THAT'S A SEXY BUILDING." In which three friends from a small high school's band room in the southeastern corner of Wyoming find themselves overseas for college: Berlin, Germany. "WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO GO TO MCDONALD'S NOW?"