simplicity

01.0

01.0

"Without darkness, the stars would be dull."

Annabelle trudged out of the office, a freshly printed schedule attached to a map clutched in her hands, her brow furrowed in concentration. She wasn't very good with directions, not since that road trip with her family. Gosh, she's pretty sure that trip with her crazy uncle fried whatever brain cells she had left.

Stepping forward, she rolled her suitcase behind her, her box placed unbalanced on top of it. She took a deep breath, smoothing out the map underneath her schedule, and headed towards callberry hall.

She walked forward, her feet at a constant pace, and the suitcase behind her making a steady rolling sound as she tripped over pebbles. Annabelle wasn't very graceful, despite the fact that she had tried dance. Granted, she only went to two rehearsals before she started to have panic attacks.

She turned left, passing the science building and mess hall, (next to each other, she duly noted, suspicious.) and coming up to her dorm. Callberry hall was a girl's dorm, holding around four to a room, twenty rooms. So that meant she would live in a building with around eighty girls. (Gulp.)

Stepping into the doorway, Annabelle came up to the front, towards a girl behind a table with a lip piercing who was instructing everyone where to go.

"Hi! I'm Bali, pronounced bay-lee. Are you rooming in Callberry hall?" the overly perky blonde asked Annabelle with a smile on her flawless face. Annabelle returned the smile a bit hesitantly, and took a step backwards.

"Uh, y-yeah. I-I'm Annab-belle M-Mersci, sixteen?" Annabelle told her. Bali nodded and flipped through her papers, checking off her name and handing her her room key.

"You're in room 2b on the second floor. I think you're the second in your room to get here, there was a cute little Australian girl who just went up there!" the girl said with a wink that made Annabelle feel uneasy. Annabelle took the key wordlessly and started up the stairs, her mind racing. She was nervous (hell, when wasn't she?) to meet the girls she would be sharing a room with for the next semester, and hopped that they hadn't killed anyone (or something equally horrifying) to be sent here.

She reached the top of the stairs and looked around, hoping for a sign to magically appear in front of her to tell her where to go. Thankfully she spotted a list tapped to the wall instructing people on where their rooms were, before she had to actually ask someone.

Following the indicated directions, Annabelle found herself outside a white door with the words 2b written on the wood. Taking a deep breath, she gathered her courage and pushed open the door coming face first to...

...A boy?

He stood over, his back facing Annabelle, tucking in his camo bed sheet and fixing up his very male covers. He was wearing black cargo pants and a grey t-shirt, and his striking red hair was stuffed in a baseball cap.

Annabelle stood gaping, her mind racing. What was a boy doing in her room? Where was her Australian roommate? What was she supposed to do now?

Before she could answer any of those questions, the boy turned around, and faced Annabelle as her heart sped up.

His demur was soft for a boy, with a thin facial structure and milky pale skin. He had big brown doe eyes with eyelashes that reached down to his cheekbones, and bright red hair that fell in curls over his forehead. He looked at Annabelle in confusion, and then his face lit up in remembrance.

"Hi!" he said, and all at once it slammed Annabelle, he was a she.

Her eyes widened in confusion and she sub-consciously took a step backwards, away from the girl/boy. The girl sighed. It wasn't as if she was diseased, she thought, it was just that she happened to like boy stuff- boy clothes, boy games etc.- and it seemed as though everyone thought lower of her once they figured out she lived this type of lifestyle. It was a shame, really. She had hoped that her roommates at this boarding school wouldn't care.