Stargaze

Two

Thanks driftingxstars for the cover!
The room is small, with only enough room for a bunk bed, a mini fridge, and a desk. I opened a door, which led to an adjoining bathroom.

"We will have to share a desk," Becca said, "but I like to do my work on the floor anyway."

I nodded. Suddenly, a piercing ringing sliced through the air.

"What is that?" I asked.

"It's my stupid phone!" Becca dived under the bottom bunk's mattress and pulled out her phone.

"You're here? It's three hours earlier than you said! Yeah, okay."

"What was that?" I asked.

"That was Emmaline. She wants us to visit her."

"Who?"

"Oh, she's one of my friends. Probably my best friend, but she's always with her boyfriend..." She trailed off.

"Okay, where's her room?"

Becca grinned. "Watch." She climbed onto the top bunk and pushed on the ceiling. A square of ceiling came away, and she pushed it into a tiny room above our dorm. She hoisted herself in, then called out, " Well? Coming?"

I followed her in. The room was kind of dark, and it smelled musty, but it felt cozy. I looked around as my eyes adjusted to the dim light, and I saw that the walls were covered in drawings. There were drawings of Becca, a boy with floppy hair and a mischievous smile, a beautiful girl with long hair and wide eyes. There were drawings of intertwined hands, fruit, a single butterfly. They were magnificent. There were also drawings of a boy with dark, curly hair, but those were not as well done, as emotional, as precise.

"Who drew these?" I breathed.

Becca looked up from examining a sketch of the girl with long hair with the dark-haired boy. In the sketch, the girl was braiding her hair, and the boy was looking straight out from the paper, a pencil in his hand. "Malcolm did. He's my friend. He's dating Emmaline." She gestured to the drawing in her hand. "This is them. Took him a while to draw. They were sat in front of a mirror forever."

She set down the drawing and pried up a bit of the floor, which was also a bit of ceiling from another room, and dropped down into it. The sound of talking and laughter drifted up to me. I heard Becca's voice. "Hey Kalea, are you coming down or what?"

I lowered myself through the hole and found myself face to face with the girl from the pictures- Emmaline. She was taller than I had thought as well, a head taller than Becca, who was taller than me. That wasn't saying much, though, as most people are taller than me.

"It's so nice to meet you, Kalea," Emmaline said. She smiled a soft smile, a smile that could melt your heart and mold it. It seemed that her friendship with Becca was an extreme case of opposites attract.

There was a banging at the door. Emmaline rushed over and opened it.

"Malcolm!" Becca cried.

"Hey, Becca," In person, Malcom seemed more animated than in the pictures, which was, yes, kind of obvious, but this difference was more extreme. His drawings captured Emmaline's soft smile, Becca's loud grim, and I assume even the personality of the other boy in the pictures; but his self-portraits seemed more factual.

He set down a box he was carrying on Emmaline's bed. "Emmaline's lucky," he said, "She has a single room this year."

"Lucky!" gasped Becca.

"Right here, Becca," I said. I crossed my arms.

"Oh no, Kalea! I didn't mean it like that..." Becca trailed off nervously.

I laughed. "It's okay, I'm messing with you." Becca looked relieved.

Malcolm extended his hand, a small smile tugging at a corner of his mouth. "Nice to meet you. I'm Malcolm."

I shook his hand. "Kalea." Malcolm was even taller than his girlfriend. If I was going to befriend these people, would I feel obligated to wear heels to keep good eye contact?

"Have you guys seen Evan?" asked Emmaline. "I haven't seen him all day."

"Me neither. Do you think-" Becca was cut off by a boy descending from the hole in the ceiling.

"Hello, my comrades," he said, then spotted me. "Becca's new roommate, I assume." He bowed, then straightened up. He was about as tall as Becca, and he was the blond curly-haired boy in Malcolm's drawings. "My name is Sir Evan of the kingdom of St. Arnoldania."

"Evan!" cried Emmaline. "Oh my goodness we are all here early! We should go to dinner!" She linked her arm through Becca's, and her other arm through mine. I liked that she already thought of me as a friend. Was it going to be this easy?

"Pizza?" asked Malcolm.

"Yes!" groaned Becca. "Eddie's been on a health kick all summer, and I need cheese that doesn't stink!"

"Who's Eddie?" I asked her.

"My brother. Technically, he's my legal guardian, since my parents died like, fifteen years ago, but he's only seven years older, and my grandparents' mental health has deteriorated." She paused. "So there's some useless exposition."

"I like useless exposition," I said. Emmaline smiled at me.

"So, pizza?" Malcolm steered the conversation back on track and laid his arm across Emmaline's shoulders.

"Pizza." Evan agreed, and opened the dormitory's door.