She threw her comforter onto her bed, annoyed at herself for yet again bringing not double but triple the amount of blankets she needed. No matter how careful she was with packing, she could never quite get the bedding right. With a sigh, she glanced at the bin under her bed, stuffed with the other sheets and blankets she wouldn't need for at least 2 months. She turned on the fan.
According to the clock stretched across her computer screen, her family had left about an hour and a half ago. They'd gotten lunch on campus, same as last year, and then after a lot of stalling tactics performed by her father, left her to put the room together. Well, she'd given up on posters after realizing that their only mission in life was to fling themselves behind the bed or fall on top of her sleeping body in an attempt to suffocate her into freedom. And her books, for lack of an actual shelf, would have to get buried in a crate again, living in the shadows until they were finally needed. Her school supplies, the few she'd actually bought, were on her desk, thin notebooks and bulky pack of erasable pens making a thick angle, herding her loose highlighters together.
Since her clothes were put away for the most part, she was simply procrastinating- all that was left to find a home for was miscellaneous junk that would never be able to all fit in the drawers. With an air of complete resistance, she popped open the first crate. Absent-mindedly, she lifted up one of her handbooks about climate control,and flipped through the pages more for the feel of it than anything else. She put it down and promptly gave up.
The other side of the room was still empty, with a naked mattress and perfectly clean desk. Her roommate, Ella, was supposed to have already gotten here, and she looked down at her phone in case she'd gotten a message about it. They'd talked a few times throughout the summer, just normal room planning, making sure neither was a psychopath planning to skin the other or someone who would literally never stop having sex. She'd seemed pretty normal so far, though how much you can trust someone's online persona was something she could never quite decide.
No message. She leaned against her buried bed and let the fan blow on her torso and face. She lifted her phone up again, and, for what was probably the fifth time that afternoon, tried to call her best friend. Yet again, it went immediately to voicemail.
"Hey, this is Aldenator. All the Den you need. The one, the only, the Alden. The-"
She listened to his inebriated laughter until it finally got cut off by the beep.
"Oh, hey. Just your best friend here, wondering why you can't fucking charge your phone like at least once. Getting real sick of your crap. Love you, bye."
She tossed her phone behind her, letting her body follow. Her legs hung off the side of the mattress, swinging with pent up energy. Where the hell was Ella?
She pushed herself off the bed again, considered the box of random atrocities, and then left the room all together.
The sunlight was still a little harsh in her eyes, but it was starting to settle down now. Students were flooding the grounds and seeing them immediately made her feel better. So far there was no one she knew, but she could spot incoming freshmen, those wide eyed one-man mobs that looked like a chaotic mix of excited and nervous. There were also the bored looking seniors who lived nearby, who were mainly just interested in getting their favorite on-campus foods again, as well as clumps of friends buzzing with the joy of being reunited after months apart.
She watched them as she walked, feeling a little slighted for not being able to join in, but equally curious about their lives. Slowly some recognizable faces appeared, but for one reason or another she didn't feel motivated to approach. Honestly, she just wanted to see Alden, the other frantic greetings could follow.
