SWNOVELS Chapter 4 Roomies
As soon as I got there, I looked at the clock on the wall and realized that I made it there in five minutes flat. Wow, that was fast. Is this girl on the track team or something? As I was getting closer to the lobby, I was so worried about what I was going to do when I met them. Like how am I going to explain why I am so late. But all the worry went away when I saw this….this big family was waiting for me, I think, and they seemed to have brought some luggage and boxes with them. I thought, “Wait is that them, and if so, are they moving in, or is that all for me?’’
When I mean a big family, like three brothers and one sister, so a family of five if you don’t include the parents. Not bad, Elizabeth, not bad at all if that family is really yours, and from what I can tell by looking at all of them, I’m the oldest finally. I am not Gary the middle child anymore, but Elizabeth, the oldest...Yes! Now, before I took one more step, one of the boys who was wearing a red Hulkamania t-shirt exclaimed, “Hey, there she is!” Yep, that’s her family, alright. Just then, they dropped their boxes and lunged towards me. Before I knew it, I was in the middle of a giant group hug. Could this be any more embarrassing? These people had to do this right in the center of my dorm lobby with everyone watching.
I said, “Ok...Ok, that’s enough. I need to breathe, people.” They immediately stopped hugging me, and a woman with big brown puffy hair like Liz’s but had this magenta mixed with strange white flowers shirt with big earrings, and way too much makeup on her along with some ugly blue looking mom jeans stared right at me replied with the biggest smile on her face, “Well, it is Family Weekend after all.”
The youngest-looking boy in the Red Hulkamania shirt asked, “What took you so long?” Another boy who had a mullet and wore a plain blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up added, “You know how Dad is….he always makes us arrive thirty mins early to everything.” The dad, who had brown wavy hair but had streaks of grey on the sides with these big square glasses and one green Hawaiian shirt, chimes in, saying, “Well, if I don’t push you, we will never get anywhere.” While her little sister, who had a yellow headband, this white dress with splashes of color, innocently asked, “Can we see your dorm room now that you’re here? I can’t wait anymore.” giving me the puppy dog look while saying “PLEASE.”
Dorm room? Oh my god, Elizabeth didn’t mention anything in her planner about what room she was in. Or else I would’ve known and how in the world am I supposed to...oh hang on, maybe that lady at the front desk could help me.
I walked over to the receptionist desk with my student id in hand and tapped on her desk while she was writing something and said, “Hello, uhh, hi,” as I gave a friendly wave. The lady looked up, and I continued saying, “My name’s Elizabeth Ross, and I’m checking in with my family for a family weekend, and do you happen to know which room I’m in because I forgot.”
“Sure do.” she said “and don’t worry, you’re not the first to ask. Stuff like this happens to everyone.” She then looked behind me for a quick second and turned to me and said, “You’re on the third floor, room 3312, but before you go, your family is going to need these before you go anywhere,” while grabbing the visitor badges that were on her desk. I replied, “Umm, ok, thanks.” I signaled her family to come over to the receptionist area, where all of them grabbed their visitor badges and got the boxes and luggage for me.
We then had to quickly get on separate elevators because a line was starting to form. When we all arrived on the third floor, we headed towards my dorm. I couldn’t help but stare at the left and right sides, where I saw the names of every person who was in that room. Well, when we got to dorm room number 3312, I saw my name and this girl called Margaret Rogers. But wait a second, I know Margaret Rogers. Margaret Rogers is my mother’s name before she even married my dad. Boy, this is getting weird.
Besides that, I know all of her quirks too, so being her roommate won’t be too much of a problem, I thought, but calling her Margaret might be a new one. Speaking of my mom, she is a great person, don’t get me wrong, but her life before marrying my dad was always secretive, and if I tried asking anything about college life and what life was like growing up, she would always leave me hangin’ or add holes to her story which never made sense to me as a child, and even now, I always have to imagine why she never told me her life story.
Back to Elizabeth. So, I took a deep breath and knocked on the door, and I immediately heard her from behind the door sarcastically saying, “Now, I wonder who that can be,” as I hear her walking to the door. I see the doorknob turning slowly. Suddenly, the door just swings wide open, and what the heck is my mother wearing? She looks like a circus freak with that blue makeup on her face. Who do you think she is trying to be… Madonna with that hairdo. Anyway, she said to me deadpan, “Well, well, look who finally decided to show up.”
I replied, “Hey, Mo--Margie, uh, it’s so good to see you. My family is just bringing in some extra stuff for me, so can we come in?”
“Of course. This is your room too, after all, ain’t it?”
I entered the dorm room with my family right behind me, and I was totally blown away by how different and girly everything looked, from the posters of bands on each side of the wall to the girly bed sheets.
Margaret asked me as I was still staring at everything in awe, “You like it? I cleaned up just a little bit while you were gone.”
“Yeah...I can see that, so other than cleaning, what else did you do?”
“I didn’t do all the cleaning myself; you know...my family helped. Today, I just showed them parts of campus they didn’t get to see, and other than that, we ate some food from the food court, but I’m going back to meet up with them for the Football game soon. But enough about me, what are you going to do?”
I was going to ask myself the same question, but luckily Elizabeth’s father answered that for me by saying, “After we’re done setting up a few things that Lizzie here needs, we are all going to the food court and probably take a tour while we’re at it, but we are definitely going to see the game.”
So, that’s what we are going to do today. Interesting. Margaret then asked, “The game is at 3 pm, right, Mr. Ross?”
“Sure is... I wouldn’t miss it.”
She then said, “Well, I love to stick around and chat with you all more, but I gotta get back to my family before they start wondering where I am. That reminds me, could I get all your names real quick so I can tell my folks because I’m like pretty sure my mom wants you guys to sit with them.”
Liz’s mother goes, “Oh, I’d love to tell her,” and proceeds to tell her all of the names of this family.
Thank goodness she asked her and not me because it would be very difficult for me to point out, especially when I didn’t know who these people even were until a few minutes ago. Liz’s mom, on the other hand, was delighted to. She right away started to tell Margaret her and her father’s name first. Then she pointed out her kids’ names, from the oldest to the youngest. I started to take some good mental notes of what her siblings’ names were and what they looked like because I got this strange feeling that I was going to be seeing them more often. I’m the oldest, obviously. Tom is the second, who is fourteen, and when I first saw him, he seemed more reserved than the others. Also, I noticed that he had curly brown hair just like his father, was wearing a Rolling Stones t-shirt with some jean shorts but had some dirty sneakers.
Jake was the third who was twelve, and like his older brother, had the same hair color. He must’ve been the one who told me how early they arrived because I recognized the plain blue t-shirt from before.
Nate was the fourth oldest; he was nine years old, a blondie who had short wavy hair, and he was also the one that pointed me out to the family because I recognized the red Hulkamania shirt that he had on along with yellow shorts from earlier. I guess he must be a huge WWE fan because I noticed he had some red Hulk Hogan hi-top shoes to match.
Finally, the youngest was Samantha. She was only seven years old who I can tell has everyone wrapped around her finger. Even me. She was adorable and was the one that really wanted to see my dorm room.
Anyway after "my" Mom was done with the names, Margaret said, “Thanks for the names, Mrs. Ross, and I’ll see you all at the football game. Bye, everyone.” We all waved and said “Bye” back. Once she closed the door, Liz’s Father playfully elbowed me and said, “Isn’t your roommate something...huh Liz.”
“Yeah, she definitely is,” I replied, to which her father all of a sudden announced, “Well, let’s start unpacking. shall we?”
It was then that her dad started to boss everyone around but me by directing them where things should go, like bathroom supplies, clothes, shoes, snacks, etc. So, I just put my keys on my desk and watched the show.
When they were just about done, I asked, “Is there anything I can do to help?”
"My" Dad answered, “There’s just one thing you can do, sweetie. Tom, can you go with your sister to her car and grab a couple of boxes from her trunk?”
“Dad, I got this. It’s only a couple boxes... I can do it.”
“Yeah, but who’s gonna hold the door for you to get inside...huh?”
“Ohhh, I didn’t think of that.”
He then replied, “That’s what I thought. Tom, stop what you’re doing and help her out.”
Tom let out a little grunt and said, “But da-a-a-d, she said she’s got this though.”
Liz’s father not intimidated by his response at the slightest stated “I don’t care what she said. I’m telling you to go help your big sister out.” Just as I was about to walk out of the dorm room with Tom, her father suddenly stopped me and asked, “Hey Liz, aren’t you forgetting something?”
As I turned around, I answered, “No, I don’t think I di--d.”
I then saw him jingle my car keys like a bell. Shocked, I replied, “Oh my gosh, that would’ve been embarrassing, especially if one of her--my friends saw. Thanks, dad.” I then grabbed my keys from his hands and left my new living quarters, for now, I guess.
As Tom and I were walking towards the elevator, he told me, “Nice going, Liz.”
“What did I do?” I asked confused.
Tom answered as we got to the elevator door. “Oh, don’t act so surprised. You know all too well how I was forced to come here when I could’ve been doing something cool with my friends before school starts in a few days.”
Annoyed, I said, “Yeah, Yeah, I know. Just get in,” as I pushed him when the elevator door opened and immediately hit the first-floor button while having a little smug look on my face.
When the elevator doors opened to the lobby, Tom followed me to my car, where I opened the driver’s side to grab her purse and daily planner first, then opened the trunk where Tom took one look at the boxes and complained. “These two boxes are heavy. Liz, can you carry one?”
You know I thought about helping Tom out in the beginning, but the last I checked. I was a girl. So...I couldn’t possibly help him, hehehe, but I knew exactly what would.
I told him, “Hmm, those boxes sure look heavy, but that’s nothing like a big strong man like you can’t handle. You are a ….. manly man, right? Or do I need to get someone like I don’t know… Jake, who can do it?”
Tom’s eyes widened, and he shouted, “Him! N-N-Nooo, I can do it. I’m a manly man!”
“That’s the spirit! Now, show me what a man is made of and get to it. Those two boxes aren’t going to lift themselves now, are they?”
Tom, of course, grunted and grumbled to himself while lifting those two heavy boxes up from out of the trunk. That’s when I slammed the trunk close and slowly headed back.
But along the way, I stopped when I heard a girl somewhere in the distance behind me ask, “Is that my gal Liz?”
I turned around and asked, “Uhh, yeah, like who’s asking?”
All of a sudden, I see this girl wearing this tealish white striped shirt along with some white shorts, and oh, this girl had this distinctively dark brown hair that looked exactly like a lion’s mane, and she was coming right for me, being all giggly and saying “Me” before hugging me.
The girl said while hugging, “Hey Lizzie, glad you’re back, girlfriend. I so missed your company.” She stopped hugging me and asked, “How’ve you been?” When I didn’t respond right away, she said with a concerned look on her face, “It’s me.. you know...Anna Malinowski, the one and only. Do you not remember me from orientation?”
I then had to smack my head like I knew her all along and said, “Oh...yeah, now I do....sorry Anna, I got a lot on my mind today.”
“Oh, don’t we all? So, who’s the strong man?”
“The strong man?” I asked, looking around to find him. As I looked around, I realized that she was talking about Tom, who was right next to me and not me or anyone else that was around, so I quickly added, “Oh, the strong man is just my little brother Tom, and he’s being a real good sport by helping me carry these two heavy boxes all by himself, can you believe that.”
Anna said, “Wow, I believe it...I just wish my little brother Toby would do the same.” She then asked Tom, “So, Tom, how are you holding up?”
Tom answered with a long, loud grunt, “Pretty good for the….moment.”
“Oh, that’s good.” She then turned to me and said, “Well, anyway, Lizzie, I was thinking once family weekend is over with, maybe you and I could go to--”
Tom interrupted her and said, “I hate to interrupt this lovely chat between you girls, but Liz, we gotta get going. I don’t know how long I can...hold on to these boxes.”
“Ok..ok, we’re going, so calm down, will ya?” I replied. “Well, it was nice talking to you, Anna, but we better get going, and hey, are you going to see the football game at 3 pm by any chance? We can probably catch up more then.”
“That sounds like a great idea. Hey, maybe I’ll see the rest of our group there too. Bye, Liz; bye, Tom,” as she turned around, waved at us, and walked away.
Well, I think I handled that well. But I don’t get what she meant about “the rest,” though. Wait, now I do. She means I’m going to see more of them soon! Oh gosh! What have I done?! Anyway, after a bit more walking, we finally made it inside the lobby, and while waiting for the elevator, Tom asked me for like the MILLIONTH time, “Can I drop the boxes now?” to which I answered while trying not to grind my teeth, “No...not yet. You can hold them just a little bit longer; we’re almost there. I know you can do it.”
When the elevator door finally opened, and after people got out, Tom and I got in, and once we reached the third floor, Tom was slowly walking at this point, but when my door to my dorm room opened, he suddenly had this big burst of energy and rushed right in, where he dropped the boxes right in the center of the room and got down on one knee to take a breather. That’s when I told him, “See? told you you could do it.” He gave me a death glare in return.
Just as I put her daily planner and purse on her desk, Liz’s mother asked me, “What took you two so long?”
I answered, “Well, I saw Anna Malinowski in the parking lot, and-”
She interrupted me and asked, “Wait, isn’t that the same girl that you couldn’t stop talking to from orientation, or am I thinking of a different girl?”
“Yeah, that’s her!” I exclaimed.
“How’s she doing?” she asked.
“Well, we didn’t talk much because someooonnneee….” while looking directly at Tom, “was being a little impatient, but don’t worry, we’ll see her at the game.”
Tom stated, “A little….impatient...you try holding two heavy boxes for like fifteen minutes.”
Liz’s father said, “Ok settle down, Tom. I think you proved your point to her, and to celebrate, let’s all get something to eat, huh? cause I’m starving.”
We all agreed and left the dorm room, but before we left, I made sure to grab her planner and purse because I had a feeling I was going to need these to survive the day.