Chapter 19: Roommate Shuffle

Well, I've gotten back into the habit of writing this, so this happened pretty quickly. Beware, though, if ever there was a "filler chapter" it is this one. So yeahhhh. By the way, relating to my previous post: if people don't comment on things I assume they hate them and then I feel bad. :/ As an attractive future husband of mine once said:


Anyway! Let's go on.

Chapter 19: Roommate Shuffle

When everyone returned to the dorms on January first, they were greeted by a pack of RAs, who informed them that there would be a few changes around the dorms, and they had until the new semester started to enact them. What this meant in plain words: some parents learned their children were rooming with people of the opposite sex and wanted that to change. For this reason, Blue spent the day packing her room up, because apparently their wing was going to become an all-male one. Alec hadn’t returned from England yet, so Shelly didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to Scamps! Apparently he would be returning late the following day, but Blue wasn’t allowed to take that long to move. A mean RA (Blue didn’t like him and therefore didn’t remember his name) watched over her, and then led her to where her new room would be. As they walked he told her she would be getting a new roommate.
“Kendall Driessen,” he said, “I guess Kendall’s a girl then…who knew?”
“I knew,” Blue bragged, since she’d seen Kendall in a swimsuit at Kakahi’s New Year’s Party after all. The RA rolled his eyes and left her to transfer her things. Placing the first box inside, she jumped when she realized Kendall was sitting on the bare loft on one side of the room.
“Hello,” she greeted in a low voice.
“Hi!” Blue replied, trying not to sound too surprised. Already she could tell she was going to miss Alec.
“Is your boyfriend going to help you move?” Kendall asked in that same slightly creepy tone.
Blue scowled, “No…Well, right now he’s helping Teddy. I told him to, though. He said he wanted to help me more, but I don’t want him looking through all my things…There’s nothing inappropriate in here, but…Somebody could have snuck it in. I think. Then Malik would think bad things of me. It’s best I do it.”
“Why?” Kendall mumbled. When Blue looked confused in response, Kendall expanded on her thoughts, “Teddy’s a boy. Why’s he moving?”
“Ummmm,” Blue replied. “I think…I don’t know. I’ll go ask.” With her declaration, she ran out of the room, calling out, “Teddy! Teddy why are you moving? …You’re so much further away now!” It took an entire hallway and a turn to get to Teddy’s and Malik’s rooms now and Blue did not like it. Teddy peaked out of what was apparently his former room and grinned at Blue.
“That would be because we have a couple transfers to our dorm,” Teddy explained, and then motioned a now familiar pair of ginger twins ostensibly helping him collect his things.
“But why does that mean you have to move?” Blue questioned, and Teddy shrugged.
“I guess the people taking Rashida and Austin’s room are really interested in sticking together. So the powers that be told me I had to move,” Teddy stated, as the Twingers waved excitedly at Blue.
“Hey Blue! We’re going to be living close now,” Ewan said eagerly. Evan nodded to enforce his words.
“We can visit any time we want,” he added, and Blue smiled at them and clapped.
“Yay!” she said, before turning her attention back to Teddy. “Where are you moving to? Did you get to pick? Is it X’s room? I’d pick X’s room,” Blue babbled, causing Teddy to scowl deeply.
“I’m moving to your old room,” he mumbled as if ashamed.
Silence fell between Blue and Teddy, leaving them in a stare down until Pablo and Malik walked into the room. Blue immediately declared, “Teddy’s rooming with Alec!” the new additions gave her blank stares in response, giving her the impression they already knew this fact. Somehow they were not panicking, so she quickly added, “But he’s Teddy’s nemesis!”
“You have a nemesis?” Evan asked with interest, setting aside the notebook he and Ewan had started scribbling in while Blue and Teddy talked.
“That’s awesome,” Ewan added, as the pair stood from what used to be Teddy’s bed and approached the group of four across the room.
“Can we meet him?” Evan asked.
“Of course,” Teddy replied, “but he’s in Britain until tomorrow. So you’ll have to wait until then.”
“A British nemesis?” Ewan questioned, glancing back at his brother.
“Fantastic!” Evan declared, causing Teddy to roll his eyes and smile at both of them.
Surprisingly, it didn’t take too long for Teddy and Blue to move all of their things, and late afternoon found them admiring their handiwork. Once they agreed to start with Blue’s room, since her stuff was in Teddy’s way, and then move to Teddy’s, time started to go much more quickly. Ultimately Malik, Pablo, Kip, Hakan, the Twingers, Kakahi, and Estela helped each of them move. Blue’s room was more or less the same as it had been, just in a different location, and with Kendall instead of Alec.
As Blue, Malik, Teddy, Pablo, and Kip relaxed in Malik and Kip’s room, they heard a knock on the door, which Kip stood to answer. Unfortunately, the person knocking knocked three times, causing Kip to jump in fear and run back toward his closet. The door swung open despite this, which ended up being lucky for Kip since it swung right where he would have been standing.
“X needs Teddy to investigate what X discovered in Gerda’s half of the room!” Hakan shouted at the group. Teddy shrugged and nodded in affirmation to his request.
“I’d be happy to help, X,” he replied. Hakan grinned, and then threw something to the ground.
Teddy’s curious glance at the object caused him to shout, “When cleaning X found X’s old wheelie shoes!!” Jumping on the strange wheeled objects which couldn’t be made by a legitimate company, Hakan somehow managed not to fall over. Blue and Pablo trailed after Teddy and Hakan, claiming they could be very helpful with whatever was happening.
Hakan explained the situation on the way, “See, Gerda asked if X would help move her things, right? So X has been moving things, but Gerda’s things are weird! X doesn’t know what to do with them.”
Pablo and Blue were intrigued by this idea, and speculated about what kind of things Gerda had. When they arrived at the room, it seemed more like Hakan just wanted someone to help him clean. It was completely covered in things and almost impossible to tell what was Gerda’s and what was Hakan’s in the mess.
“Ha!” Hakan shouted. “X tricked you! Please clean our room? X hates cleaning. X has more important things to dooo!!!” The trio shrugged and agreed to help out, packing things up for Hakan as he instructed them on what belonged to him and what belonged to Gerda. After everything was packed up, they carried the boxes to Gerda’s new room, which she was apparently going to share with Jenny Caffrey, one of the new members of Miss Allberry’s class. When questioned as to who her previous roommate was, Jenny just shivered and wrinkled her nose. Before she got the chance to explain herself, an unfortunately familiar voice greeted them.
“What did I say about packing up my things, Porky?” Kendrick said, obviously directing the question at Jenny, who was slightly overweight.
“Whoa!” Pablo, Blue, and Teddy all managed to gasp at once.
“What?” Kendrick snapped at them.
“You are my least favorite person that I’ve ever met,” Teddy said bluntly. “And I’ve met that homeless guy who preaches the Old Testament of the Bible shirtless outside the comic store.”
“His chest is so hairy,” Pablo side-barred to Blue, who nodded at him.
“The really, really kind of gross hairy,” Blue agreed, “and his back is even worse!”
“And the pot-belly,” Pablo griped.
“Oh the pot-belly!” Blue agreed.
“Shut your mouths,” Kendrick snapped at the pair. “Did I give you permission to speak?” Blue and Pablo were flabbergasted, and glanced at Jenny.
“Yeah so his next roommate is sure to have fun with that,” she said, rolling her eyes and sighing as she sat on her bed. The look on her face seemed to say, “Only a few more hours and then I’m finally free. I just have to make it a few more hours.”
Pablo and Blue retreated to get some more of Gerda’s boxes from her former room, leaving Teddy staring down Kendrick. “Are you trading so you’re going to be in Hakan’s room?” he asked slowly.
“The savage’s room?” he asked for confirmation. Teddy’s eyes widened in anger.
“Hakan, he’s Native American,” he stated, folding his arms and shifting into a slightly more aggressive pose.
“Yes, I believe I am. Are you going to move my things?” Kendrick asked, and Teddy shook his head.
“No I’m not going to help with that,” he replied, “I will never help you with anything ever. I..I can’t even…I have to go. Pack up your things you—!”
Pablo and Blue walked back into the room before Teddy got out whatever offensive insult he was about to shout, and Mean RA came with them. “Kendrick!” the RA scolded. “I told you, you have to move out. NOW!” Kendrick rolled his eyes at the RA, but began packing up his things. Though Gerda’s room didn’t take very long to pack up and move and had more things, Kendrick moved painstakingly slowly to pack his things. The trio abandoned the room and invited Jenny to go watch a movie with them in the meantime. By the time the movie ended, Kendrick was just finishing moving his final box. It was bed time by then, and everyone settled into their new rooms to sleep, waiting for the return of their European companions the next day.
Blue woke with a start in the morning to Kendall staring at her. “You sleep a long time.”
Blue glanced at the clock to her side and mumbled, “Kendall…It’s too early. I need sleep. Sleep!” Rolling over to face the wall, Blue snuggled toward it.
“My brother told me you have to wake up by five or your muscles will decay by the time you turn fifty,” Kendall insisted. Blue ignored her, but Kendall wasn’t having it, “Do you want your muscles to decay?”
“Yeah it’s cool,” Blue dismissed. Kendall kept staring at Blue, but retired to her bed to do so. Blue fell back asleep and woke up at the humane hour of nine instead. Once she was all ready for the day, she headed back to her old room to see if maybe Alec had arrived back early, but she found Teddy and Pablo inside instead.
“Hi Teddy!” she greeted as he opened the door for her.
“Blue,” Teddy replied. She tilted her head at his lackluster greeting, and glanced to Pablo for an explanation. The Asian sighed and patted the bed next to him.
“Come sit Blueberry,” he said, and Blue caught Teddy’s eye roll at the nickname but ignored it. “Teddy’s upset,” he whispered dramatically. Teddy shot him a completely hostile look and sat far away from them at his desk.
“Why?” Blue asked. “Because he has to room with Alec?”
“No,” Pablo replied. “Well, yes. Mostly he’s mad at me right now. So…Maybe you’d like to go hang out with Malik while we sort it out?”
“Malik is bad at waking up in the morning,” Blue replied and Pablo shot her a pointed “this is serious” look. Sighing, the teen girl stood and headed toward the room’s exit. As she walked out she glanced at Teddy, who rolled his eyes and smiled a comforting smile that she didn’t need to worry about him. After a trek she’d probably grow to miss from her former room to Malik’s room, Blue knocked on the door. Because of Kip’s problem with the number three, she was careful to knock four times. The strange young man answered the door with a smile.
“Hey Blue,” he said, and then motioned behind him, “Malik’s still sleeping. I could wake him up if you want.”
Blue stopped in contemplation, finally mumbling, “Nah. I’ll let him sleep.”
Kip nodded at her, “Yeah. After the whole thing with Austin’s brothers and then all that moving around yesterday the poor little guy’s beat. Where are you going to go then?”
“Ummmm,” Blue trailed off. “I might just go play with Shelly for a little bit.”
“What’s Teddy doing?” Kip asked, showing more interest than Blue was used to.
“Having an argument I think,” Blue replied.
“Don’t miss those,” Kip muttered under his breath. When Blue questioned what he’d said he smiled brightly and changed the subject, “Well, have fun with your turtle I guess…Or you could do something way cooler…I mean I don’t know, but I hear something way cooler is going on…”
“What’s going on, Space Invader?” she asked. Kip grinned and waved Blue inside his room. Malik was a fairly deep sleeper generally speaking, so they didn’t worry about keeping their voices down too low.
“What would you say if I told you I just finally got my copy of Stratego! I ordered it a long time ago and no one will play it with me,” Kip said, producing a box with the label “Stratego” on it. “Please play?”
Blue shrugged and nodded, settling in for the rules of the game. A long explanation later the pair began the game. Not surprisingly, Blue lost fairly quickly, but demanded a rematch in no time. The second game ended up waking Malik up.
“HA THAT’S MY BOMB! TAKE THAT SPACE INVADER!”
“…Blue? You’re in my room? …Playing boring games with my roommate? …While I sleep?”
“I got Kip’s guy with my bomb, Malik! His number three guy!” Blue shouted at her tired boyfriend.
“…Good job,” Malik mumbled, rubbing his eyes and sitting up in his bed. A moment later he flopped his head back onto the pillow. A second interruption guaranteed he wouldn’t be able to keep sleeping. Three very loud knocks sounded against the door, and Kip jumped and messed up the game he and Blue were playing.
The knocker didn’t wait for the door to be opened and barged in instead. As they had surmised, Hakan was the culprit, “I hate him! Uh! OH GOD! I HATE HIM SO MUCH I USED FIRST PERSON!” After his outburst, Hakan ran his hands down his face, snorted, punched the air, and ended up on the floor in what looked sort of like a very angry seizure. Kip, Malik, and Blue simply stared at him. After a couple minutes, Teddy stepped quietly into the room.
“Hey X,” he said slowly, carefully, “don’t you want to get ready for Gerda’s arrival? She’s going to get back soon, remember?” Hakan stopped flailing on the ground and slowly but surely pulled himself back to his feet before shuffling out of the room.
“Is your argument done?” Blue asked, and Teddy nodded.
“Close enough. No worries, my dear,” he replied, just as Pablo appeared behind him.
“You didn’t,” Blue stopped to whisper to Teddy quietly, “break up?”
“No. Like I said, no worries. We were just discussing Alec and Kendrick. Mostly Kendrick; we disagree on what should be done about him,” Teddy explained, and Blue looked to Pablo for confirmation.
“So don’t worry,” Pablo said to Blue, “I still love Teddy a lot lot, even if he doesn’t want to report Kendrick to the school authorities.”
Only Kip caught the discomfort that passed Teddy’s features as Pablo spoke, before Teddy explained, “I’m making it my new mission to see if I can teach him how to not be a douche. As an experiment.”
Before they got the chance to continue the conversation, Malik politely asked them all to vacate the room so he could get dressed and ready for the day. While they were waiting in the lounge for Malik to join them, Hakan loudly announced Gerda’s return.
“The moment we’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived! X’s beautiful girlfriend has finally arrived back from the nether regions of the world!” Hakan declared when he spotted the group. Gerda smiled and waved at her friends.
“I am pleased to return,” she stated.
The four in the lounge smiled and happily greeted her, but she soon wandered off to unpack her things, Hakan going with her. As they walked Hakan started telling Gerda about Kendrick, and the Swede comforted him with an arm pat before they disappeared from sight. Malik joined the group shortly, and they sat around doing not much for the rest of the day, until Alec arrived from the airport. The Brit rolled his eyes and glared at Teddy when he held his hand out and offered a temporary roommate truce.
“Don’t even try it Albrecht,” Alec growled as he stomped past his new roommate to make sure his things were OK. Teddy and Blue both followed after him, Blue offering him a sad face and Teddy glaring.
“Welcome back Alec!” Blue cheered. “Did you bring Scamps back? Shelly needs to say goodbye.”
“Don’t worry, Blue,” Alec said, his demeanor immediately changing from the harsh way he reacted to Teddy, “Scamps and Shelly won’t have to be separated. Here he is if you want to take him to visit your still definitely male turtle.” Alec opened an animal carrying case as he spoke, and Scamps crawled out quickly.
“Transgendered!” Blue insisted, as Scamps walked over to her.
“Go with Blue,” Alec instructed, so Scamps climbed onto Blue’s leg. She tried not to be too freaked out as she walked back to her new room with the rat, leaving Teddy and Alec alone.
“Potts,” Teddy began, “I know neither of us is overly excited—.”
Alec cut Teddy off, “I am far more than not overly excited. I plan on filing a formal complaint to the residence board.”
“I’ve tired. Trust me, I’ve tried, Potts, but we’re just going to have to live with it,” Teddy replied. “We can fill out a very specific roommate agreement, but we don’t get a choice. We have to have a semester of this. It sucks, but let’s get through it with respect, OK?” Alec glared at his new roommate, but finally held his hand out reluctantly.
“Fine, Albrecht. Welcome to my room. Don’t touch what doesn’t belong to you.”