The Crazy Roommate

The bell rang out, signaling the end of Kaori’s first day at the new school. Her body was heavy and her mind foggy. It had been a very, very long twenty-four hours, and she was ready to rest.

Thankfully, Kaori’s dorm assignment had been settled by Mitsuba while she focused on her first day. Doumeki-sensei handed Kaori a print-out with her room assignment.

“Um, Sensei,” Kaori said, taking the paper from the teacher. “I don’t know where the dorms are yet. Everything happened so fast, I didn’t have time for a proper campus tour this morning.”

“Yes, I heard about your circumstances,” Doumeki-sensei nodded with understanding. Without turning her head away from Kaori, an eye on the side of her face opened up and began looking around. Kaori flinched, which the teacher must have noticed, because the eye snapped shut–disappearing like it was never there.

“Akaboshi slipped out without me noticing,” she said, clicking her tongue. Doumeki-sensei quickly scanned the room with her two normal eyes and flagged down a girl with seafoam green hair. “Meadows. Take her with you to the girls’ dormitory.”

The girl with the green hair stared at them blankly with her sharp eyes. Her purple irises seemed to bore right through Kaori. Her expression was completely unreadable.

“Um…really…it’s okay,” Kaori stammered, waving her hands. She didn’t want to impose. “I can try to find it on my own–”

“It’s fine,” the girl cut in. She adjusted her backpack strap on her shoulder. “I can do it.”

As they walked to the girls’ dormitory together, Kaori’s classmate gave a light tour by pointing out the different buildings around campus. There was the main school building–a combination middle and high school–and a smaller, dedicated elementary school.

In the morning, Kaori hadn’t had a decent chance to take in all of the buildings on the large campus, but it appeared that there were a number of facilities on campus. There were the normal facilities you’d find at a school–like a gymnasium, a pool, and even playgrounds–but there were also things like a recreation center and dormitories.

The dormitories themselves were two twin buildings with a courtyard between them. Kaori followed her guide, who had yet to properly introduce herself, into the girls’ dormitory.

“What floor?” asked the girl Kaori heard the teacher refer to as “Meadows.”

“Ah! Let’s see…” Kaori quickly skimmed the paper for the floor number. “It looks like I’m on the third floor.”

“Wow. Me too,” she replied as the two of them stepped into the elevator together.

Exiting the elevator, they were met with rooms from one number range to the right and another number range to the left. Kaori glanced at the paper once more for the room number and pointed to the right. “It’s this way.”

“Wow. Me too,” the other girl said once more, perfectly monotone.

Kaori observed the door numbers in the hallway as they traveled together. She noticed her guide following her and wondered whether her room was further down the hall, or if she was making sure Kaori found her own room.

Room 332…Room 333…Room 334…

“Ah! Here it is,” Kaori said, stopping in front of room 335.

“Wow…me too…” the green-haired girl said, flatly. Her face seemed to drain of its color.

Kaori flinched. Is this going to be alright?

A bright orange sticky note with a message was left on the door.

“Tsubaki…clean your roo–” Kaori began to read aloud before the other girl ripped it off the door and crumpled it up in her hand.

“That was from the dorm manager,” Tsubaki Meadows grumbled, shoving the note into a pocket.

As the two girls entered the room, to Kaori, it was intruding on someone else’s living space. Clothes were strewn about on the floor, surfaces were cluttered with personal items, and trash was littered about.

Her reluctant roommate dropped her shoes–a trendy pair of chunky sneakers–at the entrance. She strode into the room and dumped the backpack before spinning around to face Kaori.

“To the left is the bathroom. To the right is what they’re calling a kitchen,” Tsubaki said, crossing her arms to point to each side near the entrance.

Kaori placed her shoes neatly on a small shoe shelf near the door and nodded. The bathroom door was open, revealing a small all-in-one bathroom complete with a tub. On the other side, the “kitchen” was just a mini fridge and a counter with a microwave–its surfaces littered with assorted trash.

“I’ve already claimed the top bunk,” Tsubaki announced, scrambling up the ladder and yanking the curtain closed.

As Kaori walked deeper into the room, she saw her luggage neatly stacked in a corner. She realized that the dorm manager must have left the note after entering the room to drop it off.

After leaving her backpack near her luggage, Kaori sat down on the lower bunk. The top and bottom bunks had curtains for privacy, which she was thankful for, if only so that both girls could have a little personal space to themselves. Kaori looked around the room once more.

Two desks, two small closets, and a bookshelf. The walls were blank. While the room was certainly full of Tsubaki’s things, it was completely void of decoration. And full of trash.

Most importantly, it was full of garbage. Kaori sighed and stood up.

“Um…Meadows-san, do you mind if I–” Her thought was cut off when Tsubaki’s school uniform rained down on her from above.

“My bad,” Tsubaki said, poking her head out from the curtain.

“Meadows-san, you should really take better care of your uniform,” Kaori said, picking up the blazer and draping it over a chair. “It’ll get wrinkles if you do that.”

“Reeealllyyyy?” she replied in monotone from behind the curtain.

“If it’s okay with you, Meadows-san, I’d like to clean up a little,” Kaori said, collecting some empty PET bottles into her arms.

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Tsubaki said, yanking the curtain open. She had changed into comfy loungewear. “And by the way!”

Kaori was startled by the slight deviation in monotone coming from the other girl at that last part. She stopped sorting the trash for a moment to listen.

“Meadows-san this, Meadows-san that! Stop that! It’s weird,” Tsubaki continued, climbing down the ladder of the bunk bed. “Just call me Tsubaki. You don’t have to be so formal, Kaori.”

“Oh, um, okay!” Kaori was taken aback by the informality. Even the so-called friends at her last school only referred to her by her last name.

Tsubaki dug through her backpack and pulled out a handheld gaming console. After tossing it to the top bunk, she climbed back up the ladder and yanked the curtain closed once more.

Kaori could take the hint that she probably wanted to be left alone and continued cleaning up. After unpacking, she took a bath. Perhaps it was from the bath, or perhaps it was just her exhaustion catching up to her, but as soon as Kaori’s head hit the pillow, she fell into a deep sleep that lasted until morning.

***

Tsubaki’s phone alarm blared. She fumbled to turn it off. Just ten more minutes…

The cycle repeated for at least an hour before Tsubaki finally sat up and pulled back the curtain to her bunk bed.

“Oh! Good morning Me– I mean Tsubaki-chan!” Kaori said, smiling. She was slipping on her uniform blazer, now fully dressed for school.

“...I almost forgot I got assigned a roommate,” Tsubaki yawned. She clumsily climbed down the ladder and began searching the floor for her school uniform. “Sorry, did my alarm bother you?”

“N-not at all! Actually, I’m glad it went off because I forgot to set one!” Kaori said, laughing nervously.

“I see…” Tsubaki finally found her uniform on a hanger, neatly draped over her desk chair. In fact, her scattered belongings had all been neatly organized.

She scanned the room as she got changed and saw that the bookshelf had been divided between her things and Kaori’s things, and whatever didn’t seem to belong on it had been placed in neat piles on the desk Kaori hadn’t claimed for herself. Even her discarded laundry was placed neatly into a pile of its own.

“Did you do this?” Tsubaki asked, gesturing around the room. She had seen Kaori cleaning up trash at one point when she slipped out of her bunk for a snack, but had remained firmly engrossed in her game until she’d fallen asleep late at night, oblivious to the rest of it.

“Um…Yes. I’m sorry for touching your things,” Kaori said, bowing her head slightly and rubbing the back of her neck. “I just wanted to help.”

Tsubaki swallowed her muddled feelings as she pulled on her blazer, mumbling a quiet “Sorry.”

“Pardon?” Kaori was standing by the door, holding her shoes and backpack.

“It’s nothing,” Tsubaki replied. She stuffed her gaming console into her backpack once more and grabbed her sneakers. “Let’s go.”

The two girls made their way to the school building together with mismatched energy levels. Tsubaki listened to Kaori talk about nothing in particular, brimming with energy, and wondered how their living arrangement was going to work.

While switching into their indoor shoes, Tsubaki found an opening to slip away from her chatty roommate. She had almost made it out of the entryway before an icy, deep voice stopped her in her tracks.

“Tsubaki Silver Meadows,” hissed the tall, young Elf in front of her. Fern Greenwood.

“Tch…this bastard…” Tsubaki mumbled under her breath. She tried to move past him, but Fern put his arm out to block her. “Move!”

“Impudent as always, I see.” Fern flashed a sinister smirk. He pushed Tsubaki back slightly, wielding his imposing stature over her. “We’ve known each other for so long. Aren’t I allowed to greet you?”

Tsubaki clenched her fists and ground her teeth. She’d have no choice but to endure his nonsense. Students passing them quickly averted their eyes–they all knew better than to interfere with Fern Greenwood. All of them except…

Kaori wedged herself between Tsubaki and Fern.

“I don’t know what business you have with Tsubaki-chan, but she’s clearly uncomfortable!”

“...!”

Tsubaki couldn’t tell if she was incredibly brave or just very stupid.

“Hm?” Fern Greenwood tilted his head and smiled with amusement. “And who might you be?”

Just then, one of Fern’s little orbiters–that blind girl–tugged on his sleeve. Fern leaned down as she whispered something in his ear. A wicked grin crept across his face as he listened.

“Oh…?”

Miharu nodded. Just what was it that they were discussing?

“In that case…” Fern straightened up and turned his attention fully to Kaori. His smile was like poison. “I was trying to discuss student council business with Tsubaki.”

Tsubaki tensed up. He’s lying…

“Student council?” Kaori repeated, her body relaxing and her interest clearly piqued.

“Yes. It would seem that the remedial class has yet to elect a representative. I’m the President, so this concerns me,” he explained. Fern passed a quick glance to Tsubaki before bringing his attention back to Kaori. “Might you also be in that class?”

Kaori’s mouth clamped shut for a moment before she slowly replied, “I am…”

Fern chuckled softly and clicked his tongue. “Well, if your class doesn’t pick a representative soon, none of you will have any say in school activities. It’s a shame–”

“Then I’ll do it,” Kaori interrupted.

Tsubaki stood there frozen. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing or seeing.

“Oh?” Fern’s icy blue eyes narrowed in amusement. “Then I look forward to it, Miss…”

“Tachibana,” Kaori said firmly.

Fern nodded, then turned to walk away. Miharu, close at his heels, glanced over her shoulder with a smirk. After they disappeared from view, Kaori deflated, letting out a long sigh.

“My heart was thumping like crazy…” she said, clutching her chest.

Tsubaki, still in disbelief at what she’d just witnessed, stood there with her mouth agape.

“By the way…” Kaori turned toward Tsubaki, scratching her head. “Who was that?”

She really has no idea what she just did!