Lilly counted twenty-seven steps before she noticed she'd been counting aloud.
Her suitcase rattled over the front steps of Silverbrook School of Performing Arts. A group of seniors laughed nearby, and somewhere in the distance someone was practicing scales on a trumpet.
This was it. Her dream come true. And her greatest nightmare. She was finally going to a performing arts boarding school... which, unfortunately, didn't have a home school option.
A first-year with untamed frizzy red hair came hurtling around the corner carrying a rather shabby-looking guitar case.
Two identical students with matching brown hair and freckles tore after him.
"GIVE IT BACK!"
"IT'S MY GUITAR!"
"FINDERS KEEPERS!" the redhead yelled.
"THAT'S NOT HOW THE LAW WORKS!" one twin shouted.
"IT'S DEFINITELY NOT HOW BORROWING WORKS!" yelled the other.
Lilly watched them disappear around another corner.
Silence.
"...What."
She sighed, adjusted the strap of her backpack and started dragging her suitcase towards reception because it was about time she actually does something that isn't just standing around and gawking.
The entrance hall was huge. There were students everywhere. Some were carrying violin cases, others chatting excitedly about auditions. Somewhere upstairs a piano was being played... very badly and she thought she heard someone on the kazoo playing the opening lines to 'let it go'.
A woman sitting behind the reception desk smiled she looked like she was already annoyed with Lilly. "You must be Lilly." the woman said, rather harshly.
Lilly looked up, shrinking from the harshness of her voice. "...Yeah."
"Welcome to Silverbrook." she sounded a little less pissed. The woman handed her a key attached to a little wooden tag which read: Maple House - Room 14
"And here's a map. Orientation starts at two o'clock in the concert hall. Lunch is until one, and if you get lost just ask someone." now she sounded as if she were reading off a rehearsed script.
Lilly looked down at the map. There were... A lot of buildings. "Thanks." She wasn't going to remember any of that.
Five minutes later... She was terribly lost. which was expected she'd always been bad at direction She looked from the map... to the building... back to the map.
Somehow, she'd ended up outside the orchestra rooms. A trumpet blared somewhere inside. Someone shouted, "Again, from bar thirty-two!"
Lilly quietly backed away. Maybe not this way. She turned another corner.
This time she found herself standing in a small garden tucked between two buildings. It was... Quiet.
A few birds chirped in the trees. There was a bench beneath an old oak tree and flowerbeds lining the path. Lilly felt herself relax. Okay. I like it here.
She was just about to keep walking when she noticed someone sitting under the tree. Purple hair. Brown eyes. A notebook balanced neatly on her knees.
The girl looked up.
"Hi."
"...Hi." ...Silence.
"...Nice garden."
The girl nodded. "It is."
Another silence.
"I'm Opal."
"Lilly."
"...Nice to meet you."
"You too."
Opal smiled politely before looking back down at her notebook.
Lilly stood there for another second. She wasn't sure whether the conversation had ended... or if it had ever really started.
Eventually she decided to keep walking. Well... She seemed nice... Quiet.
I can work with quiet.
She had absolutely no idea she'd just had her first interaction with her new roommate.
