Ineffable Plan

I arrived in Seattle late that evening and stayed in a hotel for the night. The next morning I got on the charter bus to Evergreen. Once I got a seat, I plugged my MP3 player in and drifted off to sleep. An hour and a half later I was being shaken awake. When I opened my eyes I found a girl who was sitting behind me hovering over me. She was wearing a polite smile and seemed nice enough. I thanked her and scrambled to get my things together.

"I wonder what it is about buses that seem to lull people to sleep?"

"I have no idea,” I answered. “But I do think that that may have been the best sleep I’ve had in a while."

Once we had our bag began walking towards housing, pulling our luggage behind us. We reached our buildings about five minutes later. We were both a little out of breath and laughed at our stupidity when we noticed the other five students who were on the bus with us had acquired luggage trolleys and were effortlessly moving their things.

"We did it the hard way because it builds character!" Melanie yelled when the third person asked why we didn't just use a trolley. "We better go check in." she had lowered her voice and was now facing me.

"That sounds like a good idea," I agreed. We quickly exchanged phone numbers and went into our buildings.

Once I was inside the building, I noticed that it wasn't what I expected of a college dorm. It looked more like an apartment building. I was standing in a small lobby and there was a desk at the front with a couple of guys sitting behind it. They were obviously college students and neither noticed that I was standing there. They were engrossed in a conversation about the "fresh meat."

"Excuse me. Is this where I check-in?" I said softly.

Both guys jerked their heads upward. The one closest to me smiled.

"Welcome to McGrew Towers. Are you a freshman?" he asked cheerily.

I groaned inwardly when I felt my face heat up. I was blushing. "Is it that obvious?"

He nodded. "Kind of, especially since I have a few semesters of freshman check-in duty under my belt."

I smiled politely and he continued. "So, I’m going to need your name and to see your ID and then I can tell you where your room is. You did get it in the mail, didn’t you? Your ID?"

"Yup," I said as I looked for it in my bag. “My name is Justine Wallace." I handed him my ID and he began shuffling feverishly through the list he had on the desk. He seemed a little too excited to find my room assignment. Once he found what he was looking for he looked back up at me.

"I knew your name sounded familiar," he said with a smile. He abruptly stood up and extended his hand. "I’m Phineas but please don’t call me that. Call me Phin. We’re suitemates."

I shook his hand cautiously. "Suitemates?"

"You didn’t know? McGrew Towers is suite-styled. There are six rooms to a suite, one kitchen, one living room, one bathroom. I thought everyone knew that. Anyway everyone else is already settled in. You are the last to get here. I'll take you there personally." He gave me another smile and turned to the other guy behind the desk. "Thomas, I’ll be right back. Hold down the fort, soldier."

The other guys, Thomas, shot up from his seat and stood at attention before saluting Phin. "Sir, yes, sir! Hold down the fort, sir!"

I laughed quietly at the two as Phin jumped over the table and grabbed the handle on one of my suitcases and the duffle bag from my shoulder.

"This way, my lady."

I grabbed my other suitcase and pulled it behind me. Once the elevator arrived, I took one last look at the front desk and noticed Thomas still standing stock still with his hands seemingly glued to his sides.

"Shouldn’t you tell him to relax or something?"

Phin quickly stuck his head out of the elevator and yelled towards Thomas.

"At ease, soldier!"

*****

There were four doors in the hallway on the tenth floor. Phin stopped at the one the farthest away. He swiped his ID card through the reader. A little green light lit up and there was an audible click. Phin pushed the door slightly open and then paused.

"I present to you, Justine Wallace, our suite," he said in an announcer’s voice and swung the door wide open in a supposedly grand gesture.

I laughed, again, at his behavior and walked into the suite. It looked just like an apartment, a very big, lived-in apartment. He walked in after me pulling in both suitcases behind him.

I was standing in the middle of the apartment, taking it all in, when I was startled back into reality.

"James!" Phin screamed. He was only about a foot away from me. "Get your ass out here. We’ve got another one!"

A few seconds later a guy, whose lower half was wrapped in a towel, came walking into the living room.

"James, this is Justine. She’s the last suitemate and a freshman."

I turned to face Phin with my eyebrows raised. Once he turned to look at me and noticed my expression he dramatically sighed. "What? You are."

I rolled my eyes playfully and returned my attention to James. "It’s nice to meet you."

Before he had a chance to respond Phin was talking again. James seemed to be used to it.

"Where are Amber and Chris?" Phin asked. "Are they in their rooms?"

"No," James answered. "I think they went to get lunch or something. I’m not sure. I wasn’t paying attention when they told me."

Phin nodded and then suddenly smiled. "And Mary?"

James laughed and pointed towards one of the many doors in the suite. "I don’t think she's left her room all day."

"I have to get back to the front desk. You aren’t the only person checking in today, you know?" Phin said wagging his finger at me and painting his face with mock aggravation. "I do have other check-in duties to attend to."

Once he was out of sight, I turned to James again. "So, where’s my room?"

James smiled and grabbed a hold of my suitcases and started walking. I grabbed my duffel bag and followed him. Once we were in front of the right door, he motioned for me to give him my room key and once I had, he opened it for me.

"Welcome to your personal oasis," he said dramatically.

"Sweet!" I exclaimed and stepped further into the room.

"I’ll leave you to get unpacked. I need to get dressed anyway. If you want you can eat dinner with us. I’ll come get you when we’re heading out to the cafeteria," James announced.

"That would be great. Thanks."

He nodded and left the room closing the door behind him. I looked around the room for a few minutes and then I flopped down onto the bare twin sized bed.

I think I’m going to like it here.