The Once and Future King

Two days into class and M. Elaina ‘El’ Hawthorn had not gone to any of her classes. Slacker? Believe it or not, she wasn’t. Until early this morning she had been living the past six months at the North Pole with her father studying climate change on ice caps. It had been amazing, but back to the real world of academia, warmer weather, and people her own age.

Until recently, she had been attending a college of about fifteen thousand student. Now she was attending a school of maybe seven thousand and sharing an apartment with a person she had never met and talk to only through e-mail. She was freaking out as her mother parked in front of the school owned apartment building of five floors made of old brick and wobbily looking fire escapes.
“Darling, please calm down.” Dr. Samantha (please, call me Dr. Sam or Sam) Hawthorn smiled giddily at her daughter.

“I am calm.” El defended with a pout as her little brother Misha giggled next to her.

“Really?” Sam smirked. “So Misha’s teddy bear has met Peter Pan?” El’s face lit up as she turned to look at the now floating bear. “Everything will be fine. Your roommate sounds like a lovely young lady. Now hup to, we have boxes to carry before it gets too late.” With a sigh, El unbuckled her seat belt and grabbed her worn patched up backpack before walking to the other side to help Misha out of the car.

“Stay on the side walk and I’ll hand you stuff, okay?” She asked gently with a smile. The young boy nodded happily and waited patiently on the sidewalk. Within minutes the trio was walking up three flights of stairs (elevator was broken) to Apt 315. By the third knock the door flung open to reveal a young woman who was a several inches shorter than El, had blonde/blue/purple hair, and a few tattoos on her bare arms.

“Hi!” The woman greeted with the biggest smile El had ever seen (which was impressive because she knew her mom). “Are you, Elaina?”

With an awkward smile El nodded. “Yeah. You must be Serene.”

“You’d be right. Welcome to our humble abode.” She moved aside while sweeping her hand. “Do you need any help? Your bed, dresser, desk and night stand are all set up. The movers came the other day and put it all together, but I didn’t know how you’d want them so I put them in whatever looked good. You’re room’s the first on the right.”

“Thanks.” She nodded and peered in to find her bed off to the left side, her desk in front of the two windows, the one night stand was next to my bed, and the dresser was on the wall to the right. El dumped her boxes on the bed while she walked over to the closet. It was nice and bigger than what she expected, honestly the ones at her last school were tiny.

“This is a nice room.” Her mom nodded in approval. “We’ll make it homey in no time. Right Misha?”
“Yeah!” Her brother cheered after putting his box on the floor.

“Aren’t you cute?” Serene cooed while Misha preened. “Are you helping your,” She peered up at El before looking quickly back down, “Sister moving in?”

“Yeah. I big boy, I carry boxes.” He puffed out his chest in pride.

“My, I should know more men like you.” The young woman giggled. “Well, when you’re done helping I miiight have a surprise for you.”

“What is it!?”

“You’ll see soon enough.” She winked. “We should continue though before the storm comes or we’ll be drenched.”

“Storm?” Sam cocked her head.

“The weathermen don’t say anything, but my nose knows when one is coming.” She tapped it. “I always start sneezing. My friend Issy makes fun of me and whenever I sneeze he asks me if we’re having a storm and what category it is.”

“That’s a useful skill.” Sam talked to Serene while the three adults and child grabbed more boxes from the truck. After four trips all the boxes were all brought up and stacked in various places in the room.

“As promised for helping….” Serene walked over to the counter and produced a plate of chocolate chip cookies still warm from the oven. Misha screeched at the sight and pounced on the plate like a lion on an antelope.

“Only three dear.” Sam tapped him on the head when he went to grab two more. He pouted but retracted his hand from the plate. “What do you say?”

“Thank you.” He gave her a toothy smile. He turned and looked hard at the closest seat to him. Bending at the waist, El held her hand out for the three cookies he held. With no qualm, Misha placed the cookies in his sister’s hand before climbing into the seat to eat. Once a napkin was placed on the wooden table, she put the cookies on it and let her brother enjoy his treat.

“I’m so excited you’re finally here! I’ve been dying to meet you since I found out we would be roommates. So what are you majoring in?” Serene smiled as she bit into a cookie.

“Chemistry.” Serene’s dark blue eyes bugged out in awe. “With a minor hopefully in biology.” El was waiting for this free spirited woman to unintentionally make fun of her for her ‘geeky’ major and minor.

“That’s awesome! We may have some classes together! I’m a biology major with a concentration in Marine Biology. I’m so glad someone I know, other than Issy, is taking science classes. All my other friends don’t understand why I’m busy all the time with tests and labs. It’s like come on guys, I have about three or four labs a week that are between 2-3 hours each I can’t go to the bar on a Thursday night. They don’t understand.” She rolled her eyes with a fond smile as if the complained had become an inside joke long ago.

“I fully understand what you mean.” El would be taking a Biology I lab, Instrumental Methods of Analysis lab, and Biochemistry I lab. It was going to be a long week.

Sam shook her head, “You are your father’s daughter. I always thought you’d take after me, but alas sciences were never my thing.”

“What do you do, Mrs. Hawthorn?”

“Please, call me Sam.” Sam grinned. “I am an Arthurian scholar who happens to be on Sabbatical this semester. I am writing a book on the sword Excalibur.” Her eyes glazed over. “It’s such a wonderful object to research.”

“Sounds it.” Eyes shifting, Serene looked at El. “No interest in literature?”

“I like it, but more as a hobby. A way to get away for a little while rather than a field to spend my life working in.”

“Gotcha. Both my parents are accountants, they think I was switched at birth for my love of water and all things aquatic.”

“I understand that feeling.” El muttered.

“You were not switched.” Sam rolled her eyes. “You clearly have my features and your father’s love of science. Besides you were a house birth, there is no way the midwife could have switched you while I and your father was in the room.”

“That’s what you think.” The two women stared at each other causing Serene to laugh.

“You’re gunna be a great roommate, I can already tell.”

“I hope so.” Sam smiled. “We best be off. Mr. Misha has school tomorrow and it’s getting close to your bed time.”

“But, moooom.” Misha pouted already yawning from the long day of picking El up at the airport, finish packing the car, driving, and then unpacking.

“Say good-bye to Lyna and Serene.”

“Okay.” The young boy agreed with a tired frown. “Bye sherene.” He walked over with outstretched arms. With a smile the young woman bend down and hugged him farewell. “Bye Lyna!” El easily picked him up and hugged him tight. She’d missed him while she was researching with her father and was sad that she didn’t have time to hang out with him before returning to school.

“Love you, Mi-Mi. Be good, I’ll see you soon.” El whispered into her brother’s shoulder.

“Wove you too.” He noisily kissed her cheek and then made grabby hands at Sam.

“Bye darling, I will see you soon.” Sam kissed her daughter’s cheek. “Remember what I’ve told you.” Then El was left alone in a new apartment with a new roommate. Her gold eyes shifted over to her smiling roommate. Maybe this half year wouldn’t be bad…



Then again, this half year could be long and tedious. The warning not even including the 18 credit hours of classes she was taking. Letting out a breath she turned to her room where boxes were everywhere and her bed wasn’t made. The warning could wait until tomorrow.