xp_logs | Roommate shuffle: Noriko and Karolina (Reply)

After a summer home in California, Karolina returns to the mansion to find that her situation has changed. She deals with this approximately as well as any rebelling teenager would tempered only by the fact that she's trying not to look like an idiot in front of her new roommate. Noriko, on the other hand, just wants a distraction from homework.

Karolina stared at the new room assignment, caught between dismay and elation. She had come back here under protest, bribed and badgered into grudging acceptance that had lasted not much longer than the time it took to board the plane. The fact that she was now uprooted from her room, tossed in with some new hateful "peer" made Karolina want to break into tears right then and there. Only the fact that it would have ruined her eyeliner--pretty much the only useful makeup given her mutation--and the belated recognition that a new hateful roommate would have to be less awful than her old hateful roommates kept a seriously embarrassing crying jag at bay.

Her mom's second assistant was carrying two of her bags--Leslie had left her at the airport with a hug and a new phone number before running off to catch her own flight. Karolina had the third. "We have to go this way," she told the man irritably and started up the stairs, dragging her luggage with her. By the time they reached the new suite, they were both hot and sweaty, Karolina's normal glow considerably dimmed. "I want to go home."

Inside the room, Noriko was sitting at her desk, her pencil tapping incessantly along the edge as she tried, for the fourth time today, to finish her English assignment. Summer school in America really, really sucked. Going to school for club activity or exam prep all August back home had been just what you did, and everybody was there so it wasn't a thing. Here, though... All of her friends were out enjoying the sun, having a real vacation, and Nori had to go to classes and do homework. She'd already had enough trouble focusing on her schoolwork when she didn't have hourly temptation to go lie by the pool with Jennie or what have you.

"Don't...no, I'll...oh just stop!" Light flared through the suite, painting color on the white walls. Karolina lifted off the ground, pulling her suitcases with her and floated them into the room ahead of her, facing backwards so she could keep scolding the long-suffering assistant. She sounded closer to tears than ever. "Just go, okay? Tell mom that you got me here as ordered and I'm miserable so she can just be happy. I'm not your problem any more."

Exasperated she slammed the door in his face and turned around. The expression on her face turned from unhappy to shocked to blank in three quick heartbeats when she realized that she wasn't alone. "Oh fuck."

The door opening had gotten Noriko's attention out of her text book (not that that was hard), and she'd turned and all out stared when the glowing blond girl floated herself backwards into Nori's room. Nori's and Jennie's room. Except Jennie had moved out and Julio'd gotten his room and somehow Nori had thought that all meant that she was also going to have a room to herself. It wasn't that the room was messy, her things strewn everywhere, but her clothes had sort of managed to find their way onto most every surface, and there were piles of manga stacked up on both bedside tables. And now, it seemed, she'd be somewhat hasty. Her gaze seemed to shutter in on itself as the blond turned and looked at her; even before her English had started improving, Nori had known that word. "Maaa... You name is Karolina, yes?" she said, eyeing the blond.

Oh, of course, it had to be the hot Japanese girl. It couldn't have been one of the other idiots that it wouldn't have mattered if she made a fool of herself. They all hated her and she was okay with that. Mostly. Whatever. "Uh...yeah. You're Noriko?" She was glad of her mutation, it would cover the blush somewhat. Karolina reached up and tucked her long hair behind her ears, looking around uneasily. "I...guess we're roommates now." Not that there was any place for her. She wanted to sink into the floor. That would solve the problem of which bed she should try to reclaim.

"Yes," Nori said, nodding. "Is can call me Nori, please." Her gazed followed Karolina's and she added, "Gomen," as she more or less shot out of her seat to sweep clothes off of what had been Jennie's bed, tossing them back to the other side of the room as she moved on to the desk, collecting her clutter as she went. "I is... was did not know hokano... another is a roommate."

"Nori," Karolina repeated and abruptly dropped back to her feet, suddenly noticing that she'd still been hovering a few inches off the floor. Was Nori going to think that she was showing off? She didn't know anything about her roommate except that she used a translator on the journals and was dating Julio. "Uh...well, sorry, you're stuck with me. This wasn't my idea. I would rather be home." Nerves made her more defensive than she meant to be.

"Omae dake jyanai yo," Nori muttered as she continued tossing things back onto her side of the room. Although it wasn't entirely true; she neither wanted to be back at her parents' place or on the streets of Tokyo. There were just still a lot of times when she didn't want to be here. "Douzou, douzou," she added, waving at the cleared off bed. "Is ok."

Oh yeah, she hated her. Probably insulting her in Japanese when she knew Karolina couldn't understand. She felt her face heat again and her eyes prickled with tears. She hated this place. She hated it so much. "Yeah. Sure." She dragged her first suitcase over to the bed and dropped it on the mattress, concentrating on unpacking so that she didn't have to look up.

Nori was completely oblivious to Karolina's state of mind, but now that she was up she really didn't want to sit back down and continue banging her head against her homework. Instead she moved about the room almost hyperactively, cleaning up the mess she'd let it sink into after Jennie and her need to be neat had moved out. Sorting through the piles of comics she asked, "Is Karolina like manga?" without looking up.

It took a minute for Karolina to sort through the accent to understand what Noriko was asking her. Oh, manga. Like Naruto. She sniffled and pulled out her favorite vintage dress from the bag. "I guess? I don't think I ever read any. It looks interesting."

"If is want this are have English," Nori said, holding up a pair before sorting them onto her bookshelf with a few others that looked the same. "Is for study," she said, flashing Karolina a grin that suggested there wasn't as much studying involved in reading them as her teachers would like.

Karolina smiled back tentatively and went to hang up the dress. "Okay. Uh, thanks. I brought some books too, if you want to borrow them." She didn't think that Nori would. She wasn't even sure why she was saying it. Hadn't all her time here taught her anything? "Doesn't matter."

"Maaaa..." Nori cocked her head, the smile still there but rather more embarrassed as she said, "Is probably can not. English is... very study." She wrinkled her nose.

Two years ago, Karolina would have offered to help her. Two years ago, Karolina had been a lot more trusting. Now she just saw it as another opportunity for mocking later on. Nori had friends and she'd probably laugh with them about her new roommate and how she'd been so upset and then so awkward. "Oh. 'kay then. Um, like, if you change your mind or anything. Open invitation." It wasn't fair. Back home, people actually understood her. Why couldn't she have stayed there?

The irony of it was, the feeling of not being understood, of wanting to be elsewhere was something two of them had in common, but it wasn't something either of them could ever have expressed, precisely because they felt they weren't understood. Noriko just nodded. "Domou," she said before turning her attention back to her tidying as yet another way of avoiding her work.

Sure. Whatever that meant. Karolina winces and went back to unpacking. She was sixteen. In two years, this would be over. It seemed like an eternity.