DID WE JUST BECOME BEST FRIENDS?!?! YUP!! (Nory)

[Marnie Sullivan]

Backdated to the weekend

When Marnie was first informed that she was being reassigned a dorm, she was far from pleased. The semester had already begun, and the effort of half-packing her belongings and moving them a few doors down was going to set her back on homework time. She supposed the school didn't have a whole lot of choice; new kids came in all the time, and they didn't always conveniently manifest their powers between terms. Still, that didn't mean she had to be happy about it.

Until she saw where she was being reassigned, anyway. That was enough to turn Marnie's attitude around.

Saturday morning was devoted to packing up - clothing in trash bags and a duffle bag, books in boxes, the contents of her desk in her backpack. Upon realizing that she wouldn't be able to get everything in one trip, Marnie debated just spilling the beans to Nory. Surely she would offer to help, if she had the time. But no, Marnie decided. She'd rather see the look on Nory's face than have an extra pair of hands. So come afternoon, she loaded up with her backpack, the duffle slung over her shoulder, and Felix's tank in her arms, carefully made her way down the hall, and knocked on the door of her new living quarters, already giddy imagining Nory's reaction. Oh, this was going to be great!

[Nora Marie "Nory" Gwinn]

In a long overdue but nevertheless significant milestone in the life of a young twenty-first century woman, Nory had just discovered Tumblr.

She had been lying on her stomach in bed for about six hours, and was slowly coming to the thrilling and worrisome conclusion that she would never be able to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. There would always be more Vines, comics about sexuality, comics about periods, fast cars, cats, raving fan posts, chipmunks, waiting for her just beyond the edge of her screen. Forever. Never had she been so awestruck by the beauty and horror of the internet. Or at least not since the video of that cat jumping out a window to Awolnation's "Sail".

She was just texting Sam to ask what the difference was between 'genderfluid' and 'genderflux' when she heard a distant knock. She checked her phone, no, she wasn't expecting anyone. Slightly reluctantly, she pushed her laptop aside, slithered out of bed, and trotted out to the door to the shared living area. She pulled it open to find Marnie and all of her earthly belongings on her doorstep.

"Marnie?" Nory took in her appearance with bewilderment. "Hi! What--what are you doing? Geez you look like you need--here, let me help you--" She reached over to take Felix's tank. "What are you doing here?" she repeated quizzically.

[Marnie Sullivan]

"I'm moving in!" Marnie squealed, as she passed the tank into Nory's open arms. Now unburdened of it she could jump up and down without rattling poor Felix around. "They wanted to rearrange my dorm, 'cause of all the new kids, you know, I think they want to put the younger ones together, but anyway - " The words tumbled out in a rush in her excitement. "They're putting me in here now!" 

It was still difficult to believe her luck, really. Marnie hadn't even lived in the dorms for a year, so far all she knew, room changes like this happened all the time. If it weren't senior year, she might have devoted a little headspace to worrying that she would soon be moved away from Nory and into a nest of vipers. But it was senior year, and with only a few months left, Marnie liked those odds. 

"So which room is the empty one?" she asked, grinning broadly. "Lead the way, neighbor!"

Okay, so she was laying it on a bit thick. But really, stuff like this doesn't just happen everyday!

[Nora Marie "Nory" Gwinn]

Nory's mouth dropped open, and for a moment she was rendered just as sputtery and speechless as when she inhaled that mouthful of pool water. “Moving in? With me? In here?” She looked over her shoulder as if she had forgotten that there was a dorm room behind her. Each clause was becoming progressively louder and higher pitched.

“Oh my God!” Too overcome with excitement to remember the cage, Nory began hopping up and down with Marnie. The sound of rattling leaves and branches brought her to her senses. “Oh my God!” she repeated in quite a different tone of voice and nearly dropped the cage in shock. “Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!” She hurriedly set Felix down on the floor and knelt next to the glass, pouring apologies all the while. “Oh no, poor Felix, I am so sorry! That was so stupid, I'm so sorry! Is he okay?” The tiny lizard had turned yellow with terror and was clinging to its branch but otherwise appeared unharmed. Nory remained paralyzed between ecstasy at having Marnie as a new roommate and panic that she had alienated her forever within a third of a second of knowing about it.

[Marnie Sullivan]

Elation turned to panic at the sight of Felix and his own personal earthquake, and Marnie's "Oh my god!" mirrored Nory's. Her backpack slumped off her arm and hit the ground with a thud as she reached out to help stabilize the tank and get it set safely on level ground.

"I, I, I think he's okay," she finally managed to get out after a moment inspecting the poor animal; Marnie would have to google later what happens to chameleons that get shaken, but for now, he didn't seem to be hurt. Just shaken. That was a relief, but it would still take her heart a little while to stop pounding. "Okay, yeah, it's fine, he's fine."

Well, that little scare was an interesting welcome, but it was over now. Back to business!

"So which one's the empty room?" Marnie repeated, hiking a smile back onto her face. Grabbing the strap of her backpack, she slung it back over her shoulder. She could come back for Felix if she had to, the room was only a few feet away at most.

[Nora Marie "Nory" Gwinn]

"He's fine? He's fine. He's fine!" Nory dragged her hands through her hair and laughed with relief. "I'm so sorry! I can't believe--but should we, like, look it up online, or--?" Marnie could almost see Nory's emotions shifting without a clutch as she stammered. "Oh, that one, I guess? Should we put Felix in there? Are you sure he's okay? I guess it is empty, and that's going to be...your room..."

The gear finally locked into place, and Nory took off with a roar. "THAT'S GOING TO BE YOUR ROOM! OH MY GOD YOU'RE MOVING IN YOU'RE MOVING IN YOU'RE MOVING IN!" She grabbed Marnie by the forearms and began hopping up and down in place. "I can't believe--I mean, people get moved around all the time, I swear I've had a hundred different roommates but I never thought--and you've got all your stuff--oh my gosh I can't believe you're moving in!" Her last syllables may have been audible only to bats, and with another sort of trilling scream she flung Marnie into a dancing, bouncing hug.

[Marnie Sullivan]

Anybody who walked in on the pair at that moment would not have guessed that just moments ago they were freaking out over a shaken lizard. Matter of fact, they probably would not have guessed that they were celebrating someone as simple as a room change, but for Marnie's luggage as a clue. The way they carried on was more appropriate for winning an award, or the lottery, or the world cup... but who cared? They were going to be roommates!

"This is going to be so great!" Marnie exclaimed, once they paused jumping up and down long enough to catch a breath. "I still have some stuff to grab, just some books, nothing big, but give me like two minutes and I'll be officially moved in!"

"What should we do tonight?" she went on happily, hurrying past Nory to dump her bags in the empty room she'd indicated. "You want to watch a movie? We could make popcorn, and, and hot chocolate, and you could introduce me to the other roommates, and they could meet Felix - wait, do they have any pets?" Marnie interrupted herself to ask. In her previous dorm, her chameleon was the only pet, which had been fine, but if there were other critters around she wanted to know, and meet them and possibly play with them if she could! Although first she probably ought to focus on her new human neighbors.

[Nora Marie "Nory" Gwinn]

Marnie had known about this for ages, but the thrill of discovery still had Nory in its grip. She vibrated like an overloaded fuse. “Yes! Let me help you! I can carry stuff, and then we can get everything moved in, and arrange your furniture how you want it and put up posters, and I can introduce you to Anthy and Adaryn, and then you can--”

A long, shrill whine interrupted her ecstasy, an octave or so lower than her current vocal pitch. That meant that Nory had to go lie down while Marnie fetched the rest of her things.

By the time Marnie returned, Nory had calmed herself down from 'so excited that her DNA started decomposing' to 'so excited you'd be embarrassed to stand next to her in public.' She sat bolt upright as soon as Marnie returned. “Yes! And—I mean, no, they don't. Just Felix!” She tossed a few more anti-nausea tablets down her throat and bounded after her new roommate. “That sounds amazing! We should just—just build a fort while we're at it and stay up all night!” She flung her hands into the air with a huge grin on her face.

[Marnie Sullivan]

Marnie was a tad more subdued while she retrieved the rest of her belongings, the result of Nory's sudden "meltdown". She certainly hadn't meant to set her friend off like that, and she couldn't help worrying - Nory's power was one she had some trouble wrapping her head around. But at least there was a silver lining to it: You couldn't really doubt Nory's sincerity when her excitement could be measured with a Geiger counter.

~~~

That evening found Marnie's new room turned upside-down. Instead of decorating for the rest of the semester, the pair had arranged the space beneath the lofted bed into a den stuffed with pillows and shaded with bedsheets strung above. There was already a collection of soda cans and snack wrappers building; after a vending machine run earlier, they were stocked for a night of tomfoolery.

"I promise, it was just like that," Marnie insisted between giggles. Her legs were wrapped up in her favorite yellow blanket, an open bag of M&Ms sat in her lap, and her sugar buzz felt strong enough to carry her for quite some time. "I hadn't even been here a month and my lab partner just turns into an albatross! Wings like this - " she held her arms wide to illustrate - " and just knocking over everything! I couldn't believe the teacher didn't fail us!"

[Nora Marie "Nory" Gwinn]

It turned out that Nory could build one hell of a fort. Growing up, Adam's brotherly affection had combined with an engineer's detached curiosity to see how blindly Nory would follow his instructions, and when the two were alone in the house such requests as, “Adam, we should build a hot tub,” were often met with, “Sure. We'll need some cinder blocks.” His skill and her resourcefulness produced constructions that occasionally drew neighbors to the front yard and got them both grounded.

Nory dragged another bottle of soda from the construction of chairs and pillows that she had dubbed the foyer. When Marnie threw her arms out, she snorted half of it out her nose and bubbled the rest onto the old comforter she was wrapped in. “In chemistry?” She laughed as she grabbed a towel and mopped off her face. “It was Jimmy Benston, wasn't it?” She nudged Marnie playfully with her foot. “Come on, what teacher would ever fail you? I bet even if he ruined your entire lab you got a B, at worst.”

[Marnie Sullivan]

"Jimmy Benson, that was his name!" The bag in Marnie's hand crinkled as she dug into it with the other. "Anyways, it turned out okay - the teacher let us do the experiment again after school. She made us check our safety goggles like six times, though."

Goggles would've been useless for Jimmy if he'd shifted again, she imagined, but Marnie had known better than to argue against a little extra protection.

"I bet stuff like that's why we couldn't use the bunsen burners freshman year," she went on, muffled slightly by the half-chewed chocolate tucked in her cheek. "Like, being a clumsy thirteen-year-old is one thing, but give us random bursts of speed or turn someone into a bear and next thing you know we've burned the place down."

[Nora Marie "Nory" Gwinn]

Nory giggled. "Yeah, I bet she did. Gosh, can you imagine? Trying to be a chemistry teacher at a school like this?" She wiggled around in her comforter so she was laying on her stomach with her chin propped up in her hands. "Burst of speed, what if one of the pyros sneezes? Poof! And," she added sagely, "We get people starting at lots of different times. Sometimes there's even new sophomores who don't know the bottom of their powers from the top."

She took another slurp of her soda. "It's weird sometimes, because I started here so long ago, you know? When I first came there was almost nobody else my age around. Like," she gestured to the magnificence of their fort, "no one really wanted to do this kind of stuff with me. They were all thirteen and stuff, and that's way to old to hang out with eleven year olds." She beamed and Marnie and wiggled closer. "That's why I'm so excited you'll be rooming with me! We can do cool stuff whenever we want!"

[Marnie Sullivan]

Marnie hastily tossed a few more M&Ms in her mouth; if she were chewing she wouldn't have to reply just yet. Nory's statement wasn't the most personal that she'd ever heard - her last roommate had once mentioned, totally deadpan, that she expected to be dead before she reached the age of thirty - but it was still a departure from their usual happy-go-lucky sort of conversation, even if Nory didn't sound bothered at all saying it.

Unlike most of Hammel's students, Marnie hadn't been a resident of the dorms for most of her time there. She had manifested at thirteen like many of them, sure, but her parents had opted to simply move the few hours closer to campus. Socializing with her classmates had been difficult, but at the end of the day there had always been familiar faces to greet her. What would it have been like, moving into the dorms immediately? What if her experience was like Nory's? What if she and Nory were placed together right from the start?

"We have to make this the best semester ever, then! Gotta make up for lost time," Marnie replied after a big sugary swallow. Whether it was the candy or the infectious enthusiasm, something had her buzzing; she had a good feeling about the coming months. "Plus, we'll have loads of time to plot - we have to come up with a senior prank."

[Nora Marie "Nory" Gwinn]

The mention of a senior prank made Nory so excited that she spilled her bag of candy all over her comforter. "Ohmygosh yes!" she squealed. "Do you have--we're gonna need some paper or something." Scattering candy and popcorn, Nory climbed out of her nest and reached up through the blankets that made up the roof of the annex wing. She groped around on the desk until she emerged triumphantly with a pencil and crumbled notebook in her hand. She scrambled back over to Marnie and stuffed another handful of popcorn in her mouth as she stretched out on her stomach and handed her friend a pencil.

"Okay, so what should we do?" She wrote Senior Prank at the top of the page and underlined it. "And who to?"

[Marnie Sullivan]

"Aren't senior pranks usually supposed to be done to the whole school?" Marnie asked as she picked Nory's spilled candies off the blankets. "Like at my old school these kids set up all these rows of water cups by all the exits."

Come to think of it, had the culprits ever been found for that one? Marnie couldn't remember, but then it had only been a day or two before she'd manifested and been pulled from school. Homecoming was pretty wild that year.

"Maybe we shouldn't do that one, though," she went on, absently munching on one of the blanket candies as she mulled it over. "If it spilled and someone froze it accidentally it'd be a hazard... but I guess it already would be one." Whoever the pranksters were at her old school probably hadn't worried about metas mucking things up. "And it can't be so bad that we can't get caught." The pranksters at her old school probably didn't have any telepaths in the adminstration, either. Or one running a club she and Nory shared.