The Party Room (Roommates Welcome)

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Everybody loves a party. What would be better than making a specific dorm room the official party room? Who was a better choice for making a party room than Adrianna? California was mostly a partying state, which meant people from California were total partiers. Adrian was one of the top partiers. She knew how to have fun...and how to keep it legal.

Adrian walked into her new dorm room. First assignment as party room was the meeting of her roommates. She had gone into town to buy a few supplies. Adrian set down her grocery bag and began unloading it. She pulled out a few candles that had summer smells, a large bag of potato chips, ingredients for Sherbet Punch and a few other snack foods here and there. Adrian started making the punch first.

She was wearing an aqua blue ruffled mini-skirt and a black halter top with aqua blue polka dots. Her eyes were bright and her left eye matched the color of her skirt and polka dots. Adrian's dark ebony hair was piled up on top of her head showing the diamond stud earrings she wore. As she put the punch bowl in the small refrigerator, the radio, that had been on since she arrived, played her favorite song. Her theme song, California Gurls. Adrian danced around and sang out, "California girls are undeniable Daisy Duke's, bikini on top." She hummed nad twirled around setting the snacks out on the coffee table in the main room.

[Kousuke Nanohara]

Kousuke had holed himself in the room that day. It was the first that he felt settled in enough to get some studying done. Not academic studying, of course, but the studying that he did for fun and that supplemented his meta ability. Between the move and getting used to Hammel, it had been a few weeks since he'd been able to do such a thing... which could amount to years in the world of online happenings.

The thing was, he couldn't focus.

Even through the walls and his earphones blasting color noise, that freaking music just would not let him reach his zone. It wasn't even like he was one of those music elitists that eschewed all pop music. He wasn't. But what was polluting his ears at the moment was... just bad. He figured that it was probably rude, but Kousuke had made absolutely no move to interact with his roommates yet. From their musical taste, he guessed that he wouldn't want to.

And then that song started playing.

That was it. Kousuke slammed his hands on his desk, tossed his headphones on his bed and marched right out of his room into the common room, where he stopped abruptly. There was a girl singing and dancing around. A girl. Kousuke thought a moment, but remembered that he was in the coed dormitory. He'd signed up for the coed dormitory because he thought that girls might be cleaner, quieter, and easier to live with. As he looked to the girl twirling about in the blue skirt, he began to that assumption.

He glanced over the room and frowned. From the music, and candles and the food, it looked very much like she was preparing for a party or something. The last time Kousuke checked, throwing a party without consulting your roommates was the very opposite of kosher. Between that and the terrible dance-pop distraction, there were a few choice words at the tip of his tongue... which he quickly bit. He was to live with this girl; offending her at the offset wasn't the brightest of the ideas. He assumed a smile he hoped didn't look as forced as it felt and waved. "Hi, I'm Kou, and that's my room over there." He looked over the room again before he returned his gaze to the girl. "Wow, it looks like... you've got a lot going on here?"

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Once the song ended, Adrian heard a noise and spun around to the sound of someone approaching. She wasn't aware of anyone else in the dorm. She felt bad for blasting the music in case the boy that stood in front of her was busy studying or doing homework. He forced a smile and she instantly knew she had annoyed him. Adrianna sighed and turned the music down lower and changed it to a slower, quieter song.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know anyone else was in here. Um I'm Adrianna, but Adrian works too." Adrian smiled slightly and then got a feeling of what his power was, a technopath. That was new. She smiled apologetically, "I was kind of hoping for a roommate party. I'm from California and I tend to be a bit of a party freak."

Adrian sat down in one of the chairs and looked up at him as she straightened her skirt. Why had she been so stupid as to annoy her roommate on the first day? Adrian was usually very likable, she enjoyed partying, sure, but she could be quiet and relaxed too. She was versatile and well a pushover. The last thing she wanted was to annoy someone. People's opinions were everything to her.

[Kousuke Nanohara]

OOC: Sorry if I'm slow to reply, but I've ironically had some IRL PC problems lately. XD

"I see," Kousuke mouthed. When the girl, Adrian, admitted that she was throwing some impromptu party, he inwardly groaned. Had she talked talked to him for five seconds, she'd know how averse he was to these kinds of things. He then wondered if she'd given the other roommates the courtesy of knowing her plans, or if the other two rooms in the suite were even occupied.

Kousuke was about to make some sweeping generalization about California girls and how glad he was that he'd moved when he noticed how blatantly sorry the girl looked. He grit his teeth. She'd apologized, and turned the music down and had apparently bought snacks. He seriously doubted that he'd be able to get any serious studying done in the near future. He wanted to go back to his room but he didn't want to upset this person he'd be living with... Damn.

He rubbed the back of his neck and looked around again. It looked like California girl was either planning a pretty sorry party or she was still in the midst of her preparations. Kousuke didn't know which one of those possibilities was preferable, but since he was distracted he'd go and offer anyway. "You need help with anything?"

[Adrianna Carstyn]

OOC: It's cool, I haven't had much muse for Adrian so it's taken me a while to respond

Adrian twirled a strand of hair around her finger that fell out of the mass of curls piled on top of her head. She knew she'd screwed up and she wasn't happy about it. What a perfect way to irritate your roommate on the first day of meeting. She knew she should have just stayed in her room and studied...but that just wasn't her style. Adrianna was in the middle of putting things together so it looked like her party was going to be pretty lame. She looked around and sighed.

He must have picked up on it because he asked if she needed help. Adrian was tempted to say yes, but she knew it probably wasn't a good idea to continue with the party. She looked away and answered, "No. I'll clean it up on my own. Thanks anyway." No party, no distraction. She was the type that expressed her feelings through partying and since the most recent phone call from the nurse about her mother hadn't been a good one, she had thrown a party to get her mind off of it. And what happened? It back fired completely. Talk about a mess.

Adrian sighed deeply once again before she turned the music off completely and started working on cleaning up her mess. She started with the snacks, putting them in containers for a later date. She started feeling really upset the more she thought about how she left her mother only to annoy everyone else. She was a typical California girl...the type of girl who didn't consider what everyone else wanted. Instead she though only of herself...and she hated it. Tears welled in her eyes as she the snacks away and tried desperately to hide them.

[Kousuke Nanohara]

"Well, then, I'll..." Kousuke mumbled, trailing off before all but dashing back into his bedroom. Promptly shutting the door, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

Maybe he'd throw on some sweatpants and go for a run or something. Time away from the party room and clear his mind and then maybe he'd be able to be productive when he got back. Sounds like a plan. Kousuke walked over to his chest of drawers, and began rummaging for workout gear... when suddenly, a thought occurred to him.

That girl -- his roommate -- had looked really upset. What if she was the passive-aggressive type that did things like hide the toilet paper and eat his leftover pizza and...

The boy's hands slowed to a stop, and his face twisted to a grimace. With a groan, he closed the drawer and trudged back into the common room.

The girl was still working on putting things away. She looked very involved in the task, so Kousuke slowly started to approach her as he slowly tried to string together an apology. "Hey... Adrian, wasn't it? If you wanted to--"

It was then that he caught a glimpse of the girl's face, and he noticed it. She was crying. Kousuke didn't much mind pissing people off, but hurting someone's feelings usually left a bad taste in his mouth, whether it was intentional or not. Plus, people that upset were a pain to be around. Resisting the urge to retreat back to his room, he stared at the girl briefly before he began again.

"If you still want to have the party, I don't mind." And then Kousuke stopped. He figured at this point, he should choose his words carefully, but that wasn't a skill he excelled at.

Instead, he did the first thing that came to mind. He went over the where the snacks were put away in their containers, grabbed them, and started to put them back where they were when he'd first entered the room. As he passed by the radio, it only took a single tap to turn it back on, turn the volume all the way up, and to the poppiest pop station in the area. If having a good relationship with this girl he'd live with hinged on having this damn party, he'd go through with it.

And he'd party hard.

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Adrianna couldn't help herself. As much as she hated showing weakness, she couldn't stop crying once she started. She was just glad he had went to his room. She had a feeling he'd want to get away from her as soon as he had the chance. Adrian just wasn't having a good day. Between her mother getting worse and being reminded of how annoying she was, Adrian just really wanted to go back home. She had started untaping the streamers that were skillfully twisted and turned around the main room.

That's when she heard the door down the hall open again. She figured he'd just leave without a glance in her direction, but the footsteps stopped. And then he spoke. Adrian looked up at him and frantically tried wiping the tears away, but she knew it was too late...he had seen her crying. Adrian dropped her hands from her face, mascara and eye-liner smeared down her cheeks. She knew she looked like a mess, but she wouldn't show him another side of her stereotypical California ways. She wouldn't show that she was shallow and wanted to look perfect at all times. She was strong enough to face whatever he had to say to her. But when she heard what he was saying, it took her off guard completely.

Continue the party? No. Adrian couldn't, she knew he didn't really want to have it. He was just trying to be nice because she was crying. She sighed and shook her head, "No. I-I um don't want to...I'm not much in the mood for partying anymore..." She stuttered. Adrian hated it. This whole situation had turned into a complete disaster. Now she looked like an oversensitive, shallow, conceded, ignorant and typical California girl.

She noticed that he had started unpacking the snacks and she couldn't help but wonder why he cared so much that she was upset. He shouldn't have whether it was his fault or not. Adrian sighed and shrugged, "But if you don't mind too much...I guess we could." She brushed a strand of hair back and looked at the streamer she held in her hand, "It could be a small party, not too rowdy or anything."

Adrian wondered if he even knew how to party. He didn't seem like the type that went out every weekend to pull an all-nighter, but then again she didn't know him either and she didn't want to be quick to assume. She was still a little hesitant to put the streamer back on the wall, but she did it slowly and cautiously just in case he changed his mind.