And the Mystery Roommate Is...

After what had just happened, Emma and Lily left the bookstore, Emma being in a horrible mood.

She had suggested touring the campus grounds, to calm herself down mostly, but to also look around.

"So, where to? Where do you want to go first, Lil?" Emma asked, reopening the map to ZALE again, and glancing at every single location.

Lily pointed to a small cluster of rectangular shapes.

"Let's check out the swimming pools, and jacuzzis," Lily replied, reading the text on the ever-so-intricate map.

Emma peered at the map.

"There are jacuzzis here? I never knew that," she said as she looked back and forth from the bookstore to the small rectangular blob that was ZALE's indoor swimming pools and jacuzzis.

"Well, what are we waiting for, let's go," Emma said, leading the way.

A few questions and a long walk later, they had finally reached their destination.

The ZALE indoor pool was where students went to relax and take a swim after a long day of school. The jacuzzis were the same case.

When they arrived, Lily gaped. She stared at the beautiful room right in front of her.

Students had specific sitting areas to sit on, and if they looked upwards, they could be able to witness the elaborate ceiling trays that were suspended from a roman-inspired mural of a modern, abstract scene of a cluster of clouds, making the room have a nice and somewhat airy feel.

The infinity pool had a light turquoise shade of water, complementing everything else in the room. Built-in the jacuzzi were massage jets, that caused the water that sparkled under the ceiling trays to ripple.

Emma was no exception. She had never seen anything this surreal before.

The two girls were stunned and stuck to their spots.

As of now, the pool was closed for use but would be opened for use on the first day of school.

Lily's jaw had dropped to the floor. She was speechless. Nothing she could say could properly represent what she was currently seeing. Compared to the musty and old smell of the bookstore, this room radiated elegance and luxury and was filled with the soothing, calm, peaceful waft of air to go with it.

"I take it back. The library's not my favourite room. Not compared to this masterpiece," Emma said, fully in awe.

Lily turned to her best friend.

"Have I ever told you how much I love ZALE and how much I'll love being your lady-in-waiting?" She asked.

Emma laughed.

"No, not really, though I hope to hear that, since you're stuck with me," she answered.

"Well, if going to ZALE gives you access to this for a few months? Count me in. I don't mind going here and staying here forever. This is officially my favourite place here. Whatever our dorm looks like, it couldn't possibly compare to this," she stated as-a-matter-of-factly.

She pouted, turning her back away and tearing her gaze from the turquoise water that was luring her in.

"Too bad we can't go in for a dip," she said exasperatedly.

Emma nodded. She just couldn't take her eyes off the surreal view around her.

Her moment of peace was cut off when the loud sounds of a bell filled her ears.

She looked around, her eyes scanning the room for the nearest clock.

She sighed.

"I'm pretty sure we're going to have to cut this short," she said.

Lily frowned. She wanted to do anything but leave. Especially since she had just gotten here. But it was getting late, and tomorrow was the first day of school. The last thing she wanted to do was be tardy.

"Yeah, you have a point. Let's go, we haven't done much all day, but I'm exhausted," she admitted.

The two girls left for their dorm rooms, which wasn't that far off the pool.

The dorms, specifically the one for the female students attending ZALE, was one building instead of multiple.

While most dorms of public schools had small rooms, narrow hallways, and barely any space to live in, the ZALE dormitories were huge, with long, wide hallways, and plenty of living space.

They were the epitome of luxury. One dormitory fit four students, each dorm having two large bedrooms with king-sized mattresses and was fully-furnished with opulent, expensive touches, attention to aesthetic detail, private en-suite bathrooms with twin sinks, marbled countertops, everything a ZALE student would need for a dorm.

The two girls entered a private elevator to get to the second floor of the building the dormitories were located at and pressed their keycards to a scanner to select which floor their rooms were located.

As the elevator opened, the two girls walked through its sturdy metal doors, now walking through the hallway leading to their dormitory. The whole corridor had a natural interior, its walls clad with barn wood, and plants embedded along its doorways.

Unlike the dormitory's interior, this was more simplistic than luxurious.

"I wonder who our roommates are going to be," Lily said.

Emma shrugged.

"As long as they respect the sanctity of sleep, and aren't bratty, I'd be totally fine with whoever we're paired with," Emma said, as she looked left and right, looking for room 12.

After a few twists and turns, they had barely managed to find their dormitory, and they exchanged a look as Lily pressed her keycard to the scanner used as a safety measure to enter the dorm room.

The door had a slight creak as it opened, and the two girls strolled in the room, ready to meet their roommates.

A familiar voice called from one of the rooms, "Winnie, is that the room service I ordered?"

A girl around Emma's and Lily's age came scampering out of one of the dormitory's rooms. She was a slender girl with chin-length jet-black hair and sea-green eyes. She looked geeky with her grey rimmed glasses, black turtleneck, grey cropped pants paired with white sneakers.

"No Courtney, it's our roommates," she replied back.

The two girls stopped where they were. Lily's and Emma's eyes widened as she finally realized who her roommates were. Well, one of them in particular.

Courtney Walton.