Chapter 1- Moving In

"Mitchum! A little help!" Presley's voice sounded from the living room causing Mitchum to peer out of the room that he was unpacking his stuff in. He saw his friend struggling to balance a box marked fragile.

After helping him set the box down, they both sat on the floor to catch their breath with Presley saying, "Can you believe it?"

"Believe how heavy that thing was? Oh yeah, cause you packed it" Mitchum quipped as he stood back up to his feet.

"No, not that. I mean yes but- I'm not talking about that- I- I didn't mean that." Presley began to overexplain with anxiousness heard clearly in his voice and the fact of Mitchum kidding around missing him by miles.

"Relax Presley, get up off the floor then say what you mean," Mitchum said to put his friend's needless worry at ease.

Presley got off the floor and took a deep breath as he often does when he knows he may have taken a situation too seriously. "Well I meant for both of us to get accepted into the same college at HIDCA and be placed as roommates; I don't know. It's almost as if we are scripted characters placed in a situation with no actual control over what we say and do for the entertainment of---"

"Um... Presley, is your first 'rebellious' act of being away from home at college to try and drink coffee again?" Mitchum interrupted his friend to make sense of what he was suddenly rambling about.

"Rebellious well no, I wouldn't call it that but I think I'm old enough now to handle coffee," Presley answered Mitchum and started dragging the box that they had just set down to add to the stack that was already there.

"Yeah well just take my advice and give yourself another year OK. And being placed as roommates makes sense since they did accept both of us, to begin with." Mitchum answered checking his phone to see the time.

"True and we get this two-bedroom apartment. Just look at it! It's our home for the next four years," Presley said as he began to open one of the smaller boxes marked fragile.

"Which might give you enough time to finish unpacking all of your stuff. Seriously dude, do you need all of this?" Mitchum got closer to look over his friend's shoulder to see what was in them.

"Of course! I still have some stuff on the way. These are just the essentials like my books, clothes, lab equipment, housewear wear and---"

"Wait... What do you mean by housewear? And why did you put your books in a box marked fragile?" Mitchum interrupted as Presley pointed to the boxes and said what was in them.

"These were the only boxes the mirror factory back home had that they were throwing out. House wear is you know, mostly stuff for the house like curtains, bedsheets, chair coverings, motivational posters, and well glassware. Now that I think of it is more for the kitchen and---" Presley started to ramble again which he would only do ever so often. But Mitchum knew when he did that Presley would never stop unless he stopped it.

"OK stop, I get it. No need to show me more; so while you make yourself at home I'm going to check the neighborhood out and maybe meet our next-door neighbors." Mitchum said in a way that admitted defeat that he would never be as excited over what Presley was talking about as he was.

"Alright but if you invite them in, use the good glassware that I washed already and put in the kitchen. But wash it again in front of them so that it looks like we bought it in and are not using what was left behind by someone else. Make sure that they know we're still decorating too, we don't want them to think we're slobs." Presley said as he continued to scrimmage through his other boxes.

"Anything else, Mom," Mitchum said with a chuckle as he looked back with his hand on the door handle.

"Hey! I just want to make a good impression. Now here, take these welcoming cookies that I baked this morning and offer them around. This is my only good tray until the others arrive later," Presley tried to save face as he pulled out the tray from the box and handed it to Mitchum.

"Why is meeting our new neighbors such a big deal to you?" Mitchum asked realizing a new side of Presley being revealed to him.

"Those people are going to live next to us for four years. I don't know about you but I don't want anyone who's going to know me for that long to think I'm not neighborly," was the reply he got as Presley gave him the tray and got back to unpacking the other boxes.

Mitchum's Point Of View;

I wasn't going to push the conversation any further. I just accepted the green leaf-patterned tray of cookie chip and ginger cookies he gave me. Not that he gave me much of a choice since he practically shoved it in my hands. I didn't know Presley was so high-strung about impressions. He usually takes to the background when meeting new people. Ugh! I just hope he's not turning into a micro-version of my mom. One of the reasons I came here is to get a break from her house rules.

Hopefully, it's just the first-day jitters of college and the coffee stepping in on him. Then this won't be something permanent I have to put up with from him. I walked outside of the apartment in the hallway and balcony. It surrounds the entire floor in a circular shape until it meets the stairway again. It was that way on all the floors that I'd seen on the way getting up here. The floor of the hallway was colored cream like the outside of the building. The walls outside our apartment were white just like the railing. We were on the last floor but our apartment was furthest from the stairs. But since all had access to the balcony we can still see other buildings with dorms.

Being on the top floor was an advantage because of the view over the railings. What caught my attention was that the school had allowed three very strange trees to be planted. It seemed to separate the buildings by the way they were aligned. They were also near the balcony though not close enough for you to touch them. On closer observation, it looked like it was a huge hibiscus flower that hadn't bloomed instead of normal green leaves for the canopy. This wasn't the first one I had seen on my way through the school when my parents dropped Presley and me off. They must be everywhere around the school and were sometimes even found near normal trees. Some were colored red, blue, and even purple. So they could be real right? But why the need to put so many decorative trees around the school? By the way they were designed, you would think the buildings were built around to accumulate trees instead of the other way around.

I should probably stop focusing on what's going on out there so much. I then looked back to where the apartment's doors on my floor lined up. About four feet from where I stood directly outside my door was our closest neighbor. In a slow and almost sluggish manner, I went closer to the door. When I was right in front of it, I started adjusting the dark greenish strings on my black hoodie by pulling on them to tighten it. Then I looked around to the far left side which is nearest to my apartment. There I saw a small wooden decor table resting against the balcony railings near the curve with an unusual light stand on it.

It had a circular white plate that rested on the vanished wooden table that held it in place but what followed out of the middle of it was a long thin 3D spiral shape. I didn't know if it worked or not cause it was placed directly in the sun's rays. It was another thing that wasn't unique to us because they were spaced out around the floor against the curve of the railings. How could I not when I almost knocked one of them over when I was helping Presley carry up some of his stuff?

That was a lot of trips up these stairs, whatever he is bringing again he will have to move up on his own. My arms are still kind of sore from it and it didn't help that we had to come all the way to the top floor. I wonder if his dad is bringing the rest? I passed my hands anxiously through my hair and tapped my foot against the floor to no particular beat. I guess you could say I was intentionally delaying doing what I said I would. I felt a lot more self-conscious than usual and I knew what the cause was. I exhaled loudly, then knocked on their door and waited for an answer. I had to admit that I felt really silly holding the tray of cookies and then having to give it to a complete stranger. I dusted off my blue jeans as it gave me something to focus on as I anticipated the door opening.

There was no answer and I didn't even hear a shuffle to give an indication that someone was inside. A feeling of relief came over me as an idea struck. I could eat all these cookies myself and Presley would never find out. Before I had much time to really consider the idea, it became too late to execute that plan since the door began to creek open. That unsteady feeling came back with the same speed it had disappeared. The opened door revealed a girl with a light complexion, blond hair, and eyes that were shaded a lighter brown than mine. I could say that they were almost the color hazel. Her hair was down and she wore a pair of white palette sneakers that didn't have any laces.

Maybe I should invest in one of those because I definitely want to stop tieing these things. And I'll have the freedom to do it now that my mom isn't around to debate with me on the question of why I think they made them in the first place. The girl wore peach-colored jeans with a black T-shirt. But it had something written on it that I couldn't read because it definitely wasn't in English. I exhaled again as I realized that I had said nothing to her since she opened the door. I didn't want to come off as a creep so I decided that I'd introduce myself and then hopefully not be too awkward when I offered the cookies to her.