The real world. Not MTV

[fencerontheline]

Damn. A bad start. Not like it's the first time. Not like it's going to be the last time. I guess I'm just rude.

It's interesting she noticed my diary. Can't let her know it's a journal. I wouldn't write her story in it. It's my story. I'm kind of intrigued. Its not too often people notice you for the book you carry. They notice you for the clothes you wear and the way you walk. They don't notice you when you write. I gotta try to be less cold.

"And why shouldn't your story be in my book? Its not too often a girl amputates half the hair on her head overnight and doesn't have an intersting story to tell."

I think i was being rude. I cut back to the reallest looking smile I could muster.

"The Name is A-lex."

I made sure to divide the syllables. Sounds cooler that way.

[Swordsman]

"A-lex?" Mike repeated. "Not Alex?"

[fencerontheline]

I chuckled. I liked it when I got that reaction.

"Whatever works"

[Miri Belakai]

Finding that a pillow over her head didn't work very well, Lissa decided there was nothing for it except to get up and tell those jerks to stop talking so loud. Using her fingers, she quickly combed through her long red hair, and then opened the door. Blinking at the sudden bright light, she tried to focus on the three people standing in the doorway diagonal from her own.

She mustered up what she hoped passed for a smile and not a grimace. "Some people here had a 2 am Astronomy lab, so if you would kindly desist in such awful racket, I'd be much obliged."

[Marah Seph]

A-lex? Sounded like it should be the name of a laxitive or something.

Not that it mattered a whole lot. She herself preferred to be called Shard.
"Why not? Because it's mine," she ran a hand almost self-consciously through her hair. Well, at least he got his name out, almost looked like it was painful for him.

"A-lex huh?" she mused wether or not to tell him her prefference, but decided it was in her best interest to keep that to herself. "Haven't heard that one before." It was getting a little too ackward just standing there. She didn't have much to say to them, and more than obviously they didn't have much to say to her either.

" I'll just be goin now. Nice meeting you." She smiled a little. The irony was just too much. People faked everything. She headed off towards the elevator.

[Swordsman]

Mike just rolled his eyes. Why couldn't anybody get along here? Shard, as she asked him to call her, was already a paranoid harpy. Add to it an antisocial pale guy, and now they were all ignoring Lissa, who he imagined would be friendly if he ever got to meet her when she wasn't asleep or completely sleep-deprived.

[fencerontheline]

I was tired. Of people. I wanted to get back to my journal. It was understandable how that red-haired girl was annoyed. I was eaily irritated when I was interrupted.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to speak too loud. I keep a late life too. Name is Alex. I write."

All I wanted to do was go back to my writing and my room. It was very safe there. I could write, I could do whatever I wanted, and not be judged. I could hear what I wanted, and not be involved myself. People were tough for me. Words were easy.

I excused myself, neither politely nor rudely, and went back to my room. I sat at my desk and began to pound away at the keys of my computer. I'd found it. The story I should have wrote before. "Strangers in code".

A story about somebody who buries himself in computer programming, whose sole outlet is his programming. He hates the outside world, because it isn't subject to the same rules as a computer program is- programs are his to command, the real world is not. I wrote away, raising mountains of lyrical though, commanding the language, and being generative in the only way I knew I could be. I finished and I was happy.

[Crin Dalmeiier]

"Sounds like a regular block party." Ethan Ambryt turned to his flatmate, the ever-mysterious Sean, with one blond eyebrow raised above the other. "Either that, or the new tenants are arguing again."

At twenty-two, he was fairly tall and as fair-skinned as he was tow-headed. Sean, being somewhat short and squat and dark-skinned, was his foil in everything, including personality. The New-Yorker had his acoustic guitar out and was currently ripping off some Chet Atkins song or another. Ethan didn't mind--it gave him a peaceful backdrop against which he could finish his European Civ homework.

"Hmmph. New neighbors," Sean snorted, switching keys.

Ethan, not sure what to make of this rather derisive answer, settled for a shrug and pulled a sweatshirt on so that he could be presentable enough for going out into the hall. He had been clad only in a pair of garish swim trunks and a hawaiian shirt that flapped open against his skinny and hairless (much to his own dismay) chest. "Is your girlfriend ever coming back?" he asked as he headed for the door. "We're out of milk."

"Get your own #@$& milk and shut up already. I'm trying to play."

"Whatever." Ethan poked his head into the hall and looked at the assembled crowd. Turning, he saw his direct neighbor, Lissa. She looked rather...grumpy. Must have been Astronomy yesterday. "Hey, guv." Without waiting for an answer, he turned to the rest, two guys and a girl. "G'day, mates. What's shakin'?"

He ducked in plenty of time so that the vodka bottle sailed over the back of his head and against the wall, crashing into a myriad of sparkling pieces. "Your aim's shoddy, Sean-boy." And with that, he closed the door behind him and trotted over to the group.

[Swordsman]

"New dude," Mike informed him. "Name of Alex - or A-lex - seems a bit rude, name says pretentious. Pale dude, just ducked back in again to go back to whatever. 'Tsup with you, man?"

[Moonitic]

A little mousey blonde flashed past the group a moment later, making a bee-line for her room. Her meeting with the head of the drama department lasted far too long, and all she wanted to do was get a shower and get to bed. Mr. Covington informed her that she was up for the lead in the big show. And if she played her cards right, she'd get that lead. Rumor had it that sometimes agents would scout university shows, looking for their next big star.
Ugh! She smelled like his cigar laden office!

I need a boyfriend, she thought miserably. Or a life...

She shifted her books from one arm to the other & unlocked her door. With one last look toward the group in the hall, she pushed her way into her room.

[Swordsman]

"And, Mossmouse returns," Mike observed of the flash of blond that sped past.

[Iwant2bafencer]

Chelsea Rodgers was concentrated on the small paper map in her hands as she stepped out of the elevator and moved down the hallway. As she turned the map upside down, she ran into a wall. No, a person.

"Oh I'm sorry." She gasped, her head coming up from her map. She studied the stalky guy infront of her for a moment and then frowned.

"You couldn't tell me where room 510 is could you? I'm rather lost." She questioned in a heavy yet understandable British accent.

"Sure thing, three doors down that way." He replied, pointing behind Chelsea.

She looked down the hall and then grinned widely back at him.

"Thank you." She sighed and quickly turned to go to her room. She realized she was being rude, but she'd had such a hard time her first day on campus, that she bee-lined it to her door.

Digging out her key from her pile of books and what not, she quickly stuck it in the lock and stepped into the room. She shut the door and then turned to see a girl taking her shirt off. Before she quickly turned around, she noticed a towel on a chair. 'Shower time.' she thought to herself.

"I'm terribly sorry." She called over her shoulder.

Her new roommate screamed. What a great start.

[Moonitic]

"Didn't your parents teach you to knock?" Lyn cried, wrapping the towel around herself. "Who are you & what are you doing here?"

[Iwant2bafencer]

Chelsea shrugged. "Actually, I never knew my parents. I assumed everyone would be in class. Or asleep, which you are neither." She peaked behind her to find the girl covered, so she turned around.

"My name is Chelsea Rodgers," she shrugged. "I guess I'm your roommate." She smiled, walking over and offering a hand. "And you are?"

[Moonitic]

With one hand holding up the towel, Lyn reached with the other. "Lyn. Armani. Sorry about your parents." She shook Chelsea's hand quickly and withdrew, then looked around nervously. "I...just got done with a meeting with the head of the theatre department..."

[Iwant2bafencer]

"Quite alright, my father died before I was born, and my mother giving birth to me." She replied, then moved over to the spare bed to unload her bags from her shoulders.
"You're in the theater department? I'm planning on minoring in theater." She smiled over her shoulder. "I hope I'm not too late for any of the parts in the upcoming play."

[Moonitic]

"No..." Lyn muttered. "...not late at all." She ran a hand through her green tinted hair. Tinted green thanks to the supposedly temporary dye she used to color it with when she played a fairy in the summer stock performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. "I'm sure if you go see Mr. Covington, you can set up an audition appointment." She shuddered at the thought of her own audition, scheduled for the next day at 1pm.

[Iwant2bafencer]

"Oh that's wonderful." She replied. "I wouldn't be here so late if it weren't for the blasted airlines. They got my tickets all in a tiffy and there were no more flights out here for three more weeks at the least because of a down plane." She glanced over to Lyn again.
"You don't think Mr. . . what was it Collins? will mark my tardiness against my acting do you?"

[Moonitic]

"Covington," Lyn said softly. "And time will tell. Who knows? He might like you." She cleared her throat & gestured over her shoulder, toward the direction of the bathroom. "I, uh, need to get a shower. Do you need anything else?"

[Iwant2bafencer]

Chelsea waved her hand. "Oh no I'll be fine. I'm just going to unpack a few things. Mind if I use some of the closet?"

Lyn shook her head.

"Great, dont let me hold you up." She said nodding towards the shower.