Chapter Text
“Hey, welcome to Peach House!”
A bright, friendly voice greeted Carson Shaw as she pushed open the door of the big blue college-owned house. The voice belonged to a blonde girl who was coming down the stairs, waving at her as she entered. The girl didn’t look much older than Carson, but she seemed very at home already.
“Hello!” Carson responded. “Yeah, I’m really excited to be here! I’ve heard so much about y’all, I was thrilled when I heard that I made the team.”
“Well, we’re really glad to have you,” the girl said. “My name’s Maybelle, I’m one of the team captains. Here, let me show you your room. Do you need help with your bags?”
Carson shook her head and readjusted her grip on her bags. They were heavy, but she’d been carrying them for a while now and figured that Maybelle carrying one would be more of a hassle than a help. Turning around, Maybelle led Carson up the wooden stairs and down one of a few hallways whose doors looked like they had seen better days.
“Definitely looks like a college house,” Carson joked.
Maybelle laughed. “Yeah, old Blue’s got lots of history.”
When Maybelle, followed by Carson, reached the third room on the right, she stopped and pushed the door open.
“This is you!” she said. “Make yourself comfy. Decorate however you want - this is your space. Just don’t put anything super sticky on the wall, we aren’t supposed to leave any marks behind when we leave.”
“Of course,” Carson said. “That makes sense. Duct tape can leave a really big mess when you try to…remove it.”
Maybelle nodded.
“Are we allowed to paint on the walls?” Carson asked.
“Well…technically no,” Maybelle replied with a small smile. “But a lot of us do. You just have to paint over it before end of year inspections.”
“That I can do.”
Satisfied that Carson had everything she needed, Maybelle turned to go.
“Wait!” Carson said. “Do we have like, a beginning of year meeting at all?”
“Of course,” Maybelle replied, turning back towards her. “Tomorrow at 8 in the big room. We call it the Tomb, because it’s always freezing in there. We’ll do introductions and all that, the newbies will get to meet the rest of the team, yadda yadda.”
“Great, thanks! Can’t wait.”
“See ya soon.”
Maybelle left the room, and Carson turned to look at her new space. She only had a few bags with her, but she’d managed to cram almost her whole life into them.
The room was smaller than what she was used to back home, but not small enough to make her feel boxed in. There was a big window on one wall, and a decent-sized closet on another. The bed looked to be a twin, which was good, because that was the size of the sheets that Carson had recently bought.
Carson opened one of her suitcases and took out the mailing envelope that she had put all of her wall decorations in. The first thing inside was a photo of her and her dad at her very first father-daughter dance. In the photo, Carson was smiling and wearing a tiny yellow dress, complete with ruffles and matching barrettes. She was no more than three years old in the picture, and it was slightly browning with age.
Photos of her and her father together were increasingly hard to find, as he had passed away from cancer just a few months after Carson’s tenth birthday. She was lucky to have this one.
About an hour later, Carson was putting the finishing touches on the layout of her walls. Among the rest of the design were letters sent between her and her friends from high school, photos of her and her dog Maple, and a painting she had made of the view from her backyard. She was much more relaxed already and having more interesting walls was definitely making her feel more at home.