Chapter Text
Number 5 Dawn Street was a 6-bedroom 2-bathroom Brick house in the middle of a quiet Street of a University town. Located a 5-minute walk from the closest bus stop, and only a few blocks from a gas station that was open 24/7, a bit of a drive from the city but close to a large park and woodland area.
Its previous occupants had included half the local football team, a failed fraternity, the members of a grunge band and now, 8 very different girls who were on their way to becoming family.
Shelby Goodkind is the first arrival. Having come into town on the bus the night before, she slowly trudges up the length of the street pulling with her the two bags she managed to grab before she left home. Summer is still sitting heavy, and even through its only morning the day is already hot and Shelby is regretting not grabbing a bottle of water from the station before she left. Only thinking about the information the landlord had given in an email (Gretchen Klein is an eccentric woman who was adamant that all communication goes through emails, including the list of rules she had made every girl sign in the rental agreement, including that she didn’t actual want to meet any of them personally).
Shelby finds the multiple sets of keys in the very fake rock (making a note to change the location immediately) and opens the front door.
The house is barely furnished, with some dinged up couch’s that have a bit of an odour and some superstitious stains on the carpet, plus mismatched chairs around a round dining table that takes up most of the ‘open plan kitchen’.
But all in all, its clean enough and for the price of rent Shelby is just happy it provided a bed. She decides to leave her bags in the living room near the coffee table that has a bit of a lean to it, not wanting to claim a bedroom and force any arguments before the other girls move in.
She makes a quick trip to the bathroom wanting to freshen up a bit before anyone else arrives and give a good impression. But after washing her face and drinking from her hands, she finds herself with very little to do before anyone else arrives.
A couple hours later, the next occupant arrives, just after lunch.
Fatin Jamadi is bright and loud in the way that commands you attention, but makes it very hard to look directly at. She sweeps into the entry way boxes balanced in her arms, that she drops in the door way before moving through the house looking in each bedroom. She takes the largest room with only one bed and doesn’t spare Shelby a second glance as she plops her designer handbag on it.
Shelby, with the friendliest smile on her face, introduces herself to Fatin, and offers to help her move anything else in. She is shown to a very nice car, one of those that says it fits 5, but only comfortably can fit 2 (3 if someone is small for the backseat), and while there are lots of bags stuffed into every inch of space, the thing that takes up the most room in a large cello case. Fatin warns her not to touch it but takes her up on the offer to take the other things in, and so Shelby is on her 4th trip of suitcases and heavy boxes (Fatin is a slow mover and constantly on her phone) when the next occupants arrive.
Martha Blackburn and Toni Shalifoe are dropped off by Martha’s mother, who was happy to make the trip to help them settle in. They pull up on the curb in front of the house just as a pretty blonde is pulling bags upon bags out of an expensive sports car. Toni rolls her eyes at Martha and receives an elbow to the gut and a warning to play nice with the housemates as Martha and her mother start unloading the car.
Toni only having a few bags also grabs some of Martha’s stuff before making her way up the driveway. As she walks past the blonde trying to juggle 2 garment bags and a rucksack, she gives a sniff and a ‘Nice car’, not bothering to wait to hear what the girl says in return.
Martha has made her way inside and moved her stuff into one of the rooms with two beds, choosing the room that has a view of the nice backyard. Throwing her own bag on one bed Toni carefully places Martha’s stuff next to the other one, she goes to move back outside, but runs into the blonde in the hallway. With a bit of awkward half steps, she manages to shuffle her way around the girl, making sure to not make eye contact, making her way back out to the car another set of boxes.
The Reid twins were as different as they were alike. The whole car ride with their parents was exhausting and unmemorable, as their parents lectured them on what they could expect at university, living out of home for the first time, the things they could encounter and what to avoid to ensure they maintained their good grades and extra curriculars, that when the car pulled up outside both rushed to get out of the small space.
There were some scuffles as Rachel pushed one of Nora’s bags off one of her boxes, and Nora struggles to balance the many boxes of books she has brought.
Their parents are quick to unload their car, making quick efficient trips in and out of the house wanting to get back on the road for their trip home. The many boxes, suitcases and assortment of items are dropped in the free room with 2 beds, across the hall from the other double bedroom that is already occupied. With a quick hug and a pat on the back the Reid twins wave goodbye to the parents. Before another scuffle breaks out on which bed each girl wants. Rachel is adamant to sleep furthest from the door, and she thinks Nora only wants the bed because she does, and it takes her physically lifting Nora and placing her on the other bed to get her to accept it.
With a pop Dot Campbell turns her beat-up second-hand car down Dawn Street, pulling up in the driveway next to the flashiest car she has ever seen for this area of town. With a long whistle she eyes it, wondering which of her new housemates it belongs to, before jumping out and grabbing her duffle from the backseat. She jumps up the stairs to the front door, headphones in, head bopping to the music bass covering any sounds of the house.
She finds an empty room, making sure to avoid the one closest to the bathroom, not wanting to be keep up at night if the pipes are loud, and flings herself onto the bed.
The mattress has a musty smell, but all around not too bad, and it doesn’t seem to have any pokey springs which she takes as a win. After dumping her remaining possessions in a few trips, she decides to touch base with her new housemates, swinging by each room with a knock and a ‘Hey’, getting positive responses to her plan for House dinner of Pizza.
There seem to be 2 empty rooms, despite the fact that from her head count 7 people are accounted for, so she wonders if there is a pair up somewhere in their group, but decides not to question it just yet. One of the one-bed rooms certainly has enough stuff for 2 people, so she thinks that must be it.
She runs into who she presumes is Fatin, based on the limited social media stalking she did on the girls, as she sits on the back porch and lights up a smoke. Fatin seems to be busy texting someone, so they don’t make much small talk, just a head nod and a small wave as Dot posts up on wicker furniture that has definitely seen better days.
After a brief moment Fatin jumps up and heads inside and Dot can hear her heavy steps as she goes up to her room. Dot sighs looks at the time and figures she’ll wait till 6 to grab pizza orders, hoping someone is happy to go halves with her.
Toni and Martha are saying goodbye to Martha’s mum in their room. She has just finished helping hang up some things on the wall and make their beds when she says that she will give them space to meet their new friends tonight, and a promise to check back in with them in the morning before she travels back home. With a roll of Toni’s eyes and another warning to play nice she gives them a quick hug before leaving.
Martha wants to take the initiative, and so she goes looking for the one who had early spoken about getting pizza (maybe Dorothy she remembers), wanting to start to make new friends. Which leaves Toni relaxing on her bed scrolling through her phone.
A bit later cough is heard from the door waking Toni from the nap she was taking and Toni lifts her head to spy the blonde from earlier. With a huff and a bored look as if to say ‘what do you want’ the blonde gives a quick smile but stays in the frame of the door, which Toni is grateful for.
“Dinners on its way” she says a slight twang to her accent. “Martha said to let you know so you could come on down and meet everyone.”
Toni drops her head back down, not at all looking forward to playing happy houses, before she rolls of the bed and moves to the door.
‘Thanks’ she grunts as she moves to push past the blonde. The blonde quickly jumps out of her way and follows a few steps behind as they head down the hallway to meet up with the others.
Fatin is in the living room glaring at her phone as if looking hard enough at it will pull the response she wants through. But the knock on the door has her bounding up to answer it. A disappointed look flashes over her face when it’s just the pizza guys, but she gives him a quick smile and pays with cash before grabbing the pizza and bringing it through to the kitchen. The blonde who had helpfully introduced herself as Shelby (as if Fatin was able to find out that and more through her social media sleuthing) had helpfully placed one her boxes labelled ‘Kitchen’ here, so she opens it and pulls out a set of plates and cups and even a table cloth to cover the stained and scratched table.
Just as she is finishing setting the table the Reid sisters walk in, Rachel carrying a box of their own kitchen supplies. Pulling out a water jug she fills from the tap and leaving the rest to unpack later, they join her, offering to pay for their pizza, that Fatin shrugs off. No point starting to nickel and dime everything on the first day.
Dot comes in from the backyard where she and Martha had been sitting chatting, and grabs a seat at the table that is clearly only meant for 6 (you can tell from the tight squeeze of the assortment of chairs) sitting next to Fatin, just as Toni and Shelby enter the room.
As they all gather around and general introductions with name and major are made and pizzas are passed back and forth it’s Nora that says, ‘Wait we missing someone’.
Just as Fatin opens her mouth to answer there is a knock at the door and Fatin’s phone dings with a message.
“Fucking finally’, she says as she jumps up to open it, revealing a tall brunette with a backpack and tried eyes.
The girls can hear Fatin talking from the kitchen, ‘If I knew it was going to take this long, I would have stayed with you” the girl hums a response, falling into the easy hug Fatin offers before toeing off her shoes and lining them up along the wall and placing her backpack down on top of them.
‘Come on through’ Fatin is heard saying. ‘We doing group pizza, and don’t worry I made sure yours had no onions, so you don’t have to worry about that’
Leah introduces herself to the table and trips over announcing her Literature major, a hand on her arm from Fatin earning the girl a smile before Leah says that the reason she was late was because she had to sort out some last minute changes to her schedule before classes start.
There are a few moments of awkward silence, filled only with chewing when Shelby offers up “I’d like to propose an icebreaker.”
They don’t end up playing any real icebreakers that night, but the starts of bonds are formed when Fatin busts out a bottle of cheap vodka and some shot glasses (each one showing it’s from a different city on the west coast).
They learn that the twins once tried to trade places in 6th grade, when they were definitely old enough to be told apart, which led to the only ever detention that they received, all because they wanted to get Nora to take Rachel’s math exam for her.
Dot shares the few bars in town that don’t card regularly as well as the diner that is bound to give you food poisoning, and when asked why she moved into a college house in her home town, she quietens down before saying that its cheaper than finding her own place, which gives her a comforting hand from Shelby.
It’s actually Fatin that shuts it down when someone asks a scandalous question, remarking, ‘Maybe we should keep in PG for the first night, don’t want to lose any of the mystery too early’ with a wink, but her eyes are firmly on Leah whose shoulders have curled in on themselves.
It’s Toni, noticing Leah’s reaction as well, that quickly brings up how she got banned from Highschool basketball for throwing her pee on someone from the other team. Getting a few gross faces and Martha shaking her head sadly at Toni’s antics.
Martha reveals the names to all 3 of her pets back home, and briefly mentions that the lease didn’t say anything about pets not being allowed. Which causes Toni to shake her head back at Martha
Shelby talks about her pageant days and how she learnt how to juggle because she thought it would be a talent that would allow her to stand out, only to compete once against 3 other jugglers (one of whom could juggle knives), giving a quick demonstration with shot glasses, which might not have been completely empty, making a mess and causing a giggle fest to break out, except Dot who takes the brunt of the liquid and complains about the smell immediately.
Fatin talks about how she once threw the party back home that somehow ended up with her parents toilet in the tree outside, and how she got grounded for months and was only allowed outside the house for school. To deal help her deal with her boredom she ended up spending hours at the school library to avoid going home. ‘And that’s where I met this bookworm’ she said ruffling Leah’s hair, before Leah launches into how for the first few weeks Fatin thought Leah was the librarian so would leave her books on Leah’s table whenever she would go home. So, Leah had just started reading them, before after a few weeks she had approached Fatin and declared her taste atrocious and pointed her in the direction of better options.
This creates a side conversation between Nora and Leah on what genres they like to read, Leah tending more fiction than Nora’s Non-fiction, but they come to some consensus on the difference between complete trash, and the trash you know is trash but still enjoy reading.
Dot suggests they do a quick inventory in the morning and head shopping into town tomorrow, to grab any house supplies they should need, offering to drive a few people, and Fatin makes sure they all share phone numbers and social’s before turning in for the night.
Shelby approaches Leah as everyone heads off to bed, offering her the pick of the rooms remaining, but Fatin interrupts saying that she’s already moved Leah’s stuff into the room next to hers, and ‘Did you really think all those boxes were just for me? Nah, half of them were this dorks book and cardigan collection. Oh, by the way Shelby helped move you stuff in Leah, say thank you”, Before running off upstairs to start her hour-long bedtime routine.
Leah gives Shelby a shy smile and thanks her before offering to help her move her stuff into the last room, but Shelby politely declines, saying that it shouldn’t take her too long, and it is as she is carrying her two bags back to the last bedroom that she runs into Toni again (why does that keep happening). Toni looks at the bags in Shelby’s hand with wide eyes. ‘Shit how much crap have you got?”
“Oh you know, just the essentials”, Shelby says looking at the bags in her hands, trying to hide the broken zipper on one that is filled just a touch past bursting.
Toni scoffs and heads on to the bathroom.
Shelby enters her bedroom, placing her bags on the floor and opening one to find the one photo frame she managed to grab before she left, showing her and her siblings smiling at the camera. She places it as a point of pride on her desk before she grabs out her towel laying it out on her mattress, thinking that she can buy sheets and a comforter when they go shopping tomorrow, and just use this for the night. Glad that the place provides a pillow, that she puts inside a t-shirt and turns out her light for the night.
As she lies there in the dark listening to the sounds the house makes, the slight creaks, and the conversations that bleed through the too-thin walls she thinks that this might actually work, and she falls asleep with a smile on her face.