Just Another New Girl [Chris]

An eclectic mix of electronic and jazz beats drummed off the doors and thumped down the hallways. Faculty had assured her that most students were probably in classes or on a free day or something - she wasn't particularly paying attention to the conversation at that point - and she took full advantage of this fact. Sprawled out on the floor with a sheet of paper in her lap and chunks of wood cobbled together with flimsy screws and studs, Makoto was quickly losing interest in making her new bed. The Swedes always did have a sick sense of furniture humor.

Somewhere around step 12 or 26 or who cared at this point honestly she flung the instructions sheet across the room. It clunked against her open door and slid mercilessly to the ground. The next song queued up and its depressing lyrics began to waft through the air.
"Aaaaaauuuugh!" Makoto audibly groaned, flopping on the ground and grasping for her phone.
It fumbled around in her grasp, found something a little more poppy and happily bounced to its new tunes, but the damage had already been done. Makoto sprawled out onto the floor, covered in a blanket of black sweat clothes and pink hair. Sweden had won the war long before she fought in it. This battle was just one of many.

Chris was lost.  Today wasn’t really an ideal day for someone to move into the dorms, but here he was walking around empty hallways looking for his room number.  Chris has been known to get lost from time to time, but this was the first time that he would struggle finding someone to ask for directions.  Chris was unsure of himself.  The teacher that gave him directions wasn’t very specific and Chris didn’t understand much of what she said.  Chris hated how fast everyone seemed to speak here.  It confused him to no end.

Chris stopped for a second to examine the number on the door, but it didn’t match the “23” scrawled on his piece of paper.  Chris continued looking, but after reaching the roof of the dorm, he decided to check the neighboring dorm.  There were only two, so Chris figured if it wasn’t in this one then it was sure to be in the other.  Chris made his way to the other dormitory.  Chris scanned the numbers on the first floor, but none of them matched.  Chris found his way to the second floor, and upon finding his room number, swung the door open.  The room was spacious enough for Chris, though it may have been too small for others.  Chris immediately threw his bag onto the floor and lay down on the soft carpet of the room.  Chris’s eyes found a box that seemed to contain the frame of a bed.  Apparently, they had to assemble their own beds in this school.  Chris ignored his bed and fell asleep in the floor.

Chris awoke who knows how long later to the sounds of music and frustration.  Chris’s mouth was dry upon awaking and his body felt sore from the sleep on the floor.  Chris raised himself from the ground and looked again at the box on the floor.  Not yet, he told himself.   Chris made his way into the hall and found a water fountain.  The water was cool and refreshing after a good nap.  As Chris returned to his dorm he noticed the music was getting louder.  He hadn’t noticed the source of the noise when he left to find the water fountain, but at this point he could hear the music coming from the room next to him.  Chris decided to introduce himself to the neighbor.

Chris knocked on the door once, opened it, and peered into the room.  On floor he found a girl fiddling around with the bed kit and looking very defeated.  Chris smiled and introduced himself “Hello neighbor!  Need some help with that?” His voice betrayed his Swedish nationality.

"Ack!" the girl squeaked.
Her body stretched out reactively and bumped into some pieces of puzzled together wood that had been set up for other steps in the bed making process. They clanked around unceremoniously but no real damage happened to any of it.

Makoto slipped off one of many hair ties around her wrist, threw her hair up into a chunky sort of half-ponytail half-bun and tried to make herself look a little more presentable to her room's first guest.
"H-HEY THERE!" she yelled. "SORRY IF-"
She grasped for her phone and tried to get rid of the music pouring out of it. Her face heated up like grease in a frying pan when it finally shut up.
"Sorry if it was too loud," a much meeker Makoto answered. "They um, they said it was alright."

She noticeably paused. "N-neighbor."
The concept shouldn't have been entirely foreign and yet it was. She hadn't really met anyone, between moving boxes in and using the restroom and getting some water. But there he was. Her first neighbor.
"U-um," her mind trailed back. "Yeah. I guess, if you could help figure out these instructions, that's.. that'd be cool."
Smooth, Makoto. Real smooth.

Chris chuckled to himself as the girl in front of him nearly jumped out of her skin. The girl turned off the music and apologized to Chris. Chris smiled and nodded trying to convey that it was alright. Chris didn’t mind the music and he might have preferred it be left on, but Chris was also very excited to meet his first neighbor. Chris had never lived in a dorm before, so the concept of having someone his age live in the room next to him was a little strange, but Chris was interested in helping this girl. Perhaps it was just to make friends with someone new, but more likely it was the fact that he was pretty lonely at this school and didn’t really have anyone to talk. The two reasons weren’t exactly exclusive, but they seemed to represent to Chris two entirely different ideas.

After getting the girl’s approval, Chris stepped into her room. Her room looked exactly the same as his; except, Chris’s room didn’t have various pieces and parts scattered about. Chris squatted down and picked up the instructions. They were long and complicated, but, being from Sweden, there was nothing on there he hadn’t seen before. Chris had had to help his mother many times in putting together furniture. He welcomed the chance to relive those experiences.

Chris gave out a sigh and collapsed to his knees. “Tis cewd be long, are jou okay with tat?” Chris looked at the parts lying sprawled out on the ground and began to assemble them in piles according to the directions. The pieces seemed random, and Chris was sure that there could have been an easier way to put this bed together, but he continued following the directions despite the fact. The girl had gotten a short way into the list before Chris had interrupted, and from what Chris could tell she had been doing pretty well for herself despite her defeated aura. Chris continued where the girl had left off. Chris began to put this with that and that with this until the pieces looked similar to the directions. First, step down, many steps to go Chris thought to himself. After completing his first step, Chris turned to the girl in the room. “I’m Chris White. What is jour name?”

She already regretted asking for help the moment he entered her room. Sure, she'd probably want it putting the bigger pieces together later, maybe screwing in some more of the stubborn chunks of wood together into their not-always-the-best holes. She wasn't ready for any social interaction just yet. Class would've been a great place to start. You're kind of forced to talk to people there anyway. She figured it would have been a long time before she really had to talk to any roommates but no, there he was. Her neighbor.

Makoto took him in while he fiddled with parts she had left scattered around the room, her mental map knowing why this was there and that wasn't. Big. Much bigger than she was. Taller to boot. His face and complexion didn't match the region at all, but maybe that was the case of everyone here? Short of the teachers, she hadn't really met anyone else. Maybe they were all foreigners.

Some hair brushed past her face as she forced out a smile. Even if Makoto didn't want the help, it'd be easier with four hands.
"That's fine it's, it'd take long anyway," her voice trailing off at the end.
She didn't bother standing up and scooted across the floor, gathering up the pieces that used to be next to her.
"The um, screws in this plank are in the wrong holes though," and busied herself with that, trying to take as long as possible to get them out. The rest of the bed could wait. It wasn't going anywhere fast.

A mild distraction at best, she directed her attention again to the guy in her room. Its first real guest. What a great time to visit. The accent and formality was incredibly weird to her but really, why worry about it when that would just make things take longer. She pushed through.
"H-hi Chris, I am Makoto."
Her voice choked up on something before she finished talking and had to clear her throat out. Some phlegm? A frog? Anxiety welling up in the pit of her stomach and forcing its way out?
"Makoto Mizuno," came out much clearer.

Chris nodded towards the girl.  “Nice to meet jou, Makoto.”  He was now smiling quite widely.  Chris could sense the hesitancy in the girl’s voice, and he thought her nervousness adorable.  Chris got his first good look at the girl whose room he had just barged into.  She was much smaller than he was; in fact, she was super tiny.  Chris wondered for a moment if she was some sort of super genius that was a nine year old attending high school, but he discounted this fact rather quickly.  A super genius probably wouldn’t have needed his help, but a normal high school student would certainly have trouble with the directions.  Chris looked her over once more from a sidelong glance and asked “How old are jou? What grade?”  

Chris returned to his work and shifted his focus away from Makoto.  After a few minutes of sticking this with that and unscrewing this and screwing that, Chris was able to produce the beginnings of a bed frame, but he still had some work to do until it was finished.  The heat had gotten to Chris at this point and sweat began to dampen his forehead.  Chris wiped his brow and turned back to Makoto.  “I’ll get uz sum use. Iz hot in ‘ere.” Chris stood to leave the room and examined his progress.  

After exiting the room he gave a slight sigh of relief. Even though he was the one who barged into her room, he was still nervous meeting another person. Chris felt that he had been unfair in inviting himself in and that he had been to pushy through out the whole situation. He was thoroughly disappointed in his actions. Makoto was obviously timid and around timid people you must be cautious. Despite his guilty feelings, Chris went to the kitchen. It was rather large and it took him a couple of tries to find the cabinet with cups. Chris grabbed two and made his way to the refrigerator. From the fridge, Chris pulled out a bottle of juice. Chris filled the two glasses and returned to the room. After opening the door slowly, he handed Makoto a cup.  

Chris leaned his back against the wall and faced Makoto.  Chris took a sip of his juice and then said to Makoto, “I used to go to school in Sweden.  Where are jou coming from?”  The question was out of the blue, but Chris was curious.  He had figured that students had to come from somewhere; after all, he had transferred from another country.  It couldn’t be too farfetched that there was an interesting story behind it.

The infernal Sweedish bed wasn't going to just finish themselves. She gathered herself and played along with Chris' game. It was harmless to a point afterall.
"I'm 14. Just started this year."
Makoto let him fiddle with the bed - at this rate he had more muscle than she did anyway - until he exhausted himself. Enough to want to leave and get refreshments, anyway. Which miraculously he did.

Her cue was the moment he left the room. She counted back from three, grabbed a wayward pillow, and filled it with bloody murder. Thoughts raced her mind. Why am I so awkward? This isn't the real me, is it? Why did I even come to this academy? Oh my god Makoto what are you dooooing?

The fit stopped well enough to slam together some more bed pieces. They fit snug as rugs and creaked just like a new bed should. The steps weren't that hard. She was just sick of doing it at this point. Chris' return prompted Makoto to fall back in to her little hole. His question just happened to throw dynamite in before the free fall.
"I uh."
She had pushed it back so far in her mind. Her reasons for coming to Zela Academy in the first place. There was probably some real reason, sure, but what was it? All she could come up with were half truths, not quite lies, plausible stories that skirted reality and all that.
"I just got lucky with some placement tests, I guess."
His rapid fire questions gave her at least some edge to press a little further.
"What about you? Where are 'jou' coming from? What's 'jour' deal?" her tone half joking at this point.
Any anxiety or regrets for trying to be a little silly were quickly drowned with juice. Sweet, delicious and forgiving juice.

“What is my deal?” Chris thought on the question as he repeated it. “Weel, I lef Sweden a two months ago.” Chris didn’t know why, but he suddenly had the urge to disclose everything about himself, put it all out in the open. He had the urge to tell Makoto all about his past and the events that led him to enroll at Zela Academy, but he suppressed his words. Perhaps, Chris wanted to tell her, so that she would know that it was okay to open up to him. Chris had previously noticed nervousness in Makoto’s voice, but he didn’t want to draw too much attention to it. Now, however, she seemed to be on the offensive. Chris really was unsure how to respond. He went back to fiddling with the parts for a second. After a few minutes, Chris continued his answer.

“I lef Sweden, because I was close to death.” Chris didn’t think the words sounded right. “Not my, but my mom’s death. She alone had risen me from a baby in Sweden.” Chris stopped for a moment, and his gazed drifted away from the parts and to the ceiling. His eyes were kind of watering, but it was really hard to see in the light. “My dad lef Sweden much sooner than me. Sisteen jears sooner. He came here, so when Mom dies, I came here.” Chris’s gaze returned to Makoto. At this point, his eyes were dried and he began to smile again. He took a drink of juice. “Sorry, didn’t mean to frighten jou.”

Chris went back to working on the bed. Silently, he breezed through the instructions making plenty of progress. Chris wasn’t feeling angry or annoyed. In fact, he was happy to get the situation off of his chest. He hadn’t realized how much better he would feel after talking about it with someone. Even though Chris had opened up, he realized how awkward that must have been for Makoto. He wanted to think of something to say that would make her feel better, but he was drawing a blank. He had wanted to make Makoto feel better about opening up, but after thinking back on what he had said, it was likely that it had the opposite effect. Fearing chastisement or worse humiliation, he continued working, and ultimately completed most of the bed.

(( My bad, had some stuff come up this weekend. ))

'That's it, I went too far,' she thought.
Chris opened up to her in a way Makoto wasn't ready to. That's fine, of course. There was no reason for her to spill her guts to what could have been a stranger before he stumbled in. But still. She felt a little pressured about it. Partially because she had said so little, and partially because he said so much more.
All she could really register from him bearing so much was a meager, "Sorry."

She'd be content working on the bed silently from this point on but an apology still nipped at the back of her neck. I'm sure things will be much better now. I'm glad you don't seem too distraught about it. Hey, at least the food's better here!

Nothing came out. She helped screw in the few remaining pieces and was ready to flip the frame over and try this whole conversation thing over again. Something ate at her still and she let it out for a walk. She stared up at the ceiling.
"At least you don't have to worry about dumb beds anymore.." she murmured.

By the time the two had wrapped up making the bed, Chris was far from over the situation; in fact, he returned to his normal smiling and slightly cheerful demeanor.  When Makoto finally spoke again, Chris was caught off guard.  As he registered her words his smile slightly flickered and his demeanor became slightly defeated.  Chris let out something halfway between a bubbly laugh and a distraught sigh.

“That’s not truly true,” Chris said casting his eyes to the ground.  Chris looked back up to Makoto.  He gave a motion towards his own room. “Jour bed is finished, but no mine.”

Chris gathered himself and plastered a silly smile onto his face.  He approached Makoto in a rather sincere fashion.  The way relatives would approach each other when they were leaving a party.  Chris looked at the small frame of Makoto and debated how he should send himself off.  Chris debated whether he should give her a hug or should pat her on the head, but, fearing that those would be too endearing for the shy Makoto, Chris offered her a simple handshake and a “God natt!”

Chris made his way to her door, but before exiting he turned back around.  He gave a simple smile and wave before saying, “Tack jou for letting me help.  And if jou ever need something or need someone to talk to, jou can find me there.”  At this point, Chris once again pointed to his room.  Finally, giving a farewell nod he exits and opens the door to his room.  Chris happily bounds over to the box of parts and begins working on his own puzzle of bed pieces.

A few parlor level farewells and the ordeal was about over. Sure, he had his own bed to finish, but Makoto had neither the strength nor the stamina to endure putting together another one. Chris gave his little handshake and a 'good night' of sorts, and Makoto followed in suit.
"Night, Chris. Good luck, I guess."
She at least gave him a little wave when he pointed to his room, a fake smile and a nod, yes yes you have a room too we all have rooms in this dorm filled with rooms for everyone that needs rooms, and patiently waited for him to leave her room. She counted backwards. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

Makoto slowly crept up to her ajar door and gingerly pushed it shut. She pre-twisted the knob and gently turned it to latch it into place. Her little quiet game successful, she practically dove for the finished bed and kicked up any beddings to bury herself in.
"Makoto we're not doing that for a while, okay?" she assured herself in her little blanket fort.
It wasn't that she didn't like Chris as a person. He was human, surprise! She didn't think he'd quite 'get' things the way she did. Her phone slid out of her back pocket and flickered light in the dark cave she built, content to sheath Makoto in light, or as long as its battery would last, at least.

Time lost tangibility. A minute. Ten minutes. An hour. Any of these amounts of it could have passed since she crawled into her safe little place. Even so, she felt a fleeting purpose that needed to be completed before today would truly be fulfilling. She slipped a black flouncy skirt over the sweatpants - practically hiding in plain view, but it at least made her feel a little better about her presentation - and made her way back outside of her much larger cave.

Makoto's feet could barely manage to get her to their destination so they at least got her to her neighbor Chris' room's doorway. They all took a ground perch right in front, careful to not breech whatever invisible barrier that separated the hallway and his room. He might not have even been in there, but she needed to get it off her being.
"Look, I'm sorry I can't open up to you like you can. Things are more.. complicated than that, alright?"
She played back what she said in her mind. More complicated than someone dying, Makoto? No. No it was. People die all the time. Less than a part of one percent of the world's population goes through things like she has.
"But if.." she visibly bit her lower lip and cringed a side of her face, "If you need any help with uh your bed, lemme know."

Chris’s happiness was short lived. The longer he toiled over the enigma that was his bed, the more he felt irked by the outcome of events. He may have tried to settle things with his last comments to Makoto, but he felt his words seemed hollow and inappropriate. He knew that it was unlikely that she would ever stop by and consult him about her problems. Chris figured that she would rather open up to any other person than him. Chris believed he had been too aggressive, and his aggressiveness and enthusiasm had ruined his first chance to make a friend in Azores. Chris wished that he wasn’t so straight forward in his one sided conversation. Chris regretted walking into that room, enrolling in this school, and moving to Azores. Perhaps it would have been better if he had stayed in Sweden and worked to support himself without finishing high school. Chris debated this thought as he worked. Had he stayed in Sweden, he would have remained with his friends, but now and here he was all alone. Chris was not angry at Makoto, but was disappointed in himself. Chris let out a sigh and apathetically worked on the bed.

Chris was nearly finished when he heard footsteps at his door. He turned around in time to see and hear Makoto apologizing to him. Chris was dumbfounded. He didn’t know the words to say to express how he felt. Instead he held a stoic gaze as Makoto continued talking. Chris listened to her words. She had said that things were more complicated for her. Chris’s life was pretty complicated, but on this point he seemed to concede. He began to lower his guard that had formed and returned to normal spirits. Perhaps the things that Makoto had gone through were more complicated. Maybe, the struggles that Makoto was facing were not as easy to explain as a death of a close relative. Chris also struggled with many things that were hard to explain. Chris could relate to what she was saying and determined that he would not press her on the matter any farther. Chris was content with her response.

And then, she asked if Chris could use help. Honestly, Chris had almost finished the bed entirely himself, but something told him that it would be best to take Makoto up on her offer. Perhaps that action could work to mend the tear in the relationship that Chris had caused. But, Chris didn’t want to put Makoto off by once again acting brashly and aggressively. Instead, Chris decided to keep it simple by answering with a flat “Almost done, but jou could help finish up. If jou’d like.”

Makoto rolled up her sleeves a little bit. She'd already let some guards down and a couple more chain links weren't going to hurt anybody today. Chris' offer to let her help out was the final push she needed to allow herself into his room, though not without excusing herself in first.

She tinkered with what bits were left - honestly looking at it and where the instructions were at this point, it was hard to say why he would have needed her help at this point - and felt a little bit of pride. Returning something that was offered to her in a nice sort of way.

He'd probably never understand why, she didn't really think that he would anyway, but regardless. Makoto kept her gaze on the work being done but forced a smile, a genuine smile, out of her crooked little mouth.
"Thanks for letting me help."

The bed was easy to finish.  It didn’t take more than a few minutes.  After the final pieces were put together, Chris turned to his guest.  She thanked him for letting her help.  Chris jumped onto the bed face first.  He enjoyed its softness.  For a moment he became consumed in the mattress and the pillow encased his head.   Chris was satisfied with the way things were going with Makoto, soChris decided not to apologize about the little work that was left.  Instead, he peeked above the pillow and said, “No, thank jou for jour help finishing bed.  It was a fun experiment (experience).”

Chris rose from the bed and threw the pillow to the side.  He walked over to Makoto in order to give her a proper departure. Chris held out his hand for a shake again. At the last moment, Chris decided to tease Makoto slightly before she returned to her room.  Instead of shaking her hand, Chris pulled his hand away and gave in to a desire that had been tearing at him since meeting the girl.  He gave the girl’s vulnerable head a good couple of pats.  Chris looked down at Makoto and smiled.  He had had a good day and he was sure that the two could eventually become good friends.  Giving final words of good-bye, Chris said, “We chould han out a times.  Just let me know if jou ever want to.”