Emily waited patiently for the landlord to arrive and thought it strange when she saw a taxi cab pull up and a young woman, around the same age as her, with blue hair stepped out. She thought nothing of it though, until she came over with a duffel bag over her shoulder. Was she moving in? What about the listing and the tour she was supposed to get? She then figured she had been duped and frowned, almost on the verge of tears, but she sucked them back in and was about to head to her car when a voice stopped her. She turned to look at the blue-haired girl.

"No, I'm not the landlord." she responded. "I came here, looking to rent the place. I've been looking forever for a cheap place to rent while I go to college and work part time. I've been living with my sister and I don't want to keep mooching off of her, when I can get a place of my own. I called to check the place out and they told me I could see it right now."

Just as she finished speaking, a white car pulled into the drive of the old house, and an older woman, probably about forty, stepped out. She walked over and looked at them both. "Are you Jade and Emily?" She asked. "I'm sorry for bringing you both out here at the same time, but I need to catch a flight tomorrow, and I was hoping to rent this place out before I left." She said. "Both of you called at the same time, so I apologize. The rent is $500 dollars a month, and that includes electricity and water. If you want internet you have permission to get it set up inside. The house is old, but my mother made sure to keep it up to date with plumbing and wiring, and the roof is new. You shouldn't have any problems, but the market for selling houses is horrid right now, and I don't want to deal with all that paperwork. So, since you both are here, and the house is big enough, you could rent it together. Plenty of room. There's three bedrooms, a small library/office and two bathrooms. A nice kitchen and dining room. But here, since you'll probably want to see the inside, I'll give you a tour."

The lady talked fast, and Emily could barely keep up. She honestly didn't care if she had to share the place, as long as she got one. The lady motioned for her and Jade to follow her to the door while she unlocked it. She did introduce herself as Mrs. Mary Kingston. Emily looked over to Jade as Mrs. Kingston was giving the tour. "If you want to go halvsies on the rent of this place, I don't mind. This place is big enough to where we don't even have to bump into each other much. What do you think?" She asked.

After a brief tour, showing off the rooms, the kitchen, bathroom and what not, she couldn't believe how lucky she was to have seen the listing on the site when she did. After the tour and the lady was waiting for their decision she looked at Jade. "I'm fine with that, I don't really party so there's no problem there. I'm pretty quiet and reserved, and I don't see me bringing anyone over much less a group of people.." she drifted off slightly. "So since we're both in agreement, what now?" she asked after she turned to Mrs. Kingston.

Mrs. Kingston opened a briefcase that she was carrying, that Emily didn't even notice she had, and opened it. She pulled out a long piece of paper and went over to the kitchen counter. "I just need you to both sign this lease. I know there's usually credit checks and all that, but I'm in such a hurry I'm going to go on good faith and trust you both. I won't even ask for a down payment. Whatever we could get for this place would be a loss, so that's why we're renting it so cheap." she fished a pen from her bag and then held it out for Emily. "So once you sign it, I'll give you a set of keys. You'll have to make a copy since there's only one." she said looking at Jade. "But as long as you send in the rent on time, we'll be golden. The address to send the rent is on the lease."

Emily took the pen from Mrs. Kingston and then signed her name on the bottom of the lease. She read through the agreement making sure that there were no hidden things that'd screw them over later. Once she was done she handed the pen to Jade. "Here you go."

Mrs. Kingston smiled at them both and took the paper. "Well that's all done now! Thank you ladies for helping us out by renting the place." She said as she put the signed paper back into her suitcase and handed Emily the keys. "Enjoy the house. You guys can move in immediately." she told them both and then headed out of the house.

Emily looked at the keys and was elated and slightly worried. It seemed too easy, but there was no deposit and if anything bad happened she could worse case scenerio go back to her sister. She pulled out her phone and was about to call her sister when Jade spoke to her. "Pizza? Oh I still need to grab my things and come back. I probably won't be back tonight, I need to pack up my things. I've been living with my sister for a while. You're welcome to stay here though while I'm gone. And Emily, please." she said referring to the name Jade gave her.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Emily...well as you know. Emily Rivers. I will be majoring in English Lit, with a minor in art. I love reading and writing, so I hope to learn from the greats to possibly write a great novel some day." She said. She smiled slightly. "Since you're going to be here tonight, is it ok if I go ahead and take the keys with me? I'll stop by the hardware store and get a copy for you. Let me call my sis and tell her what happened."

Emily pulled out her phone and called her sister. She told her she got the house, and how she was going to be rooming with another college student. She gave her all the details and then told her, she'd be home soon. "Okay that's done." she said coming back over to Jade.

"I feel bad for deserting you on the first night, but I won't get anything done if I don't go tonight and come back tomorrow." she said putting her phone into her pocket. "I wouldn't mind the room to the left of the landing upstairs. It has a great shape and it's since it's facing North I won't have to worry about too much sun." she said thinking about curtains.

When Jade replied about seeing her tomorrow she nodded. "Oh yes, we should definitely celebrate. This will be my first time living with someone besides family, so I admit I'm a bit nervous. You seem pretty cool, so I hope we can get along." she smiled. "We plan more when I get back tomorrow." she said finally and then she left Jade alone to get settled for the night.

She got into her car and drove back to her sisters' place. Her sister helped her gather things into boxes and pack them into the back of her car and trunk so she wouldn't have to load them the next day. Luckily her bed was easy to disassemble. There was the issue about the mattress, since it wouldn't fit in her car, so they asked her sisters' neighbor who owned a pick up truck if he could help her move her bigger things. She had the long bed pieces, a dresser, a nightstand and a desk that all needed to be moved to the new house. The neighbor agreed to help so, they carried all of her things to the back of his truck and tied it down to be ready to go the next morning.

For that night, Emily slept on her sisters' couch, since her bed packed up. She didn't mind though, the couch was comfy enough. As she laid back in bed, she thought about how Jade was doing at that moment. She knew sometimes big empty houses could be spooky, though Jade looked tough enough to not be scared about being alone. She planned the lay out of her room in her head, until she fell asleep.

{{You're fine. Later posts are usually shorter anyway so it's ok}}

{{ I'm going to skip to the next day}}

Emily woke up at 9am the next morning. Her sister was already up, getting ready for work. Her sister worked as an assistant at a law firm, so she did pretty well for herself. She was actually studying to be a lawyer like their mother, so she was learning while on the job. Emily grabbed a quick shower and then grabbed a banana and downed a glass of milk before she went over to the neighbors' house to get him to follow her to the new house. She drove her loaded car to the large house and pulled up front while the neighbor backed his truck into the driveway.

Emily unlocked the door, and mentioned she had a room mate, so try and be as quiet as possible in case Jade was still asleep. Emily and the neighbor managed to get the boxes and furniture up the stairs somewhat quietly. She then thanked the neighbor and he drove off. Emily grabbed her tools and started to put her bed frame back together quietly as she sat on the floor with a screwdriver. She had put her ear buds in, listening to music from her phone as she worked.

Once she got all the furniture placed where she wanted she placed the mattress onto the bed, made the bed then started going through her boxes. Most of her clothing was in her dresser, but some in boxes went into the closet. She hummed to the music as she went to and fro, putting things away. Putting posters on walls, decor in corners, there was a bathroom in the middle between the two rooms upstairs so she placed her bathroom toiletries on one corner of the counter and then she grabbed a notebook and a pen to write out stuff that she'd need aside from food.

She went downstairs to access the furniture situation. They'd need a couch, a TV, and call to get internet hooked up. Luckily there was a fridge already, and a stove. There was a microwave, but it looked old, so they'd probably replace it. When she went upstairs she noticed at the end of the hall, a rectangle slit in the ceiling. There was a loop at the end so she found something to pull it down, and a set of stairs slid into place leading into the attic.

Slowly she stepped up into the attic. It was dusty and dirty, and in one corner there was a grouping of old furniture. "Oh, they must have moved the landlord's mothers' stuff up here...well some of it anyway." she said to herself as she went over. The furniture pieces were covered with sheets but she could make out a sofa, and a coffee table. There was also a tall, standing mirror with a sheet on it. She slid the sheet off and for a moment she thought she saw the surface shimmer, but she chalked that up, to a trick of the light coming in from the window. "I'll have to show Jade this stuff when she's up." she said. Then she remembered she was supposed to go make a copy of the key the landlady gave her so she went back down to the second floor and pushed the attic stairs back into place before grabbing her car keys and bag and driving off to the local hardware store.

Emily returned shortly, after getting a copy of the front door key. She went into the house, an saw Jade waiting for her. "Oh hello!" she said as she put her bag by the door since they'd be going out later. "I got my stuff moved upstairs. I figured you were sleeping so I was quite as possible. OH! also, here." she said handing the extra to Jade. "Now you have your own key, so you can come and go as you please and not have to worry about being locked out.' She smiled.

She then remembered about the furniture she found in the attic. "While I was checking the house, making a list of stuff we'd need, I discovered the attic. There's some stuff up there under sheets, we might be able to use. That'd save us some money if we can bring it down and clean them off. There's also a really old, standing mirror there. It's so ancient! It's like one of those ones that can be adjusted by pushing backward or forward. It might be worth something, if you don't want to use it." She prattled on. "Did you want to go shopping for some food now?" she asked.

Emily wanted to show the furniture to Jade, so she took her up to the attic first. Shopping could wait. She slid the sheets off the rest of the stuff that was stored up there. The sofa was still in pretty good condition, it just was dusty. Everything else, the coffee table, and she noticed another low table, perfect for a TV to sit on, as well as a bookcase against the wall she missed last time. "What do you think?" she asked brushing her hand over the fabric of the sofa. "It's not too worn down or dirty, I think it'll do for now until we absolutely need to replace it." she said.

She then went over to the mirror she also mentioned and motioned for Jade to come over. "Look at this mirror. I don't personally want to keep it, but it might be worth something..." she said brushing a hand over the hand carved wood that was holding the mirror in place. "Antique stuff like this can be worth a lot if it's in good condition and really old....and this looks really old." she mused quietly. If Jade noticed the surface of the mirror, she too would see the ripple across like Emily did earlier. Emily was behind it, inspecting it for scratches or any imperfections.

Emily popped her head around the edge of the mirror from behind. "I...guess maybe they stored it up here as mementos of their mom. Perhaps we shouldn't use any of this stuff...if we break it Mrs Kingston might get mad..." she said looking at all neat stuff. "We should cover it back up and just go on with our original plan." she said getting ready to recover the furniture with the sheets. She left the mirror for last, covering it with sheet with some effort, since it was taller than her.

"Why don't we check out the thrift store? We might get lucky and find a couch or something there? Better then picking up one brand new or off the side of the road." she said with a slight laugh. "Come on, we can use my car to go into town, and get some groceries and check the local thrift store."

Emily started back down the attic steps and waited for Jade to follow suit, so she could close the staircase back up into the ceiling. She brushed off some dust from her clothes as she went to grab her bag and car keys so they could head out. "Lets make a list of what kind of food we'll need." she said picking up her small note pad and a pen. The same one she used when she surveyed the house earlier on what they'd need furniture wise.

(( I didn't want to get into the "Narnia" world thing until a bit later. Gives us time to 'bond' as room mates and develop characters))

As they drove to the store she thought a moment. "I'm not really allergic to anything really. I don't really care for milk, like to just drink but I don't mind it if it's in stuff. Like cereal." she said and then while they were at a stop light she handed Jade her pen and notebook. "Here write down what you want to get from the store, so we can get everything. We can get separate food if we rather just be two entities sharing a house but nothing else. I usually get the staples. Cereal, bread, peanut butter and jelly, milk for the cereal, and like whatever food I want to eat that week. Since I'll be starting school, I really won't have much time to cook like my mom did. So probably a lot of take out or TV dinners I guess?" she said looking at Jade.

When they arrived at the grocery store, Emily suggested they take two separate carts and meet at the car. "You go ahead and get what you need." She said tearing the list Jade made from her note pad. "And I'll do the same. Meet at my car and then we'll head back home." she smiled as she took off in the direction of where she needed to go. She hummed to herself again as she went down her list and proceeded to grab the things she could use. Ramen, instant mac n cheese, TV dinners with low calories, some fruit and veggies to snack on. She wasn't big on junk food, she only splurged once in a while, for like Oreos or potato chips, but aside from that she kept to being somewhat healthy.