Moonlight, Chad Meeks-Martin. ✓

𝒙𝒊. new city, new start

❪ ﹟ELEVEN  ❫ ࿐ྂ
━━ NEW YORK CITY !

MOVING TO NEW York was probably the easiest decision Carina had made in a long time. When Martha slowly breached the topic of college to the four then-high school students, now graduates, a little after Richie and Amber's attacks, they all came to realize it was the perfect escape. They'd be able to leave Woodsboro in the past, as well as all of the ghosts that haunt them there. New city, new start.

So, all of them applied to Blackmore University, right in the middle of New York City. The thought process had been that it was easier to blend in in the middle of the city. (If she were to look back on it, it seems that none of them thought about how easy it would be for others to hide too). When they all ended up receiving acceptance letters, it seemed like fate. Tara talked to Sam, who was adamant about coming with them to New York. No one objected, and Carina could see Tara was glad to have her sister stay with her after all those years of the opposite.

So, just like that, the decision was made. Sam and Tara made plans to find an apartment together and put out an anonymous ad to find a third roommate. They'd originally asked if either Carina or Mindy wanted the third room, but the two decided to rent out an apartment in the same building and find a third roommate themselves. That way, they all had someone they could trust with them and none of them were left with complete strangers. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for Chad. Despite being offered each of the free rooms in the apartments, he made the decision to live on-campus in the dorms with a random roommate for the first year.

Because of that decision, the girls picked out an apartment complex only a ten-minute walk from campus. It was easier than they thought because money didn't come to be an obstacle like they first expected. They all got a wealthy sum of compensation after Woodsboro, and Sam and Tara had Sam's years of savings. Carina had more money than she really knew what to do after getting her mom's inheritance, as well as a hefty trust left to her by her mother's grandparents, whom she never got the chance to meet. They left it to her with clear instructions she got it on her 18th birthday, and after seeing the amount, she could only assume they were well-off and didn't have anyone else to give it to. Shortly after making down payments on apartments across the hall from each other and moving in, the four put up their respective anonymous ads for roommates.

Carina thought it would be nice to meet new people and make friends, even if the idea of living with and trusting a stranger did make her a little anxious after everything. She just had to keep telling herself that the chances of something like Woodsboro happening again were really low and it would be good to get out there. And if she made Dewey's old contacts that she still talked to do background checks on all of the applicants, no one gave her a hard time.

They got plenty of replies for their ads right after posting them. In the end, after running extensive background checks, Sam and Tara settled on Quinn Bailey, the daughter of a police chief who had a clear record and a nice personality. Carina and Mindy ended up clicking best with Amaya Oliver, who was from Texas originally and seemed to take no bullshit. She and Mindy got on like a house fire. Both girls moved into their respective apartments once they were confirmed as top choices. Chad has yet to meet his roommate since he's not due to move in until a week or two before classes start, but he knows his name is Ethan Landry and Carina had a background check run on him as well.

Which leads them to now, a month before classes are due to start. Everyone is piled into Sam, Tara, and Quinn's living room, and Carina looks around and smiles at the people around her. Mindy, Tara, and Amaya are all piled on the couch, Sam and Quinn are each in an armchair, Chad is sitting in front of Sam, and Carina is sitting in front of the couch. Amaya and Tara are laughing about some video game they both play, and Chad and Sam are arguing about something she hadn't caught. Throwing her head back, she rests it on the couch cushion and locks eyes with Quinn under the brim of her hat. "What are they talking about, again?"