Finding Elise

Chapter One

     "This is it!" I shouted with glee as my parents pulled up to a cute little house that was painted a bizarre shade of green. I was starting my first year of college and my parents were helping me move in.

     "I think that's one of your roommates." My mom said pointing to a tall girl with ginger hair. She was taking boxes into the house.

     "I'm pretty sure that's Tessa." I said, looking down at the emails I had printed out. One of the pages held a conversation between me and a texastess_18. She described herself as a tree meets Ginny Weasley. She had gotten my email from the landlord and contacted me over the summer, wanting to get acquainted with her roommates. She was a hoot and I already felt like I had a friend.

     My dad stopped the car and I jumped out, forgetting that I had taken my shoes off, and landed hard on the gravel.

     "Ouch!" I cried, scrambling to grab my favorite navy polka dot flats. I slipped them on and started unloading boxes. Tessa came flying out of the house.

     "Elise!" She shouted as she crushed me into a giant hug. "I'm so excited to finally meet you in person." She took some boxes from me and led the way through the front door, talking excitedly.

     The little living room looked cozy with two well worn gray couches facing a small tv stand. A shaggy green and yellow rug lay in the center of the room. To the left stood a table with six mismatched chairs around it. Long green and yellow curtains hung in the windows. Straight ahead was the kitchen. It wasn't huge but it seemed like it would work fine for 4 girls. There was plenty of shelving and storage for all of us. The bedrooms and bathroom were down the hall. Tessa was sharing with a girl named Jackie and my roommate would be someone named Amber.

     We made our way to the second bedroom, post-it notes on the door told me which room to go in. It was empty, Amber obviously hadn't arrived yet. My dad and mom followed us, carrying my bed.

     "Where do you want it?" my dad asked.

     "Um how about over here by the window." I said. I had some pretty curtains that would be perfect to put up here.

     My parents started setting my bed up for me while Tessa and I went to grab more of my stuff.

     "So where are your mom and dad?" I asked Tessa as she helped roll out my suitcases.

     "They made a run to Wal-mart." she said. "Mom wants to stock me up in healthy food." She grimaced. "I'll have to get my cookies and chocolate milk after she leaves. I don't know if I'll survive."

     I laughed. Tessa had told me all about her mother's obsession with fad diets.

     "Where are your brothers?" Tessa asked me all innocently. "Did they not want to help move their baby sister in?"

     I smirked. Tessa knew all about my twin older brothers, David and Trevor. I had shown her pictures. She told me she had fainted from their smoldering hotness. Eww. "They'll be by later. They had stuff to do. Translation: Doing anything but help me move." We laughed.

     By the time we had gotten my room set up and helped Tessa with some things in hers, our other two, unknown roommates had shown up.

     A petite little blonde came walking into the house first. She had big brown eyes hidden behind these thick, black rimmed glasses that she kept pushing up. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun using pencils. She grinned at us and stuck out her hand.

     "Hi I'm Jackie."

     Tessa and I introduced ourselves and offered to help Jackie unload when the door opened again and in waltzed Amber.

     "The fun has arrived!" She sang out, striking a dramatic pose. Amber was a curvy girl with shoulder length, curly brown hair and blue eyes. She wore a bright pink dress, pearls on her ears and the highest pair of white heels I had even seen. Seriously, I don't know how she was walking in them, but I gave her mad props for doing so. She kind of had this manic energy about her, like looking at her would make you tired.

     Tessa, Jackie and I kind of stared for a second until Tessa said, "Ya'll make me feel like Gandalf surrounded by his little hobbits."

     That seemed to break the ice for us as we all broke into laughter and started chatting. I helped Amber carry her stuff into our room. She stopped at the door, her eyes wide.

     I looked at her, a little nervous since I had set up my side of the room without her there. "Are you okay? Is anything wrong?"

     Amber shook her head. "No, I'm just in awe over what you've done."

     I blushed. I go through themes in my decorating and right now I am into polka dots and mint. I had put up gold polka dot wall decals up on the wall that my bed stood along. A mint and white chevron pattern comforter was draped neatly across it which also held several mint and gold patterned pillows. A fluffy white rug lay next to the bed. My shabby white dresser was near the foot of my bed and on it stood an iron statue of the Eiffel tower, a gift from my brother David. He had done a study abroad in France a couple years ago and brought that back to me. He told me he would take me back there someday.

     Amber stepped into the room. "This is fabulous. I might have to redo my whole bedroom scheme to coordinate this."

     "Oh you don't need to do that." I protested. "I'm sure your stuff is great too."

     Amber grinned. "I have a feeling that we are all going to be the best of friends."