ARE YOU READY!?
The growly, hard voice shouted the question over Tomika's dual sub-woofer stereo, then quickly filled the room with a the rough, exciting rumble of electric guitars. The base vibrated the fabric on her long night cloths, which consisted of a pair of thin red cotton pants and a plain white bra. She stood there for a moment, enjoying the feeling of the deep reaching noise blasting through her, and no doubt, into her neighbors room as well. It wasn't something that even crossed her mind though, she was used to the thick stone walls of her previous school, built to insulate the rooms from the loud noises of the services occurring down the hall. With her playlist established, she turned to start getting ready.
With a groan, Arietta curled up deeply into her blankets, pressing her pillow tightly against her head. Even with ear plugs it would've been no use. She could feel the base pounding within her, almost like a miniature earthquake. Finally, with a groan, Arietta sat up in her bed and rubbed her temples. The music was giving her a headache. As a recording artist, she was used to the loud instrumental music that blasted behind her as her own voice was amplified by a microphone. She was used to the cacophony of fan's voices screaming at her in approval.
This was something totally different.
After she smoothed down her messy hair, Arietta made her way over to the living room to get herself some breakfast. She grimaced as she realized that the music would probably sound even louder in there.
Tomika sang loudly along with the metal, basically kicking in the door to the living room. Her antics took her roughly to the center of the living room, now wearing a skirt in place of her night pants, as she loudly moved all sorts of things in search of her socks.
"God thinks we will never see the light, who wants to see?
God told me, I've already got the life, oh I see..."
She screamed the lyrics in an excited, almost shrill, and certainly off pitch voice. In all reality, it was pretty god damned awful, and even now she seemed totally oblivious to her room mate who had entered the room only moments before her.
When she finally did notice, several things came to her attention all at once.
she was being a loud obnoxious fucker, she was only dressed from the waste down, and she had still not located her socks.
As the last thought lingered in her mind, she peered across the room in morbid embarrassment. She didn't even know who this person was, having only moved in the day before.
Arietta cringed visibly. She was blessed with the gift of having perfect pitch, and the obviously off-key singing to the music was physically painful for her to hear. How was it possibly to be off by that much? If this was how every morning was going to begin, Arietta didn't know if she would survive.
She didn't notice Tomika looking at her due to the nauseous feeling that the music had caused. Arietta didn't feel like eating at the moment, but she knew that she needed to, especially on the first day of school. Slinking over to the fridge, she grabbed a carton of milk to eat some cereal with.
Tomika watched the new person ignore her entirely, and wander off into the kitchen. She gave a slight shrug and knocked the couch over onto it back with a kick, "AH!" she excitedly scooped up her socks, threw them on, and chased Arietta into the kitchen. She had to yell at her to be heard over the music.
"ARE YOU MAKING BREAKFAST? MAYBE PANCAKES?!"
Then, somewhat disappointed, watched her gather the things she would need for a simple cereal. She wasn't in the least put off by this turn of events, and instead reached for her own bowl, and dropping it on the counter where she assumed her room mate would be making her own.
Leaning back on the counter, Tomika pulled a little remote from the elastic of her skirt, and punched a button. The music instantly stopped, leaving a deafening sound vacuum for the two to contend with.
"Oh ah, I'm Tomika by the way."
Arietta jumped in surprise as her roommate charged towards her, nearly dropping the box of cereal. Thankfully, she managed to retain her grip on it. Cereal is a pain to clean up. Shaking some cereal into her bowl, she turned and offered the other girl the box.
When the music was turned off, Arietta visibly relaxed as she let out a soft sigh. With a small smile, she murmured, "I'm Arietta." The silence, though sudden was a lot more comfortable than before--but she could still swear she felt the base.
Tomika calmly took the box and started pouring out a generous ration of fruit loops for herself. Just the act of turning off the music seemed to have taken her down several notches. She calmly moved to the table, gathering a pair of spoons on the way, and sat in one of the metal chairs, muttering something about it being cold on her bare back. "Arietta, interesting name. Is it french?"
"My last name is Rosetti if that's any indication. It's Italian." Arietta replied rubbing her temples once again. She looked up for the first time and saw her roommate for the first time, and immediately blushed.
"Er.... You could always wear a top if the chair is too cold..." She remarked awkwardly, looking away.
Tomika slowly stood and exited the area. She had assumed when nothing was said in the living room, that was more or less a free pass. nope.
She passed through the annihilated living room, and on into her own. She quickly threw her top on, and looked around for anything else she may need. Giving a slight shrug, she collected her phone and shoes, and moved back into the kitchen, tossing them down on the tile floor.
"I ah...sorry about that. Do you know what we're supposed to be doing today by any chance? i got on campus a little late."
Arietta slowly carried spoonfuls of cereal to her mouth as Tomika got dressed. It's been a while since she has been in America... Was this how people did things nowadays? If so, she's been in Europe for way too long. Standing up, she quickly proceeded to wash the bowl and the spoon.
When Tomika came back, Arietta gave her a wry grin. "I dunno, not destroy the living room? Hold on." Arietta retreated to her room, quickly changed into her uniform and returned with a piece of paper in her hand. "Let's see... We're supposed to be in the auditorium in about thirty minutes, then go to our homeroom."
Tomika glanced past her and into the living room, most of the furniture was upturned or moved several feet. An interesting way to start the morning, if nothing else. she tapped the spoon on her chin as Arietta informed her of the early morning meet. "where's that at? are we going to be late?" She started quickly shoveling down her lucky charms in anticipation of her Arietta's answer.
"As long as we don't take too long and leave in twenty minutes to make sure we give ourselves enough time, we should be fine." Arietta shrugged as her phone buzzed. Glancing over at the screen, she saw that it was just her manager informing her that a schedule had been emailed to her.
Ugh. Too many schedules. So many timely restrictions.
She offered a reassuring smile to Tomika, even though she wanted to sigh and crawl back into bed. "Don't choke, we'll be fine."
Tomika tossed her bowl and spoon into the sink, put the box of cheerios away, and rummaged through the fridge for a moment before extracting a little pouch of sunny-D.
She stabbed the straw through the little plastic circle, and wandered over to Arietta, "so you've been going to this school for a while then huh?"
Arietta shook her head as she slipped her phone into her pocket. "Nope, this is my first year here. I was in Germany until last week, actually. I just managed to work off the jet lag."
Tomika slowly nodded, thinking a bit. "So you're German, with an Italian name." She seemed to say this to no one in particular, however.
"I guess we should go then?"
"Nah, I'm just an American of Italian descent. I'm not German at all. I was just in Europe for a few years on tour and opera-studying purposes." Arietta replied as she retrieved her school supplies. "Let's go."
Tomika quickly threw on her shoes, and scooped up her bag on her way out the door, following Arietta out and through the halls.
For Tomika, the next hour or so was a sleepy eyed blur. She pressed through tons of people, losing Arietta at some point, and then finally locating the assembly by following the crowd. Once there, she found a random seat, stuffed her bag under her chair, and sucked her pouch of Capri-Sun dry, staring off into space as people took their turn telling her about stuff. Before she knew it, people were standing and shuffling out. She hoped thy didn't actually say anything important, because she hadn't heard a word of it.
The next few moments were fairly similar to the rest of her school experiences. Find the locker you were assigned, decide how often you planned to visit your locker VS how many books you wanted to carry, glance over several peoples shoulders as they read their schedule due to her already having lost hers, discern her home room from said glancing, and again press through hordes of people as she made her way to her home room.
once there, she gave a quick glance around the fairly full room, wandered to the back, and sat one chair up from the back from, two chairs to the right from center. she dropped her bag on the ground next to her left foot, and got comfortable.