That sounded very promising.
That’s when the front door opened again, and a blonde girl with excessive makeup, a pink miniskirt, a crop top of the same color, and sunglasses entered the first floor. A pink Louis Vuitton handbag dangled from her arm.
The third and final girl from the parking lot. The embodiment of Barbie.
With a mocking look, she glanced at me, then at Larissa, and finally at the cousins. Then she turned outside and called out in her squeaky voice, “Mr. Hendricks, take the bags up to my room!”
Then she walked down the hall with her head held high as if we were thin air and disappeared up the stairs in her killer high heels. As she did so, I wondered how she had even made it here in those shoes without breaking at least one of her legs on the wooden walkway.
“Oh my god, Vi, Amber! I missed you so much!” we suddenly heard her shout from above, at which point another girl started shrieking excitedly. This must have been the girl with the nail file. Amber.
This was followed by the clacking of a lock, and all we could hear were a few muffled snatches of conversation and loud laughter.
Then, hearing nothing more, Larissa and Grace started laughing at the same time.
I couldn’t help but laugh along, and even Julie grinned slightly.
“Oh my gosh! I missed you guys soooo much!” Grace mimicked the girl, and Larissa and I grinned even wider.
“Yet I just met the three of them a few days ago while shopping!”
My words finally released the tension in the room, and we couldn’t help but laugh loudly until the door opened for the fourth time, and we all abruptly fell silent.
A slightly chubbier man in his mid-fifties was struggling with two pink suitcases. He dragged them through the first floor toward the stairs. Poor guy.
Quietly, but still with a smirk on my lips, I turned back to the email.
“I can’t find anything,” I finally snorted, and Larissa came over to me. She looked at the laptop as if she knew her way around it but came to the same conclusion.
“Mh, maybe try the secretary’s office?”
“Now?” I asked, turning to her.
“What are you looking for?”
Julie had joined in our little conversation. She seemed genuinely interested, so I didn’t hesitate for long.
“I just didn’t get one of those emails that listed my lecture halls.”
“Wait a minute...” She tapped away on her keyboard a few times before showing me her screen.
What in the world?
“Wow, are you some kind of computer genius?” It came from Larissa, who was also looking in amazement at the list of my specific seminar rooms and lecture halls.
Julie sheepishly brushed one of her ash blonde strands behind her ear.
“These are just the room schedules.... Nothing special.”
“Julie the humble computer genius,” Grace sighed, coming over to the table with a pan and trivet. “She’s been doing this for years.”
Julie pinched her lips together and avoided our gaze.
“Can I take a picture of it?” I asked her kindly, to which she nodded in modesty.
And then I wondered how she knew what I was studying, but before I could ask her, Larissa had already spoken up, and in addition, snatched the laptop from Julie.
“Hey, look, we have the first seminar together.”
Indeed, Larissa had told me she would start with English tomorrow.
“We have them all together because we’re in a housing complex,” Grace called out from the kitchen.
“But it’s funny that English is mandatory for everyone here? That’s more of a foundation subject then, isn’t it?”
Larissa’s question reminded me of the differences between the Canadian and American education systems. There were some. And on top of that, there were the Vanderwood’s special regulations.
“Yeah, I guess,” Grace said with a shrug, returning with spaghetti. “Where are you guys from?”
Almost simultaneously, we answered, “California.”
She looked between us, impressed. “God, am I jealous.... And then you guys came here? To Blairville?”
Finally, someone who understood my suffering.
“She moved here with her mother. I just didn’t want to leave her alone.”
Typical Larissa.
