Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was a wonder that the recently graduated Crystal Academy student was able to pack all of her dorm belongings into one large traveling trunk. Granted, this particular piece of transportable furniture wasn't to be taken lightly in size; it was easily more than half the size of the short Costa Rican youth, and nearly twice as wide. Fragments of her clothes flapped against its faded leather upholstery, the trunk itself stuffed to the brims, and had it not been for the wheels that were added in as a Do It Yourself after-thought, it would have been impossible to drag it through Destiny City's public transportation system and then some.

Along with the trunk, Alba came supplied with her usual tote bag, an extra side-slung backpack filled with crafting supplies, and the best outfit she could pick out to impress her new suite-mates. She had been elated to find out that there was still dorming available so late into the summer, and though she had to share the space with two other girls, she was happy to know that she would have her own private room and not have to pay a monthly rent to sleep in it. Surely, nothing could go wrong with this arrangement.

The pair of wheels on her trunk made a clicking noise as she pulled her luggage across the hallway of her new home. She studied each numbered door carefully until the address matched the one scribbled to the side of her left palm in purple permanent marker: suite #15. The door had already been opened and left ever so slightly ajar, a sliver of a crack that one could peer through to peek at the residence inside. Butterflies swelled inside Alba's belly. So far she's had excellent luck in meeting people that weren't intolerable, though that never stopped her from becoming nervous.

She took a deep breath and pushed the door open, dragging her trunk inside and gently closing the door behind her. "Oh!" She gasped, stunned by the view that greeted her. The suite was much larger than she was expecting, and extremely well furnished -- everything looked liked something out of a high-class hotel! (well, in Alba's mind, at least). For a moment she felt that she might have intruded into the wrong dorm, but as it were, there were three rooms available, with one of them already occupied by whom she could only assume was her first roommate.

"Hello?" She called out, slipping out of her shoes before venturing towards Elegancia's room. Alba was not going to be the first to dirty up the pristine carpet, if she could help it.

Elegancia -- The name had sounded familiar on the notifying dorm e-mail, and it sounded even more so now as she faced her greeter. Alba nearly quirked an eyebrow upwards at the curtsy, as it was usually customary for her to shake someone's hand or give them a hug and a quick peck on the cheek when they met. No, that introduction was very common in the Crystal Academy, particularly amongst the richer girls of the school. It was very rare that anyone ever curtsied for her without any malice behind it; while her parents might have had some extra change to spare, they felt it was necessary that Alba learned the ways of a penny earned and hadn't given her a credit card to spend to her excess. Most of the rich girls in the school didn't want to bother with a foreign exchange semi-poor student, and well. She was getting entirely too ahead of herself on this one. This is past Crystal. Surely, people wouldn't judge you on your wealth in Sovereign Heights.

She gave a wide smile and curtsied in return, as it was the polite thing to do at this point. "My name is Alba Gale Delores," she replied, the name rolling off her tongue in a brighter, clearer accent than her English words, "But you can call me Alba. It's a pleasure!"

An idle hand grabbed the trunk by the top-most handle and wheeled her luggage closer to her new roommate and the rooms that lay behind her. She peered downward to make sure the wheels weren't leaving any marks on the floor, and satisfied, let it settle against her waist as she stood beside Ele. It would seem that she had already claimed the larger space of the three, brightly colored in brown and pink (such strange colors to paint on a dorm! shouldn't the walls all be neutral?).

"That's a lovely room you've got there, I'm surprised by how colorful it is." Alba remarked, and then, "Oh! Thank you very much, I'd love to have a bite." She broke off one of the small and segmented rectangles on the offered bar and nibbled around it, savoring the flavor. "I love chocolate. Especially dark chocolate, the more bitter the better!" She had glanced over to the room next door and noticed that the walls were painted in an up-lifting sky blue with white trim. Before she could investigate any further, however, Ele had dropped the question that had already been bubbling on Alba's mind.

So she did go to Crystal. That would explain her clothes and her formal mannerisms, not to mention why her named sounded so familiar. "Yes, I did, but only for the last year, as I was a transfer student. Decided to stay in Destiny City for a little longer, and here I am! I presume you went too? Your name did sound familiar to me at first, though I apologize if we had any classes together. It had been a tough year."

"Why couldn't I just stay in my apartment?"

"Ay, m'ja, callate. This place is nice. You keep complaining."

Gloria flipped out her [new] phone and aimed the camera at the door for a picture; she wrinkled her nose, "Um, yeah, because I'm rooming with girls too young to drink."

Her mother gave her The Look just as the phone gave an obnoxious 'cha-chik!. She tried to evade it, punching 'Welcome to hell' into an open text before she sent the photo to Neftali and her brother back home. She slipped the cell into her pocket and re-shouldered her duffel; Markie's head stuck from the top like a morbid trophy kill.

"That's exactly why you're here," her mother said sternly, fishing the key from her own pocket. She thrust it into her daughter's indignant face.

"In my defense, the mock-otov cocktails were Neftali's idea. I didn't think Eugene would actually try to set them on fire." Inserting the key into the door, she unlocked it and body-checked the door open, "The funnn~ has arrived!"

She dropped the body-bag duffel bag next to the door, where it toppled over and rolled until the embroidered logo 'DOS SANTOS GYM' was visible. Gloria parked her rolling travel luggage as her mother edged in behind her, carrying what looked to be a heavy, ceramic crock pot-- she was all warm smiles and crow's feet.

"Que chevere!" she said, whistling. Maribel beamed at the two girls already in the room, homing in on them like a mother-missile ready to launch. They were doomed, so doomed. She walked over with purpose and swooped down on them both with an uncomfortable half-hug (the pot made it difficult) and a firm kiss to their cheeks. Mami could tell Latinas from a mile away!

"Hello! I'm Gloria's mother, Maribel Velez, mucho gusto," she said. "I hope you girls like arroz con pollo y gandules." She lifted the pot as if to win them both over with the promise of free food, and twisted around to shout (even if Gloria was only several feet away): "Gloria! Come meet your roommates!" And as soon as it was out of her mouth, she was off in search of the kitchen.

Gloria was too busy trying to find God in the ceiling, her hands crammed in the massive front pocket of her hoodie that, just like her bag, advertised her father's gym. She had opted to dress down rather than up, considering she was going to move in and then bounce. She really didn't want to stick around and get chummy with these girls; she was well-aware what a person had to do get into these places. Fun company those people did not make. Her messy ponytail swung as she finally looked down and walked over to her new roomies.

She honed in on Alba and smiled immediately, the kind of smile that said: hey, you and I are kinda alike so that means we should be friends. And then.

Well, then she noticed Elegancia.

God karma was a flea-bitten b***h. One mistake, ONE, and she was doomed into trying to make amends for the rest of her life. SOMEONE was submitting to FML.com tonight. Gloria felt like she might as well have swallowed a slice of lime and her lips. Her gaze became guarded, equal parts amused, frustrated, and resigned.

"You're alive." How unfortunate. Gloria had to roll her eyes at herself because while she had a flair for the dramatic, it wasn't as explosive as Elegancia's. Deciding to ignore her following her own words, she thrust her hand out at Alba, obviously not as affectionate as her mother, Latina or not (though she did offer a friendly smile), "Hi, I'm Gloria."

As Maribel busted through the door, smile from ear-to-ear, Elegancia's first thought was, "oh, splendid! The housekeeper is here!" After all, she was latina, and she was old, so what else could she be? Their third roommate? Unlikely! Elegancia was about to demand the maid do something with herself other than smile, but then a certain amazon followed after her. Nay, stomped after her-- it was that man-bodied, ugly and disgusting waitress that Elegancia had the displeasure of meeting several times. She felt compelled to shut the door on her face, but she was too late! Maribel had a grip on Elegancia, and was surely going to throw her out the window!! Oh, what a cruel world!!

Wait. A hug?

Apparently, the apple fell very far from the tree, because Maribel was seemingly on the opposite spectrum of the personality scale from her awful, awful daughter. In fact, Elegancia pitied Maribel. Who would want to have a mannish daughter? Arroz con pollo y gandules-- what kind of martian food was that? Did it have pig's face in it? Cow tongue? "Uhm. Is it uhm. Fattening, mija?" Elegancia emphasized each word as if she were speaking to a five-year-old. Who knew how good her English was? She added the mija in for familiarity-- didn't all latina women call eachother that, or something?

When Gloria bumbled over to the pair, Elegancia almost wanted to take a defensive stance. She had superpowers, and she was not afraid to use them!! "Yes, I'm alive. At the moment, though, I feel as though the stench that just wafted in might change that..." She crossed her arms and curled a glossy lock of hair in her fingers, making sure to keep an eye on Gloria the entire time.

"That sounds delicious!" Alba said of the pig roast, making a point to ignore the sour banter going on between the other two girls. She'd begun to take notice of the uncomfortable heat between them (and really, one would be really dense if they hadn't by now), and thought the better course of action would be to keep herself out of it entirely. She pushed through conversation, hoping that it would at least direct the attention elsewhere. "It's a shame your friend didn't like it, it sounds like it was a marvelous feast. Oh, and tostones! My dad usually makes something pretty similar to that, with honey and brown sugar. It's the best."

With that memory in mind, she grinned. Her father was an excellent cook in her eyes, which was something that she herself could not keep a firm grasp on. Cooking was a strange phenomenon where the results of her endeavors never amounted to her hopes or the recipe's promise of a healthy and delicious meal. To hear that Maribel would be leaving them with ample home-made food was a relief, even though they all had the option of retrieving meals from the cafeteria just a few stairs below them.

"The rooms are kind of amazing, in my opinion." Alba gestured to Elegancia's, which had already been furnished and treated...well, elegantly for her tastes. "Hers is the only one already furnished, but that means we get to pick between these two over here. I think they're so spacious, and the walls are so vibrant! I don't even think apartments are painted in anything other than beige or cream. Is there one you'd prefer? I'm fine with either; both have the same amount of square footage, I think."