2+2=4 [Stacee]

[Cybele Renard]

A slow, lazy melody drifted through the halls of the girl’s dormitory. It didn’t seem to have any particular tempo or rhythm; instead it flitted around at random following the fickle whims of its master. The song originated from the showers. From there, one could follow the notes down the hallway, around a corner or two, and finally catch up to Cybele, currently paused in front of her dorm door. She didn’t want to open the door until her song decided it was done; after all, she would need a free hand to turn the doorknob. It was a little difficult, although not impossible, to play a harmonica one handed after all.

Cybele was wrapped in a plain white towel. A small bag containing various toiletries hung off her shoulder. Her hair was loosely pinned up and dripping onto her shoulders and towel. Were anyone to walk by, they might find it a little odd to see a 'may as well be naked' girl playing music for her dorm door.

The song was coming to an end. Cybele closed her eyes and let it. A smile crossed her face as she lowered the harmonica; it had been a good song. She pushed open the dorm door and stepped inside. Her eyes fell on the room number. Cybele liked the number because it could be turned into an equation and equations were funny. She let the door swing back, not caring if it shut or not.

The room was rather sparse: standard two beds, wardrobes, and desks. Cybele hadn’t brought much to the school in terms of possessions. Up until yesterday, she had also been living sans roommate. Cybele had actually spent last night in the gardens, so she had yet to meet…Stacee was it? Cybele suspected the two had some classes together, but couldn’t put a face to the name.

The last couple rays of sunlight filtered in through the window, giving the room a red-gold hue. Cybele pushed the window open and let the breeze and last of the sun's warmth wash over her. It was going to be a beautiful night; perhaps she would actually spend it in her bed. Cybele turned and crossed to her wardrobe, tossing her harmonica absently onto her bed. She slipped the towel off and hung it on the wardrobe door. She mentally hummed to herself and sifted through her clothes.

[Stacee Young]

Stacee moved slowly through the hallway in which her new dorm was in. She heaved one of her suitcases up on her shoulder while she rolled the second behind her. Both were colored light blue, and although they were not meant to be matching, Stacee had picked them both up in the same color so they would appear to match. It was, of course, less expensive and hardly anyone would notice. Stacee had always liked nice things, but never had the money to buy them. However, that allowed her to become an expert on saving money. She could find a sale or bargain in practically every store.

Stacee's old roommate was only here for their tenth year, so when everyone returned for their eleventh year, Stacee was left without a roommate. She did not mind at all. She enjoyed having a roommate, but sometimes she just liked to come back and be alone. However, a pipe busted in the wall of her room, completely flooding the entire place and destroying quite a bit of the furniture. Luckily, the girl had not had very many things laying on the floor, because everything that was had to be thrown away. So she had to be reassigned to a new room. Room 224, in fact, with the said Cybele Renard. The name sounded extremely familiar. She believed she had tenth year english or something with the girl, however she could not be positive. She just could not think of who exactly she was.

Stacee walked down the long hallway, staring at the blank white walls which surrounded her. It was so bare; the walls needed some color. To bad she was not artistic at all, or she would probably do it herself. Of course, she probably would not think to ask first, then end up getting into quite a bit of trouble. Maybe it was a good thing she was not artistic. The sixteen year old caught the sound of music as she wandered through the hallway and momentarily wondered where it was coming from. After a minute or two, the sounds faded into the background where if you were not actually paying attention you would hardly notice it.

"Just around that corner," Stacee murmured as she looked down at the sheet containing her new room assignment information. Just before she rounded the corner the music faded away. The girl pulled her luggage down to the door of room 224 and set everything down on the floor. The door was open a crack, so Stacee let her knuckles perform a soft knock before slowly pushing the door open. She saw the normal arrangement of furniture which is in every room, and then... "Oh, I'm terribly sorry," Stacee exclaimed when she saw her new roommate. "I assumed since the door was open..." The blonde turned away awkwardly, not really knowing what she should do. If she knew the other girls, and they were her friends, she did not care if they saw her changing. However she was not so keen on letting complete strangers see her naked. So she figured most others were like her, especially on first encounters.

[Cybele Renard]

A soft knock brought Cybele out of her head and back into reality. She half turned to the door, a curious half smile on her face. She wasn’t expecting any visitors, so this was probably Stacee. Right on cue, Stacee entered the room, apologized, and turned away. The curious look on her face was replaced with one of puzzlement and concern. That wasn’t exactly the type of response Cybele was expecting and she wasn’t quite sure what Stacee was apologizing for.

Cybele cast her eyes around the room briefly, wondering what had set the girl off. The room was fairly clean, Cybele had seen to that prior to taking a shower. Granted, the color scheme was dull but not enough to offend. Her eyes fell on the mirror attached to the back of the wardrobe door and a light clicked on in Cybele’s mind. She rolled her eyes at herself and would have laughed if she could. She pulled a random t-shirt, pair of knickers, and shorts out of the wardrobe and began to dress.

Cybele didn’t care that she had been seen naked. After all, it wasn’t like Stacee had never seen a naked girl before. Then again, Cybele was constantly being reminded that her views on things like modesty and how one acts in polite society tended to differ from most peoples. She slipped the shirt on and signed “Hello.” in BSL without thinking. A moment later, it occurred to Cy that Stacee probably couldn’t see her sign since she had turned away. Again, she would have laughed had she been able.

Knickers and shorts on Cybele stepped to her bed and picked up her harmonica. She blew a quick note to get Stacee’s attention then signed “Please, come in.” A warm smile crossed her face and Cybele cocked her head slightly. She signed the girl’s name, ending it with a question, “Stacee?” Suddenly, the smile froze on her face. When she learned she was getting a new roommate, Cybele had never bothered to ask if they knew BSL or LSF. She dropped to her knees and quickly pulled a notebook and pen from under her bed. She flipped to a clean page and wrote, Hi! Stacee right? Please, come in. She stood and flipped the notebook around so Stacee could read it.

[Stacee Young]

Stacee stood with her back to her roommate for a few seconds, waiting for her to be dressed. While she waited, she walked over to her new bed and set her stuff down. Since she was only moving a short way away, she had not bothered to fully pack all of her items. Instead, she had her pillow and blanket and sheets laying on top of her rolling suitcase as well as several dresses and shirts simply laying over the suitcase she was carrying on her shoulder. She also had her blue bag filled with things like picture frames, pencils, her laptop, and other things which had just been sitting on her desk. All of these items were now simply cast upon the bed or floor, which ever seemed fit at the moment. She had never been the neatest person in the world. She hated living in a huge mess, however clothes on the floor or hanging over chairs did not bother her in the least. In her old room she rarely was able to sit on her dest chair due to it being coating in clothing.

Stacee heard a soft note of a harmonica and turned around. Her new roommate was now fully dressed. Then the girl started doing something with her hands. Stacee gave her a puzzled look, wondering what she was doing, when it suddenly clicked. The girl was signing to her. Could she not speak? Stacee did not know how to sign at all. She had learned the alphabet in grade school, however that was just about the extent of it. She had never even considered this situation. Could the girl hear her? or was she deaf too? Stacee then remembered she had turned and appeared to understand her when she had spoken earlier. But perhaps she was mistaken.

Stacee watched Cybele pull out a pen and notebook and read the words as the girl wrote them on the paper. Obviously she noticed that Stacee could not sign at all. Or understand it. Stacee nodded and smiled. "Yes, I am. Can you understand me? Or should it write also?" Stacee had not really thought about what she was saying until the words came out of her mouth. Then she realized that if Cybele was in fact deaf, then she could not understand a word Stacee was saying. The girl sighed and just waited for some sort of responce from her new roommate, whether it be a nod that she could hear her, or simply a look of puzzled confusion. Oh these rooming people were so stupid. The least they could have done was inform her about Cybele and not let her make a complete idiot out of herself.

[Cybele Renard]

Mentally, Cybele groaned; somewhere deep in the back of her mind, she could hear Hatter laughing. Judging by the look on Stacee’s face, Cybele assumed that the morons who assigned the rooms had neglected to tell Stacee her new roommate couldn’t talk. At least Stacee hadn’t tried talking slower; Cybele hated when people did that. She was mute, not stupid.

Cybele placed her right hand on her mouth and shook her head. ‘Can’t talk.’ Next she touched her ear and nodded. ‘I can hear though.’ She gave Stacee a warm smile and wrote in the notebook again. When she was finished, she turned the book around. Take it you did not know about me or any sign language? Stupid assignment people. Mute, not deaf. You can write if you would like, may make for odd conversation gaps, though… If only sarcasm translated better when written out. Ah well.

She had skipped a couple lines and written You ok with that / me? Cybele kept her smile on her face, keeping her eyes open and soft. She tapped her mouth with her right hand again. Her body language conveyed ‘Are you ok living with someone who can’t exactly speak back to you?’ She hoped the smile would let Stacee know ‘I’m not being judgmental’ and truthfully, Cybele wasn’t. She realized that living with a mute person could be a little…different and didn’t think it was fair that Stacee had been put into the situation without prior knowledge.

It would be a pity if Stacee decided to leave, though. As nice as it was having a solo room, it did get lonely at times. Maybe if she had a roommate she actually liked, Cybele would spend a little more time in her room and maybe even, God forbid, sleep in her bed rather than under a bench in the garden or in a tree.

[Stacee Young]

Stacee smiled with relief when she learned that her new roommate could hear at least, if she could not talk. That would make it easier to communicate. If they both had to write things down she knew conversations would go slow and they would hardly ever get anything said. They might as well text their conversations. But if Cybele could hear then it would be a bit better. Plus, if there were to live together then Stacee would probably have to learn sign language sometime. It would be like going to Spain to learn Spanish. If you completely immerse yourself in the language, then it is so much easier to learn it. She was sure that if she just tried, she could learn sign language and Cybele would not have to write everything down for her to understand.

The girl watched as her roommate wrote something else down on the notebook which she held. Stacee read the words, then looked back up at Cybele. "No, they did not tell me," she said with an apologetic smile. She knew Cybele probably got the reaction she just gave all the time, and also knew that it must not be fun. She felt bad, and wished she could have been more subtle about it. She was just surprised, but still thought she had to make it up to her sometime.

Stacee saw that Cybele was writing something else and read the words as she wrote them. "Of course I am fine with you. As long as you can teach me a bit of sign language so you wont have to write all the time," Stacee said with a smile. She did not care that her new roommate could not talk. It might be difficult at times, however that did not matter. In truth, she would rather room with Cybele then with someone who talked all the time. She liked to come back to her room and relax, and she would never even think of being assigned to a different room just because her roommate was mute. The thought had not even crossed her mind.

[Cybele Renard]

Cybele nodded enthusiastically. Without thinking, she stepped forward and gave Stacee a grateful, welcoming hug. Cy stepped back, scribbled Deal and held the book out again. She had a roommate again; Cybele couldn’t, and didn’t bother too, hide the excitement on her face. She waved with her right hand, smiling cheerfully; no time like the present to begin a sign language lesson. She stopped waving and wrote Hello!, skipped a couple lines and continued Simple, no?. Cybele held the notebook out with her left hand. She tapped the word ‘Hello’ and waved/smiled again.

A drop of water feel from Cybele’s hair, landing on the notebook. She looked down at the spreading drop of water, a mixture of puzzlement and annoyance crossing her face. Cybele stuck her tongue out at the paper and tossed the notebook onto her bed. She held up the pointer finger on her right hand and rolled her eyes at Stacee, indicating “One second, sorry”. She walked back to her wardrobe, grabbing her towel and wrapping it around her head. She also pulled a brush out, tossing it next to the notebook.

Crisis averted for the moment, Cybele sat down on her bed. She flipped to a new, non-wet page. She bobbed her head slightly, as if in time to music only she could hear. Cybele was thinking how to phrase her next question/statement. So who is Stacee Young? She skipped a couple lines, listing the few details she knew about her roommate. 16, blonde, female She skipped another line and wrote some guesses as to who Stacee Young was: Top secret government agent? Superhero? Supervillain? Carnie? Trance DJ? Cy propped the notebook against her leg so Stacee could read it. She carefully undid the towel around her hair and began to brush/towel the water out.

[Stacee Young]

Stacee stood still as the girl hugged her, then slowly placed one arm around the girl, hugging her back. She was not expecting that. Apparently the girl was a very happy person. Stacee has always had trust issues, due to her father, however she hoped this Cybele girl would be one who could win over her trust. She liked her, and would like nothing more then to befriend her. However it would take some time to truly become friends with the girl. It always did. Stacee could never fully open up to someone until she trusted them completely. She has no problem being friends with them, as she can already see a quick friendship forming between her and Cybele, but the closest friends come later. Friends she discusses gossip and boys with. Those certain few friends she will discuss her issues and life problems with.

Stacee watched as Cybele showed her how to say 'hello.' The blonde girl smiled, and waved back at her new roommate. Now that was easy. She highly doubted all the signs would be this simple, however she was sure she could learn quite a few rather quickly if she just practiced a bit. Then her new roommate went to dry her hair, so Stacee turned and began unpacking a few things. She reached into her blue bag and began pulling out items for her desk. She simply piled them on the small wooden desk beside her bed, then looked over to see Cybele writing again. She walked over to the girl's bed and sat down, crossing her legs under her. She again read the words as the girl wrote them, laughing at her guesses. Oh how amazing it would be to be something cool like a top secret government agent or a superhero. Even the life of a supervillain sounded quite amusing. But she was, sadly, none of those. So she shook her head no.

"Nope, just your average girl from England," she said with a smile. It wasn't everyday that you got to room with an amazing awesome person, and apparently for Cybele it was not today either. There was nothing really special about Stacee, no cool traits or anything like that. She was only able to attend this school because she took the money from her father without his permission. Not that she cared about his opinion. She would have used his money no matter what, so what was the use in asking him? But now was not the time to think of that. "What about you? You're not like a mass murderer or anything, are you? Just waiting to kill me in my sleep?" Stacee laughed to show she was kidding. She did not want to offend her new roommate on the first day. But she did love to joke, so it would be best if Cybele did not get offended by that.

[Cybele Renard]

Cybele shifted slightly so she could half face Stacee. She continued to alternate brushing and toweling her hair while listening. When Stacee stated she was average, Cybele smiled broadly in disbelief. Cybele also found it quite odd that everyone she met seemed to think she was a mass murderer or some form of killer. Did she really look the type? She imagined herself running though the school, knife in hand, covered in the blood of her victims. The image made her already entertaining day even better.

She put her brush down, picking up the pen and notebook again. Mass murderer, no. Serial Killer, yes. Cybele nodded, giving Stacee a half smile and waving a finger. Never kill people in their sleep, though. Rude. She skipped to the center of the page and wrote a quick autobiography:

Cybele Renard
Born: Paris, France
Mute from birth, English third language
Odd sleeping habits, may hear that I am a vampire
Hates Licorice, loves puzzles

At the bottom of the page, she wrote Average too Cybele winked at Stacee and tapped the word ‘Average.’ only means our stories are just beginning. Cybele didn’t believe for a second that she, or Stacee for that matter, were average. She picked up her brush again and resumed brushing her hair. Unfortunately, the brush became tangled. Cybele tried pulling it out, but only managed to yank her head to the side.

Cybele mouthed a litany of curse words, directed at the brush and her hair. After she managed to dislodge the brush, she gave Stacee an embarrassed look, covering her mouth and blushing. She quickly turned to a new page in the notebook and wrote, Sorry, dream form can talk, bad influence. Dreamed yet?

[Stacee Young]

Stacee smiled at her roommates reply. Yes, of course killing people in their sleep would be rude. It was much better to do it when they are awake and actually have a chance of defending themselves. But of course if she was in a room with her father and he was asleep, and she had a knife, the rude factor might possibly be pushed to the side for a moment or two. Oh how he screwed her up. If only she could be a nice, trusting little person she would have so many more friends. But instead she was wary of people until they proved to be trustworthy, something that most people did not like to stick around to prove. Instead they moved on to the next person and became friends with them instead.

Stacee read the short biography that Cybele wrote on herself. English as a third language? That was cool. She knew bits of french and spanish, however not enough to be considered fluent. Just enough to survive if sent there for a month or two. Of course, when living in England it was necessary to know a bit of each of those languages, as well as a touch of others. People liked to travel in Europe, so there were always foreigners wanting to know which road they should take to go to or from London or some other tourist destination.

"A vampire? I have not heard that yet, however I have always found vampires pretty interesting," Stacee said, which was quite true. All of those strange, fictional species always interested her, and she had several books about them at her home in England. "And I agree. Licorice is gross. Even the smell makes me want to puke." Her mother absolutely loves licorice, especially on long car rides. When Stacee was little the smell of them in the small car caused her to hurl, and ever since her mother has been angry because she could not have her licorice.

Stacee smiled when she read that 'average only means our stories are just beginning.' She liked the sound of that. She was still pondering Cybeles words when she realized she was having problems with her brush. Just as she reached out to help, though, the girl pulled the brush out, and also let loose what would be quite a few curse words if she could have spoken, something that Stacee thought was strange. Most people who could not speak did not mouth things, especially if they were mute from birth. But Cybele did as if she talked on a daily basis and just forgot that she could not speak. Then the explanation was written down for her. That made sense. "Yea, I have. Several times. It is quite interesting," Stacee told her roommate, pondering about the dream world. There, she was a white pegasus and could fly. Often times, as she stood on a very high surface somewhere in the real world, she wished she could fly here. Just to be able to jump off somewhere and soar over the lands was like nothing you could ever experience in the real world. She vowed she would one day try bungee jumping and sky diving to see if either were equivalent to truly flying.

[Cybele Renard]

Cybele tossed the brush off the end of her bed. She would probably forget it was there and step on it in the morning, but she didn’t feel like getting up to put it back in the wardrobe at the moment. She finished toweling her hair, this time lobbing the towel up. It fluttered in the air, landing draped over the top of the wardrobe door. Cy leaned back on the bed.

She picked up the notebook and wrote I do not control my dream. It does not think it is a dream. A thought then occurred to Cybele then. What if Hatter wasn’t her dream? What if he was a full blown dream being and she was just a voice in her head like he believed. After all, Hatter claimed that his memory loss between dreams was due to him not doing anything worth remembering. Cybele had always believed it was caused by her not being around. Very fun though. Good escape from Cybele held the notebook up so Stacee could read. She waved a hand to indicate the real world needed to be escaped from every now and then.

Cybele let out a yawn and hastily covered her mouth again. It was much too early to be tired…after all, the sun had just set, then night was young. She flipped to a new page and began to write again. Sleeping habits? Window or AC? Music? Snore? Cybele assumed, hoped that the people who assigned rooms had done so because the two girls had similar likes, dislikes, and schedules. Then again, these were the same people who decided not to tell Stacee that her new roommate was a mute. I snore like a buzz saw, just so you know. Play loud music until all hours of the morning too, hook my harmonica up to an amp! While the thought had occurred to actually try this, Cybele had yet too. Kind of a night owl, should warn you. Will read or what not in the common room though, if that annoys you.