This was something she needed to do...

She had been avoiding it for far too long. Since she was back, since Saph had already convinced her to stay, she knew that it was only a matter of time before she ran into old faces. Though the shame of having left them behind with no warning, with no apology, was still a ever present shadow on her heart, she knew it had come time.

Taking a deep breath, she reached out and turned the doorknob to her old room.

It was just as she remembered it, the beds, the walls... She felt tiny tears prick the corners of her eyes, and bit down on the inside of her cheek to keep them at bay. Now was not the time for tears... not just yet, anyway. Taking a slow step into the room, her eyes fell on he bed first. It had been clothed in a new blanket... one she had never seen before.

The Greek automatically assumed that the bed belonged to someone else, some new roommate, and while the thought of that wounded her slightly, she understood. She had left without so much as a word to Verdi... hardly even a goodbye written down on paper. She could not blame the girl at all, and wouldn't. Orange eyes slipped across the room, the dresser they had shared, to the bathroom, and all of the other things that tugged at her memory. She found herself smiling slightly. Sloth, and the other small snakes within the darkness of her hair were not as impressed with the room as she was.

They could smell... something. A musky scent. Prey... Something yappy, that they were absolutely sure would taste wonderful. As if on cue, Andrea started to smell something too. She was able to point out what it was, though. It was the very feint smell of a dog. For some strange reason.. it made her mouth water a little. Blinking, the Greek chalked it up to being peckish, and decided that it would be best to leave.

Whatever Verdi had been doing, she was sure that the girl had gotten along just fine without her. Perhaps this new roommate, to whom the patch work blanket belonged to, had stepped up to fill any sort of hole she might had left behind. Turning, with the intent to leave... she stopped dead in her tracks...

Cafas didn’t mind Jack visiting the shop, so she had been taking him with her to keep her company, and give any potential sword wanting thugs second thoughts about not paying. Today had been uneventful, one weedy nerd picking up (or rather, dragging out with Verdy’s help) a replica video game sword which she was fairly sure had connotations with a character called Cloud. Despite the single customer she still saw the day as a success, since skinnyarmsMgee had insisted that the replica be made to scale and solid meaning a total charge price of three thousand dollars, cash. Her only real challenge had been assisting the customer with getting the sword to his mother’s car, in the end after a while struggling with what felt like a tonne of solid sharpness she had had the bright idea of borrowing the skateboard-type slider from the mechanic’s part of the shop to prop the sword on so they could they could drag it out to the car.

She had locked the cash away and closed up shop satisfied, stopping on the way to collect something tasty to nibble on. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the mansion food halls, or the kitchen, or the food itself, she just sometimes had a hankering for a big slab of lasagne the mansion just couldn’t satisfy. The shop she visited apparently had assumed Jack would be sharing her meal, either that or their usual customer had a tummy capacity double that of Verdy’s. Regardless of the reason, the ‘serving’ came in two fully loaded plastic containers, with a stack of napkins and an assortment of takeaway cutlery and needed to be double bagged due to its weight.

Finally the mansion loomed before them and she made her way inside. The walk wasn’t really that far, but the chill and the knowledge that Jack wasn’t allowed on public transport made the smell of the food that much harder to bear. The hallways were traversed with a minimum of contact with other students (probably due to the current mealtime) and she arrived at her own door swiftly. Pushing it open she was suddenly confronted with a greenfaced head of snakes, which froze her in her tracks.

Thankfully the freeze was temporary and self inflicted and after a millisecond’s pause she recognised the pattern of mottles across the skin of her roommate, her long lost roomie suddenly back from wherever. Lasagne forgotten she had the foresight to command Jack to sit, despite being used to the assortment the mansion held there was no guarantee he wouldn’t launch himself at the strange wiggly things in their room. She turned her eyes back to the other woman and a tentative smile began to work its way across her face.

“Andy?”

The snakes were really the only thing that saved her roomie from an all out glompage, Verdy had to settle for bouncing up and down on her toes instead.

“You’re back! It’s so good to see you!”

There she was. Her friend, her best friend. The one who she had donned a paper hat for, and run around pretending to be a pirate. She couldn’t stop a similar smile from creeping onto her lips, but nor could she stop herself from sniffling suddenly.

“Oh, Verdi!” The Greek paid no mind to the doggy, nor did she pay any heed to the snakes in her hair for once. She stepped forward and threw her arms around the girl, blinking away sudden happy tears.

“I did not think I would see you... not today, at least. Oh my, how have you been? What have you been up to? Who is your new roommate? Can I meet whoever it is? I’m sure they must be just lovely...” She forced herself to shut her trap, before a million other things spilled out and she overwhelmed the girl.

Unbeknownst to her, Sloth and the other snakes had turned their attention onto something far more interesting... The dog. It was a walking, barking, ball of fur and meat. Warm, soft, delicious meat....

Sloth hadn’t seen a dog since the time he had tried to eat that dog mutant in the sanctuary halls. The female he was attached to had swatted at him and spoken in angry tones.. so he had backed off. But, it had been forever since he had eaten anything, and the black and white dog just looked too delectable to pass up!

The large snake beat it’s brothers to the punch, by un-curling from around Andrea’s shoulders. It tugged hard enough to yank Andrea back a step, as it snapped it’s jaws at the dog by verdi’s side. In a panic, the Greek wrapped her arms around it’s body, and fell into a heap on the floor. What happened next could only be considered a short wrestling match, which only ended because Andrea pulled a length of ribbon from her pocket and effectively tied all of the snakes back behind her. A little extra ribbon was used to make sure Sloth’s mouth would be remaining shut, and Andrea huffed and blinked at verdi from he seat on the floor.

“Oh... Jeez, Sloth did not scare him, did he? I am ever so sorry...”

Andrea wasn’t so hesitant about the glomp-snuggles as Verdy had been, and as such she saw fit to wrap her arms around her green bestie and squidge her lovingly. The lasagne bumped against her friend’s back and the smaller snakes wriggled against her face a bit, which was a little disconcerting, but all the loneliness and sad feelings due to her friend’s absence faded with the cuddle, Andy was back.

Her new roommate? Oh, she must mean Jack, who was sitting obediently behind her in the doorway, she clicked her fingers and he walked up to besides her, eyeing the snakes warily.

“This is Captain Jack, Jack for shortness.”

Thankfully the black-and-white captain was paying attention as the white snake tried to launch itself from the shoulders of its… mother? and jumped away, barking at the indecency of being a snake snack in his own room. Eyes wide and mouth in a perfect ‘o’ Verdy watched the scene unfold and her friend writhing on the floor. If she wasn’t certain that the white tube of scales was attached she might have tried to pry it from Andy, but afraid of hurting her friend (as well as experiencing the same instinct that tells you not to get in between fighting dogs) she merely watched until the snakes were suitably restrained. The big one looked positively reproachful.

The snakes safely behind the green girls head, Jack calmed and stopped barking, turning instead to nuzzle the back of Verdy’s knee. The absurdity of the whole situation, coupled with the matching look of reproach on the fluffy captain’s face prompted a chuckle, which turned to an all out chortle at her friend’s guilty apology.

“No harm, no foul.”

She sat on the floor to join her friend and rummage in the bag to see how many pieces of cutlery they had given her (two forks huzzah! but only one knife…) she looked quizzically at her friend. She looked skinny-er, and honestly Verdy could do without the second helping of lasagne.

“You had dinner yet? Want to join?”

She was fairly sure she had some plastic plates stashed in their room somewhere, remnants from some crafting project or another, if not they could always eat straight from the foil tray it was in.

"Hello Jack..." She giggled, wiggling into a proper position on the floor. The dog was cute, black and white and adorable. She half halfheartedly wondered if Piggy would play well with him. Her friend sat before her and the Greek tucked her hands together across her lap politely. She still felt like apologizing profusely... but as Saph had told her, the proper time for words would come. She just needed to be patient and wait.

Besides, her stomach decided to growl hungrily at the mention of food, and an embarrassed blush graced her cheeks. With a half grin, Andrea scratched at the side of her cheek and nodded slightly. "Indeed I am.... I swear, my appetite has only gotten worse since last we talked." Sheepishly taking a fork, she fiddled with it for a few minutes while she waited.

She had to admit, to herself at least, that it felt quite odd to be back in her old room. Familiar, and yet strange. Foreign... Perhaps it was because she still felt as if she was the object out of place, something that didn't quite fit in like she used to. It was a grim, sad way of thinking about things, she knew that... but it was hard not too. Even if she was actively working on it.

Prying her attention away from the prongs of her fork, she directed her eyes back onto her old roommate and smiled. "I am sure there is probably much to explain... but first, how have you been?... Well, I hope?"