“I’m kinda a knowable person. Do you want to come in?” He stepped aside. She nodded, and entered the room. It was messy. Very messy. There were two beds. The one closest to the window had a big pile of clothes on it and lots of stuffed animals. The one Romona assumed she was going to be using was bare. She was pretty happy about that. He walked over to his side of the room and sat down on his bed. Romona noticed that around his bed there were lots of messy canvases and opened bottles of acrylic paint. 

“You’re an art major?” Romona asked. The special thing about Laurens Academy was that you specialized in classes that catered to your interests. You basically started college a bit early. She was going to be a music major. 

“No. I’m here for Biblical Studies.” He cringed a bit when he said it. 

“Oh that’s cool.” 

“It kind of sucks actually.” he fiddled a bit with the hem of his t-shirt. The shirt just said VOID on it, in big bulky letters. 

“Is that a Tomorrow We Enter the Void shirt?” she asked. She wasn’t familiar with the band but she knew that her brother loved them deeply. 

He looked confused. “Uh yeah? I’m Lucas Marsh.” 

She squinted at him. “Nice to meet you? So you like them?” 

He looked even more confused. “I mean, I’m like, you know… Lucas Marsh.” 

“And I’m Romona Brown. Are you like their number one fan or something? Should I recognize you from a fan blog?” 

“ I’m the literal drummer and songwriter.” 

She raised her eyebrows. “Oh?” She pulled out her phone and quickly looked up the name Lucas Marsh. Sure enough the person that was sitting in front of her was a celebrity. “Huh. Well that’s kind of embarrassing. Do you think you could get Emmery Barren’s autograph for my little brother?” 

“No.” He glared at her for a second before softening his face. “Or I guess, sure. What's his name?” 

“Jonothan. That's J-o-n-o-t-h-a-n.” 

Lucas pulled out his phone and typed something into it. “Alrighty, well I need to get to my classes so…” 

“Don’t classes start tomorrow?” Romona looked down at her schedule. 

“Oh. Yeah.” Lucas sat back down awkwardly. 

“So do you have any rules about the room? Like picking up after yourself or things like that?” 

Lucas saw her eyeing all the junk around his bed. “Do you have any rules?” 

“Oh, not really. I’m a pretty flexible person.” 

“Cool, well I guess we’ll get along then.” Lucas smiled at her. He had a soft smile, and Romona suddenly realized why he had so many fans. She felt her cheeks warm up. 

“So what’s it like? Being famous I mean.” 

“Uhhhh I don’t know. It’s fine I guess.” 

Romona could feel the conversation starting to die down, if it was even alive in the first place. “I need to unpack.” 

Lucas nodded and sat back on his bed and started to scroll through his phone. She pulled out her biggest bag and started to unpack all of her clothes. After asking Lucas where to put her clothes, and being pointed to a small dresser in the back of the room, she finally started to relax. She was here now and she could just breathe. 

The next day was confusing. She got up a solid hour before Lucas, and because of that she decided to just start finding her first class. The first thing on her schedule was pottery so she was less than excited. She really liked art, but pottery always made her hands super dry and she hated the texture of slip. Nevertheless she found the pottery room and then waited outside of it for a few minutes before walking around some more. She was never great at killing time. 

She eventually went back to her dorm, after being informed by a very confused staff member, that classes started at 10:00 not 6:00. When she entered the dorm she found the rest of what she assumed was the rest of the band. They didn’t seem all that impressive if she was being completely honest. 

When she had stepped into the room, one with super floppy green hair and a Bad Religion shirt that looked like it had seen better times, was sitting cross legged on the ground. They were holding a huge math textbook. They were in the middle of giving the finger to Lucas, who was sitting smugly on the bed. He had tied his hair up into a loose ponytail. 

The other new one was sitting on the bed with Lucas. He seemed very bored with whatever was going on at the moment. He had one of those weird bowl cuts that actually seemed to work with his facial structure. Speaking of his face, he had a very big, very noticeable scar that ran across his entire face. He honestly looked like someone's edgy fantasy character. They all stopped talking when she came in. 

“Oh, this is Romona. She’s my roommate.” Lucas said. He sounded so tired of her already. Romona waved awkwardly and set her backpack down. 

“I kinda underestimated when the classes started.” she laughed uncomfortably. The person with the green hair stood up. They had big eyes and lots of dark freckles that dotted their face. 

“I’m Hadley!” They went in for a hug and she stuck her hand out for a handshake. The result was very painful on both ends. After Hadley had recovered they started to talk again. “That’s Emmery.” They gestured back to the scar guy. 

“Oh! My brother loves you!” Romona smiled at him, but Emmery didn’t smile back. He just awkwardly stared at her. “So, uh, is the scar real?” 

“Yea. It is.” His voice was really quiet and rough, where Hadley’s voice was almost airy. It was a strange contrast. 

“That’s super cool, I mean not the scar being real, but like, my brother wanted to know, and uh…” 

“You play guitar?” Hadley asked. 

“Um. Yes?” 

“Lucas was telling us about that.” as Hadley smiled sweetly at her, Lucas flopped back onto the bed dramatically with a groan. “How good are you?” 

Romona shrugged. “I guess I’m ok.” She wasn’t sure how Lucas had found out she played guitar, but then she remembered she left it next to her bed. “I mean I’m not terrible. I can play it.” 

Hadley raised their eyebrows at Emmery, who was watching carefully. He shrugged back at them. “Well that’s very good to know!” Hadley seemed very excited, and Romona felt  very uncomfortable that these people wanted to know so much, and were excited by it. Well maybe just Hadley was excited by it. Emmery seemed very neutral, and Lucas was squinting at her from his stretched out position on the bed. 

Romona awkwardly carried conversation with the three until Emmery got up and left the room abruptly. Lucas got up and followed, looking like he was about to vomit. Hadley continued to talk until Romona interrupted them. 

“They ok?” she waved a hand towards the door. 

“Oh.” Hadley’s smile faltered for a second. “Yeah, they're fine. Sometimes Emmery gets like, upset, or something. It’s no biggie.” 

“Hm.” Romona could feel some big cloud come over Hadley, and she didn’t like how serious it felt. She knew that there was something wrong, but she didn’t want to push it. “Well that’s ok! Just wanted to make sure.” she gave her sweetest smile, to match the energy that Hadley had just been giving her. 

Hadley immediately perked up and began talking about whatever subject had been going on. Romona had lost track quite a while ago. They were like a 90 year old. They could talk for hours, without even stopping. 

Hadley talked for so long that by the time they had finished explaining the entire plot of Doctor Who to them it was time for Romona’s first class. She politely excused herself and gathered her things. Hadley gave her a hug and then she headed out. 

When she walked out of the room, to her surprise Lucas and Emmery were still outside of the room. She had assumed they had just left when they walked out. Lucas had his arm awkwardly around Emmery, and Emmery was staring blankly at the ground. Romona tried to not make eye contact with them when she passed. She felt like she had seen something that was vulnerable, though everything felt like that right now, and she chalked it up to being in a new environment. 

She noticed as she made her way to her first class, that she hadn’t thought about her brother in a whole day. The only time he even crossed her mind was when she asked for an autograph. Her mind drifted until she settled on thinking about how welcoming Hadley was. They seemed so instantly accommodating to anything that was thrown their way, even though she had only talked with them for a couple of minutes. As her mind continued to think about Hadley’s soft freckles and extroverted personality, she began to feel guilty that her brother wasn”t plaguing her mind.