The girls and I started to move in a week before school started. Quickly I realized we had a bit of a problem. While I was charging half the price of the dorms it really wasn’t that great of a bargain. Dorms had furniture. I didn’t. Gratefully Audry wrangled up a few mattresses from clients who were moving and leaving their beds behind. Other furniture I had to gather from thrift stores from around town. Audry help me out immensely.
We worked out how much I would I have to charge my roommates for rent in order to be able to make mortgage pays, bills and have money to live on. My Grandpa’s check made a great down payment but it was what I was to live on this year. While I could live quite comfortable off of the rent of four roommates a couple more would give me penalty of wiggle room. The best part would that we wouldn’t be over crowded even if we added to more girls.
Once Audry had gotten used to the idea of me actually buying the house she gave me the grand tour. She took me through the house showing me all the nooks and crannys. While I noticed the three bedrooms and bathroom/ I completely missed the large walk in closet and small bathroom in the larger room. Then I also didn’t notice the small living space off to the side of the kitchen. I must have assumed that it was a pantry door. But no, you open it and there is a large room with an attached bathroom and its own little dayroom with door to the outside. Out of all the rooms it was my favorite because it reminded me of a little secret apartment. Although I opted to live up stairs with the rest of the girls and share rooms like we had the year before. Nissa, JoJo and Pearl decided to all cram into the larger bedroom with the walk in closet and bathroom. Rose and I took the smaller rooms and agreed to share the hall bathroom.
We had so much fun setting up our Vagabond house. Pearl was true to her word and she did paint a fabulous abstract mural on the new sheet rock in her room, without ever okaying with me. Jo gathered some male students from the bookstore to finish up some of the messy work that needed to be done. Like re-caulking the window panes on the floor level windows so the winter air wouldn’t cause the electricity bill to rocket. We later repaid them by feeding them a dinner of lasagna we pick up from the frozen food section of the local grocery store. Nissa found fantastic couches and chairs for the front room but by the third day we moved them into the room across from the kitchen that was meant to be a dining room. The front room entrance remained empty and smelling musty but the rest of the house came together. Rose wasn’t able to help during the day because she was busy looking for a job but at night she piped music through the up stair bedrooms as we gathered in the largest bedroom where we would all dance around to release our excitement.
One night after we were all home and Rose had the music playing Pearl made the whole thing a feel real.
“Ba ha ha ha” Pearl smashed the button causing the music to stop then flopped herself on to Nissa’s bed. “Timmy bought a house! This rocks! I think I am going to paint a picture on that wall too.” Pearl Laughed and started to punch and kick the bed thrilled with the idea.
We settled down finding seats on the floor. Nissa continued to hovering and dance around the room. I laid my head in Jo’s lap and she ran her fingers through my tangled tresses. Rose leaned up against my legs.
“So what are you going to say to your brother when he finds out you aren’t going to school?” Amy pondered.
“Wh ha ha hat?”Pearl sat up and slid to the floor with the rest of us. “Alex doesn’t know? Oh you are screwed.”
“Oh she will be fine. It’s like he never knew they went to the same school.” Blushed Jo who at one time harbored a liking for my brother.
“True.” Piped Rose. “But still?”
“Yeah, I’m kinda worried about that. But I doubt he will even notice.” I yanked at a loose piece of thread hanging off my skirt. “How many times did we invite him over last year and he never showed. He just thinks he is just a bunch of silly girls.” I continued to rant on for several minutes. Jo hugged me as my voice started to waiver and Rose patted my leg. Nissa sat in front of me and listened to me say the same words I spoke the year before. A tissues box flew at me, Pearl’s signal to move on to another topic.
“So Timmy, When are we going to like um have a full out fun? We need to do a movie night or something. I could see if we could borrow Brandon’s projector. And we can like use the back wall in the front entrance.” Jo planned.
“ooo, We should host an Ingrid Bergman or Barbara Stanwyck affair. We could be the proprietors of vaudeville Orpheum. I have in my position vintage movie theater seats my mom and I discovered displaced outside a school. I think they were refurbishing their auditorium. We should dawn Great Gatsby attire and allow our pearls to swing.” Nissa sang.
“You mean silver screen flapper party?” I posed the question. I mulled over Nissa’s idea for the party. “I really like it.”
“Miha, how do you expect to keep your brother out of the loop when you seem to be planning on bringing the loop here?” Rose was right I needed to squash this party idea before it got out of hand.
“pish, he has no friends. We can keep it hushed on the threat of death. OOo, you think we can pilfer the popcorn maker from the bookstore? JoJo you are the one with connections! Oh my we can do a whole prohibition thing, Since they don’t allow alcohol on campus. Oh how fun.” As Pearl said this she jumped up and peeled up her pant leg and placed an imaginary flask to her thigh.
“Okay Mihas I need to get some sleep we have first morning chapel tomorrow and I have an early class. Timmy you ought to come. That way if your brother sees you he won’t be suspicious.” Rose offered her simple wisdom.
“We have new jail bait to see tomorrow.” Jo used her term for freshmen boys. The past two years her and the other girls would watch a freshman boy of their choice grow up through the year to see if he would be an ugly duckling grown into a swan or become the unwashed mountain man. So far Jo has picked winners. I always seemed to choose the ones that get beaten by an ugly stick and lose their luster. I really didn’t care. Last year I pointed out my freshman and never saw him again until Jo pointed out a beer belly. It took me awhile but sure enough the boy who no doubtly graduated high school being the all American jock finished his first year of college with a belly, beard and a musty smell from not properly washing. Pearl had the habit choosing the most attractive boy out of the bunch then lusting after her choice, making chomping noises whenever he would walk past. Nissa found the tortured souls. Her choice always seemed to follow her around and become our little house pet. So far our preverbal puppy pound included a five young men who would trod through our doors at any time of the day looking for scraps of affection from our little Nissa. Rose on the other hand really didn’t play. She was the newest to our little group and didn’t know the rules when she came. Her jail bait horse was a boy she met in class and started attending all events that he may make an appearance at.
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