Reasons To Worry?

[Norma "Blackpaw" Dodger]

(2nd, like most of the others, after Money Honey. Closed to Blackpaw and Ronni)

So. This was it.

She'd never had a room of her own before, but Blackpaw wasn't even going to pretend to be impressed with the one she'd been assigned. A bed, a few shelves... and not much else of note on her side. The items she'd brought with her - very few in number, compared to most of the other students, she imagined - lay scattered across the bed, along with her newly-purchased uniforms. All she really had was a damaged laptop she'd managed to salvage and con someone into fixing for her, a small selection of Disney DVD's - her supposed father's movie prominent amongst them - that she'd got hold of with some money she'd scrounged from a rich guy who had more than he'd ever miss anyway, and what few items she had left over from her life on the streets.

She'd noticed on her way past other dorms, glancing in through open doors in passing, that a fair number of other girls seemed to own plushes of their so-called parents, and for a moment, Blackpaw was tempted to look into getting herself one of Dodger, and although the idea seemed rather childish to her, she wondered if it mightn't be reassuring in some way. She wasn't sure. In the end, it probably didn't matter.

That aside, though- she'd be sharing this room, Blackpaw knew, and after a couple of minutes of shifting through her clothes, both the old from her life on the street and the new uniforms, she glanced up at the door, wondering just what her roommate would be like, and when she'd show up.

[Ronni Sage]

Ronni wasn't stressing about her roommate much. In truth, she probably should given her pushy and brash personality, but sharing a room with a girl 10 years younger than you for half your life prepared her for the roommate thing. Of course, her new roommate wouldn't be a sometimes-annoying-sometimes-adorable 7 year old, but whoever it was, Ronni was sure she could handle it. She could drown anyone out with a little practice, and if worst came to worst then...well she didn't know. But she was a sorceress (that was what they were called right?) for God's sake! She'd be fine. With that in mind she walked to her new room as careless as a bird, earphones in her ear listening to The Ballad of Mona Lisa on high (The iPod had been a going-away present from her adoptive parents, which she gladly accepted, it saved her the trouble of having to swipe one).

She lowered the volume a little bit as she walked into her room, half-wheeling half-lugging her suitcase behind her, and shutting the door with her foot from behind. She threw the luggage onto her bed and set her iPod down on a nearby shelf, deciding to get a good look at her roommate, who had not gone unnoticed by the teen. "So you're my new roommate, huh?" She said giving Blackpaw a once over. She shrugged. "I can live with that." It was better than her little sister anyways (Ronni loved her, but she was such a crier that it got on her nerves) "Name's Ronni." May as well introduce herself to the girl she was going to be living with for the next year at least. Now, to see just how well they'd get along, if at all.

[Norma "Blackpaw" Dodger]

Blackpaw's emerald eyes fixed on the girl who was evidently going to become her roommate, scrutinising her for a moment as she entered. The other girl was maybe a year older than her, she estimated, and looked like the type who knew how to handle herself. Good - better than having to share a room with one of those spoiled princess types who wouldn't even know how to brush their teeth without help.

"Looks like it," Blackpaw replied, once Ronni spoke. "My name's Norma. Call me 'Blackpaw'." She gathered an armful of ties - both school ones and the ones she chose to wear casually - and began hanging them up in the tiny closet beside her bed that she'd neglected to notice initially. Ronni would probably question, either silently or aloud, why Blackpaw's wardrobe seemed to consist mostly, if not entirely, of shirts and ties, even outside of uniforms, but that didn't much bother the white-haired girl. Ronni could ask whatever she wanted - didn't mean she'd get an answer, but she could ask.

"They say my parents were dogs. That's why the 'paw' bit," she clarified, suspecting that her roommate otherwise wouldn't understand the nickname's significance. And the 'black' bit came from the stated colour birthmark on her hand, but she didn't bother to say that part aloud.

There was one thing, Blackpaw thought to herself, glancing across at Ronni again. As much as it was a habit for her than anything else, she would probably be best not to even try and put her manipulative skills to work on this girl. Not because she doubted her ability to work Ronni into doing her bidding, but if they would be sharing the room for the next few years, she didn't want to run the risk of the other girl realising how she was being manipulated and retaliating - she'd suffered humiliation as a result of that once already, and was not willing to relive the experience. No, Ronni would be safe from Blackpaw's ways; it was just a wise precaution to take, in the younger girl's mind.