greetings, roommate! -- kayleigh

[Luke Peters]

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giselle montgomery renard !
//everyone in this room, they've got troubles too//
//secret stories and lies that we never knew//

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It’s just like me to stub my toe right out of the gate.
Of course, I found my room okay, but I should have known not to wear open-toed sandals when carting massive amounts of stuff around. It’s like, an accident waiting to happen. I’m not known to be the most… coordinated of beings, and although I manage to get around on a daily basis without falling flat on my face, there are occasional moments (like, uhm, now for example) where I can’t go three steps without inflicting injury upon myself. Oh well, that’s life.
Dancing from foot to foot, I tried desperately to examine my wounded appendage over the large cardboard box I was holding. It was proving more difficult than not however, so after some extreme hopping, I let it go. My toenail didn’t feel like it was falling off or anything, and I could still walk, so this wasn’t a major crisis. My pedicure was probably bashed to smithereens, but I’d just have to deal. What a stupid idea that was anyway, getting a pedicure. My irrational mind said that it would be loads of fun to treat myself, and my rational mind didn’t kick in until afterwards. Obviously you’re going to be riding, my thoughts chided maternally. Do you really think your pretty French-job is going to hold up in those boots of yours? Or did you assume you’d be riding in sandals? My own ignorance did a pretty good job of surprising me sometimes, that was for certain.

Frantically trying to balance the package on my knee, I searched for the key in my pocket. Shit! If I couldn’t find it, I would be royally screwed. Worst-case scenarios began flashing in my head. What if my roommate wasn’t in there – no wait, better yet, what if she didn’t arrive for a few hours? What if she didn’t arrive for a few days? I tried to calm myself. Relax. I hated when my mind started whirring, especially when I found myself unable to control it. Fortunately, now was not one of those times. Also on a good note, I was able to locate my key, and even though I had to go through some mad adjusting to fit it into the lock, I was in. Crisis averted.

I found myself exhaling heavily once the door swung open, key still dangling from the lock. Hey, I still had a few more boxes, and I was not going through that hell again. If someone wanted to steal my collection of Cosmo magazines while I was out, let them; I wouldn’t be upset. Well, maybe a teensy bit, since that just happened to be my night-time reading material, but I’d cope. Either way, I doubted anyone would be breaking in to the generic dorm room. Yeah, about that.
I personally, am all for individuality, and so upon first setting eyes upon the cookie-cutter space, my heart sank. Well what was I expecting, a personally designed, Frank Lloyd Wright-style room? Maybe in my head. Whatever the case, this was a little disappointing, but nothing some serious re-stylizing couldn’t fix. A few collages there, a couple of old movie posters there, and it would be home sweet home. Speaking of home, was anyone home? I could barely see anything below eye level over the mountainous box, and if a roommate was lurking beneath my load I figured that I might as well make myself known.
Although I think the key/toe incident would have announced my presence enough, but you never know.
“Hello? Anybody home?” Carefully, I stepped across the room, and laid my box softly on my plain duvet (another thing which would be changed after a little settling in.) Hands on my hips, I glanced around the room. It didn’t seem like anyone was there, but looks could certainly be deceiving.
I decided I’d wait for a couple minutes for my roomie to show before trekking back out for my other packages. Aw, being a nice roommate, huh?
Well, maybe. Or maybe I just wanted to rest my arms.

[Kaye~Twins~Koby]

.x.Kayleigh Rae Swift.x.
.x.Blind but not without insight.x.

Kaye was in the bathroom when she heard the commotion outside the door before she finally heard it swing open and someone enter the room. She heard a box being placed on one of the beds and heard the springs complain only slightly. When she heard someone call out she figured it must be her new roommate, she didn’t have one when she first got here, and the poor girl was probably wondering if anyone actually lived here at all. Everything of Kaye’s was pretty plain that was out so far, just a simple bedspread and her brail books that lay on her desk, her clothes were packed neatly in the closest already and she hadn’t put any of her artwork up yet she wasn’t so good at the hanging things on the wall part, she often stuck things up with the design facing the wall rather then the room.

“Hey I’ll be out in a second!”

She called from the bathroom where she was finished tying her hair into a low ponytail. Kara on the other hand had no intentions of waiting, she was under Kayleigh’s bed and promptly wiggled out on her tummy at the sound of both girls voices, a little yap called Kaye’s attention to this fact and she rolled her unseeing brown eyes before walking out of the bathroom feeling her way out.

“Hi, you must me my roommate, I’m Kayleigh but my friends call me Kaye, the dog is Kara”

She said to the room in general there was no point in pretending she knew where the girl was, she was being too still and silent not giving it away and for Kaye that was frustrating, she needed the sounds people made to be able to hone in on their whereabouts, the joys of being blind. She started to feel her way toward her bed when she felt Kara beside her walking slowly guiding her with the mere closeness of her fur touching Kaye’s jean encased leg.

It wasn’t long before Kaye ran into the bed literally, her shin came into hard contact with it and she swore silently under her breath before sitting down on it and rubbing her shin where she had knocked it. Sitting cross-legged on top of the blanket it wasn’t long before the 5 year old golden retriever had jumped up beside her and laid down, her head resting easily in Kaye’s lap, Kaye absently stroked the soft fur of her pet, guide and friend, the two of them had been together for 3 years now, ever since Kaye had lost her sight.

“I hope you don’t mind sharing a room with a dog she is house trained and doesn’t chew anything so your things are safe”

Kaye said making conversation, usually she was more outspoken and in your face but she didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot with someone who would be her roommate for the duration of her stay here. She would much prefer to make a friend of the person she would be in such close contact with, the rooms weren’t that big.

Word Count ;; 520

[Luke Peters]

The first thing I noticed was the dog.
Gee wilikers! I didn’t realize we were allowed to have canines in our rooms, otherwise I would have brought Ringo. Oh wait, that’s right, we specifically were not permitted animals in the dorms; I remember being upset by that fact when I glanced over the rules leaflet a few short weeks ago. Yeah, I almost cried when I realized that my adorable little lab/retriever mix could no longer sleep at the foot of my bed every night, snoring softly like he did so often. Not that I was surprised, most boarding schools disallowed pets, and except for horses, this place was no exception. So yeah, to see a dog was a bit of a shock to me.
At first I didn’t really get it. My brain seemed to be working a little slow, because I didn’t really notice that my roommate – who had been in the bathroom – had entered the room. Nor did I notice that she was feeling her way around, and wasn’t looking at me. This was probably the better scenario however, for if I would have realized this earlier, I might have made some sort of rude comment that would throw me out of her good graces immediately. I was good at making friends, sure, but not so good at maintaining them. Thankfully, after a few moments of being completely in the dark, my brain finally clicked on with some answers. Thank you! She had a dog in a place where there weren’t supposed to be animals, wasn’t looking straight at me, and was feeling her way around… could I have been any more unaware? Doubtful, surely. She was blind! I was a little aggravated with myself for being so stupid, but it’s not like that didn’t happen often. I wasn’t exactly the brightest bulb in the box.

I felt awkward in the situation. I remember getting my school papers with my room number and such, and I racked my brains trying to figure out if there was anything about my roommate. I felt utterly unprepared for this circumstance.
“Hi," I said, a little bit unsurely, walking over to her and extending my hand. “I’m Giselle. My friends call me, uh… Giselle.” I was suffering because of my lack of manners. I didn’t think I’d ever even met a blind person before, let alone talked to one. Nice Giselle, way to come off as being a total bitch. What? Oh, alright. “Really nice to meet you, Kayleigh, and your dog too… she’s really pretty.” I shifted my weight, and offered Kaye a smile. Oh, shoot! I’d already forgotten, she can’t see! This was frustrating. Agitated with myself, I exhaled shortly and put a hand on my bony hip, allowing the other to remain extended. Agh! Inwardly, I groaned. She couldn’t see that either, and I didn’t want to seem too forth-coming searching for her hand to shake. My words would just have to suffice for now.

Still uncomfortable, I figured the best thing to do was just ignore it. Lightly I tripped over to my bed to begin unpacking. I wasn’t about to run back out and grab my other things when she couldn’t see me. What if she tried to have a conversation with me when I was gone? That would be horrible; she’d hate me! It was certainly going to be an experience living with a sightless roomie, that was for sure.
“Sooo,” I said slowly, “Do you ride?” It seemed nearly impossible that this could be the case, but I figured I had to be open to the idea. I had a feeling this was going to be a very interesting year.

[Kaye~Twins~Koby]

.x.Kayleigh Rae Swift.x.
.x.Blind but not without insight.x.

Kaye couldn’t help smiling as she waited, it was obvious to her that the dog had caught her off guard, she knew as well as anyone here that pets weren’t aloud on campus let alone in dorm rooms, horses the only exclusion from this rule though they were not aloud in the dorms either for obvious reasons. As she sat on the bed she heard the girl walking closer to her and waited patiently as she introduced herself, she seemed out of sorts and Kaye guessed she had clicked that she was blind, at least now Kaye could pretend to look more in her direction rather then at the room in general. She was babbling and Kaye waited for her to stop before speaking, though by the time she did stop she had walked back to her side of the room and too the other bed and asked if Kaye rode.

Smile lit up Kaye’s face in amusement usually it annoyed her to no end when people didn’t know how to act around blind people, hello they are human act normal! But there was something about this girl that made it entertaining rather then annoying and she didn’t even have to bite back the snide comments that usually came to her in this sort of situation.

“For starters you can call me Kaye, and in true Australian fashion I think I will call you Elle, since we oh so love to shorten names over there. Besides we’re roomies now not businesswomen. Also I have a few ground rules to lay down, first of all I’m blind not catatonic you don’t have to treat me differently to other people, second … nope actually that’s it.”

She said easily laughter only just kept from bubbling up as she spoke though you could defiantly catch the bubble of humour behind the words as she spoke them.

“Oh and yes I do ride, I have a gorgeous gelding Junior, dad helped me train him before I went blind and we been together ever since. I also draw, sculpt and write stories sometimes too”

She said easily, at this point it was always best to ensure the other person understood that as a blind person you still did things a normal teenager did, not a lot changed except for the fact that unlike her roommate, Kaye’s world was empty of colours and definition, only through her eyes though.

“So what about you Elle? Ride? Have your own horse? Or will you be using one of the school horses?”

She asked looking over toward the other bed where she knew the girl was hovering over the box she had brought in. Shoot she probably wanted to go get the rest surely there wasn’t just one box to bring in, climbing off the bed to the sound of a whine coming from Kara who had been dozing off and who was not impressed about having been disturbed.

“You probably have a tone more boxes to bring in, let me help I have a brilliant way of cheating when it comes to heavy boxes”

She said with a grin before she bent down and fumbled around under her bed before her hand grabbed hold of a handle and she stood pulling out from under the bed a decent sized, low to the ground bright red trolley, with a wide smile she turned back to the girl.

“Let me put Kara’s harness on and we will come help you with them”

She said as she walked over to the desk, the layout was pretty open and easy to navigate even for the visually impaired and she soon picked the harness up from the desk and heard Kara yip from beside her, of course the golden retriever had followed her across the room. Bending down she soon had the harness on the dog and once again found the handle to the trolley.

“Shall we?”

Word Count ;; 654

[Luke Peters]

I pretended to fumble around in my box, idly flicking through year-old Cosmopolitans, (hey, just because they were a little stale didn’t mean the information wasn’t good!) and pretty much just looking for a distraction. I was utterly glad that I had brought in the box filled with the pointless crap first, for I was able to successfully avert my gaze from Kaye without making it look like I was staring at the wall. But how would she know? I winced inwardly at my thoughts. Good thing there was no such thing as truth serum – you know, the one they use to spill whatever’s on your mind? – otherwise I would be in some serious trouble.

I listened to Kaye with feigned interest, naturally bobbing my head and making little sounds. I did not know how to focus on her words but not her face, making me ill-equip for a conversation. I was quite a visual person, and so eye-contact for me was crucial, but did anyone else find it creepy that the eye’s you’re looking into can’t see you? Uhm, hello? I did hear certain parts of her little paragraph though, mostly filler about her name and the fact that we’re roomies, not businesswoman, yadda yadda. I caught myself yawning, and prayed silently that it was because of my lack of sleep, not my lack of decorum. The part that stood out most to me, however, were her rules. As soon as she said them, I felt my head whip to face her own, and my back straighten.
“Uhm… ‘Kay.”
I blinking slowly, first one eye then the other. My old boyfriendtoy told me that this habit of mine, alternating between eyes, was annoying, so I’d stopped. Occasionally though, I’d start again, and with no one to reprimand me… well…
Shortly it would become habit again. But I would need to acquire a lot of new habits if I was going to bunk with Kaye.

One of which should probably be: ‘pay attention when she’s talking.’ Her statement cut through my thoughts and bore into my ears. Hello! Anyone home in there? I shook myself awake from my mental stupor just in time to hear her tell me, (well my general direction, rather) that she often participated in normal activities. If I thought horseback was going to be the hardest thing for me to grasp, try drawing! I could not restrain myself, and soon a question was bubbling up through my lips, much like unwanted spew.
“You draw? But how, you can’t see!
It was only after I said it that I realized how unfeeling I was. I pinched my arm as if to self-train myself to never say something like that again. I hated myself for being so blunt sometimes. Great, now I had probably just single-handedly increased the awkwardness by one hundred. Good job, Giselle. No, not Giselle, Elle, we’re roomies, ‘member? People had called me Elle before, but not in a while. I’d have to make it a habit to answer to Elle now. Marv.

Closing my eyes, I was relieved to hear her question about riding. Always, always always always did the subject of horses cheer me up. I felt like I could actually answer without stuttering or thinking of something to say.
“Yes, Kaye, I do ride. Mostly English, but I tamper in a little Western too. I proudly own a holsteiner-thoroughbred mix named Whiplash, although I just call him Romeo.” I didn’t realize I had been smiling talking about him until after the words ceased flowing. Romeo, so accurately named, was the love of my life, the only pers—err, horse, that I could really trust. I missed him terribly whenever we were apart, and I’d take any chance I could to go visit him. With a reassuring thought, I figured I could always sleep in his stall if things got weird between me and Kaye.

So she was offering to help me. How? I did that blink again, which I knew made me look like an insect or something, but she couldn’t tell anyways. Again, I just kind of shut down when she talked. And when she ended, I couldn’t seem to think of a single response that wasn’t a noise or somewhat insulting. Instead, I just nodded—graaaagh! Couldn’t. Do. That.
“Okay Kaye, sounds great. I could really use some help, thank you for asking.” I said this in a manner most stepford-ic, and I tried to smile, although this was proving difficult. Oh well, I didn’t need to smile for her, she couldn’t see me anyways. I watched as she prepared the trolly, and I waited for her to get Kara’s harness on. Shifting my weight on my feet, I took a step or two closer to the door.
“My stuff is just down the hall, so you won’t have to walk too far.” A little unsurely, I led the way until we reached the boxes. There were only three more, although I feared they were too heavy for the little cart. “They’re right here, to your ri—left. I’ll put them in if you like, even though I should probably just throw them away. Why did I think I needed all this stuff?!” For the first time, I allowed my laughter to come out unrestrained. I hope I had more moments like this, otherwise I was going to be a senile old hag by the time high-school was over!

[Kaye~Twins~Koby]

.x.Kayleigh Rae Swift.x.
.x.Blind but not without insight.x.

It was obvious that the girl wasn’t paying attention but that didn’t matter one of these days Kaye would get her to realise that her blindness wasn’t something to fear. She had once been like every other teenager, she could see and run and draw with ease never fearing that the sights and colours all around her would one day disappear forever but they had.

She laughed out loud when Elle blurted out about how could she draw, she was blind!

“Drawing isn’t about perfection all the time I may not draw perfect pictures but I still draw”

She said humour on her voice, it wasn’t until Elle began talking about her horse that Kaye finally heard unrestrained happiness in her voice. It was so easy to tell what people were thinking when you were tuned into the sound of their voices more then the look on their faces. Up until then she had been nervous about the fact that Kaye was blind and she knew it, but in that moment Kaye heard the girls voice light up and she was suddenly animated and carefree.

Unfortunately it didn’t last as soon as she stoped telling Kaye about her horse she went back to being nervous about Kaye’s blindness. ‘My stuff is just down the hall, so you won’t have to walk too far.’ Kaye resisted the urge to explain to her that she was able to walk there was nothing wrong with her legs, just her eyes and that’s what Kara was for. Instead she let Kara lead her off after the other girl the trolley dragging easily behind them, when Kara stopped she stopped,

“You will have to accept I’m not an invalid someday”

Kaye said easily, Kara moved off to sit in front of one of the boxes and Kaye followed bending down she picked it up and with Kara’s help soon had it placed on the trolley, the second box was soon sitting on top of the first as the two old friends worked in synchronism, that came with 3 years of working together to counter Kaye’s blindness.

“You may need to take the third box, or we will come back for it, they are somewhat heavy and the trolley isn’t all that well build for heavy duty hauling”

She spoke easily as she picked up the handle to the trolley and the harness, and having turned it around she and Kara made their way back to the room easily, she had an after thought that she should have waited for the girl to either pick up the box or suggest coming back for it, but at the same time, she felt the need to prove to this girl that she was self sufficient, yes she used a dog as her eyes but she could still do almost everything a person with full sight could do.

Word Count ;; 479

[Luke Peters]

At this point, I didn’t know what to think of the girl. I mean, I liked her… I think, but she kept throwing me curveballs. I didn’t understand why it was so hard for me to grasp the fact that even though she was impaired, she could still do most everything. I guess for me it was kind of like fitting a square into a circle – impossible. I watched as she placed my boxes into her little cart, made that blunt little comment, and left me in the dust. As she headed back to the room, I screwed up my face and stuck out my tongue at her. It felt both cruel and freeing, but not as risky as it normally did. When I preformed this gesture, usually the recipient was not blind, making it chancy should they turn around. I knew for a fact that she would not notice that I was scowling at her, so that kind of killed the entertainment of the whole procedure. Oh well. Bending at the waist, I hooked my fingers under the cardboard box and yanked upwards. This must be the box with my clothing, since it was by far the heaviest. A rather unattractive grunt escaped my lips at this hoist, and I silently thanked that Kaye was not there to hear it. Not that I cared or anything, but when someone doesn’t know what you look like, and they’re basing their impression of you off your voice, then un-ladylike sounds might portray you the wrong way. I was a delicate being, but Kaye might see me as being some sort of pig. You just never knew.

Nearly injuring myself many times, I managed to make it into the room. I didn’t realize how many articles of clothing I had packed, but I sure felt it now. My weak little arms were killing me after hauling just two boxes. Thank God for Kaye, otherwise I’d probably be in the hallway, panting under the immense weight by now. As soon as I’d released my load onto the bed, my fingers flew to the taped opening, which I ripped off with ease. My nails grew like weeds, so I usually was able to easily perform tasks which required cutting things. The tape peeled away like dead skin, exposing the first layer of my clothes. The aroma which puffed out from the box smelled vaguely like my old room, which made a pang of homesickness travel through my veins. I missed home, but it reminded me of things I’d rather start forgetting. Gently, I plucked the first item – a shirt I bought in the old thrift store, Practically Perfect – from the box, and laid it on my duvet. Clothes, aside from horses, were my passion. I treated an old pair of jeans like a baby, and cared for an old, stained hoodie until it looked bright and fresh again. If I didn’t make it big in the horse world, I’d become a fashion designer, for sure.

In the spur of the moment, I’d forgotten that my roommate was still in the room. Before I got too wrapped up in my clothes, I figured I’d thank her proper for all her help. I continued to unpack, stacking pants with pants and shirts with shirts, absentmindedly stroking fabric here and admiring color there. “Hey, thanks for your hel—” My fingers touched something hard and round. Even though I wasn’t looking into the box, I knew exactly what I’d found. Her pearls. I felt a lump form in my throat, the kind that the more you try and swallow it down, the bigger it grows. My eyes began welling up with tears. No no nononononononooooo! C’mon, Giselle, you’re stronger than that! Am I? Am I really? She’s been gone, what, nearly nine years? Seems like a lot less than that. Idly I picked up the pearls, felt their soft yet hard finish under my fingertips. Why was it only this piece of her jewelry that made me cry? Why not the scarf, or the pair of ancient Manolo Blahnik’s? Why did I even bring the pearls at all? Whimpering almost inaudibly, I walked over to the closet, opened it, and stuffed the necklace into a cubby. I almost never cried anymore, but that one single strand of pearls always seemed to get me. It was whatever. I shook it off lightly, and continued to place things in the closet, and finish my sentence.

Back when she’d first gone, I developed a way of dealing with people when I had a little breakdown. The best way, I found out, was to just pretend like nothing happened. I let down my guard when I showed my emotions, and if I expanded on it, then I was vulnerable on the highest level. But If I acted like there had been no event, then rarely did anyone inquire further. They felt just as at a loss as I did. With only a small sniffle, I smiled, and regained my composure. “Sorry. But yeah, thanks for the help… and your little dog too.” Hey, might as well draw attention away from myself by adding a little bit of what I assumed to be ‘humor.’ I still felt awkward around Kaye, but my breakdown had momentarily distracted me from her impairment. Who knows, maybe I was warming up to her!
Ehhh….

[Kaye~Twins~Koby]

.x.Kayleigh Rae Swift.x.
.x.Blind but not without insight.x.

Upon re-entering the room with the boxes on the trolley, Kaye had wheeled them into the center of the room and dropped the handle before grabbing the book she was currently reading, it was her favourite from back home, ‘Matilda’s Last Waltz’ from the desk. Then turning back to her bed she walked over and smacked her shin again, mentally she swore but not out loud, she sat down and when Kara came up to her she took off the harness and placed it on the floor beside her bed. Sitting cross-legged with the book in her lap, Kara jumped up and lay next to her promptly yawning and laying her head down. Kaye stroked her a couple of times before letting the book fall open to her last stopping point.

Unlike normal books this one had no words, it was instead filled with bumps, but Kaye knew what they all meant and she could read it with complete ease. She heard her roommate re-enter the room just as she had started running her fingers over the little bumps. The familiar words of the author filled her with calm she had not felt before. At first Giselle had seemed funny in her inability to grasp her disability but now the normal feelings of annoyance and being a freak in the eyes of others filled her. As she listened to the sounds of Giselle emptying her things from the box, even the words of her favourite book did little to squash these feelings.

Kaye was about to say something she may or may not have regretted when Giselle started to speak, she began to say thank you, but then she stoped. ‘What the hell?’ Kaye thought ‘What my being blind even freaks her that much that she cant even finish saying thanks!’ She pointedly anchored her lips and pretended to be reading her book eyes down at it even though she didn’t need them to read. Then I heard the almost inaudible whimper, and it wasn’t coming from Kara it was coming from the other side of the room. Someone with sight may have missed it but when you relied on your other senses to be your eyes for you it was hard to miss. She sniffed before finishing saying thank you and Kaye wondered what had made her cry. Surely not her walking away from her in the hallway …

“Umm your welcome, and look Giselle I’m sorry if I upset you by my comment and walking off in the hall, but it gets a little frustrating when people not just you cant accept that being blind isn’t some death sentence, and that the blind can actually do things for themselves.”

Kaye said, she really didn’t want to make the poor girl cry, had she not been blind she would have seen that the pearls were what had inflicted this pain upon the girl. But she was blind and the only thing she could think of that would be causing the girl pain was her own behaviour, she suddenly felt really bad, ‘Maybe I should ask for a room on my own, after all who would possibly be ok with having a blind chick as a roommate’ Kaye thought to herself, maybe she was kidding herself if she thought she could have a normal Academy experience like other kids her age, maybe she would be better off if she turned into a loner. She could be known as the weird loner blind chick.

“You know what, maybe I should just ask to be transferred to a room on my own, explain to them that no ones wants to have to share with the creepy blind chick”

She said expressing her thoughts, she didn’t want to be sharing with someone who would be freaked out by her all year long. She tossed the book aside and fumbled at the side of the bed looking for the harness when a wet nose brushed her arm, she hadn’t even realized Kara had hopped off the bed. The dog had the harness in her mouth already; she was an intuitive little thing.

“Your not helping my cause Kara, I try to say I can do things for myself and then you do them for me”

She said her irritation not so sever when he came to the dog, she smiled slight at Kara before taking the harness from her and patting her head with affection, guess it was a good thing she hadn’t pulled all of her art out to decorate the place with. No that was all still in a box at the bottom of her cupboard.

Word Count ;; 774

[Luke Peters]

Oh Romeo, Romeo, where art thou, Romeo?
It was moments like these – moments when I had absolutely no idea how to deal – that I craved my horse the most. I’d rather be riding when tough situations occurred, rather be in the saddle so that I wouldn’t have to cope at all; I would just ride. I wished that every time something sticky came up, I could just leave, galloping away into the sunset on my gallant steed.

Alas, this never happened, and I always had to end up resolving things. Dang.

As I listened to Kaye talk, I found myself growing angry. She thought that her stupid words and her stupid actions would make me cry? I was much stronger than that. Well, she didn’t know me, but still, my rationality failed to kick in. I was glad that she couldn’t see my fists clenching though, or the fact that she was making me so mad. Although I could have blown up on her, I waited until I knew the anger would not shine through in my voice, and denied the whole thing of course.
I had become a good liar.

“What? You didn’t upset me, what gave you that idea?” I was used to playing it dumb. “Listen, Kaye, I’m sorry, but this is really new for me. I’ve never met a blind person before. I’ll get used to you just like you’ll have to get used to me.” It seemed my negative energy towards her had melted into compassion. This wasn’t exactly weird, after all. My emotions were known for shape-shifting. With a sigh, I stepped over to her and grabbed another box off the trolley. This one, I knew for a fact, contained all my personal embellishments. My duvet cover was smashed in here, as well as my reading lamp and my pictures frames, all scantily clad in newspaper. With gusto, I ripped the sealant off the cardboard. There that scent was again: homey. I tried not to think about it too much as I began to unpack. Soon enough, you’ll come to think of this as home. I looked around, my spirits falling. Yeah, reaaaaal home-like, thanks. On a happier note, the first thing I pulled out of the box was the picture of Romeo and I, clearing a fence. It was just one of those things that made me happier. Resisting a strong urge to run out and see him, I gently positioned the plain silver frame on my night table. That’s when I heard Kaye.

I heard Kaye, and I instantly went into freak-out mode. There was no way that I was rooming by myself, no way. I’d rather learn to love Kaye than to learn to love an empty bed. That would be too weird! Well, I’d get a lot of freedom, but they might fill her spot with someone else. Then say she left too, where would my reputation be? I would have no friends! Selfish or not, let’s just put it this way, I would not let Kaye leave.
“No, Kaye, c’mon, you’re not creepy!” Gingerly, I stepped over to her and took a seat on the bed next to her. I felt the box-springs creak a little, which I was glad for. Hopefully she knew I was there.
“Look, why don’t we just start over, ‘kay?” I laughed inwardly at the irony between shortening ‘okay’ and saying her name. Although I had to admit, I was a little weirded out by this, I swallowed my shallowness, and reached for her hand to shake. “Hi, my name is Giselle, but you can call me Elle, or Ellie, or whatever. I guess we’re going to be roommates!” I smiled, even though she couldn’t see me.
“Can I help you with anything?”

[Kaye~Twins~Koby]

.x.Kayleigh Rae Swift.x.
.x.Blind but not without insight.x.

As Kaye was putting Kara’s harness on, she could feel her go tense, she was facing the other side of the room with wary eyes, was the other girl showing silent signs of aggression? That was what this reaction in her dog usually meant, that someone she had met and deemed alright was showing signed of anger or aggression towards Kaye. But when she spoke her voice was calm, and Kara also relaxed, she must have gotten control of herself, ok so Kaye hadn’t caused her to get upset that was a good thing, but where had the anger come from? Kaye had no answers for that, she also didn’t know what had upset the girl if it hadn’t been her, but since she wasn’t sharing then Kaye would leave it be, besides what business was it of her. What gave her that idea? She thought about it for a moment before answering,

“Oh I don’t know the fact that you stoped mid sentence, the sound of you sniffing, like people always do then they are fighting tears. Blind people rely on their other senses to understand a situation, our hearing seems to improve to counter our loss of sight, and although I cant actually see when people are upset, happy, angry, I still have my ways of knowing that they are.”

Kaye was at a slight loss she didn’t know how this was going to work them sharing a room and had been totally ready to go ask for a transfer, which she thought would have relieved the girl. Instead she came and sat next to her, trying to talk her out of it and trying to convince her that she would be able to handle this all, she just needed a short time to adjust to things.

When Giselle took her hand Kaye shook it in return, it was the polite thing to do right? And if this girl was willing to make an effort then she would too.

“Nice to meet you Giselle, now, if this room is anything like I remember these type of rooms from before I was blind they are drab, and now that you’re here, do you think you could help me hang some of my things up at some point?”

Kaye said in response and she removed the harness again and climbed off the bed and onto the floor where she pulled from under the bed at the foot a reasonably large box, opening the lid, she revealed some canvases, some were landscapes, some were people, they were all done with paints but they had high texture in them, they ere built up and out so that when you ran your fingers over them you could feel the landscapes, and the contours of the face.

In the bottom were some sculptures, there was a rearing horse, and a sleeping one, both had been modelled out of clay, put in a hot furnace, painted and sealed with a glossy overcoat.

“You would have a better idea on where these should go”

Kaye said easily as she sat beside the box on the floor and waited to see what the girls response would be, she had asked how Kaye did art being blind, well here were a few of her pieces.


Word Count ;; 547

[Luke Peters]

Wow, she could really read me like a book.
I’d never known anyone to be as observant as Kaye, but it seemed I’d have to watch myself from here on in. If she could catch me crying, then she could catch anything I did. I exhaled shakily, but caught myself. Didn’t want her to think I was crying again. Instead of answering her observation, I just harrumphed. It was bad enough as it was, her noticing, so there was no way that I was going to tell her my problems, no way. I wasn’t the kind of person who chatted people up about my problems just so they’d feel sorry for me. In any case, Kaye was not going to find out why I was snuffling – not today. But I had to explain the crying some way, she’d caught me; I could no longer deny it.
“Oh, that? I bumped my toe before, and my pain index is on the low side… I try not to make it known that I cry easily.” I lied smoothly, throwing in a laugh for good measure. She could probably still tell, since she did have freak senses, but I felt that I executed the fib nicely. I was used to it, after all. I guess I was just born a liar.

When she took my hand, I was utterly relieved. I mean, nothing worse than actually holding someone’s ligament and just having it limp, a reminder of how much they don’t like you, don’t care about making an effort. I shook back, and tried my best to smile so wide that she could feel it. I just prayed to god that she didn’t touch my face like some blind people did; I wasn’t too fond of affection unless it was I who sought after it…

But that’s a different story.

Anywhoo, I was glad we were re-introducing. I felt kind of proud that it was my initial idea, that it was because of me she wasn’t leaving. Yayness! She spoke about how boring the room was, and I laughed at her spot-on assumption. “Yes, it’s pretty boring in here…” I looked around for the hundredth time since I’d arrived, still not finding anything worth looking at. “But don’t worry, once I finish getting all my stuff out and unpacked – and help you with yours – it’ll look pretty snazzy.” I nodded curtly, and stood up, hands on my bony hips. It worried past boy-things and friends of mine that they could so easily feel my pelvic bones through my skin, but I hardly noticed it. To me, it was just another part of my body, and like it or not, I was stuck with it. Now then.

As she lifted her various art-works out of the box, I exhaled a breathily, ‘wow.’ They were pretty good, way better than I could have ever accomplished. My greatest artwork was in my picture frames, and even if I would have liked to flaunt it, I couldn’t. I guess Kaye would teach me to be more modest, among other things. “I bet you could sell these and make some money – d’ya mind?” I’d lifted a painting from the box to hold it up to the light, where the rays danced off the vivid colors. “I bet this would look marvelous over here.” I sashayed over to the other wall and held it against the bland paint. “Oh yeah, awesome.” With a smile, I flipped my head to face her. “You know, I’m jealous of you. If I had your, errh, disability, I’d probably just be lying on the floor all day, feeling sorry for myself. But you, you manage to make art, so beautifully. It’s almost like you’re not blind at all!” I shrugged, and set the painting down where I would later plan on hanging it on the wall. I was easy to make friends with, and so even though just a few minutes ago I was treating Kaye like an alien, it had not taken me very long to adjust to her. So, I proposed a compromise.
Sitting cross-legged on the floor next to her and the box, I pushed my skirt down to cover my underwear out of habit. That was a strange thought: I could be naked right now and Kaye wouldn’t know. Eerie. Leafing through her marvelous paintings, I cleared my throat, and spoke of my deal.
“I seem to remember catching something you said about not always being blind? If you tell me your story, I’ll tell you the real reason I was… crying.” I hoped she accepted, for I did not usually share my secrets so soon out of the gate. Well, not really ever, but still. For some reason, I felt like I could trust Kaye, which both scared me and made me happy.

[Kaye~Twins~Koby]

.x.Kayleigh Rae Swift.x.
.x.Blind but not without insight.x.

Kaye could tell right away that the girl was lying about the stubbed toe being the cause of her tears, though she kept her mouth shut deciding that pushing the issue was not the best way to start fresh with her new roommate. Instead she just smiled and nodded letting the girl believe that she had believed her lie. For Kaye knew that had she been any normal human the lie would have been easily believable, as people relied too much on what they could see rather then on what they heard.

Kaye could tell that in normal situations this was one girl who was a good liar as no one ever looked that deeply into the emotions in peoples voices, choosing instead to believe what their faces told them. But faces could lie, voices didn’t, you may be able to cover the emotion in your voice enough to fool normal people, but not someone who was blind. As blind people naturally turned into the voice more, using sound was their best ally, for gauging where someone was, and for judging their emotions.

Kaye’s smile brightened as she listened to the girl pulling out her art and examining it, bouncing off around the room and holding one of the pieces against the wall, she had no idea which piece it was or where on the wall the girl held it but it didn’t bother her, she was just so pleased that the girl had finally relaxed around her. Maybe this roommate assignment wouldn’t be as bad as she had been beginning to think.

Laughter left her lips at the girls comments on selling her art, she had never really thought about it much before because it didn’t seem that realistic, who would want to buy art from a blind chick? Kaye did her art for the joy of it.

“I don’t think they are really sellable”

She spoke easily she was holding the painting of a young females face, the girl in the painting was about 12, her hair was brown and wavy, her eyes were blue and expressive, her skin was tanned and her face was bright and smiling. Kaye was running her fingers over the contours of the painting when the girl came to sit opposite her again.

The next words out off the girls mouth made Kaye’s smile fade, and she stroked the brush strokes on the painting she held. She knew she shouldn’t have mentioned not being blind before, when she didn’t mention it people just assumed she had been born this way, but no she had gone and put her foot in it. But for some reason she felt like she needed to share her story with this girl, maybe sharing it would help her who knows. So she took a deep breath and closed her unseeing eyes as she collected her thoughts. She felt the nose of her dog nudge her elbow and somehow it made her strong enough to open her eyes to her dark world and start her story as the god lay beside her and one hand stroked the fur of the dog and one still traced the painted face in her hands.

“It was cold and dark, the rain was so heavy, my best friends mum was driving us home after pony club, we were talking in the back seat, just laughing about something totally random that had happened, I don’t even remember what it was. Her mum was such a happy person, the music was loud but we were louder, yet she never complained, she was laughing with us even though she didn’t know what she was laughing at...”

She started a small smile on her face as she thought about that happy moment, the only happy moment of her story. Her hand traced the happy face of the girl she had been laughing with that night, this painting was of her best friend.

“The guy in the other car had fallen asleep at the wheel, there was no way her mum could have stopped the accident. The car hit the drivers side of the car and both of them were killed at the scene, I don’t remember much of it, just a lot of screaming, they told me later that the other driver had died to. I was the only one to survive, the doctors said I was lucky to be alive, I was in hospital for 3 months afterwards, at first I was in a coma and when I woke up I couldn’t see. The doctors said something about the impact having dislodged the retina, or something, whatever the technical cause is, I was told I would never see again.”

She finished, that was really all of the story she could remember, it had been three years ago, some things she had forgotten due to head trauma some things she had pushed from her mind not wanting to remember whatever the reason was she didn’t really remember much more of that night and she didn’t want to, what she did remember still gave her nightmares sometimes.

Word Count ;; 849

[Luke Peters]

I was dying to move. It had slipped my mind before, but now I remembered how much I hated sitting! In the saddle, maybe, but that was different; the lulling motion of rocking back and forth, not to mention keeping your wits about you, made it bearable. Now, with nothing to do but watch the empty wall, I found myself growing increasingly more jittery. I’m sure the fact that I had guzzled two cups of coffee on an empty stomach this morning didn’t help either.

My therapist called it hyperactivity, but my friends just called it ‘spazz-mode.’ It was nothing life-threatening, just extremely annoying. It usually happened when I was sitting still, and consisted doing something repetitively. This action could be anything from jiggling my foot, to picking my nails. Whatever the case, most of the time I didn’t realize that I was doing it, which definitely wasn’t the best thing. Oh well, guess I’d just have to learn to live with it.
Stifling a yawn – crash from coffee – I pulled out a particularly beautiful landscape of Kaye’s. I admired it silently, gently brushing my fingers over the raised paint. I vowed to myself to secretly hang this one by my bed, I admired it so much. In fact, it was probably my admiration that distracted me from Kaye, and her sudden lack of happiness. I had a feeling that I would soon be filled in on her story.
I was right.

I found that my jitters faded as I opened my ears to Kaye’s somber words. Although she perked up at the end of the first part, I had no doubt that this tale would not end well. Usually when someone’s telling you about how they went blind, it’s not because a magical unicorn lifted them to the clouds for the best day of their life.
But silly seeing girl, what did I know, right?
As her story ended, I knew that if I wasn’t so tough from my own past that I would be crying right now. Unknowingly, I edged a little closer to her.
“Oh, merde, Kaye, I’m sorry.” Only when I was really distressed did my French roots shine through. Now was just one of those times.

Biting my lip, I felt my knee begin to jostle again, but I doubted that it was from boredom. Nervous to spill my own beans? Yeah, actually. I’d never really shared my story with anyone else, and I had no idea why I was so comfortable telling Kaye. Well, comfortable wasn’t the word I was looking for right now, but usually when anyone requested to hear about it, I’d shut them out faster than you can say, “oh please?” With her it was different. Maybe because I felt that because of her sightlessness, it would lock my secret in her brain. I laughed nervously. “Guess I owe you an explanation now.” I didn’t wait for her confirmation to begin, lest I chicken out. Quietly drawing a deep breath into my lungs, I spilled.

“I guess that most people wouldn’t get why I keep this a secret… but you have to understand I’m not the kind of girl who craves sympathy. I’d rather be known as the always-happy, friendly one, rather than the one with the broken past. But whatever. Okay, so, my mom died when I was nine… breast cancer, really very bad. It tore my family apart after she passed.”
I found myself looking at the wall, my eyes unfocused in remembrance.
“I try to distance myself as much as I can from the memories. They’re just so… vivid. And the pearls… I don’t know why they make me so sad, but if you haven’t guessed by now, they were hers.”
I could feel my eyes burning with unshed tears, so I stopped pulling the pictures into my mind and instead focused on one of Kaye’s paintings.
“I love my home, but I try to get away as much as possible. It’s not like my dad wants to keep me there, anyways. For him, I think I’m just some kind of… really bad reminder. He distances himself from me at all costs.” I lightly shrugged, as if brushing off my father’s coldness.
“Whatever, doesn’t affect me much. I like the freedom.” With a light smile, I threw back my arms to stretch. It felt good to tell someone, but not really how I expected it to. I felt no lighter, but no heavier either. I just felt… normal.
“So,” I grinned, laughing lightly, “now that we’ve discussed our secrets, what are we going to talk about?” I got up from the floor to continue unpacking. Serious moment over, I was back to being the light-hearted, carefree Giselle I always was.

[Kaye~Twins~Koby]

.x.Kayleigh Rae Swift.x.
.x.Blind but not without insight.x.

Kaye noticed how quiet it became as she told her tale, before hand she had heard the quiet telltale signs of the girl fidgeting, somehow Kaye thought that this was not a girl that could sit still for hours as she captured the beauty around her on canvas or paper, she was one of those active types that needed to be constantly doing something. So it was a bit of a shock when the fidgeting stoped as Kaye launched into her story, she knew she wasn’t a good story teller, she was a painter and not so good with words, but maybe the raw emotions of the story were enough to make the girl stop and become engrossed in the details that weren’t even mentioned.

When she finished her head was down if she could see she would be looking at her hands as they stroked the painting she held of her lost friend, this was the 3rd painting off her friend. When she went blind she had painted a new one every year, this one was by far the best, mainly as she had been able to perfect her technique over the 3 years she had been blind. She heard Giselle speak, and frowned for a moment at the girls words, had she said murder? She thought about it and realised that the girl hadn’t said that it just sounded like it, hadn’t she known someone at school who spoke French? Hadn’t they told her that merde was a French cuss word?

Not that it actually mattered or anything, she was going to ask if she was right when Giselle spoke again, she seemed really nervous about telling Kaye her own story, but before Kaye could tell her that she didn’t have to if she didn’t want to the girl had already launched into her own story. In a way she made Kaye’s story seem foolish, yes Kaye had lost her best friend and her sight but in the loss of one parent this girl had lost both, with one dead and one pushing her away so that his own pain wouldn’t be increased by the constant reminder, at least Kaye had both her parents and they supported her constantly.

“I’m so sorry, I cant imagine how that must be”

Kaye said in a whisper, she didn’t know how she would stay as happy as this girl did, if her mother had died and her father had pushed her out of his life, she thrived on the love and support her parents gave her. She longed for her best friend, she was the one person in the world who understood everything about her, but at least she had her parents to help her through.

It shocked Kaye somewhat how quickly Giselle turned back into a happy go lucky person after sharing her past with a complete stranger, but Kaye felt better have shared her past, and she also felt better having heard her roommates. In her heart she thought that maybe this was the beginning of a trusting and supporting friendship. Maybe they wouldn’t become best friends but with the biggest part of their pasts shared, wasn’t it likely that they would be comfortable sharing the trivial things?

She would have to wait and see but she had a feeling that they would at least be good friends if not great friends, and that was a nice feeling, to think that your roommate could be more then just that.

“We can talk about all the little things, horses, classes, our crushes and the people who make our skin crawl.”

Kaye said with a smile humour laced in her voice as she rose to her feet taking the portrait of her friend with her, she wrapped it back up and put it back in the box, it was one she loved to have with her but didn’t like to display openly, she wasn’t sure exactly why that was but for some reason she didn’t, maybe it was because people asked questions, about who it was, and what she was doing now. After all it wasn’t like she could just turn around and say without feeling that it’s the girl that died in the crash that robbed her of her vision. Because even if that was technically true, she didn’t like people to know about it, which seemed Irish since she had just shared it with her new roommate but somehow that was different as a general rule she didn’t share things with others that made her look weak or like she was craving attention and sympathy, because she wasn’t she just wanted to live as normal a life as possible.

Word Count ;; 780
OOC ;; Woohoo finally posted and its more the 300 words! Yay I was feeling so bad about my tiny posts lol (:

[Luke Peters]

“Yeah well, you know, it is pretty sucky, but I’m used to it.”

That of course, was a complete and utter lie. I’d never gotten over any aspect of my mother’s death, but most of the time I just brushed it off so I wouldn’t seem like some little emo kid, always playing the part of ‘pity me.’ I probably could have told Kaye the truth, since even though she thought she didn’t, I was pretty sure she could empathize with me, at least on a small level, but I’d rather hold it in. Frankly, I was done talking about the whole matter; it only left me feeling depressed. Again, it was the first day, and I didn’t want to come off as being the type to hide in a corner and cry. I shrugged lightly, and looked around the room. Talk about depressing, I wished in that moment to take a paintball gun to the wall and let loose. All of a sudden I felt trapped in the bland box of a dorm, and more than ever I wanted to ride. Alas, these boxes wouldn’t unpack themselves. I exhaled irritably, pulling out a picture frame from my box. The frame just happened to hold my favorite picture of me and Romeo, ever. In the snapshot, I held a treat out for him and was leaning forward, eyes closed, kissing his forehead. His mouth was in my palm, but he was looking at me. The picture actually made me coo with delight as I set it down beside my bed. It was the little things like that which made me happy.

I kept my hands busy unpacking as Kaye spoke. I had to laugh at her suggestion. It was only natural that we talk about the small stuff, now that we had all the big stuff covered. Well, maybe not all the big stuff. What, you expect me to share all my secrets in one day? No way, Jose. But truth be told, I’d just spilled my biggest one, which left this empty gap for Kaye and I to fill. After all, where was the small-talk about the weather? Where was everything about school? I paused in my frantic unpacking to finger a scarf absentmindedly. Closing my eyes, I could visualize exactly where I had hung this back home. Packing it was more of an afterthought than anything, really. I probably wouldn’t have brought it unless my dad hadn’t reminded me. As I was grabbing my things at the last minute, like always, my dad had called, ‘don’t forget your coat!’ Of course I’d forgotten it, but I’d called back that I’d remembered. Upon snatching it off the bed post, I’d kind of dragged the scarf with me. Too rushed to put it back, I’d kind of stuffed it into the box. Somehow it had managed to migrate down to the bottom. Remembering back, suddenly I didn’t really want it anymore. It reminded me of my dad, who didn’t exactly bring back too many happy memories. I’d rather not be reminded of him, thanks. On a whim, I snatched the scarf and glided over to Kaye, smiling.
“Do you want this? I have way too many scarves already. It’s Chanel.”
I was never impressed by labels, but I figured that introducing it with a designer name attached couldn’t hurt.
“I’ll put it on the bed for you.”
Amazed at my extreme need to rid myself of it, I let the multi-colored fabric slip from my fingers and pool onto Kaye’s bed. It felt nice knowing that it wasn’t in my possession anymore. I sighed lightly, and walked back over to where I was unpacking. What was this, the endless box? I felt like I had been taking things out for ages! Bored, I exhaled through my mouth and slid down onto my bed. The springs squeaked, and I rolled my eyes. I was already a light sleeper, the creaking of the springs wasn’t really going to help. I guess I’d just have to deal. Trying to be an optimist, I gazed over at Kaye, and allowed myself to smile.
“Well? Have any juicy gossip for me then?”