"Yeah, I know what you mean, Melanie smiled as headed towards the dorm. "But Room mates have their advantages too," she added as they continued through the building. Before long, they had reached Melanie's room. It was a rather plain room, as Melanie was not one for fancy frills or hot lamps. No, her room was designed to be homely, and homely it was. A picture of her new family sat on her bedside table. Books filled the shelf, various titles ranging from Pride and Prejudice to Greg Farshtey. She was still surprised she could bring that many books, but her step-dad let her. Her closet was still slightly open, showing Melanie's rather plain taste in clothing. Other than that, the room was pretty much bare.

Anne nodded slightly and followed along quietly, keeping a wall to her blind side as before. Her head turned every now and then, her gaze darting back down the hallway warily, as if she was looking for someone following them. After a while, she seemed satisfied and focused on walking after Melanie, her feet skipping slightly to avoid stepping on any spaces or cracks in the tiles.

"...I used t-to....have a r-roommate...at m-my old s-school....w-we got along...r-really well...t-though t-that may h-have been....b-because she w-was b-blind..." she mumbled softly as they walked.

Arriving at the Irish girl's room, Anne stood in the doorway nervously, glancing around at the space so similar to her own. She focused on the bookshelf, smiling faintly at the collection, then turned her attention to the closet, noting the lack of outrageous or flirty clothing. Maybe they had more in common than she thought... Her gaze caught on the picture of a family, and for a moment her chest felt tight with a kind of jealous pain. She looked away from it quickly and forced herself to take a slow breath. No reason to hold having a family against her... she mused internally, trying not to push a potential friend away by being spiteful.

"Well, even if she wasn't fine, I'm sure you would have gotten along just fine," Melanie responded, trying to ease away some of Anne's pessimism. She watched the girl as she looked around. Melanie sat down on her bed, sighing at the comfort that coursed through her body. It was nice to rest and relax. But she shook herself out of her stupor- she had work to do. Melanie pulled out a pair of earphones from the drawer, popping in one piece into her ear, and plugging the jack into the cell phone. She quickly scanned the sound files, and found the sound recording.

"Hey, you don't mind if I just start the work now, do you?" Melanie asked looking up at Anne to see that she was looking at her family photo. It felt photoshopped, really. It was such a happy family, yet her life had always dictated otherwise.
"D-Do you have a family Anne?" Melanie asked, feeling like she was treading in some dangerous waters.

She smiled faintly at the pun, appreciating the attempt at cheerful levity. It seemed her study-buddy was a kind person at heart, as this was not the first time she'd tried to put Anne at ease. She carefully set her bag down by the door and slowly removed her shoes, setting them beside it. Her stocking sheathed toes flexed gently, a small happy sigh escaping her lips as she finally got out of the pinching leather loafers.

"N-no...go ahead...t-the sooner y-you....get it d-done...t-the b-better..." she murmured, shuffling cautiously deeper into the room, skirting past the bed and moving to the window to look outside. Her gaze drifted down to the people on the grounds below, giving her an excuse not to look back at the other girl.



She went very still at the question, one hand rising after a moment to rest on the windowframe as if to support herself. It wasn't that it was hard talking about her family, or the lack thereof, it was more the circumstances surrounding that lack were painful to remember. However, it was an honest question, a normal question...

"N-no...I w-was abandoned...as a b-baby...as f-far as I k-know...I'm an orphan..." she mumbled softly, without turning from the window.

"Oh... I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't have asked..." Melanie replied, casting her gaze back at the page. Of course... she recognized that forlorn look too well. It was back when Melanie still believed that her mother was not her mother, just some stranger who needed more care than she did. She had always been so selfish when it came to family. She hated her mother, and everything that she had become. But there was no denying that she played a huge role in making Melanie who she was. There were no words Melanie could say to console Anne- she could not possibility relate to that kind of sadness.

She returned to scribing, writing each word as it passed through the tinny earbud.

She shook her head slightly, glancing over her shoulder with a thin smile.

"N-no...its alright...I n-never knew...m-my parents...s-so it's n-not....like I m-miss them...b-besides...the Home w-was nice..."

She turned back to the window, letting Melanie continue writing down their assignment. Her gaze drifted back down to the other students below, wondering if they all had families and if so, what were they like? She'd never really gotten a good view into a healthy family...Leslie's had been rich, but uninvolved in her life, preferring to keep her safely away at what they called "the cripple school". Mark had come from a long hospital stay straight to school specifically to get away from his family, so they'd never talked about it much...

Curiously, she glanced back over her shoulder, watching Melanie write in the notebook for a while. As it seemed she was winding down, she raised her voice slightly, a slight blush coloring her cheeks as she tentatively asked a question.

"W-what's it l-like...h-having a f-family?"

Melanie's hand halted. The pen in her hand shook slightly as she considered how to respond to Anne's question. She looked up at Anne, her eyes slightly watering as she considered the fact that picture had little to do with her raising. Considering how miserable her childhood had been, she considered skating around the question. But she couldn't, not in good faith. After all, Anne had told her about her family circumstances. She paused the recording, and answered.
"Can I be honest with you? I don't really know. That picture is only a month old, when my mom got married. She was never around after I turned six, so I basically brought myself up. Eventually, I had to cook for both of us. We were more like friends, really," Melanie said. She looked at Anne for a moment, and then returned to the homework.

She watched Melanie quietly, her expression softening and turning sad as she listened to the other girl's story. So effectively, she hadn't had a family either. Did anyone ever have a happy family life anymore? It...depressed her deeply. She found it hard to imagine having a family of her own, with the way things seemed almost designed to fall apart.

Anne caught herself drifting towards a dark malaise and shook her head firmly, pushing the despair back into the neat little box she kept it locked in inside herself.

"Oh....I'm s-sorry..." she trailed off, looking back out the window, unsure on what to say, now that they'd both shared their family background...and promptly apologized for asking.

"D-do you...g-get along w-well....with your s-step-father?" she asked softly, trying to keep the conversation going.

"Well, we get along just fine. He's a cool guy with some... strange interests." In truth, Melanie liked her Step-dad, but she barely knew him. She knew that he was nice, that was rich, and that he actually did love his mother- enough to marry her even! Most men would buy her affections, have a bit of fun and clock out. It was different with him. He wanted to spend time with her, wanted to know her. Too bad she had to go to college.

She nodded slowly, somewhat understanding the situation. She couldn't imagine it would be easy to adjust to such a thing so late in the scheme of things. Still...she couldn't help but be a tad jealous.

"At l-least y-you get along....m-my...other f-friend from....s-school....Mark...g-got along terribly w-with his...p-parents....t-though I s-suppose h-his...c-condition was t-the cause...r-really..."

She murmured quietly, turning away from the window and leaning her back against the frame. Her one visible eye turned towards Melanie, watching her work on the paper intently.

"W-what are y-you....majoring in M-melanie? I m-mean....w-what do you w-want to do...w-when you go back?"

Melanie looked up when Anne asked her what her major was. She smiled, thankful for the change in subject. She, frankly, did not want to think about her family as much she would admit. Melanie paused the recording, the pencil lay against the page. "I'm in Medical. I'm not sure what I want to be, exactly, but at least I know where I want to be right now." She smiled to Anne, turning the page, and checking the time. Meh, it was only 2:00 Pm. Plenty of time to chat.
"What about you Anne?" she asked the other girl, setting aside her material. "You know what you're majoring in?"

The change of topic was a relief to Anne as well, to be honest. As curious as she was about what a real family was like, she could see the subject was stifling what little atmosphere of friendship they'd developed. Hopefully academics was a more palatable choice.

"M-medical? Y-you...want t-to be...a d-doctor?" she murmured curiously, surprise and admiration creeping into her voice.

"T-that's a w-wonderful...c-choice...honestly, it m-makes me f-feel....l-like I c-could choose...s-something more...w-worthwhile t-than L-literature and S-sociology...."

She smiled faintly, gesturing at the report mostly finished on Melanie's desk.

"I t-thought...maybe one d-day...I c-could be a t-teacher...or r-researcher..."

"Really? What would you like to research?" Melanie asked the girl, wondering if she could ever be a teacher with her current social functioning. Perhaps it was a cruel thought, but Melanie did not wish to offend her new friend.
"And literature can be a worthwhile subject, even if it is generally ignored by the rest of the world. It just means that you value what you love."

"History....or s-social dynamics....s-something involving the "why" or "how"....of s-society...I'm a b-bit ashamed to admit....I've always f-found.....t-the reasons b-behind....h-human civilization m-more...interesting t-than humanity itself..."

She smiled faintly, glancing over her shoulder with a small shrug.

"And t-the Lit major...is j-just for my own....enjoyment r-really...not s-so much a career c-course..."

Anne smiled softly, turning away from the window and leaning her back against the frame.

"...I w-wouldn't want to...r-ruin my f-favorite pastime....b-by making a j-job of it..."

"Well, I can see how THAT would ruin the fun," Melanie responded as she heard Anne's reasons for not taking up literature as her major. Melanie had once considered going down a similar career path, but that was before she joined Shokushu. It seemed to have a pretty good Med program, so Melanie joined up with that.

"And Humanity... well, humanity is pretty strange sometimes," Melanie said, as she considered what Anne had said about the reasons for civilization. "What's the weirdest reason you ever heard for an advancement in society?" Melanie could already think of few. The Aztecs all believed that sacrifice would lead to their god's pleasure. So, they built an entire civilization out of sacrificing other humans. Pretty crazy, in Mel's opinion.