Classes start on Monday, but freshman Caitlin and her parents are here on the Friday before. The school had given Caitlin the names and addresses of the three girls who will be her roommates and, over the summer, the four girls got together . . . on two occasions . . . and found that they fit together like four pieces to a puzzle. And so, they arranged to show up at school a few days early . . . as they had been told they were welcomed to do.
Caitlin and her parents walk up the second floor stairs and on through the dorm floor door . . . and then down the hall toward the room Caitlin has been given. Her dorm room door has four wooden name plates fastened to the front of it, and these say, “Kayla,” “Bethany,” “Autumn,” and “Caitlin.”
They open the door and go in. It is a large rectangular room with a door at each end. There are four beds, four dressers, and four desks. The four beds are different from each other . . . as are the four dressers and four desks. Caitlin’s bed has a brass frame and a new mattress, and sitting on top of the mattress is a small white card that reads “Welcome Caitlin.” A key chain lies on the desk, and it has as its ornament the word “CAITLIN” carved out of wood.
It holds three keys: A key to the school building (that has a red plastic cap on its round part), a key to the second floor (that has a blue cap), and a key to the room in which Caitlin will be staying (that has a white cap).
After unpacking, the three of them wander around the freshmen wing.
In the kitchen, Caitlin’s mother takes note of the refrigerator and stove, the white oak table and chairs, and the windowed cupboard doors. Next they venture into the freshmen library, where several lamp fixtures . . . with green glass lamp shades . . . hang down from the ceiling and five large round oak tables . . . encircled by matching chairs . . . occupy the room. Dark wood shelves cover the walls . . . ceiling to floor . . . and these are filled with books and, at the near end of the room, CD ROMs. There are signs here and there that identify certain references as “American Civil War,” “World Geography,”
“Computer Programming,” “Vocabulary,” and such. To the right of the library is the game room, where Caitlin and her parents see comfortable furniture lined along the walls (“A davenport!” remarks Caitlin’s dad.) and a huge closet at one end. They peek inside the closet and see folded up card tables and folded up chairs, a folded up ping pong table, an air hockey table, badminton rackets, and a big net. Hanging on a hook on the inside of the closet door are pages of type-written “GAME RULES” that are laminated in plastic. And there are board games stacked on the closet shelves . . .
Monopoly, Othello, Yahtzee, and checkers . . . to name a few.
“Caitlin,” her mother says to her, “if your roommates don’t show up, we’ll stay here with you.” And the three of them share a laugh. But her roommates do show up, and there is more unpacking and more snooping around. In time the parents all depart, and the four girls start, what we hope will be, four years of friendship and scholastic successes.