Happy Holidays!!

Robert the Author: Yeah, I know it's kind of late for this but hey, it's Christmas, right?

Ryan: Uh-huh, sure.

Chris: They don't have internet where you're at?

Robert: Hush up you two or I'll write you out of the blog. Anyway, we here at Branbury Life just want to take a moment to say that we hope all of our residents had a great Christmas.

Rachel: And we'd like to wish you a Happy New Year as well.

Ian: We hope you have a great 2013 at The Branbury. They say they've got lots of great things planned this year.

Lindsey: Yeah and Author Scatterbrain here says he's got some plans for the blog as well. We'll see how that goes...

Robert: You wound me. It's like you have no faith. In any case, once again, Happy New Year to all our Residents! We'll see you in 2013.

Inspection

Lindsey and Rachel stood shoulder-to-shoulder in silent contemplation. It was that most dreaded day of the month for those who dwell in student apartments: monthly cleaning checks.

“We did everything we were supposed to right?” Lindsey asked her roommate.

“Sure we did. We went right down the checklist,” replied Rachel, a quaver ruining the confidence she was trying to project.

There came a tapping, a rapping on their chamber, er, apartment door.

“Well, no sense worrying about it now. Let’s have done with it,” said Lindsey, squaring her shoulders and yanking open the door. Valerie, one of the Branbury’s RA’s came in and greeted the two warmly. Lindsey had taken an instant liking to the blond-haired girl, as they were both from Australia.

“Ready for cleaning checks?” Valerie asked, smiling.

“Of course!” replied Rachel with a somewhat forced grin.

“Alright then, it’ll just take me a few minutes,” Valerie said and then walked into Rachel’s room.

Not quite being able to take the suspense, the two girls followed Valerie into Rachel’s room. It was extremely neat, almost too neat for a student apartment, with pictures of her family and other things of an LDS nature on the walls and everything in its place… or so Rachel hoped. They caught their breath a bit as Valerie bent down to check the desk and its contents and then moved on to Lindsey’s room, giving the two them a slightly odd look for following her around.

Lindsey was, by far, the more nervous, as Valerie entered her room. She had cleaned and vacuumed it to the best of her ability, but it looked… just a little more wild then her roommate’s. Various posters covered the wall that had more to do with pop culture than anything else, especially the large poster of Chris Hemsworth on the far wall. But Valerie just looked around for a few moments, checked a few things off on the sheet and then moved on.

She had no objections to the state of the living room, so she moved on to the kitchen. Rachel and Lindsey watched in trepidation; there was always something you missed in these sorts of things and like as not it would be found in the kitchen. Their anxiety grew as Valerie poked and prodded around the kitchen, taking muchy longer than she had in any of the other rooms. Lindsey started to clench her fists as she began to run various scenarios through her head. What was the hold up? Why was it taking so long in this part of the apartment? Couldn’t be the sink; they’d cleaned that till it sparkled. The floor? No, Rachel had a Swiffer mop and they’d cleaned the floor until it practically sparkled as well? Did they not clean out the fridge enough? Finally, Valerie made a few last notes on her checklist, wrote two large checks on Rachel and Lindsey’s own checklist and smiled broadly at them.

“You passed!”

They waited until Valerie was out of the apartment before erupting with whoops of joy and hugging each other.

“Why did we have to get so worked up about that?” said Lindsey, flush with relief, “I bet we would have passed even if we hadn’t cleaned! It’s not like either of us are that messy.”

“Yeah, I’m more worried about Ryan and the boys in the next building. How much do you want to bet they’re all cleaning right now?”

This was not entirely true. Ian, Chris, Ryan and Mikael had done the majority of their cleaning the previous night. Ian and Mikael were sleeping past it, while Ryan and Chris watched TV in the living room. Ryan suddenly sneezed.

“I have this weird feeling that someone’s talking about me,” he said.

Party Time!

Party Time!

 

Ryan, Chris, Ian and Mikael lifted the inflatable arch into position as it rose up above them, clipping a white vinyl sheet to it’s front as it rose. One of the Branbury’s RAs, Robert, walked over from behind the inflatable screen, having made sure that the air pumps were working just fine.

“Thanks for the help guys. Now I just have to get this projector, my XboX and the speaker all interconnected and we’ll be good to go.”

“No problem man,” replied Ian, “You need any help with that?”

“Naw, I got it, thanks though,” said Robert.

“Well shall we go and get some food then?” asked Chris, who was eyeing the line forming up for the Branbury’s Steak and Salmon Cookout.

“Yeah, let’s get some before it’s gone,” agreed Mikael.

They quickly got into line and Ryan took a moment to look around. The Steak and Salmon Cookout had been set up on the basketball court behind Building 1 and there were already a fair amount of people sitting down at the tables to eat, with more streaming across the bridge over the little creek to join him and his roommates in line. Tables had been set up to the side, buffet-style, where Ryan could see the Branbury’s managers, Nina and Erica with two of the RAs, Annie and Kevin, helping to dish out the food. The delicious smells of grilled meat, barbecued beans and potatoes were beginning to make his mouth water and he desperately wished for the line to move a little quicker. But the food wasn’t the only attraction tonight. Ryan and some of his friends had, of course, just been helping Robert set up his booth where they would be projecting Rockband 2 onto the Branbury’s inflatable screen. There was also another inflatable pit where you could do a sort of jousting game with big foam batons. Another one of the RAs, Jake, was manning that post, taking on all comers. There was a photo booth set up off to the side where Heather, another RA, was taking pictures of the residents.

At last they arrived at the head of the line and just as Chris and Ian started loading up their plates, Ryan heard a pair of familiar voices.

“Awe man, we should have gotten here sooner! Look at that line! It’s almost back to the clubhouse!”

Ryan turned around and saw Rachel and Lindsey standing off to the side of the buffet table. He smiled and waved them over.

“Listen if you don’t want to wait, we’ll just get you two extra plates, OK?” he said.

“Wow, you’d do that for us? That’s so awesome of you!” exclaimed Rachel, clasping her hands together.

“Yeah, surprised you can be a gentleman, Ryan,” teased Lindsey.

“Hey, I’m plenty gentlemanly,” Ryan retorted.

“Oh? And what about last week during that game of one-on-one, when you elbowed me in the kidney?” shot back Lindsey with a grin.

“That was an accident!”

“Uh-huh, sure it was.”

“Do you want food or not?”

“Relax Ryan, I was just kidding,” said Rachel, holding up her hands in a placating gesture.

“Hey buddy, you’re holding up the line talking to your girlfriend,” said the guy who was next to Ryan.

“She’s/he’s not my girlfriend/boyfriend!” Ryan and Lindsey shot back simultaneously. They glanced at each other and rolled their eyes. Them, a couple? Pfft, as if.

Later, the six of them had found a table and had eaten their fill of the awesome steak and grilled salmon. Chris and Mikael were talking about movies while Ian and Rachel were talking about the Institute class they were taking together when suddenly a blast of static came out of the speaker that was attached to the projector screen. The six turned to see Nina, the Branbury manager with a microphone in hand, standing in front of the screen.

“Hey there Branbury! Hope you’re enjoying the Steak and Salmon Feast?” A cheer rose up in reply.

“Great! Don’t forget, we also have a cotton candy machine set up over here,” she pointed to her left to where Kevin, Annie and Carol had just gotten the aforementioned cotton candy machine running, “Heather’s photo booth, the gladiator pit where you can challenge the undefeated RA, Jake the Hammer! And Robert has gotten Rockband 2 up and running, so there’s still plenty to do even after you’ve finished eating. So please enjoy and thank you for coming!”

Ryan had just turned back around to finish off the last of his beans when he felt a hand tap him on the shoulder. He looked up to see Lindsey standing off to his side, grinning.

“Think you can beat me in Rockband, tough guy?”

For whatever reason, Ryan found he couldn’t resist the challenge in her words, so he stuffed the remainder of his beans in his mouth and followed her over to where the line had just started to form. They didn’t have to wait long for their turn. The others had joined them, eager to see that latest challenge between these two. As Ryan slung the guitar controller’s strap over his shoulder he turned to Lindsey and said, “I gotta warn you, I’m pretty darn good at this.”

“I’m not so bad myself. You know what? I’ll even let you pick the song.”

Ryan scrolled down, finding it kinda awesome to be playing on this big screen, until he found one of his favorite old-school rock songs: Huey Lewis and the News’s “Power of Love.”

“Ready?” he asked Lindsey.

“Ready!” she replied confidently. Ryan started the song and they began pounding out the chords, Ryan on bass and Lindsey on guitar.

The power of love is a curious thing
Make a one man weep, make another man sing
Change a hawk to a little white dove
More than a feeling that's the power of love

Tougher than diamonds, rich like cream
Stronger and harder than a bad girl's dream
Make a bad one good make a wrong one right
Power of love that keeps you home at night

You don't need money, don't take fame
Don't need no credit card to ride this train
It's strong and it's sudden and it's cruel sometimes
But it might just save your life
That's the power of love
That's the power of love

As they played, Chris and the others looked on, noticing that the score was remaining fairly even as neither Ryan nor Lindsey missed a single chord.

“5 bucks says that Ryan beats her,” said Mikael to Chris.

“You’re on.”

First time you feel it, it might make you sad
Next time you feel it, it might make you mad
But you'll be glad baby when you've found
That's the power makes the world go'round

And it don't take money, don't take fame
Don't need no credit card to ride this train
It's strong and it's sudden it can be cruel sometimes
But it might just save your life

“I’ll be darned, they’re still pretty even,” remarked Ian.

“Lindsey has a copy at our place and plays it a lot; it’s pretty much her favorite game,” remarked Rachel.

They say that all in love is fair
Yeah, but you don't care
But you know what to do
When it gets hold of you
And with a little help from above
You feel the power of love
You feel the power of love
Can you feel it?
Hmmm-hmmm

During the previous chorus, Ryan had managed to miss a note, but then Lindsey missed one during the guitar solo before the finale, making them even again.

It don't take money and it don't take fame
Don't need no credit card to ride this train
Tougher than diamonds and stronger than steel
You won't feel nothin' till you feel
You feel the power, just the power of love
That's the power, that's the power of love
You feel the power of love
You feel the power of love
Feel the power of love

The song finished and as the virtual and real crowds cheered, Ryan and Lindsey gaped at the screen. They had tied on the score after all.

Rachel nudged Ian and asked, “Do you think it was just coincidence that Ryan picked that one song?”

“Naw,” Ian said with a grin on his face that suggested he thought quite the opposite.

 

Movie Night

Movie Night

The movie rental machine sat there in front of him, taunting him with its inventory. What to watch and what not to watch? Aye, that is the question. For whether ‘tis nobler to suffer the slings and arrows of a chick flick or to watch an adventure movie? I mean, the outcome of the whole entire movie night rested on this stupendous decision—

“Dude, are you gonna choose a movie or what?”

Ryan looked to his side to see Chris standing there, arms folded over his chest.

“I’m thinking, all right?”

“Well hurry up and finish thinking. Time’s a-wasting.”

Ryan and his roommates had recently reserved the entertainment room at the Branbury’s clubhouse so they could have a movie night. By virtue of rock, paper, scissors, Ryan had been chosen to pick the movie. The problem was, he was currently having a bout of movie-block. Movie-block is kinda like writer’s block but more about the inability to choose a movie to watch.

Why was I even considering a chick flick? There aren’t any girls here! My brain is fried.

“If Ryan can’t choose, I’m popping Curse of the Black Pearl in,” groused Ian.

“Just relax, I’ll find one!” he growled back. Turning back to the rental machine, he focused all the powers of mental faculty to help him select the perfect movie. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Nah, Johnny Depp was too creepy in that. Warrior? No, not in the mood for a boxing movie. Too bad there were no Rocky movies in there. And then he saw it. The word of words. Avengers.

“Hey! Since when has Avengers been on DVD? I thought it didn’t come out for a while yet?”

“What?! They have Avengers?” yelped Chris, “Where?”

“Right there,” said Ryan as he pointed at the very bottom of the case.

“They really have Avengers? I love that movie!” said Mickael, “Check it out, man!”

Ryan didn’t need to be told twice. He plugged his card in, made the selection and watched as the machine grumbled and rumbled until it spat the chosen movie out. He pulled the case out of the slot and opened it.

“Yup, definitely Avengers,” he said happily.

“Awesome!” added Ian, “I freakin’ love this movie. Man, I’m so glad that Joss Whedon is coming back to do the next one. Well, after they do the next Captain America and Thor movies and Iron Man 3.”

“You see the pictures they circulated around the net of the new Iron Man suit?” asked Ryan as he popped the DVD into the entertainment room’s player.

“Yeah!” said Chris, “Man, it’s gonna be so awesome!”

As the movie booted up, Ryan walked over to the popcorn machine, which had just finished popping up a new batch of popcorn. The delicious scent of fresh buttered popcorn wafted heavily out of the popcorn popper as he opened the door on the side and began to scoop out the fluffy white stuff into a giant bowl. He sat down between the rest of his roommates as the opening scenes of Avengers began to play across the screen.

Let’s see here, fresh popcorn, large flatscreen, Avengers, big comfy couch. Can life get any better? I submit that it cannot!

Competition

 Competition

He stared down his adversary, noting every possible angle of attack. His allies stood silently by, waiting for him to make his move. He hefted his weapon in his hands and tested its weight before he pointed it at his foe. He struck and his opponent shot across the felt covered table and crashed into others of its kind, causing one of them to fall into the far left table’s pockets. Ryan, supremely pleased with himself, whooped and did a little victory dance.

“Lord of pool! King of the cues baby!”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah so you get another shot. Big deal,” shot back Lindsey.

“Nobody likes a sore loser,” replied Chris with a grin and a wink.

They had been playing this particular game for the past hour and it had been pretty close the whole time. It had started when Ryan and his roommates had gone to a dance that the Branbury had held in the Clubhouse a few days before. There had been a live jazz band even and most of the guys, with the exception of Chris had been pretty psyched to go… even though they didn’t know much about swing dancing. And just his luck, Chris had gotten partnered up with Lindsey, the girl he’d accidentally kinda sorta insulted a week or so ago.

“I promise I’ll try not to step on your feet,” he joked, trying to break the ice.

“Yes, please don’t,” she responded coolly.

They hadn’t done too badly either… right up until Ryan did the very thing that he’d joked about and accidently stepped on Lindsey’s right foot. She’d limped off the dance floor faster than you could say ‘gaffe.’

Chris had wandered over and thrown an arm around Ryan’s shoulders grinning at him.

“See, if only you’d stepped on her foot earlier then you might be even further behind than you are now!”

Ryan had just glared at him witheringly, especially as he’d noted that Ian and Rachel were cutting up the rug.

To Ryan’s surprise, he saw Lindsey again just an hour and a half later as they piled into the Branvan (the teal van that the management owned) and headed up Y mountain for a midnight hike by the full moon. He’d tried to wander over to apologize but she was busy talking to Rachel and a couple of other girls. It was when they got back down the mountain and were in the parking lot that things turned around. After they piled into the van again, one of the RAs, Jake, ended up driving them to an apartment complex nearby the Branbury. Just as Mickael asked Jake why they were here, he shouted, “Chinese Fire Drill!” and turned up the music with heavy bass out the external speakers. Caught off guard, nobody moved a muscle as Jake leapt out of the driver’s side door. There was a pause and then he stuck his head back in.

“Hey, what part of Chinese Fire Drill don’t you understand? C’mon, get crazy!”

They piled out of the side doors and began to run in a circle around the Branvan and almost as if it had been planned, Ryan found himself running next to Lindsey. Suddenly, she put on a burst of speed as they rounded the rear bumper. Ryan began to run faster as well and overtook her.

“You think this is a race huh?” she called from behind him.

“No, I’m just faster than you!” he joked, looking back and grinning at her. Lindsey began to run faster until Jake called out, “OK, back in the van before we wear out our welcome!”

They climbed back into the van and Ryan found himself sitting next to Lindsey.

“Wanna try that again, where it’s a straight run instead of going in circles?” she asked.

Not sure where the sudden desire for competition came from Ryan just shrugged and said, “Sure.”

So they had a race, first around the Branbury wins. He’d managed to pull it off but it had been close. And then, for whatever reason, Lindsey had challenged him on his win, saying that he’d won because he had longer legs or cheated around the last corner or some other excuses that were mumbled with a smile under her breath. So he’d asked her if she wanted to join him for a tie-breaker. That led them to a game of basketball.

“First to 21?” he asked.

“You’re on,” she shot back and for a moment Ryan was pleasantly distracted by her big brown lashes and glowing smile.

Once again it had been a very close game and she’d managed to duck under him at game point and scored the winning basket.

Bristling under the laughter from his roommates, he’d asked her if there wasn’t thing else she thought she could beat him at. That then had led to a game of swimming pool basketball that Ryan had won… again narrowly. That had led to another challenge and this was the one they were in now, the game of pool (or billiards or whatever you want to call it). So far, Ryan was winning, but again, narrowly.

He lined up his next shot, intending to pocket the 4 ball in the far corner pocket. He cracked the cue against the cue ball, watched it roll across the table, smack into the 12 ball, the 12 smack into the 4 and the 4 rolled towards the pocket. He turned around to grin at Lindsey and found her pointing triumphantly at the table. He turned around again and saw, to his horror that the 4 ball had glanced off the side of the pocket and bounced out.

“Oops,” said Lindsey with fake innocence. She strode around to the side of the table, lined up a shot and pocketed the 12 ball, which meant that all she had to do was pocket one more ball and the 8 ball and she would win. Ryan watched with a sinking heart and a touch of pride as she lined up another shot. Hoping against hope, he watched as she lined up her last shot, struck… and pocketed the 8 ball, ending the match.

“So… shall we play again?” she asked, a triumphant smirk plastered across her face.

“Racquetball?” he asked.  He suddenly had a strong desire to make sure their competition continued for a completely different reason than why it had started.

Sunday Morning Rush

“C’mon guys, we’re gonna be late!” yelled Ryan. He was pacing around in the living room, necktie swinging from side to side.

Because Ryan, Mickael and Ian didn’t have a car, they had agreed with Chris that they would carpool to church on Sundays. There was just one little problem. Chris was taking FOREVER to get ready!

“Chris, c’mon man, hurry it up! You’re taking longer than my sisters!” yelled Ian, banging on the door of the bathroom that Chris was using. A mumbled stream of words was the only response. Ian sighed in apparent disgust and walked back into the living room where Ryan was nervously checking his watch. A moment later, Chris finally left the bathroom, tugging his cuffs into place.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” he cried as he ran past them, threw the front door open and dashed out. The others just rolled their eyes and followed him to where he had his car parked. Fortunately, Chris owned a late model sedan, so there wouldn’t be any problems fitting everyone inside. They piled in, Chris started the car… or at least tried to. The starter strained to turn over, realized it was a futile gesture and gave up the ghost.

“Dude, is your car busted?” asked Mickael.

“No! It was working just fine yesterday!” growled Chris as he tried to start the car.

Ryan looked at his watch again, noting that they only had 10 minutes left until Sacrament meeting started.

Chris gave up trying to start the car, snarled something incoherent and popped the hood. After poking around in the engine for a few moments, he shouted for Ryan to try the starter. Ryan leaned over and twisted the keys and the car’s engine roared to life.

“You gotta be kidding me!” groaned Chris as he hopped back into the car, “There wasn’t anything wrong!”

“What’s the big deal? If we’re late, we’re late, at least we’ll get there,” said Ian a bit sourly. It seemed the rush was starting to sour everyone’s moods.

“Yeah well I like to be on time,” retorted Chris. Speaking of time, Ryan glanced at his watch again. Eight minutes to go.

Just as they tried to pull out of the Branbury’s parking lot, a car zoomed past them, nearly hitting the front bumper. Chris leaned on the horn and shouted out the window, “This is a neighborhood! Drive like it!”

Fortunately that was the only road incident that happened as they drove up to the BYU campus. It was only as they approached the parking lots, that another problem cropped up.

“Okay, so where does our Ward meet again?” asked Ryan.

“The Benson building, room 110,” replied Chris as he pulled up to the main intersection next to the Hinckley Building.

“Okay… the Benson building… Benson building… where IS the Benson building?” asked Ryan.

“Eh? You mean you don’t know?” said Mickael, flabbergasted.

“No! I go to UVU! I’ve only been to BYU once!”

“Well don’t ask me! I go to UVU as well,” growled Chris as he pulled into one of the main parking lots and then groaned, “Look at all these cars! It’s as busy as the weekdays! Besides, Ian goes here, ask him where the benson building is!”

“But I don’t have any classes around here! I don’t know where it is either!”

“You mean that NONE of us know where the building is?!” said Ryan incredulously.

“Let me think for a moment,” said Ian irritably.

“Well, until I find a parking spot, have all the moments you want,” replied Chris sarcastically.

Finally, he found an empty spot and pulled in right before another car could pull in. They climbed out of the car with Ian peeling off towards the Campus commons.

“C’mon, I think it’s this way!”

Ryan checked his watch again. Three minutes. Three minutes that ticked away as they scrambled around campus, trying to find the Benson building. Of course they were in such a rush that they didn’t think to just ask the people they passed by as to where the Benson building was. But finally they found it… right as Ryan’s watch hit 12:00.

“Relax guys,” grinned Chris, who seemed to be recovering his good humor, “Everyone runs on Mormon Standard Time around here, we’ll be fine.”

But as they walked into lecture hall 110, they noticed that it was rather on the empty side.

“Uh… where is everyone?” asked Ian as they glanced around the empty room.

“It was supposed to be at 12:00 right?” asked Mickael.

“Hey guys!” came a cheerful voice from behind them. They all turned around to find Rachel.

“What are you all doing here early? Do you need to see the Stake President?” she asked.

“Uh, no, we’re here for Sacrament,” replied Ryan hesitantly.

“Sacrament? That’s not for another hour. Why did you think it was at noon?” asked Rachel.

“Our home teachers told us,” groaned Ian.

“Well I don’t know why they would, we’ve always met at 1:00,” replied Rachel. Three boys groaned in chorus, Chris just laughed. “Well then, I guess we’re not late after all, “ Chris commented with a smile and a friendly wink aimed at the pretty Branbury co-ed.

Free Food

Ryan leaned back in the couch as his thumbs flitted across the buttons of his Xbox controller. Man, what a week! Even after getting all of his stuff moved out of the truck and into the apartment, there had been the unpacking, the sorting, dividing between stuff he wanted in his room and stuff that would go elsewhere, etc. It had been a tiring and exhausting process, but at least he’d had his Brambury roommates to help him out. There had been Chris of course and he’d gotten a chance to meet his other two roommates. Mickael Konelio was a dark haired young man of Polynesian descent who was kind of one the quiet side and kept to himself in his room most of the time. Ian Kennson was a freckled, gangly redhead from the colorfully named town of Kalamazoo, Michigan, who was very… what was the best word? Church-y, Ryan supposed. Ian had a lot of those MormonAd posters in his room and seemed to listen to MoTab most of the time. He was just two months off of his LDS mission to Brazil and there were times when he would start speaking Portugese while talking out of habit.

Still, each of their eccentricities aside, he was grateful for their help. And speak of the devil, er, roommates, Ian came bounding in through the front door, a wide grin plastered all over his face.

“Hey Ryan! You like free food right?”

“What college student doesn’t?” replied Ryan with a grin.

“Well they’re doing a sort of a waffle brunch down at the clubhouse right now. In the mood to eat?”

“Sure, why not. Are Chris and Mike here?” Ryan still hadn’t quite worked out his roomie’s schedules.

“I think they’re both at work , so it’s just us.”

“All right, let’s go then,” said Ryan as he paused the game right as his virtual Mustang GT crashed through some roadside barriers. Meh, he’d been losing that race anyway.

A couple of buildings away, Lindsey was feeling a little less charitable towards her roommate and was beginning to wish that this was one of the four bedroom apartments here at Branbury. Rachel was a nice enough girl, she didn’t seem to mind taking care of all the cleaning, for which Lindsey was truly grateful. It wasn’t that she was a messy person per se, but she tended to leave it all to the last minute. With Rachel around though, the apartment had been sparkling from day one. Even their R.A., Lindsay, had mentioned that their’s was the cleanest apartment in the whole building! Just then, Rachel swept in, practically quivering in excitement.

“Hey Lindsey guess what?”

Lindsey had to resist the urge to roll her eyes; it was far too early in the morning for this level of enthusiasm.

“No, what?”

“They’re having a free brunch down at the clubhouse! Do you wanna go?” It was phrased as a question, but the blatant hope shining in the Asian girl’s sweet brown eyes made it kind of hard to say anything but “Sure, I wouldn’t mind. I’m not in the mood to cook anyway.”

“Great! Let’s go!” she cried happily, throwing open the door and bounding out before Lindsey had even got up from her chair.

At the clubhouse there was a fairly large crowd there already but this deal was being catered by the amazing Waffle Love dudes so there was still plenty of waffles for everyone. Ryan had never been too much of a waffle man, but the smell was starting to make him wish that the line would hurry up and move! Eventually they did get to the front where two of the RAs, Annie and Jake were helping the managers Nina and Erica serve the waffles. Ryan and his roommates loaded up their plates and then began to hunt around for a place to sit and chow down. Just as he was beginning to think all the good spots had been taken, Ryan noticed that there were some tables set up in the Institute room and motioned for his roomies to follow him in there. Turned out to be a good choice as there was just a pair of girls sitting in there.

“Is anyone else sitting here?” Ryan asked politely. One of the girls, an Asian with long, dark hair smiled at them widely and shook her head.

“Be our guests!” she replied perkily.

Ryan and Ian took their seats across from the girls and the dark haired one started talking almost immediately.

“Hi, I’m Rachel! I don’t recognize any of you guys; you all must be new. Where are you from?”

Eventually it was sorted out who was who and where they were from. Unfortunately while Ian seemed to be hitting it off with Rachel, Ryan ended up making a fool of himself when Lindsey revealed she was from Australia.

“Australia huh? Let’s-put-another-shrimp-on-the-barbie Australia?” he asked with a very exaggerated accent. Lindsey didn’t laugh, instead her gaze turned frosty and her lips tightened into a thin line.

“Yes, that’s the one,” she replied bruskly.

Sensing he’d made a gaffe, Ryan tried to explain himself. But you know what they say when you have to explain a joke…

“Actually I was doing that scene from the beginning of Dumb and Dumber, where Jim Carrey gets Austria and Australia mixed up?”

“Right. Sure. I get it,” said Lindsey with a complete and total lack of humor. Ryan decided that at that moment it was best to just shut up.

As they left the clubhouse, Chris put his arm around him and said, “Tough break, man. But hey, if us guys had a dollar for every time we screwed up in front of a girl, we’d be richer than Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne put together!”

“Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne don’t exist,” Ryan deadpanned.

“Okay, okay fine, richer than Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. Take all the fun out of it why don’t ya?” What he didn’t know was that the fun was just about to begin…

Moving Day

Ryan King glanced up at the apartment building and took a deep breath. He was on his own now, for the first time in his life. Having been accepted at Utah Valley University, he’d been scouting around for a place to live and had almost literally stumbled upon the Branbury. Having heard so many good things from a couple of friends of his and after having taken the tour and been impressed with the many amenities (particularly with the pool table), he’d decided that the accommodations and most importantly the rent were to his liking. So he’d put his John Hancock on the contract and now hefted a box filled with his worldly possessions on his shoulder and slipped the key into the front door lock. Pushing the door open, he found himself in the living room of his brand new apartment. He savored the moment, relishing in the fact that he was now living on his own, no more little brothers and sisters to deal when his thoughts were interrupted by a blast of heavy metal coming from the direction of one of the rooms down the hall.

What the heck is that? Sounds like something outta the 80s.

Wondering if one of his new roommates was home, Ryan put the box down on the couch and wandered down the hall, trying to find which of the three rooms the noise was coming out of. He soon found it… and it just so happened to be the room directly across from his. The door was slightly ajar and Ryan politely knocked first but the knocking fell on deaf ears so to speak; the music was too loud. Wondering what the people upstairs must think of this, Ryan pushed open the door slightly, knocking as he did and poked his head into the room. It was all a riot of color and sound. The room’s walls were covered in a variety of posters, most of them from video games like Gears of War, StarCraft II and what looked like some kinda anime posters featuring colorful giant robots. A young man was sitting at his desk, legs kicked up on it, reading a Biology book while the metal blared around. Ryan figured that the polite approach wasn’t going to cut it so he took a deep breath and yelled, “Hey!”

The guy jumped slightly and turned around. His eyes widened and he reached over to the speakers mounted on his desk and turned them mercifully down.

“Sorry about that dude. Didn’t hear ya come in.”

“Yeah, it was kinda loud,” replied Ryan, hoping he wasn’t coming across as annoyed.

“Nah, don’t worry too much about that, most of the people in this building moved out. It’s been kinda cool to turn up the volume loud this last week or so. Although I guess now its move-in day. Need any help?”

“Uh yeah, actually, that’d be great,” replied Ryan, grateful that his roommate, although a little messy looking was at least helpful.

“No problem man. Name’s Chris Villarosa. I’m the local anime, film, and old-school music junkie around here. If you hear any Van Halen or Japanese music when you come in that’s just me. And no, I didn’t go to Japan on my mission, I’m just into it, and no, I don’t watch any of the perverted stuff, I’m a good, upstanding LDS gentleman. I’m also a bit of a night owl. Well, that’s me in a nutshell. How about you?” Chris said and then shouldered past Ryan on his way out the front door.

“Um, I’m from Kansas,” Ryan replied, a little dumbfounded. As they walked outside to get the rest of the boxes out from Ryan’s car, he had to wonder if the rest of his roommates were going to be this interesting.

Across the way, another new move-in was struggling to shove an armful of boxes through the door. As far as this particular person, one Lindsey McKenzie, native of the Land Downunder, was concerned, moving sucked. As she got the door open and managed to stumble through, she suddenly felt another pair of arms and hands grab hold of her boxes.

“Here, let me give you a hand with those,” her unseen benefactor said perkily. They wrestled the pile of boxes onto the couch and Lindsey finally got a good look at what she assumed was one of her new roommates. She was of Asian complexion and was smiling at her broadly.

“Hi there! You must be my new roommate. I’m Rachel, Rachel Han. Welcome to the Branbury! It’s really awesome here, they have so many different kinds of activities and they have Institute here and oh! You really have to meet the teachers; they’re great at making the scriptures kind of come to life, y’know? And the Wards here are really awesome as well, lots of cute boys to choose from.” She said all this very fast and Lindsey was starting to feel kind of lost. Just as Rachel took a breath and was about to start up again, Lindsey held up her hands in a stopping motion.

“Um, thanks for the info but I’m not actually a member of the LDS church…” she trailed off, not sure how her roommate would take it. Rachel just continued to smile although now it shone as a slightly embarrassed smile.

“Sorry about that, I sometimes get carried away a bit. In any case it is really fun to live here! You can hang out at the pool and Jacuzzi, watch movies in the movie room, there’s bonfires, game day parties and stuff like that. And did I mention the cute boys?” she said with a wink.

“At this point, I’ll settle for getting my room organized and getting my classes straightened out,” replied Lindsey.

“Oh sure! Do you need a hand getting the rest of your stuff?” asked Rachel. Lindsey nodded in reply and headed for the door.

“Hey, I didn’t get your name?” she asked Lindsey as Rachel followed her out the door and down the stairs.

“Lindsey McKenzie, originally from Australia,” she said.

“Oh that’s so cool! I’ve always wanted to go to a foreign country. I wanted to go overseas so badly on my mission, but I just got sent to the other side of the country! Although some parts of New York City practically are a foreign country! There was this one time that we…”

Lindsey just kind of tuned her out as they picked up more boxes. This could potentially be a very long year she thought but what she didn’t know was that her time at the Branbury would change her life forever.