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.
