Tammy's POV

"Tammy" the voice said.

"What?" I answer groggily.

"We have to get to school, so get your ass off that bed and into the shower" Nia ordered like she was my boss, even though she was just a year and a half older than me.

She was 17 and I was 15 - turning 16- but she acts like she's so much older. It gets worse during the few months between her birthday, being August, and mine, being February when the age gap temporarily increases.

"What's the time?" I ask, stretching but not getting out of bed.

"7:13" she says as she takes a quick glance at her phone.

"We still have 47 whole minutes" I argue as I pull the covers over my head.

"Yeah", she says before pulling the covers off entirely, "47 minutes for you to delay us"

"Why me?" I ask as I get up, rubbing my eyes.

"Cuz you take the longest to get ready plus it's an hour drive to Sunview"
she states.

"Says the person who is literally married to the mirror in the bathroom" I counter.

I'm up now and heading for the bathroom in our room.

"I'm ready, aren't I?" she says smugly before going down to make breakfast.

"Smartass" I mumble under my breath as I enter the bathroom to freshen up. It's more spacious than the one back home. It has a bathtub, a sink facing a wide mirror on the wall, a WC. Nothing too fancy.

I proceed to take a shower, then get dressed. You might be wondering if I forgot to brush my teeth. It's usually the last thing I do in the morning. Don't judge me, that's just my way.

By the time I'm out I can hear Dizzy and Nia talking all the way from downstairs. About what on-campus life would be like. I could hear her giving Nia advice and other girly stuff I didn't care to listen in to.

I took time to come up with an outfit yesterday to make a good impression seeing as it's my first day at a new school.

I chose a pair of dark blue jeans and a cute white floral crop top, with my white Adidas canvas. I carried my black backpack, which formerly lay on a purple bean bag at the corner of the room, and my two black Lious Vitton suitcases. I was ready.

I stand at the door examining the room I was to call my new bedroom. Well during the holidays anyway. I didn't get a good look at it the night we arrived because I was too tired to care and we'd been busy the past two weeks getting ready for boarding school and all but the room wasn't half bad. We hadn't customized it with any paint, posters or pictures so the walls were white and bare.

There were two studying desks at one side parallel to the beds, which were side by side with  some space in between. I walked to the door on the other side of the room leading to the balcony. I unlocked the door and went onto the balcony. It had black railing and overlooked the pool and the backyard.

The view wasn't bad either, I saw a few houses with kids running into cars, probably off to school. I bet it would be better at night.

I was about to go back inside when something - or more accurately, someone - caught my eye. I saw a guy and his friends in a backyard a few houses away. They were having breakfast outside I guessed but one of them caught my eye.

To say this guy was handsome was an understatement. I couldn't really make out his features but even from this distance I could see he was really good looking.

I just stood there gawking at him for who-knows how long and would've continued staring when all of a sudden his friend said something to him and he looked in my direction.

Oh no! I'd been spotted, I ducked like someone had just shot a bullet my way.

'Just crawl away from the balcony, Tammy' I thought as I crawled back into my room, closing the door behind me.

"Phew" I sighed in relief, with my head to the balcony door. I wonder if they saw me. I just pray they didn't.

"Well that was a weird entrance" I whipped around to the source of the voice, though I already knew the owner.

"I-I was just..." I thought before giving up,"I got nothing, I saw a cute boy a few houses away in his backyard and was observing him and his friends-"

"So you were gawking at him" Nia said with a smirk.

"No, I wasn't!" I said defensively, even though I knew it was true.

"Drop the act Tammy, was he cute?" she pried and I didn't see the point in lying anymore.

"Uber cute"

"Wow, he must really be something if tomboy Tammy is complimenting him" she said with a chuckle.

I couldn't help but smile.

"Nia, Tammy, if you guys don't get down here soon you're gonna be late" Dizzy shouted downstairs.

"I don't avoid guys, I just don't date them" I said as we went down the stairs.

"Whatever floats your boat" she said putting her hands up in surrender.

•♥♥♥•
Mom was helping me get settled in my new room while dad was helping Nia. It was 9:27 and seeing as checking in started around 9 not many people were here yet.

One thing about my family is that no matter what, we're always early. It just runs in the family.

We were in the dorm building. How they arranged it is that every gender has two dorm buildings - one for the seniors and one for the juniors. Each has three floors. The bottom floor is for the reception where guests wait, the janitor's closet and the laundry room. Then second to top floor has the dorms in order of the lowest to highest class (9th to 10th & 11th to 12th).

Since I was in the 11th grade I was on the second floor while Nia's on the top floor.

We (the parents, me and Nia) went to the last floor to say our good byes, a few tears were shed - by the parents not moi- and they left. They finally left.

"You owe me ten bucks?" Nia says

"For what?"

"I told you dad would cry first, he shed a few waterworks when he was in my room giving me his final piece of advice before I went out into the world" she answers.

I turn to her.

"His words, not mine"

"Well, mom cried when she was in my room too so I guess there's no way to know who's right" I answer smugly as I run past her on the stairs.

"So the bet is off" I say before shutting my door behind me.

She seemed mad but what could she do. She has no proof I was lying, even though I was.

What? I need to save all the money I can get just in case of incasities.

Plus, I just really don't want to give her the money.

With my back against the room door, I couldn't help but feel excited. I was alone in a room I would share with...

I stopped to count the beds. There was a bunk bed and two normal beds so I assumed I would have three roomies. It just felt good to feel... independent. Like I could do what I wanted without bothering about what my parents would think.

I chuckled. But be bothered by what my roomies would think.

I unpacked the rest of my belongings mostly consisting of my clothes, in their respective places. The room was generously spacious, given four people would be living in it. It was bare aside from the beds and reading desks for each of us.

Nothing much since it was left to us to decide what to do with it. I had brought two bean bags, one dark purple and the other dark pink. I put them on the floor and smiled in satisfaction. Then I put my posters on the wall, including some band posters and one with a cat dangling from a branch that read, 'Hang in there'.

I looked at it and chuckled. I just loved cat humor.

When I was done arranging my side of the room I climbed onto the top bunk and laid on my back, staring at the ceiling which I could almost touch. Thinking of what my new roomies will be like.

•♥♥♥•
"Um, hello?" Someone said dragging me out of my dreamless sleep. Had I fallen asleep?

"Hi" the girl said noticing I was awake. She waited for me to come down from the top bunk before she introduced herself.

"I'm Hannah Baker. I take I that you're new because I haven't seen you around"

I nodded in response.

"This is Grace" she said pointing to a girl on the lower bunk with her eyes glued to the screen of her laptop. She looked up and gave me a small smile and I waved in response.

"And that's MJ" she says as she points to a redhead siting on one of the single beds.

"Say Hi MJ" Hannah says

"Hi MJ" the girl says looking at her coldly before turning her attention back to her book.

"She isn't really the..."  she seemed to be picking her words carefully, "-friendly type" she finally says as she glances back at MJ.

"Anyways, welcome to Sunview High Boarding School. I would be happy to give you a tour anytime you'd like" she says with a too-wide smile.

"Thanks but I think I can figure my way round" I respond trying my best to smile back.

"Okay, but if you ever change your mind my offer still stands" she says before heading to the door.

"You're already leaving?" I asked, it was just the first day. Where could she possibly be heading to? Though she was probably here last semester and is already familiar with the campus.

"Yeah, I just thought I'd introduce myself before heading out. Later" she says before closing the door behind her.

"I thought she'd never leave" MJ says in relief.

"I take it you don't like her very much" I say looking at her.

"Gee, what gave it away?" she asks dryly.

"Can't blame you. I've only known the girl a few minutes but I can already tell she's-"

"Trouble, spoilt, a gossip" Grace suggested still not looking up from her laptop.

"I was gonna say fake but yeah all of the above" I say and MJ snickers.

"Too bad she's in our room this year" Grace says sounding disappointed, "I heard her last roommates got so sick of her they'd rather repeat a grade just to avoid the slightest chance of them being roomies again"

"That's stupid. I can't waste one year of my life because of some spoiled brat with too blonde hair" MJ spat at no one in particular.

"Well we have to at least try and get along with her" I suggested

"It's just one year. I mean how hard can it be?"

"Pretty hard" Grace answered even though it was a rhetorical question.

"Well, it's very simple. We stay out off her fake hair and she'll stay out of ours" MJ said not taking her attention off the book she was reading.

I lowered myself to see the name.

"The Odyssey"

"What?" I ask confused.

"That's the name of the book. I guessed you were crouching to see the name so I thought I'd save you the trouble" she said as she flipped the page.

"You read a lot?" I asked

"Yeah, kindoff a book worm, do you?"

"Not really. If ever there was a good book someone recommended for me, I'd just wait until the movie came out. It worked for The Hunger Games, Twilight, After, you name it"

She laughed then. A genuine laugh. I liked the sound of it. So soothing and carefree. I made a mental note to make her laugh more in the future.

We started talking and we talked and talked for hours straight with the regular input from Grace. Out of all the roomies I would have thought off I would have never thought of this combination, with or without Hannah. I just looked at them and couldn't help but smile.

'It was gonna be a good year' I thought to myself.

But as they say nothing is written in stone.

Hello my precious lillipads! How are you guys?

How'd you like this chapter? What do you think of Tammy's new roomies? I dunno about you guys but I kinda like the combination. The perfect recipe for chaos 🙃

The chapter was too long so I had to cut it. Hope y'all don't mind. And I hope you guys liked it✨

When we start getting enough reads I'll start doing dedications in each chapter🥳

And please comment your thoughts, opinions, criticism, or corrections on the book. I go over it like two to three times but I can't do it all and there are bound to be mistakes so please feel free to spot them out and tell me in the comments 📝

I love you all!💝
~Your fellow lillipad 💖