the Roommates in Four [Winry&&Jessamine]

Jessamine rested her head and back againsf the back of the bed, having pulled up her legs underneath herself where she sat on the floor, her suitcase sprawled open infront of her. She had been trying to go through her things (mostly to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything - most importantly her books).

She had, had a mini heart attack earlier when she couldn't place her favourite black jeans, but she found them eventually at the bottom. It turned out she packed them first.

She reached out for one of her socks, when the door to the room was pulled opened and Jessamine froze. She had been completely alone in this room for almost thirty minutes now, but she had known when she got there that her roommate would probably arrive soon. She looked up, ready to greet this person with hope that they'd get on. Having to room with someone you absolutely couldn't stand would be a pity.

Despite this being the first time that Winry wouldn't be sleeping at home for a long period of time (and the first time she'd be attending a school), her parents didn't make a huge fuss over it. If anything, they seemed to be in a hurry.

"Bye, mom," Winry tried to say. Her parents were unloading her luggage from the back of their car and weren't paying attention to her. "I'll miss you...?"

Her little sister, Sylvia, marched up to her. The five year old smiled sweetly, making Winry wary. "Mommy says I can have your room," she grinned before sauntering off.

"Of course she did," Winry sighed, running her hand through her hair.

"Stop that," her mother snapped. She obliged. "We'll see you during break. Good bye." With that, her family got back in their car and drove away, leaving the blond to find her dorm while dragging two large suitcases all on her own.

When she finally found her room, she was sweaty and exhausted. Winry opened the door, fully prepared on dying in her bed, when she spotted another girl in there. She smiled shyly.

"Hi," Winry bit her lip, "I'm Winry Michealis."

She was nervous enough about attending a school; adding a roommate to the equation was definitely pushing her out of her comfort zone. "I'm guessing this is my bed," she said, placing her bags on the empty bed.

Jessamine practically jumped up from the floor, almost tripping over her open suitcase as she made her way towards the girl, sticking out her hand. "I don't know if it's unusual for girls to shake hands, but it's nice meeting you, I'm Jessamine." she spoke her words quickly, feeling a familiar heat in her cheeks.

"Are you alright with that bed?" Jessamine bit her lip, looking at the girl, who she noticed was blonde and insanely pretty. "You can have mine if you want-I just came here first so I figured I should pick one so I could un-pack, but if you like the other better I don't care-" she blabbered on, when she got nervous it tended to be hard to shut up.

She blushed even more when she realized how fast she had been talking and forced her self to breathe in deeply. "I'm sorry. I'm rambling. I just get really nervous around new people sometimes, especially when I know I will spend a lot of time with them - not that I'm saying we have to spend time together! It's just that we're rooming and well, you know-" Breathe in Jess, breathe out.

The only thing keeping Winry from giggling at her roomate's, Jessamine's, clumsiness was the years of hard packed etiquette her mother had drilled into her. The only sign that she was amused was the fractional squint of her eyes.

Jessamine seemed friendly enough, but Winry wasn't as naive as she acted. As pathetic as it was, she knew that not everybody was what they first seemed to be. She could name a good thirty people who were the exact opposite of what they tried to get you to believe, three of them being her family. Still, though, she couldn't help but smile--albeit, timidly--at her new roomate.

"This bed is fine," Winry mumbled, having to resist the urge to bite her nails. One of the many nervous habits her mother had tried to beat out of her. As an excuse for something to do, the blond unzipped one of her bags and started sorting through it.

"It's okay," she said, feeling a sense of relief knowing that she wasn't the only one who was nervous. "I get really nervous when I'm around new people, too. Well, around people in general." Winry bit her lip again. "So, uh, what's...up?"

Pathetic. Really, really pathetic, she thought bitterly. Her first try at making a new friend, and that's what she chooses to say.

Jessamine nodded quickly, relieved that the other girl was talking as well. "I'm glad you're okay with the bed, they're really comfortable! I sat on mine earlier." she explained, a smile spreading over her face again.

She backed towards her bed as she continued. "I've just been unpacking, really. Making sure I've got everything. I think I did, everything that matters anyway. At least I brought my-uh-" the back of her legs hit her suitcase, but again she managed to steady her self. "-Toothbrush."

She circled her suitcase before getting down on her knees. "Have you gotten a chance to see the campus yet? They have a garden! And a lake! It's amazing-" she gushed, fishing up a hair-tie from her suitcase. "Or do you not like nature? I really need to stop talking, you can just tell me to shut up when I go at it." she apologized, blushing again as she worked on getting her hair up in a ponytail. "My friends back at home used to scold me for it a lot."

Winry was beyond relieved to know that her lame attempt at starting a conversation wasn't a problem. Instead, Jessamine seemed to talk even more.

"Yeah, I saw a bit of the campus. I kinda got lost on my way here," she said, chuckling nervously. Her lack of social skills made it hard for her to ask someone for help, something which she could sadly say happened quite often.

Winry busied herself with separating her clothes by color--another nervous habit of hers--as she giggled to herself. Yeah, her roommate talked a lot, but she didn't really mind.

"Really, Jessamine," Winry felt weird calling her by her first name already," it's fine. I'm really quiet, so it's better if you talk." She flashed a smile, trying to summon some form of confidence into it, and turned back to her clothes. She couldn't decide which stack she should put her periwinkle top in: the blue or purple one?

Debating on the topic gave her a headache, so Winry turned to Jessamine and held up the shirt. "Does this look more blue or purple to you?"

Once satisfied with her ponytail, Jessamine plopped down on her bed, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. She kept smiling though, she couldn't say other than she actually really did like the girl - Winry, that was a bit of a special name, wasn't it? Pretty though.

"You got lost?" her eyes went a bit wide. "Oh my! I don't know what I would've done had I gotten lost! I have an okay sense of direction, but when I get lost, I really get lost! And scared, because my mother used to say I had to be careful not for the wer-" she stopped herself. She had almost spoken the word 'werewolf' aloud. What if this girl wasn't a magical being like she was? "For robbers." she corrected herself. "She said they'd steal little girls like me."

"I'm good with talking." Jessamine let out a breathy laugh. "And purple. That is such a nice colour though! Purple is my favourite. With orange and bright blue. I like pink as well. Do you colour separate all your clothes? Mine are just a mess in my closet all of the time, because when I wakeup I tend to throw everything around while looking for something."

Winry grinned awkwardly. Her sense of direction was nonexistant. The amount of times she had gotten lost in her own home were numerous, but she'd never tell that to anybody. Ever.

"That was a bit...brutal," the blonde said, her eyes widening. Who would tell their child that they'd get taken by robbers? It sounded horrible. Then again, Winry had grown up completely sheltered from the outside world. Heck, her parents hadn't even told her where babies came from until she turned fourteen. The whole process was still a bit...gross...to her.

Examining the shirt more closely, Winry saw that it did, in fact, look more purplish. With a content smile, she folded it and plopped it on the top of the purple pile.

"It's a habit," Winry shrugged. "I like white and red the most. It reminds me of the Angel and Devil that stand on characters' shoulders in the cartoons."

It felt weird, talking so much. She half expected to look over and see her mother glaring at her in a way to tell her to 'shut up'. But her mother was on her way back home, to the other side of the country. Winry had absolutely no one to tell her what to do or what friends to make. It was liberating...and extremely terrifying.

"So I'm new to the whole 'school' thing. Is there anything I should know about it?" Winry asked nervously, wiping her palms on her skirt as they started to sweat. What if she screwed up? What if she embarrassed herself? What if her parents found out about it? Would they force her to come home? Would they punish her for it? Oh, jeez. What if she ended up offending someone from a powerful family? Her parents would never forgive her!

"Ooh, habits!" Jessamine's ears perked up. "I have loads of habits!" she exclaimed. "Like biting my lip and my nails. And sucking ion my hair. It's really weird, I know." she blushed again. "Im really bad at staying still as well." she added, noticing that she had started to sway back and forth on her place on the bed.

She then realised the girl had uttered a word that Jessamine didn't recognize. "Cartoons?" she repeated, a confused expression on her face. "What is that?"

School. Oh, Jessamine bit her lip thinking about that. School - that was a big scary word. "I don't really know, honestly. Schools are very different, the one I went to at home was small, but nice. I think we're just supposed to try to show up on time for all our lessons and you know raise your hand when you know an answer to a question and try to be nice to other people, even if they're not as nice to you. James always said that was very important, that you had to try your best to be polite to even those that were rude, even if you really wanted to punch them in the face." she giggled.

Winry laughed. "Staying still is overrated," she said, knowing full well how tempting it is to move when you've been frozen in the same position for hours.

A weird look crossed her face. "You don't know what cartoons are?" Well, who am I to talk?I didn't know what sex was until a year ago, she thought to herself. "Well, um, it's like...a show or movie, only the characters are drawn and animated," Winry tried to explain, scratching her nose as she thought her words out.

"That sounds simple enough, I guess. I think I'll just sit quietly in the corner though,"she said, biting her lip shyly. The thought of purposefully drawing attention to herself made me stomach clenched uncomfortably. Winry suddenly felt like throwing up the small amount of food her mother had allowed her to eat, but she tried to force the urge down.

In an attempt to take her mind off of her upset belly, the blond decided to ask a question and let her new friend do the talking. Opening her mouth made it too easy for her body to activate it's gag reflex.

"Not to sound rude, but who's James?"

"Cartoons." Jessamine repeated the word. She liked it. "It sounds heavenly! So they have angel and devil animation?" she asked, trying to remember if those were the characters the girl had mentioned earlier. "What about fairies? Nymphs? Werewolves?"

Jessamine grinned widely. "Oh, I think school will be rather fun! But why would you want to sit alone in a corner? I wan't to meet people, make friends. Different kinds of people, do different things. I really wanna learn everything I can learn and see everything I can see! How amazing would it be to travel all around the world?" she sighed dreamily.

James. The sound of someone else saying his name made Jessamine's stomach to a little flip. Oh, how she missed James. "He's my brother. My older brother. He's my favourite person in the world. My best friend." she hugged her knees tighter. "Do you have any siblings?"

"They vary with the cartoon, but, yeah. They have whatever you can imagine in cartoons. Though, since most of them are made for children, their kinda limited," Winry shrugged.

Meeting new people... That didn't make her feel good. Yeah, she'd just sit alone. Or next to Jessamine if she had any classes with her. She was nice. And very energetic. "I'd like to go to Italy," Winry said, smiling dreamily. She'd always wanted to go, but her parents always had some reason why she couldn't. Most of them revolving around 'high calorie meals'. Honestly, her mother was more worried about her gaining weight than she was.

A snort escaped her as she thought of her sister. "I have a younger sister, but I swear she's Evil incarnate. Her goal in life is to make my life miserable," Winry said, rolling her eyes. That seems to be a common goal among my family, she thought bitterly. "But your brother sounds cool. I'd like to meet him." But hopefully I won't. Me plus new people equals disaster.

"They're for children?" Jessamine couldn't stop herself from being a bit dissapointed by that. She'd been very excited about this 'cartoon' thing, but if it was for children, would it be okay for her to watch it?

"Italy?" the red head repeated. "I've never been to Italy, but it sounds nice. I've been told it's beautiful, I really wanna go to Spain though, it's really hot there, isn't it? I don't really like the cold." she was shivering just thinking about it.

Jessamine's eyes went wide. "You dont like your sister?" How could you not like your sibling? Jessamine couldn't imagine not liking James, even if he could be a prat sometimes and liked messing with her, she loved him. "Is she not nice then?" Jessamine bit her lip. "I hope you can meet Jem sometime, he's so lovely, to me at least. He'd like you I think. He always said blondes were fun."

"Some of them are," Winry said, shrugging. "They're others made for teenagers, and even some for adults." It was weird to her that, of all the things she could be talking about, she was talking about cartoons. Her parents didn't even know that she liked cartoons.

How can you not like the cold? the blond thought. "I guess it's hot. I don't know, really. But I'm not a big fan of heat," she said, smiling awkwardly. "I prefer freeze-your-butt-off weather."

Winry made a sound between a laugh and a snort. Sylvia? Nice? Pah! "She's...disagreeable," she said carefully. Even though she felt like she was making a friend, her parents would kill her if they knew she was talking bad about a family member. What was that saying her mother always used? Don't air you laundry in public.


A faint blush heated up Winry's face. Fun? What does she mean by 'fun'? Even though it sounded sort of...perverted, the fact that Jessamine said it like it was nothing made her feel silly for thinking that. Why did she have to be so socially inept? "That's...I'll look forward to meeting him."

"I really wanna watch them." Jessamine admitted, biting her lip. "Do you think I could buy some... what were the called again?" she hated how forgetful she could be.

"You prefer cold? Wow, I guess cold can be nice... you can wear sweaters! I love sweaters, warm, warm sweaters and drink hot chocolate. And the snow is good, but I prefer heat and summer, with the flowers and when I can go outside and read."

Jessamine stared slightly confused at the blonde when she made a sound Jessamine wasn't sure if it was a laugh or a snort. "And the rest of your family?" she asked, politely, thinking of her parents. "Jem's my favourite family member, he's a bit forward though, so if you ever meet him do not be afraid. He's a terrible flirt as well." she said, shaking her head. "But he'd never be rude to my friends, so you'll be fine-" She gasped at her own mistake. She had no idea if she and this Winry person were friends yet! "-If you're my roommate." she added, a blush creeping up her cheeks once again.

"Cartoons," Winry said, smiling widely. "And you don't have to buy them. Just turn on a television and there'll most likely be some cartoon on some channel," she added, shrugging.

Laughing, the blond nodded. "You can just bury yourself in sweaters! Though I've never had hot chocolate; my mother thinks I'd gain, like, a million pounds if I drank it."

Like that's even possible...

"My parents are...alright. I mean, they're parents. What's there to say?" Winry shrugged, tiptoeing through the family conversation. "There are times when I just want to strangle them," Most of the time, she thought to herself, "but there're others that I can't imagine them outside of my life." Rarely.

A terrible flirt!? She thought, alarmed. Maybe that 'fun' comment was what it sounded like...

"Oh," Winry said, looking at her hands for a moment. Maybe I'm worse at the "making friends" thing than I first thought... "Tha' 's'good, I guess. If you were to meet my family, they'd really like you. They love polite, well mannered people that'll be a 'good influence' on me," she giggled, covering up her sudden mood change.

Jess's eyes went wide. "You've never tasted hot chocolate?" the thought seemed almost impossible to her, though she hadn't heard of 'cartoons' so perhaps that made them even. "I'll make you some sometime, its absolutely the lushest thing in the universe."

She seemed a bit hesitant when it came to the subject of family, Jessamine noticed. But she knew it to be rude to ask, so she just smiled at Winry. "My parents are quite protective of me. And so is James. I've been handled like porcelain for most of my life," she grimaced slightly. "So it's a bit of a… what shall I call it… It's bit refreshing to be away from them, though I'm sure to miss them." Mostly Jem and his wit, though she had gotten used to be away from him when he had attended school.

"You think me polite?" Jessamine smiled at that. "That's so sweet, I'd like to hope I am. Not boring though, am I? Jem always said that about people he thought too polite." she frowned a little. "Sorry, I speak about him too much, don't I? I just miss him." she bit her lip.

"Would you like some chocolate? I have loads. Je-Someone gave it to me," she corrected herself, blushing again and starting rummaging through her stuff. "Here it is-" she pulled up a big bar of chocolate. Jessamine unwrapped it quickly before breaking it into two pieces and holding one out for Winry.