Dorm #11: Term's End, Everything Return

Andrea crawled under her bed, using her wand to illuminate the dark space. It was empty of everything and anything. Not even a stray sock was to be found. "Where did they go?" she muttered before crawling out backwards.  "Nox."  The now unlit wand was thrown aside on the bed and Andrea, with hands on her hips, stared at the open trunk she was trying to pack for the trip home.  It had to be tidy or Aunt Lisa would lecture her at the other end of the journey.  

She sat down the edge of the bed and picked up the list sitting there. "Three textbooks, five socks and one shoe left to find," she muttered.  Andrea kicked at the floor and looked over at the messy trunk again. She groaned and fell backwards onto the mattress. "I'm never going to get it packed to Aunt Lisa's standards," she muttered to herself.  She heard the door open and sat up with a hopeful look on her face.  "I need help," she pleaded. Maybe Stephanie would know where her things disappeared.

Stephanie was returning back to her dorm, after studying with Hassan. She loved studying, but what made it even better was that Hassan was studying with her. She just couldn't decide. Does she...like him? Well, Stephanie surely liked him as a friend...but what if she wanted him to be more than that? Ugh...She didn't have the time to process all these right now. She opened the door of her dorm and found Andrea looking at her...

"Um...Ciao. Sure, I can help. What do you want me to do?"
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*Ciao: "Hello/Hi", in Italian.

Andrea waved the list she'd made. "I'm missing stuff and if I don't return home with it my aunt will ground me for the entire summer. She has lists and inventories of everything I came to school with and orders for me to return home with all of it. Well not the parchment of course and maybe not that bottle of ink I accidentally broke." That had not been a good day and she still wasn't sure how she managed to break it. Magic may be able to repair bottles but apparently it was unable to refill them with the ink which spilled too.

She gave her roommate a pleading look. "Do you know where socks can disappear? Because I still have to figure that one out." Andrea stretched to look at her open trunk again. "Maybe I should unpack and repack. The socks might have slipped in somewhere without me counting them."

Andrea seemed worried. Not her usual expression, for sure. Andrea wasn't the most organized person, Stephanie knew. Stephanie supposed that this was the reason of her anxiety. She could never imagine her life without organizing and scheduling everything in advance. It'd be like challenging you luck, something bad would statistically happen for sure!

Stephanie discovered that she was right. Organization problems. Piece of cake.
"Bene, have you tried to search my drawers? Maybe you left your socks there, without realizing it. About everything else, have you made a list of places where you store your stuff? If not, any kind of plan you follow? It's the best way to find lost things." Stephanie said, in a helpful way.
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*Bene: "Well", in Italian.

Andrea stared at Stephanie. "I hadn't thought of that," she admitted. "Do you think I could have accidentally put something in your draws instead of my own."  It wasn't something she'd ever done before but Andrea had never had to share a room before either.  From only child to moving into her aunt and uncle's largish house she hadn't needed to share a room with anyone.  

She slumped again and pulled a face. "Now you sound like Aunt Lisa. That's the sort of thing she'd say." And even though she hadn't come straight out and said it yet Andrea was sure she would say something after coming home from school with fewer items than she went with.  "If I haven't got a plan do you think there's still time to come up with one to find my missing books and shoe?"  The socks she wasn't so worried about now thinking that maybe they were in Stephanie's draws.

Stephanie, looked around the room awkwardly. The young witch, didn't want to tell Andrea that she thought of her as a disorganized person. It'd sound rude. Stephanie sighed and looked at her roommate, from the corner of her eye.
"Um, Andrea. Well... you know... um... yeah... You see... Everybody can be confused and put accidentally something in somebody else's drawers. Especially when you don't have un programma..." Andrea was one of her... quite few friends. She didn't want to hurt her.

The young lady, looked Andrea in the eyes, without realizing it. "Ve, you need to focus on every single part of our dorm, where we can store or hide belongings." Stephanie said, trying to be helpful. There were many combinations of places where Andrea's stuff could be. It'd be fun looking for them. Kinda like a game of statistics.
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*Un programma: "A schedule", in Italian.
**Ve: An abbreviation of the Italian word "Bene", meaning "Good", which has the same function of the English interjection "Well" at the beginning of a sentence. You can also hear a "Be", in different Italian regions.

Andrea threw herself backwards onto the bed again. A schedule? she screamed silently. "I'm so dead," she muttered and sat up again. "You're right. I need something to keep me from getting into trouble with my aunt." Thankfully her uncle tended to keep out of the things which had nothing to do with finances. "How do you create a schedule anyway?" Sure she had a school timetable but Andrea never had to create one. Not even for home since Aunt Lisa always arranged everything she and her cousin were to do during their holidays.

"Every single part," she repeated and brightened. "That shouldn't take long. It's not very big. I've already looked under my bed so that's one place off the list." Andrea stood and looked around before grabbing her wand off the bed and pointing at Stephanie's bed. "Shall we start there? Under your bed?"

It was about time. Stephanie would make a schedule with Andrea. Finally. Stephanie loved the whole procedure of making a schedule. It was actually relaxing, for her.

"The first you need to think of, is where you want to store each belonging of yours. Obviously at your drawers, however each drawer must have its own use. You can use more places later, but your number 1 priority, should be the use of every single storing furniture you already have." Stephanie said, full of confidence, probably for the first time in her life.

"Si, under my bed, behind the curtains, behind the sink...everywhere." She nodded and begun searching behind the magenta curtains of their dorm.
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*Si: "Yes", in Italian.

After giving Stephanie permission to help Andrea now regretted it. She didn't want to have to figure out what wanted where. She liked to place everything where it fitted. It was working for her. She glanced down at the list and amended that thought with 'it was sort of working for her.' "Well that can begin next term," she declared. "Right now I'm packing for home." And that meant finding her lost items.

With her wand in her hand she dropped to the floor and shoved her head under Stephanie's bed. "Lumos. Hey I think I see my shoe." She reached out with her free hand and stretched out her arm to reach it. "Ah...Got it. Yes. It's my shoe." In her excitement she lifted her head and hit it on the bottom of the bed. "Ouch." She winced, recovered and returned to waving her lit wand around under the bed. "It's dusty under here."

Stephanie smiled, slightly. She was glad that she helped Andrea. Scheduling was surely the best way to avoid such a crisis. Stephanie knew that what she was doing, wasn't meaningless.
"Sure. Let's find everything lost, then."

After looking behind the dorm's curtains, Stephanie decided that it would be statistically wrong to look behind a sink, for a couple of books. Why would they be there, anyway? She then decided to look under the armchair. She stood up and took her wand out of her pocket. "Wingardium Leviosa!" She said, and moved the armchair to a nearby corner. Indeed, the books were there. The books and a disgusting pile of dust...

"A-Andrea, I found your books, as well. Anything else, to look for?" Stephanie said, trying to not look at that disgusting pile of dust... Probably, full of fungus, bacteria, viruses, Ebola and death.

"You did?" Andrea asked in surprise and pounced on the books as soon as she saw them. "How did they get there?" she asked. She picked up the books and blew on them just in case the dust had gotten on them and she couldn't see it. "I thought someone cleans these rooms," she remarked as she threw the books on her bed one by one. She could imagine how Aunt Lisa would react to the sight of dust on the ground. Anything out of place really.

With the books and shoe found she didn't need to consult the list again. "Only my five socks. I hadn't checked your draws yet. Just one question. How am I supposed to tell what's mine and what's yours if it's part of the school uniform?"

Stephanie nodded. "Well, I don't know exactly how they got there, but the important thing is that we found them." A sentiment of satisfaction, passed through Stephanie's body. She was actually helping somebody. Not having much social interactions, doesn't give you this feeling a lot. She liked the way it felt.

Now... five socks. Where could they be? "You can look in my drawers and count how many socks, are stored there. If they're more than they should be, the extra ones are yours." Stephanie said, and pointed at her drawers.

"But how many socks should there be in your draw?" Andrea asked. She opened the draw and pulled out one odd sock. It had to be hers. She frowned at the rest in the draw. "Well I suppose these not so neat and tidy ones are mine," she surmised and pulled out two pairs which looked more like they were wrestling than rolled up neatly together.

"Thanks Stephanie. I've found everything." Andrea shut the draw before returning to her bed with the rest. With all her belongings now in one place there was still the problem of how to fit them all in the trunk neatly and tidily.

"Ten socks of mine, are supposed to be stored there. The extra ones are yours..." Stephanie looked at Andrea, trying to find her socks. She could easily recognized her own ones. Well, she was a bit untidy, but at least that characteristic of hers helped, in the current situation. "Well, it's alright. At least we found your socks." Stephanie said shyly... Shyly... Really now. Andrea was her friend. Why were all these "shy phases" of her, appearing out of nowhere? Why was she so socially awkward, anyway? She eye rolled, without realizing it.

"You're welcome. I'm glad I helped." Stephanie said, as Andrea was returning to her bed.