Moving In

"And... that's the last box."

Setting a small cardboard box on top of a pyramid of similar cardboard boxes, Zatrina looked around her new, small, office with some air of regret. Maybe she shouldn't have seemed so desperate, maybe she'd have gotten a nicer office if she had played the high road. Her office was in the far reaches of the Administration Wing, tucker neatly into a corner room that looked (and smelt) as if it hadn't seen use in twenty years. Dust coated the dest and bookshelf, and grime cover both windows so that he sun hardly filtered through. The carpet had seen better days, and Zati found, to her chagrin, that it was the source of the musty smell. On the ceiling, the fan was missing a blade, and the single light bulb gave a very sad attempt at lighting the room.

It would take a lot of work, of course, but it was her place now. She'd have to clean before she unpacked the boxes, but she didn't know where to get the supplies-- surely there was a closet somewhere? She circled to the room to think if she'd passed one already and the long fringes of her shawl left trails in the dusty grime of the carpet.

Setting down her bag, Zati took a cautionary looking out her door, peering around through the thick lenses of her glasses. One step after another, she traced her way down the hallway, standing close to every label on every door to try and find something somehow relating to cleaning supplies. She didn't want to barge in on a teacher, or, stars forbid, her mentor (who ever it was), so she hovered for several uncomfortable moments outside each unmarked door before deciding that, no, this couldn't be the cleaning supplies closet!

It was fifteen minutes before she narrowed down the door to the cleaning supplies closet. She opened the door slowly and stepped inside to peer around. A tiny window helped illuminate the small closet, full of brooms, mops, spray-bottle and buckets.

"Perfect!" She mumbled, just as the closet door shut behind her. In a few minutes, her arms filled with all the window cleaner and polisher she'd need, Zati turned back to the door and fumbled with the handle.

Locked. Jammed. Something was stopping her from opening this door. No amount of jiggling or pushing would un-stick the door.

Silence filled the back hallway of the Administration Wing, except for the frantic jiggling of a door in its frame.

Zati was close to losing hope. She had abandoned her cleaning supplies and left them scattered as her feet as she jiggled the door. Just when she thought she was ready to spend the rest of her life between these four walls, she heard a soft knock near the door.

"Yes! Yes, I'm here, please, open the door! I didn't mean to shut myself in." Zati stepped away from the door and began gathering her wits and her windex. "Just, uhm, try the knob! It might be locked from the inside."

What a start to the first day, right? Not only a small office, but a small closet with a stupid door with a stupid lock and these stupid cleaning things for all the stupid dust... She'd work with it. It had to be up from here, right? It couldn't get any worse.

"Oh, thank goodness," Zati sighed, stepping out of the closet and giving her savior a once over. In her wedges, she felt she towered over the shorter student. "Oh my! A student? In the administration wing?" Zati shuffled forward with squinted eyes to get a closer look. Something felt a little... off-putting about this student in particular, but Zati attributed it only to not being able to tell if the youngling was a boy or a girl.

She gasped suddenly, as if with realization. "Perhaps, you are here," she started, leaning down a bit so as not to tower, "in search of some... guidance? Oh, I haven't even introduced myself! Here, follow me, and I'll get you all settled in and introduced and I'll pour you some tea and we will be aquainted!"

Without waiting for any sort of answer, Zati became to gracefully shuffle right back down the hallway, almost dropping her furniture polish. "Right this way-- I hope you'll excuse the mess, I've only just moved in today!"

The "teacher" disappeared through her office door, but peeked her head out to peer expectantly at Char.

"Oh-- well, my office is a little, uhm, underwhelming and a lot messy but you don't have to help me clean it unless you really want to!"

Zati disappeared within her office, which, as she said, was very underwhelming. Zati dumped her cleaning supplies on the side of the rickety desk that wasn't covered in her boxes and scooped up a bottle of window cleaner and a rag.

"I am Zatrina Delphine Oranus! I'm a graduate student assistant here, as well as a guidance counselor. I'm skilled in many forms of divination and, well, things!" She turned and started scrubbing a window, almost nervous. Her bangles jingled loudly, almost drowning out her words.

"Tell me about yourself. Oh! Right! The tea, so sorry-- just let me put this down..." Zati dropped the rag and windex and took just a moment to crack the window open and let the cool air spiral in before turning and pulling a box open. She was a whirlwind of action, frizzy hair, and fringes.

The office's desk and chairs were old and worn, and the bookshelf had seen better days. Zati, having located her hot water boiler, suddenly realized she had no water to boil. Torn, she hesitantly let the boiler rest on the desk and returned to the window to scrub it again. Sunlight began to filter in, filling the room with a warm light.

"Oh, uhm. Latent powers-- I, uh, don't really know what that means, but, uh, I know being here will help you not set things on fire!" Zati remained cheerful in the face of her uncertainty and lack of tea, finishing one window and moving to the next, though this one remained short.

"I don't really do sports, but I love playing cards. I like watching sports. Like, uh, baseball. The songs are fun. I could never really play because I can't see very well, but I was really good at guessing who would win."

She turned to her new student, smiling wide. "But I'm new here, too. I'm not even moved into my apartment yet-- maybe we can help each other! Oh, be careful with the spray near the wall sockets." It wasn't actually a wall socket, but a burn in the wall, but Zati couldn't tell the difference.

"Well, I still would love some tea, so I could get some water and we can clean and drink tea and read leaves and unpack!"