A Strange Welcome Home [Coral]

Finally, she had arranged the perfect care package for Coral. She had found a wonderful laundry basket when she had gone shopping last, and it had given her the bright idea to make a basket of useful things for Coral so she could settle in.

It had been her mission that all week to find things that Coral would find useful, however that was easier said than done. A blanket was always necessary, but that left the innumerable choices of what kind of blanket, a quilt or a down comforter, and what size. Maybe she should include a heated throw blanket instead?

Just choosing a blanket had taken hours, let alone the rest of the empty basket staring at her. Over the rest of the week, she had made countless lists as to what was an appropriate housewarming gift, but in the end, she just threw in the neatest things she could find, along with stuff that the internet said was a good gift.

The final list that made the cut were as follows:

• A heated throw blanket (green)
• A thin quilt (in shades of pink, green and white)
• A set of shallow pasta bowls (4)
• Wooden spoons (3)
• A box of fancy chocolates
• A tupperware filled with buttons

The buttons were her favorite—mostly for running her fingers through, but it was always good to have extra buttons. Maybe she should've packed some needles and thread as well...

Anyway, it was too late for that. Ann was standing outside Coral's dorm, trying to balance her big gift basket while she knocked on the door. After their first encounter, the secretaries were nice enough to give Ann Coral's room number, so she could surprise her with a lovely gift. She couldn't wait to see the look on Coral's face!

'... ... .. ohmygodshewasnthome' Ann squeaked as Coral came up to her. She was so busy thinking about her gift that she forgot to make sure Coral was around, instead of looking like a stalker. Especially since Coral never gave Ann her room number, instead, she had gone snooping.

"Oh hi Coral! What a surprise meeting you...here..." Her brain short circuited for a moment; what was she supposed to do now? She glanced at her gift basket, then back to Coral, then back to her basket. "You said you were new here, so I made you a little housewarming gift."

She probably thinks I'm a creep now! How long have I been waiting out here? Did someone come and tell her that I was standing outside her door? Crap crap crap, there goes a perfectly good friendship...

Might as well just say it, "I swear I wasn't stalking you. I just wanted to say thanks for not freaking out, and the best way to do that is with neat things, in my opinion. There's a heated throw blanket, and some new plates, oh, and a box of chocolates from this awesome sweet shop downtown—wait do you even like chocolate—I'm so sorry!"

She had half a mind to just leave the gifts and flee, but she couldn't make her legs move.

Ann stumbled in, careful not to touch anything. She couldn't blame Coral for the mess, especially since she stopped by without warning. Not everyone was a neat freak like Ann, either.

She carefully held her gift at her hip while she searched for a spot to put it down. It was a nice room, a standard dorm, but Ann didn't often visit other people's rooms, so anything but her own was a welcome change. The messiness wasn't a detractor, especially when organizing things was so much fun. Books sorted by color, and movies by genre, if she could find an extra shelf, the blankets could be stacked when not in use... For a moment, Ann got lost in the ideas.

"Could I—clean up for you? Or at least help you? I like this kind of stuff myself." Ann couldn't prevent herself from being embarrassed, even though past experience showed that Coral wasn't likely to shy away from her.

"Also, where should I put this?" The gift basket bounced as she shook her hip for emphasis.