Her mother said "She'll probably arrive sometime this afternoon, honey."
When everything had been brought up from the parking lot, when all the goodbyes had been said (and her mother cried, the same way she had the year before), her family disappeared into the elevator and she was on her own.
Outside her door, in the hallway, loud rock music spilled out from some of the other rooms, with other students opening and closing doors, getting moved in. Linda sighed and unpacked all the crates, hanging her blouses and dresses, filling one of the dressers with her slacks, blue jeans and lingerie. By the time she placed all of her knickknacks and made the bed, the room instantly appeared more cheery and inviting, at least on one side.
Linda called Lauren's number. "Welcome back, stranger!" Lauren said, when she answered. They both discussed plans for her to come by and see Lauren's spectacular new apartment later that evening, when there was a knock at her door. Placing the phone down, she opened the door and saw a small, swarthy girl with curly, dark brown hair and a shy smile.
Two short parents stood behind her, each of them with barrel-shaped guts and sour expressions.
"Hi, I'm Nancy," she said, extending a hand. "You must be my roommate."
Linda introduced herself and offered help to move her new roommate in. She and Lauren had been complete strangers to each other that year before, and things had not started well between them. Gradually the ice broke and they became fast friends and by Halloween they laughed about it together. "I thought you were a stuck-up, miss priss," Lauren admitted.
"And I thought you were a spoiled slob," Linda admitted.
She took a close look at the girl she'd be sharing a room with for the next sixteen weeks and she wondered if they would become good friends, also. Nancy and her parents unloaded stacks of clothes, magazines, books, one box completely filled with stuffed animals, and another box that held a device that at first glance appeared to be a small fireplug. "It's my nebulizer," Nancy said, "I get really bad allergies."
Nancy's load came in big, major appliance boxes, which she and her parents stacked on the empty bed and beside the desk on the other side of the room. Among the items, Linda saw a couple of books written in Hebrew and a menorah. "I'm Jewish," Nancy said, answering Linda's unspoken question.
Her father placed a small refrigerator in a corner of the room. "We keep kosher," he said. "About the only thing Nan's going to be able to eat from that cafeteria is cold cereal, milk, and salad."