When she walks onto campus, armed with her suitcases, Carmen is reminded of one of the downsides of living on the other side of the United States, and of the fact that plane tickets are frightfully expensive; while many of her peers are seen off by their parents, she is struggling to hold as many bags as she possibly can, having insisted to the taxi driver that she could get it all in one trip. She can, of course, but it requires some shifty stacking on a rolling suitcase, and her walking in such a way that looks suspiciously like a waddle- hardly suiting for an upperclassman in the dancing department. Then again, even when she is walking gracefully, the girl tends to be making expressive hand gestures and strange faces that distract from any natural elegance that she might have. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why, unlike her brother, she pursues more modern dance styles in favor of classical ballet. She takes the class for it, of course, but she hardly aims to be a Prima Ballerina, and anyone who knows her would likely laugh at the very concept. They'd probably say that she's too goofy to ever pass as the Odette sort of girl.
Despite her unfortunate luggage situation, Carmen seems to be keeping herself in a rather good mood. Why wouldn't she? Her first year as an upperclassman, coming back to school to see friends that she hasn't seen in months- she's been anticipating this since her first week home. Not that Carmen didn't enjoy visiting home over the summer, of course. Her younger brother, Will, had just graduated from fifth grade, and had spent the entire summer gushing about how fantastic he was going to be in middle school- the insecurities had yet to his him, and she was thankful for this. The young woman doesn't have the chance to visit home as often as she'd like, even though financial aid does make tuition less of a burden on her family, so she always cherishes the long break with her family. Still, her little apartment in the Bronx is a far cry from the deluxe facilities at Melrose, and she's itching to get on the studio floor. After dropping off her things, of course. In a normal room. I'm the only Junior in the dance department that's in a regular room, she realizes, but keeps her mood up. After all, at least her roommate is Kassandra- that should make for an excellent year.
Carmen makes it to the dorms before her ringtone goes off, the classic Batman theme blaring from her phone, distracting her from her journey to find her actual room. Instinctively, the young woman reaches towards her pocket, forgetting the bag under her arm, which then falls and hits her toe. It isn't too heavy of a bag, but it's enough to hurt, and have Carmen jump onto one foot, as if to relieve a marginal amount of pressure from her stubbed toe. "Ouch! Yikes," the girl resists the urge to pull off her vans and inspect for damage, instead leaning against the wall for a moment and looking at a text from Nina, asking if she's on campus yet.
To: Nina
First floor of the dorm building- you wouldn't happen to have a sudden urge to help me with my bags? Or bring down a bandaid?
She sends the text and then carefully pokes her toe, only to flinch at the little shock of pain. It's not broken or anything, but she sorely hopes that the lessons won't include being on point for the next day or two.
"I can carry that," Theo insists, taking a slightly heavier bag away from his grandfather, who had gone with him to move in for his second year at Melrose Academy. He's been doing this for the entire walk to the dorm building- until, eventually, his grandfather was carrying nothing but a viola case and a cup of coffee. He'd protested the first few times, reminding Theodore that he's old, not crippled, but eventually gave in, so that his curly-haired grandson ended up carrying most of the bags. There aren't very many of them, anyway. Theo is far from fashionable, and only owns a few articles of clothing. In fact, out of the three suitcases he's brought for the entire year, only the smallest has regular clothing in it. He also carries a hanger with a tux on it, but that is reserved for concerts. His other bag is all CDs and Notebooks, along with his laptop. Thus, he is well prepared for the year. If he needs school supplies, he can always purchase them over the course of the year, and he's otherwise perfectly fine.
The Roberts duo turns a corner, the walls familiar to Theo, of course, though his first days here had been something of a blur- a mix of dreaminess and morbidness, as he switched between excitement and certainty that he would find himself to be an utter failure here. At first, he had come to believe this- all of the other music department students seemed to play five or six instruments. Most were double, or even triple, threats, and could certainly outperform Theo on the viola any day. Eventually, he had found his own talents, though, providing a security blanket of sorts. He was, at least in his department or year, one of the best musical composers. Perhaps he hadn't been playing Mozart at three years old, but the young man has a gift for creating his own pieces- most often for the piano and cello. Vain though it may seem, Theo had been glad to be slightly better than the others at something, at least.
He and his grandfather continue on to his dorm room in silence- the elder Mr. Roberts has always been more a man of actions than words, really. He stops about halfway to the room and looks at Theo, who stops a few seconds later, upon realizing that his grandfather is no longer walking beside him. "Erm. Yes?" He asks quickly- his words are always a bit quicker than they ought to be.
"This is as far as I go, then. You don't need your grandfather walking you into your room, now," Mr. Roberts says evenly, though having been raised by him, Theo knows that he is about to cry, or look less composed, and would like to return to the car before doing so. He reaches an arm around his grandfather in a half sort of hug, before nodding. "Right. I'll see you for the Holidays," Theo says, taking his viola away from his grandfather. The two sort of nod, and then go separate ways. To the untrained eye, it seemed a very unsentimental, and downright chill, affair.
Moments later, Theo is opening the door to his room, a slight task given his full hands, and spots a fellow student already lying on one of the beds. "Hey, you must be Ma-" Theo begins, before hearing a familiar voice yelp in pain just a bit down the hallway. He leans out the door to see Carmen leaning against the wall at the end of the hallway, leaning against the corner and holding her toe- completely exaggerating the situation.
"Hey, Carmen! Are you alright?" he calls out. Without waiting for an answer, he goes into the room and drops his stuff on the bed, ignoring any response she might have given for a different priority- introductions.
"Theodore Roberts- you can call me Theo," he introduces himself to Mason.