Victoria had never understood why Crossroads was so insistent on handing out random dorm assignments. She knew that the reasoning was valid, that if they allowed requests, they would be flooded with too many to properly handle, and that non-random roommate assignments would only aid in the formation of cliques and exclusive friend groups. At the same time... what was the problem with that? The students paid enough money where the school could afford to hire a few extra people to sort out the logistics and planning of all of the requests, and even with random roommates, cliques still did exist. In defense of the school, however, they were right that the random assignments did lead to some unlikely friendships. For instance, there was no way that Victoria would have ever humored Natalya Volkova with a second glance had she not been forced to room with her, and see that she was actually a decent (if not more than decent) human being during her sophomore year. Even with her own personal experience to back up the schools claims, when Victoria arrived at her dormitory around one o'clock, and was told that she would be in dorm 2B, she wasn't so sure that she would have a perfect year, upon finding the names of her roommates taped on a sheet of paper outside the dorm room's main door. Sheets of paper just like that were stuck along all of the dorm rooms on the floor, as a way of helping students find their exact room, if they had forgotten what the people at the front desk below had told them. Victoria was the first to arrive at her dorm, which meant that she had first pick of a bedroom, and was able to say her goodbyes to her mother without any of her roommates being present. Though she wasn't embarrassed of being close with her mother, she was glad to have those few minuets without any disturbances, especially because she knew she probably wasn't going to see the woman again until Thanksgiving. Their Beverly Hills home was currently undergoing extensive renovations, which meant that she and Victoria's father were once again living full time in New York. It wasn't completely tragic, given that Tori liked the Crossroads campus and had many friends with homes in the area if she wanted a break from her dorm for a weekend, luckily.
She spent the forty-five minutes after her mother left, with her bedroom door shut and locked, as she worked on rearranging all of her things, and making the space feel as homey as possible. Since her car was being delivered from New York, where she had kept it all summer, and likely wouldn't arrive until at least Tuesday, she was considering joining in on the trip to Target tonight with her classmates. She easily could have requested a ride from a friend, but sometimes the school outings were fun, even if they were something as simple and mundane as a trip to Target. Over that time period of decorating, she heard lots of foot traffic and conversation outside of her door, which signaled that at least one of her two roommates had moved in. Thankfully, the suite consisting of four bedrooms was only currently going to be occupied by three people, which meant one less roommate to have to deal with. It was likely that within the next few days, someone who had claimed that they wanted to commute, would opt for boarding instead, and the room would be taken, but for now, Victoria was content. She wasn't worried about having Charlotte Arnault as a roommate, because she was familiar with her. She was a bit bothered by her, given her close ties to the rebels, and how she had blatantly chosen that clique over the royals, a move that had personally taken a jab at Tori's pride, but she knew what to expect from Charlotte. Out of the Arnaults, she was definitely Victoria's least favorite, but she was still familiar. She knew far less about the other girl, Illiana Brahms, but supposed that not knowing much about her was probably a good thing. It meant that she wasn't someone who was going to cause trouble, or get in her way. Still curious, though, once her room was in order, she headed out of it, with her bath towels and bath items in hand, on a quest to stock the bathroom closest to her with it. If there were only going to be three girls in the dorm room for now, she was set on having her own bathroom, and allowing the other two girls to share. She had gotten there first, it was only fair, she reasoned, though the pleasant smile on her face as she entered the common areas, portrayed a less selfish attitude.