Snippet #2823712

The room was bigger than she expected. Meg stood in the doorway, wondering for a moment if she wasn’t in the wrong place. But no, that was her name on the small plate next to the door. The sound of someone shouting in the stairwell snapped Meg back to reality, and she shut the door behind her, letting the suitcase slowly slip off her shoulder and down to the floor.

A dresser sat against the wall across from the foot of the queen-sized bed which filled the center of the room, and Meg decided that was a good enough place to start. She bent down to pick up the suitcase then walked over and set it on top of the dresser. She began attending to the zipper, zipping it back up slightly when it got stuck before opening it completely. All of her clothing had been rolled tightly rather than folded, a trick she’d been told was supposed to make it easier to pack more with less space, but she didn’t remember where specifically she’d heard that and honestly, she wasn’t convinced it really mattered in this circumstance. She had packed light, or rather, hadn’t had much to pack in the first place, and it took barely over a minute to get everything properly folded and put away in drawers.

Meg stepped back, and when she felt the foot of the bed bump against the back of her knees she sank back onto it, her hands gently gripping at the blanket as she sat there silently for a long moment. Clothing wasn’t all she had included in the suitcase, and her eyes rested with some vague sense of melancholy on the laptop still packed inside. She wasn’t sure why she’d decided to bring it. Maybe… maybe some part of her felt like it could be useful, if she needed something to do while staying here? It wasn’t even the one she used for her schoolwork - that one was still sitting in her quarters at the Dougherty residence. Ah, that must be it then, she’d just grabbed it by accident! But…

She shook her head, rubbing at her eyes before standing suddenly and zipping the suitcase back up. She shoved it under the bed, a good enough place for now; as for her school laptop, she’d just call one of the other maids and ask her to bring it over. Meg unbuttoned her jacket, then slipped her hand into the left inside pocket to grab her- No, that was the other phone, the one the project had sent for Anne-Michelle. Meg hadn’t turned it on at all since trying to return it, and only once prior - to check if it actually worked. It did, but as soon as it had powered on it had immediately launched some kind of program that pressed her for a name. Probably whatever VR or AR or Whatever-R mobile game this project wanted them to help… playtest, or whatever. Meg just tossed it on the dresser for now, and pulled the phone out of her right inside pocket instead.

”Kara? Hi, sorry, I just wanted- Yes, I’m fin- Yes, I found it alrigh-” Meg slipped the jacket off and dropped it on the bed, fighting for her life against the older woman’s sudden barrage of questions. ”Listen, I just wanted to know if you could drop off my laptop? It should still be in my room, I forgot it while packing. Mm-hm, if you can just bring it by tomorrow I’d appreciate it. Yes. Yes, I- Yes, I will. Thank you, really. Mm-hm. Yes, I- Yes. Mm-hm. Ok, thank you. Buh-bye.”

Meg let her arm fall to her side, letting out a long, weary breath. She felt very drained, even more than she did after conversations with Anne-Michelle. It was also at that moment when she really began to notice just how hungry she was - what was the last thing she’d even eaten today? Ugh, maybe she’d be able to snatch something out of the dorm kitchen.

Wait, hadn’t someone been making something in there when she’d come in? What were their names… Maria and Georgie, or something like that. They had offered her the first slice… assuming it hadn’t just been politeness, maybe she could go cash that in now? It was worth checking, anyway.