Hutch

4

Daisy

Last night and most of today had been a little rough. I'd spent all night cleaning and had taken a quick shower right before bed. I'd had one class this morning and then labs in the afternoon. Then back here for more cleaning and organizing.

I'm tired, sweaty, and starving. I'd forgotten to eat last night and grabbed a granola bar out of my snack bag for breakfast. Lunch had gotten lost in trying to find my way around and now I'm too tired to move.

But my growling stomach is telling me to get myself up and to the store. I had a mini-fridge thanks to Project Graduation so I could stash some food up here, but until I actually went and got groceries, I was SOL.

"Knock, knock!"

I glance up from where I'm sprawled out on the freshly made bed complete with my favorite comforter. Jenny is looking around a little awed.

"Oh my God, you did all this by yourself? I was going to organize the guys to come help you move all the boxes tonight."

I shrug. "My Gran always said don't put off to tomorrow what you can do today. I didn't want to find crawly things in my bed, so I moved things, set off a couple bug bombs and cleaned everything."

"Move things?" She looks around again. "You labeled sections!"

"There was a lot of broken stuff I set out on the back porch for you to go through to see if you wanted to try to salvage it or garbage it. I wasn't sure what to do with it."

"Hey, I found these at the party store and I thought Daisy might..."

Another girl I hadn't met comes upstairs and goes completely quiet when she sees the now very organized attic. Everything that was in boxes and totes took up a corner only. They had more broken things than anything else.

Jenny laughs. "I didn't recognize the place either. Daisy, this is Cara. She's one of our roommates."

"And I'm Dylan!" A very cute boy beams at me from behind Cara. "I'm this one's boyfriend."

They're not leaving so I force myself to sit up and offer a smile. Manners. I can hear my Mama screaming in my head about manners. Gran wouldn't be screaming, but she'd remind me of them.

"Hey, nice to meet you both."

"I thought you said this place needed a lot of heavy lifting. It looks great."

Cara smacks him in the stomach. "That's because Daisy did everything already. We were going to help."

"It's fine. I appreciate the offer, though. I had the time and a need to not have bugs crawling on me, so I just started in on it."

"Girl, you have to be stronger than you look." Dylan arches a brow.

"I grew up having to fix everything around the house and my keep my car on the road, so you learn to be a little scrappy."

"You know cars?"

"I wouldn't say that. I know YouTube videos."

He laughs. "Just as good."

"Come on downstairs. We just ordered pizza and from the looks of this, you have to be hungry."

"I was actually trying to talk myself into moving enough to go to the grocery store."

"Pizza first and then you can go shopping." Cara nods, her short dark hair bobbing with her head. "Besides, you need to meet everyone so you're not startled if you walk downstairs and into one of the guys."

Probably a good idea.

It's not until we hit the stairs that I notice the music playing. I'd been on the third floor with the door closed and heard nothing. Now that is a bonus. Maybe staying here isn't going to be such a hardship after all.