Stranger? Than what?, Open

[K-Squared]

Jenkins offered to take her bag.

Then he gave her the grand tour. He made sure she knew where the bathroom, laundry room, kitchen, living room, and her room were. He pointed out the doorway to Charlie's room, but they didn't go in. It looked like a normal room, if a bit too tidy for a bachelor.

He let her aquaint herself with her room in depth on her own: The little writing desk with a mirror, A dresser, bookcase, nightstand with drawers, and a full sized bed nestled underneath the little circular attic window. The closet wasn't visible until the door was closed. Opened, the room's door blocked the closet door.

[Nintendo Girl]

Rachel went around with Oliver as he gave her the tour and tried to remember where everything was. She'd buy a minifridge as soon as she had the money and maybe buy some things to start cooking her own meals with. She'd need a cookbook, too, since she'd never cooked before. But that was all for the future. She accepted Oliver's offer more to be polite than anything; he was quite the gentleman, it seemed. She deposited Raymond in her room and he tested out the bed. She looked at him and he looked back for a moment - and then prudently decided not to try out the bed with his claws. He did grab one of the pillows with his teeth and leaped down to the floor, though. She grinned and rolled her eyes, amused as he holed up in a corner of the room on his new bed.

She turned to Oliver then, but she wasn't quite sure what to say. She opened her mouth to thank him, but nothing came out. She closed it, shuffled her feet a bit, and then looked back up at him after clearing her throat.

"I...I really appreciate this. I know I kind of jumped on you back at my place - back at my mother's place," she corrected herself, "and I'm sorry if I'm causing any trouble. Thank you. Very much."

[K-Squared]

The old man laughed softly at her profuse thanks. He hardly felt jumped on, this girl might have a penchant for exageration. He gave her a thoughtful nod. "Let me know if you decide to drag anything else up into this room, I'll have to take soemthing out for anything else to go in, pesky laws of physics. It's also nice to have room to walk around.

Charlie usually only cooks dinner up here anymore, at Six o'clock. The dishwasher and the hot water pipes make groaning noises, please don't let them alarm you. And the icemaker in the freezer sometimes knocks....." He fell silent he felt he'd covered the quirks of the place.

Downstairs on the first floor it sounded as though Charlie was dragging something, perhaps the steamer trunk. Jenkins sighed. "Well dear, I need to get back to my shop for a while. You're welcome to come down and loiter."

[Nintendo Girl]

She smiled and thanked the old man again. Then she proceeded to unload some stuff from her bag into the dresser. She only had four outfits in there as it was a small bag and she didn't have much besides; outside her bag, she'd only had maybe a dozen articles of clothing - including underwear, t-shirts, and all. Her mother was stingy with money, after all - but now that she had a couple of thousand dollars, maybe she'd be able to get some more stuff. She'd always wanted a CD player, for one, though she didn't know if people put orchestra music on CDs. She didn't get out much, you see.

Rachel let Raymond nap for a while. Aside from the four outfits - three pairs of shorts and a pair of jeans, four pairs of underwear, four pairs of socks (for colder weather), two t-shirts, a tank top and a tube top - she also had a large, unopened bottle of shampoo; a medium-size bottle of body wash; two bars of soap; a can of spray-on underarm deoderant; a tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush; a comb and a hair brush; and two small bottles of hand lotion.

She put her toiletries in the top drawer and piled everything else into the second drawer, all folded neatly. She tossed the small bag down onto the floor next to the dresser and looked out the window. It was a bit dingy, but it was nothing a little Windex couldn't fix and Rachel didn't see much of a difference between that and her window at home besides. Her window looked down on the street, where now a group of gang bangers were hassling a young man on his way home with some groceries. Didn't anyone have any respect for anyone else? First her mother, and now...

She sighed. At least she was away from her mother now. She'd rest easier after a few months without her mother, she figured; after all, if her mother didn't come after her then - or couldn't find her by that time - then she probably wouldn't be found. She'd just have to avoid the places she knew her mother frequented, which weren't many considering she paid people to do things for her and rarely went out herself. She sat down on the bed and looked at the cat now pretending to sleep, but keeping one eye open to watch the room.

"Well, Raymond," she said to the cat, "looks like we won't have to deal with my mother anymore."

Raymond opened both of his eyes up at the mention of Rachel's mother and growled lightly, but more in distaste for her mother than anything else. She smiled at the cat as she kicked off her flip-flops - one of her only pair of shoes, but she wanted new sneakers now that she could afford them, so she hadn't taken her old, worn-out sneakers - and flexed her small toes. She sat cross-legged on the bed and looked around the room, wondering what she should do next.

[K-Squared]

The dragging sounds from down below continued, and grew increasingly louder.