Chapter Text
The door was unlocked, and swung open with the lightest tap of Raven’s knuckles.
“Hello? Anyone home?”
No answer.
Raven heaved her backpack higher up onto her shoulder, double-checked that the hatchback was locked, and stepped cautiously into the apartment. Flagstone floor, weathered wooden stairs, wrought iron in the windows casting purple shadows in the fading light. She lifted her chin and projected her voice to fill the space.
“Hi, I’m Raven, I’m supposed to do a walk-through today?”
She paused to listen, and received nothing more than silence in response.
“Okay,” Raven said to herself, and sat down on the stairs. She thought about going back outside, but the air conditioning was too enticing to leave. Her hopefully-soon-to-be roommate wouldn’t mind, probably. Or maybe she would. First impressions had been favorable but some things couldn’t be judged with a cell tower as a go-between.
Well, it was an easy problem to solve, now that she was thinking about it. Raven pulled out her phone, shot off a quick text, and tucked it back into her pocket. Full bars, that was a plus.
The door burst open. Raven jumped violently, somehow tangled her backpack in the banister, and flopped back down like a beached fish.
“Hello, you must be Raven!” said the girl in the doorway. “I’m sorry I’m late, dinner with my parents ran a little long. Did I keep you waiting?”
“No, it’s fine,” Raven said, hoping to hell and back that her mishap had gone unnoticed. The direction of the door hinges meant she still had a chance. “And you’re Apple, right?”
“Right!” Apple was small and blonde, with round cheeks and red lipstick, impeccably applied. Her eyes were bright blue, and she wore a lace dress and six-inch heels with the ease of an old sweater.
In conclusion, Raven felt very inadequate in her scuffed up skinny jeans, and mildly surprised that she hadn’t been catfished after all.
“Why don’t we get started with the tour?” Apple offered a hand to help her up. Raven took it, trying to ignore the forming bruise on her hip. “There’s the guest bathroom, and the kitchen and living room are through here…”
They were located in the historic district, buildings covered in quoins and pinnacles and a million other things Raven had learned about but promptly forgotten. The apartment—more of a row house, really—was three stories tall, with an in-unit washer and dryer and a small fire pit in the back. Raven would have the top floor to herself, and was pleased to find that it came with its own private bathroom.
“So, what do you think?” Apple asked.
“It looks great,” Raven said, silently wondering how her luck was this good. Maybe the place was haunted. There was no other way to explain such low rent.
“Do you have any questions?”
“Um.” Raven thought back to the various “first apartment” checklists she’d found online. “Utilities?”
“Water, sewer, trash, electric, cable and Wi-Fi,” Apple said. “Netflix, I suppose; I’m logged in on the TV.”
“And that’s…”
“Covered,” said Apple.
Covered. Holy shit. Raven said, “When can I move in?”
*
Good news, Internet, I am no longer a homeless bum. Better news, my apartment is amazing??? Like, actually too good to be true. It’s in a great location, it’s cheap, and my roommate is paying for all the utilities. She also dragged her boyfriend over at 8 PM with no notice to help me move furniture. Can a person really be this nice?? She may be a serial killer luring in her next victim. I’ll make sure to keep you updated, Internet. And if I do get murdered, maybe this blog will be a helpful record for the police.
Haha, she’s probably just a kind soul who’s helping me out of the goodness of her heart.
…Call the cops if you don’t hear from me in a week.
*
A week of introductory lectures and syllabi review left Raven feeling bombarded with white noise, dreary and scattered and liable to fall asleep at any moment. She sat on the ridiculously comfortable couch with her cup of instant noodles and tried not to drift off while it cooked.
“Raven!” Apple came down the stairs, heels clicking on the flagstone. Raven had never seen her barefoot, or in anything shorter than four inches. “How was class?”
“Full of sophomores, as usual,” Raven said. She stared dubiously into the broth. Had it been five minutes yet? The noodles separated when she poked them with her fork; she figured it was close enough.
“Oh, are you a transfer?” Apple busied herself with the refrigerator.
“I just switched majors,” Raven said. It was a bit late in the game, as her mother had told her multiple times with increasing aggravation, but Raven had been adamant about getting out of architecture. At least the school was happy to take her tuition for another few years.
“What are you in now?”
There was a sudden bang from the foyer, and Raven choked on her mouthful of noodles.
“Hey, Apple! Open the door, my hands are full!”
By the time Raven could take a breath without showering the table in artificial chicken flavor, Apple was already showing three women into the apartment. “Raven,” she said, “this is Briar, Blondie, and Ashlynn.”
Briar could have arrived straight from the beach, with tanned skin and large sunglasses resting casually on pink-streaked brown hair. Blondie’s ruffled dress was more formal, and brought porcelain dolls to mind. In the middle, Ashlynn somehow managed to strike a balance between nature spirit and magazine cover.
“Everyone, this is my new roommate, Raven.”
Raven was in her pajamas. It was one thing to be so casual around her roommate; there was a certain point where one just stopped caring about that sort of thing, and for Raven, it had been two days ago when Apple had folded her underwear. Company was a completely different story, especially when she was making a first impression, especially when they were so well-dressed.
“Hi, nice to meet you,” she said, already up and edging towards the stairs. “I’ll just give you guys the room.”
“Oh, no, Raven, you don’t need to leave,” Apple insisted. “This is your space too.”
Technically, since Apple was paying two-thirds of the overall rent, she held claim to two-thirds of the overall apartment. There was no chance to point this out.
“Yeah, there’s plenty to go around,” Briar said, and punctuated her statement by lifting the lasagna pan she held in her hands.
Raven, too busy with her pajama-induced meltdown, had missed the food entirely. She looked at Briar’s lasagna and Ashlynn’s lettuce wraps and Blondie’s Crock Pot of soup, then thought about her cup noodles, which were in fact overcooked.
“If you’re sure you don’t mind,” she said.
The lasagna and Ashlynn were vegan. All of the food was homemade and delicious, which seemed somewhat unfair yet somehow not unexpected, birds of a feather and all that. Apple had a capacity for housework unmatched by anyone Raven had ever seen.
The conversation moved beyond mumbled compliments when the plates were about half clean.
“Raven, you never finished telling me which major you switched into,” Apple said.
Briar laughed. “Careful,” she said to Raven, “one wrong word and your fate will be sealed forever.”
“Um.” Raven frowned. Something about the warning made her feel like she’d just stepped onto gang turf while colorblind. “Is there a wrong major?”
“Of course not,” Ashlynn said encouragingly.
“It’s just Briar being Briar.” Blondie leaned forward, eyes intent. “Go on.”
Raven looked at Briar, who made an expression of exaggerated fear before a glance from Apple had her innocently sipping her drink. Apple, Blondie, and Ashlynn waited expectantly.
Raven said, “Sound design.”
Apple’s gasp was sudden and violent. Raven gave her a look of alarm.
Briar shook her head and said, “Now you’ve done it.”
*
So I’m still alive. And I guess my roommate isn’t a serial killer. She is a film student, though, which is pretty scary in its own way. I told her I was taking sound design and she practically begged me to do production sound for her senior film. Apparently it’s not a problem that I don’t have any experience with that kind of thing? Three of her friends came over for dinner and they’re all involved too, so I don’t know if she’s just desperate or what.
Maybe I’m hoping that’s the case? Because her friends are all like models or something so there’s a lot to live up to already.
Anyway, Roommate just needs someone to put on the paperwork for now, since filming doesn’t start until next quarter. I figure I probably owe her a favor anyway, what with the whole apartment thing, so I can at least let her stick my name on the project until I can recommend someone better to replace me.
I mean, I literally just started my major classes, so it’s not like finding anyone is going to be hard.
*
The sound design building was a twenty-minute walk away and had a parking lot the size of a postage stamp. These things being as they were, Raven found it far less trouble to bite the bullet and put on her tennis shoes every day. Unfortunately, there were factors that she’d neglected to account for.
“Of all the days to forget an umbrella,” she said, as if she habitually carried an umbrella in the first place. Well, it was only drizzling; maybe it wouldn’t be too bad. She pulled up her hood and walked fast.
Halfway back, the storm began in earnest. Raven cursed and ran for shelter, dodging puddles and pedestrians with more foresight than her. She turned up a flight of stairs, shoes clanging on each metal step, then swiped her school ID to unlock the door.
The architecture building was open and airy, with high ceilings and large windows that gave Raven a perfect view of how sorry she would be if she even took a step outside. She loitered by the door, dripping self-consciously. Her stomach growled. There were worse places to be trapped. Some buildings didn’t even have vending machines.
“Raven Queen.”
Raven turned to meet the heavy footsteps coming down the hall. “Hi, Professor Badwolf,” she said.
He stopped a few feet away, looking her over with eyebrows raised. “Shouldn’t you be in my Capstone class?”
With his large frame, thick beard, and untrimmed hair, Badwolf looked more like a hermit or outdoorsman than a professor of anything. He was tough, and assigned the most homework out of everyone in the department. Raven had quietly grumbled about him since sophomore year, but found that her enmity had waned once she was no longer required to take his classes.
“I’m not majoring in architecture anymore,” she said. “I just came in because of the rain.”
Badwolf looked out the window and laughed. “Follow me,” he said, turning back down the hall.
Raven hesitated. He glanced over his shoulder and she hurried to catch up. Badwolf moved fast; it took a bit of jogging before she pulled even with him.
“So where are you now?”
“Sound design,” Raven said.
Badwolf nodded. “Makes sense.”
Did it? Raven smiled wryly. “So I did that badly, huh?”
“You had potential,” Badwolf began. Raven eyed him suspiciously. “Well, you were okay. Never paid attention, though, not even for the lecture on controlled demolitions. If that doesn’t interest you, then there’s nothing you can do about it.”
If only everyone could be so reasonable.
They reached the faculty offices. Badwolf ducked inside and returned with a head of lettuce. Raven stared at it, nonplussed.
“Go on.” He offered it to her.
Raven hesitantly took the lettuce and realized that it was in fact a cleverly disguised umbrella.
“You’re giving this to me?”
“It’s from the lost and found,” he said.
“Then doesn’t it belong to someone?”
“Not anymore.” Badwolf waved off her concern. “Professors are allowed to take this stuff.”
Well, they probably needed more incentives than the paycheck. It was a really nice umbrella though. Someone was probably missing it. Raven stared at it, then looked outside. Lightning flashed.
“Good luck in sound design,” Badwolf said when he’d walked her to the door.
“Thanks,” Raven said. She darted into the storm with the stolen goods held overhead.
The next day, she stopped by the architecture building after class again. Professor Badwolf saw her dropping the lettuce umbrella off in the lost and found, and laughed at her as she escaped.
*
Did you know they make umbrellas that look like lettuce? So weird.
*
There was a school-owned coffee shop less than half a mile from the apartment that looked like someone had driven a double-decker bus through the wall. This gimmick was apparently interesting to tourists, but Raven found that the inside of the bus was fairly cramped once the espresso machine was installed.
“Order’s up!” Maddie passed her a latte and a toasted croissant, and Raven ferried it through the bus window.
“Have a nice day,” she said.
Her rent may have been unnaturally cheap, but she still had expenses, and was hired at the coffee shop after applying through the work study program. They didn’t require any relevant job experience; she could only hope that her good luck with finding work would extend to after graduation.
“Okay!” Maddie appeared next to Raven. “That’s about the end of the lunch rush, so it’s time for the next big step. I’ll just watch, and you get to make the drinks now!”
Raven grimaced at the back counter, lined with bottles and jars and carafes of ingredients. Who came up with the idea of fancy coffee in the first place? She liked a good latte as much as the next person but this was just unnecessary.
They spent ten minutes reviewing different kinds of espressos before the next customer came in. He was thin and gawky, with messy brown hair and hipster glasses, and judging by the anime t-shirt, probably coming from the nearby sequential art building.
“Hi, what can I get started for you?” Raven said.
The boy froze. “Ah…” he said.
Raven waited patiently as he examined the menu, eyes occasionally flicking back to her then immediately away. Finally, the boy said, “A mocha?”
“Hot or iced?”
“H-hot.”
“And what size?”
“Uh, medium.”
Raven punched it in. “That’ll be four ninety-six.”
He fumbled his ID out of its holder, blushing furiously when it slipped and fell to the floor. Raven absently noted his name as she swiped it and handed back his receipt. Dexterous Charming. Ironic. She turned away to make his drink.
“So, ah, are you new here?”
Raven studied the levers on the espresso machine. “Yeah.”
“Cool. That’s cool. So. What’s your name?”
“Raven.” Was it one or two pumps of mocha syrup?
“Okay.” Dexterous fell silent, and Raven managed to finish his drink without dropping or spilling anything. She passed it through the window and he took it with a stuttered thank you.
“Have a nice day,” she said.
“You too!”
Raven waited until he had left the coffee shop, holding his cup carefully in both hands, before turning to Maddie. “So, how did I do?”
“Great!” Maddie said cheerfully, and Raven sighed in relief. “Oh, except you gave him a large instead of a medium.”
Raven groaned.
“Don’t worry about it,” Maddie said, patting Raven reassuringly on the back. “Although the stoic act might have mixed up your signals a bit.”
Raven blinked. “What?”
*
So today was my first day at my new job. I think it went pretty well. My supervisor is easy to get along with, which is great. I wonder if she’s maybe sampling the product when I’m not looking, though, because she was hyped up for the entire six-hour shift.
Also, she knows so many jokes. Like, she was telling them nonstop the last hour and I’m pretty sure she’s not even close to done. I guess I’ll have plenty of time to find out next week.
P.S. Internet, I work at a COFFEE SHOP. The product is CAFFEINE.
*
It was six in the morning on a Saturday and Apple was knocking at her door.
“Whhtt?” Raven grumbled into her pillow.
“Raven?” Apple called. “Are you awake?”
“Nnno.”
A bird chirped.
“Raven, how are you sleeping through this?”
Apple’s voice was closer now. Raven rolled over and pulled the pillow over her head.
“Raven, wake up.”
The bird chirped again.
“Wh?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.”
Raven tried again. “Why?”
“I need your help.”
Raven groaned and sat up.
Chirp.
“Someone shut up that bird,” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.
“That’s not a bird,” Apple said, “that’s the smoke alarm.”
Raven was suddenly wide awake. “We’re on fire?!”
Okay, not completely awake yet.
“The backup battery is dead,” Apple explained. “I wanted to fix it myself, but…I can’t reach it.”
Raven blinked at her roommate for a long moment, then got up and trudged downstairs. Apple’s room was cute and compact, with photographs plastered over the walls. Raven had seen it before, on that first brief tour, but she hadn’t been able to look closely. She did notice that the desk had been cleared and dragged out from its spot against the wall.
Chirp.
Raven glared at the smoke detector and climbed up onto the desk. “Okay, how does this work?”
“It should just twist off,” Apple said.
It did twist off, but the module was also wired into the ceiling and wouldn’t dangle more than a couple inches away.
“What,” Raven grumbled, “is the point of having a battery operated device that also runs on wires?”
Chirp.
Whatever the reason, it meant that she had to work with her arms stretched over her head, unable to see what she was doing. There was a good deal of angry muttering and some stifled curses (swearing in front of Apple made Raven feel unreasonably guilty), but she eventually managed to swap out the batteries and get the thing put back together.
They watched it for a full minute before they were satisfied by its continued silence.
“Thank you,” Apple said as Raven helped her move the desk back.
“No problem,” Raven said, going back for the knickknacks scattered across Apple’s bed. She picked up a photograph—framed, unlike the ones on the walls—and examined it. Blonde hair, blue eyes, a blindingly confident smile—he was the kind of handsome that led to swooning in the hallways, accentuated by the letter jacket he wore. “Is this your brother?”
“Who?” Apple asked, and Raven turned the photo to show her. “Oh! No, that’s my boyfriend Daring.”
Boyfriend. Huh.
“He lives in LA, but you’ll get a chance to meet him next quarter,” Apple continued. “He’s my actor.”
Ah, yes, the senior film that Raven still needed to quit at some point. “Your only actor?”
Apple placed her laptop on her desk and stepped back with a pleased smile. “For now.”
*
Roommate update: did I mention she was short? Like, wake me up at six on a weekend because she can’t reach the ceiling while standing on a desk short. Okay, so it’s not her fault the smoke alarm battery died, and I guess it’s not her fault we have ten-foot ceilings either.
Side note: why are ladders SO EXPENSIVE?
Also, for the record, the guy that helped move in my furniture isn’t Roommate’s boyfriend. I guess she just knows guys with pickup trucks who’re willing to drop everything to help out a damsel in distress. Her actual boyfriend lives across the country but is coming here to act in her film.
I haven’t made much progress on the replacement recruitment front. Seems like most of the really good sound designers have already been picked up for other crews, and they can’t commit until Roommate schedules concrete dates. That’ll happen when she gets her lead actor, which will hopefully be tomorrow! My job at the coffee shop is pretty time-consuming, so I’ll be glad to get this off my plate.
I’ll let you know how it goes, Internet.
*
Raven entered the apartment on Sunday night to find the living room unrecognizable. There was paper everywhere, neatly clipped stacks on the coffee table and large sheets tacked to the walls with messy shorthand written in thick black marker. The television, a DSLR on a tripod, and someone’s laptop had been jury-rigged together in a tangle of cables and adapters. The couches were covered in young filmmakers, three Raven knew and one she hadn’t seen before.
“Raven!” Apple looked up at the sound of the door.
“Hey.” Raven went into the kitchen. “What are you guys up to?”
“Final casting decisions,” Briar said, twirling the marker between her fingers. She pointed to an unintelligible scribble on one sheet of paper. “We’ve got them all picked out, aside from our lead.”
Blondie hit a few keys on the Frankenstein laptop. “Yeah, and we’re just about to go over the last few auditions again.”
“Do you want to watch?” Apple asked. “A fresh perspective is always helpful.”
Raven said, “I don’t even know what your film’s about.”
“Oh!” The last guest shot upright and out of her seat. She had long red hair tied off in a complex braid and held a notebook in both hands. “Give me your email and I’ll invite you for read access to the script.”
“Holly’s our writer,” Apple said. “Anyway, the story is an adaptation of Snow White.”
“And you’re looking for Snow?” Holly’s vigil next to the sink put one too many people in the tiny kitchen; Raven reluctantly set down her glass of juice to write in the offered notebook. “Yeah, I guess I’ll watch.”
Blondie played the clips. There were five actors—already narrowed down from the twelve that had auditioned, Apple explained—and each had two or three takes of a different short monologue. As she’d suspected, Raven couldn’t tell them apart by performance. The only actor who stood out was Ashlynn, and only because Raven had known her beforehand.
The other four crew members, though, easily crossed three names off the list using some esoteric criteria that went right over Raven’s head. Soon, Ashlynn and one other girl were the only candidates left.
“Darling Charming,” Blondie read from one of the forms on the coffee table. “Huh, she’s an accessory design major, senior. She doesn’t have any other commitments for winter quarter so scheduling shouldn’t be a problem.”
“What about her personality?” Apple said. “Do you think she’d work well with us?”
Briar said, “You weren’t concerned about personality when we were casting the queen.”
Apple shook her head. “This is different. Snow White is the lead; her casting has to be perfect. We all know we can work with Ashlynn, and she can handle the animals and outdoor shoots.”
“Ashlynn is a classic princess,” Holly agreed. “But is that what we want?”
Apple frowned thoughtfully at the screen, which was now displaying side-by-side headshots of Ashlynn and Darling. “Blondie, Briar, what do you think?”
Briar put her hands up. “Nope, you already got my commentary, you’re not turning this into a vote.”
“Briar’s right,” Blondie said. “You’re the director, it’s your vision. In the end, you’re the one who has to be completely happy with this casting.”
Apple turned towards Raven. “What about you, Raven? Do you have anything to add?”
Raven stared at the headshots.
She shrugged, and said, “Go with your gut.”
*
So some of you were asking about my hyped up supervisor’s jokes. Well, here is an actual conversation that she had with a customer today:
Customer: Is the coffee fresh?
Hype: Super fresh! I hope it doesn’t taste like dirt.
Customer: What?? Why would it taste like dirt?
Hype: Because it was GROUND a couple minutes ago!
And then the customer sort of laughed uncomfortably and ordered tea instead. I’m not sure this is the way to run a business, but Hype has been working longer than me, so I guess she knows best.
Oh yeah, the casting call. Roommate has everyone picked out but the lead, and she’s still waffling between one of her friends and this other girl that no one knows. I have to say, I will be vastly more confident in this project if she goes for the other girl. I mean, is there anyone on the crew that she wasn’t friends with first? But I’m not the director, so we’ll see. Updates forthcoming.
*
Apparently, working on a film crew required signing a contract.
“The top one states you’re committed for the listed time frame,” Apple said, putting a stapled packet on Raven’s desk. “Then there’s the liability release for the school, and the photo release—we won’t be actively filming you, but I like to have my bases covered, maybe for promotional or behind the scenes material. And the last one is just scheduling and contact information for my records.”
Raven looked at the neatly typed paperwork. “Wow. This is pretty official.”
“Preproduction is all about attention to detail,” Apple said. “You can make copies or whatever you want, I just need them back by the end of next week.”
“Okay,” Raven said. “No problem.”
It was horrible timing. Midterms were coming up, which meant Raven found herself tied to a workstation more often than not. To make matters worse, the strictly enforced building hours meant no all-nighters, and she had to squeeze in every available moment to finish her projects before their deadlines. This left little time for pitching Apple’s project to a more senior student in the department, and the desperate environment of sleep-deprived procrastinators wasn’t exactly helping.
And then, before Raven knew it, the week had passed and Apple was knocking on the door.
“Raven,” she said, “did you get a chance to sign that paperwork?”
Raven looked at the untouched packet on her desk. How terrible would she be if she just resigned? Pretty terrible. She grabbed a pen.
“You can come in,” she said, flipping through the first contract. “Sorry it slipped my mind, but I can do it right now.”
Apple came to stand next to Raven’s chair. Raven signed the contract, then the liability release, then the photo release.
“Um,” said Apple, “have you read those over yet? Because you should probably do that before you sign them.”
“Why?” Raven asked. The contact information was taking a little more time, and she tried to hurry it along. A four ended up looking more like a nine; Raven went over it a couple of times before giving up. Whatever, if Apple couldn’t figure out her address they had bigger problems than illegible handwriting. “Are you going to short me?”
“Of course not!” Apple said, affronted.
“I don’t see how you could, anyway,” Raven said. “I’m doing this for experience, not money.” She filled in the last phone number with a flourish and handed the whole stack off to Apple.
“It’s a good habit to get into,” Apple said, with that slight lift in her tone that indicated a lecture. After three separate infractions for not separating the recyclables, Raven could say she knew it pretty well. “Especially when you do start finding paid work. Letting employers get away with shady business practices just lowers their expectations for the next hire.”
“Wow, okay.” Raven gestured for Apple to return the paperwork, and pulled out her phone to snap a quick photo of each page. “I’ll look at them later. You’re the kind of person who actually reads the terms of service, aren’t you.”
Apple huffed.
“That’s not a denial,” Raven said.
“It’s important to know your rights!” Apple gathered the papers and turned to leave. “And don’t think I haven’t realized you’re never looking at those photos again,” she said over her shoulder.
Raven opened the photos just to prove her wrong. I, the undersigned, hereby acknowledge my availability and intent to work on-set for the following dates. Shit.
*
Ahahaha I’m going to ruin my roommates senior project
Production sound? More like what the hell am I doing??? By the time I’m finished there’ll be a unanimous agreement to turn it into a silent film instead.