Nora arrived today. For as much stuff as Becci brought, Nora brought next to nothing. A change of clothes and not much else. We had to get bedding for her from stores because she brought none of her own.
She and Becci got into an argument almost immediately over the unicorn decorated furniture. With tears in her eyes, Becci undid the unicorn illusion and suggested that Nora do the decorations. Nora left to get something from the dining hall.
Rimmie and I sat in our room wondering if we should try to talk to Becci. Neither of us wanted to trade rooms with one of them, but we decided we would if it could keep peace in the cabin. So we steeled up our nerve and went to talk to Becci.
Becci was rearranging things in her drawers. “Nora can move into our room,” Rimmie suggested.
“That’s ok,” Becci said. “It’s time we redecorated anyway. Nora was just that way because she’s hungry. She’ll be a different person when she comes back.”
“Oh,” I said. “So you’ve been roommates before?”
“Not roommates, but cabin mates. She’s no good at illusions, but she’s crazy creative. If we let her come up with the ideas and we can do the illusions, we’ll win every decorating contest this summer.”
Nora was a different person when she came back. Chatty and friendly. And very good at drawing. She suggested that if we pushed our two dressers together, we could create the illusion of a rhinoceros over them. When we looked confused, she pulled out a notebook and drew a quick sketch. We did the illusion. She suggested to make the skin leather-like and orangish-red (it’s not a real rhinoceros after all). It looks pretty funny. We decorated the walls to look like a savannah, but with reddish-purple grass instead of the normal color and added green flamingoes. The ceiling is a yellow-gray with puffy blue clouds. It took four tries to get the colors just right, but it was worth it.
In the other room, the dressers are two aqua gorillas. They are a lot less scary that way and Becci doesn’t admit it, but she’s still a tiny bit homesick. Our beds look like piles of straw, but on Becci’s is a tiny unicorn to keep her safe at night.