Roommate Wanted!

Cassie picked her apartment because it seemed pretty close in size to her last apartment in the states, and because it was very near to the AFW campus. She didn't want to have to have a car, and she wanted to be able to get to the gym everyday. What she had since realized was that her apartment was on the large side for one person in Japan. Things were a lot smaller here compared to Canada or the States. She also realized that the drain this apartment was putting on her Japanese income was somewhat...alarming. She'd already spent a lot of her savings on the wrestling mats that covered most of the apartment.

So she did what everyone in her situation does: she set out to find a roommate. The apartment was only one bedroom, but with a larger living room/kitchen area. She figured one person would take the bedroom and the other, probably her, would just put up a screen around a futon in the living room or something. She had next to no furniture, no TV, no computer. She had the necessary equipment for preparing food, blankets, a pillow, a sleeping bag, and her wrestling mats. That was all she needed, anyway.

It seemed to her that the most obvious and ideal place to find a roommate was in the AFW. They would eat similarly and could train together and go to the gym together... it'd be like living with a training partner! Of course, she was used to that, having previously lived with her brother, with whom she trained. Before that it was at home with her parents, who all were responsible for training her in one way or another. She couldn't imagine anything better... or anything else at all, really.

It was exciting, too. Super exciting. She'd get to meet new people and hopefully find her first real friend in Japan. She knew the girl from the pro wrestling school in NYC was around here somewhere, in the AFW, but she hadn't run into her, so... she was starting from scratch. Inevitably thinking about it would turn into her thinking about how much fun it would be and all the fun stuff she'd get to do with her new roommate. She smiled a lot.

So when a week had passed since she had posted an ad on a bulletin board in the entryway to the AFW gym and still she'd received no responses, she started to get a little anxious about it. Her rent payment seemed like it was getting bigger all the time... She was a little desperate. Maybe she wouldn't be getting to meet all these new people in her screening process, but at least one, maybe, she hoped would apply and be at least vaguely suitable.

Everyday on her way into the gym she looked at her sign to see if anyone had torn off one of the tabs at the bottom with her phone number on it. While she was working out, she'd take trips back to her gym bag in between everything she did to check her cell phone for missed calls. SOMEone would call...right? They couldn't ALL live in those.......dorms. That seemed weird. People weren't all that...weird here... were they?

After her daily workout she arrived back at her apartment, tossed her keys on the kitchen counter and flumped down on her living room mat. She reached in her gym bag and pulled out earphones and an mp3 player and just sat for a while, not really doing anything beyond listening to music and thinking about her situation and what she should do.

Trudy Paxton, Ash as she liked to be called, traveled light. Just a suitcase, a backpack, and a case for her bass guitar. Someone had posted an ad seeking a roommate for an apartment in the area, and with all the perverts around the AFW, Ash wanted nothing to do with living in their dorms. The AFW girls were worse than groupies.

So Ash was here, outside the apartment of a complete stranger with all her worldly possessions. Life in the band had taught her some of the finer points of... living 'cheap.' Glorified vagrancy. She did not have a cell phone, so, really, the only way to get in touch with this woman was to meet her at home.

Still, she was... well, Ash would never describe herself as nervous. Hesitant, maybe. Pensive... if she knew what it meant. Japan was about one of the least metal places on the planet. It was going to be hard for her to hit it off with just about anyone she could meet here. Hell, it was probably going to be one of those tiny, chipper Asian girls. Anything but that.

Still, nothing ventured... Setting her guitar and suitcase down beside the door, Ash knocked loudly against it.

Cassie's head jerked up when she heard the knock at the door. She exploded out of her position sitting against the wall, her MP3 player swinging wildly from the earphones in her ears. She tried to catch it while scrambling at the door and her foot slipped. She fell hard enough on one hip that the earphones fell out of her ears entirely, and she nearly slipped a second time on the MP3 player.

She stopped in front of the door before opening it and looked down at herself. She was still wearing her black workout shorts and red tank top, the one with several small white hearts across the front, and her hair was still damp. She didn't exactly look her best, but if the person on the other side of the door was in fact a potential roommate, this was how she'd look most of the time anyway. With a deep breath she opened the door.

"Can I take those for you?" She asked. "Oh, I mean... Hi! Are you here about the, um, did you, uh, do you want to live here?" Then more slowly, "I mean are you responding to my ad?"

She stepped to the side. "Please, come in."

From the door, Ash's view was less than glamorous. To the right was the kitchen. It had only the faintest signs of use, or usability. A small table, maybe 18"x36", sat in the middle with two stools at it. To the left was the living room, which was fairly large by Japanese apartment standards, and the floor was covered with wrestling mats. The stretched wall to wall and a little bit down the short hallway that led to the bathroom and then to the bedroom. Aside from the mats, her gym bag, and a neatly folded pile of bedding, there was no furniture of any kind. Were it not for several pictures of Cassie's family, the apartment would've been wholely undecorated as well.

"Well... this is it! This is the kitchen, and that's the living room... there's a bedroom too. Oh, and a bathroom!" Cassie seemed nothing but pleased by what she saw in Ash. She gestured meekly at the bass case. "Do you, um, play?"

Ash did not carry much in the way of clothing. She got a lot of mileage out of a hoodie, a few sports bras, some t-shirts, and sweatpants. Loose where it needed to be, tight where it needed to be. Good for playing and for fighting, her two main hobbies. Her new roommate to be would see her in her hoodie and sweatpants.

Ash was not surprised by what greeted her at the door, nor was she really disappointed. She was just... annoyed. The little girl fired off at a mile a minute, "Er... no... I'm fine... Yes, no... yes..." Ash tried to keep up with her, but the girl's chipper speed brought back a few throbbing pulses of a hangover that had up to this point been a memory.

Ash arched an eyebrow, surveying all of this with a thin snarl of annoyance. "I... uh..." Ash picked up her bags, setting them just inside when Cassie invited her in, "Sure." She shrugged, still not able to keep up with the frenetic pace of this girl, "Um..." Wrestling mats? Wow. Freaky. Ash nodded when Cassie pointed at her bass. Familiar territory! "Yeah, I do. Used to play for a band... uh..." Ash looked about nervously, "Is, uh... your mom home, kid?"

Cassie looked silently at Ash for a moment while trying to figure out whether she was joking or serious or just trying to insult her. Well...it didn't matter. She just smiled back at her and said "She probably is, but she lives in Canada."

"So you used to play in a band and now you're in AFW? Is everyone in AFW a...music...person? Anyway, the mats," She had noticed Ash's concern about the mats. "My family runs a martial arts school in London, and one in New York City, and it's sort of where I was raised, and mostly Jujitsu. So... ya know, I wanted to make sure I'd have space to practice and stuff, and they're comfortable to sit on. Really firm, though. And, um, you can probably tell that I don't have much...any... furniture. If I keep winning matches, though, that'll change! I've got a manager now, he should help with that hopefully, and... are you from AFW? Otherwise this would all be a little weird."

She stopped and studied Ash again. "You look like you're from AFW."

"Anyway it gets a lot of sunlight and it's close to just about everything. AFW is a couple blocks away. The exchange rate and all the fees they charge sort of messed me up... it got pretty pricey. It's hard to find a good apartment you can afford here if you aren't Japanese. So what do you think? Oh," Cassie realized she should probably learn a bit more about her potential roomie before assuming she'd move in. She looked a little rough around the edges, but Cassie thought she must look a bit like that herself, and she seemed super nice, anyway.

"So, tell me a bit about yourself, eh? What do you do and stuff?"

Ash's face fell briefly but she said nothing. Great... I'm signing up to be a babysitter. Was kinda glad nobody let me do that in the States.

Ash arched an eyebrow when Cassie described her martial arts education. "Wow." She merely uttered, still about eight questions behind the 'hyperactive little chatterbox.'

Then, she finally processed something Cassie had said about three or four sentences back, "W-w-wait," Ash shook her head and stared daggers at her, "What do you mean I LOOK like I'm from AFW." She folded her arms, "The whole place is slutty little girls. You fit there more than I do!" Shaking her head and placing her hand on her forehead, Ash would add, with a dull reluctant tone, "Yes, I am from the AFW."

When Ash started Cassie's eyes went wide, afraid that she'd offended her potential roomie already. But once Ash admitted to being AFW Cassie's smile returned.

"Oh, I didn't mean anything bad. You just look tough. You don't look like a sissy girlie girl who spends more time on her nails than anything else. And I can't be slutty, silly, I'm a virgin and I've never really had a boyfriend!" Though, the comment did worry her a little bit about her workout clothes. She often worried that they were too much (ie not enough).

"But good! Then you'll be happy to know that living here comes with free training in jujitsu!" she laughed. "It goes a long way to help you not get beat up. I don't know what you do, though, you might be a better jits girl than me already!"

"Anyway, um, why don't you come in and sit down and tell me about yourself and ask me questions and I'll get you some.... water. Make yourself comfortable. Sorry I don't have.... a chair, but you can use the mats and pillows and... okay."

Cassie hovered off to the kitchen to find cups.

((In which I abuse the poor narrator vs. internal monologue boundary so hard.

AND EDIT LOL SHE DIDNT HAVE A COUCH))

Grrrreat. Dealing with a real kid here. Ash resisted a snort at Cassie's proud statement of her virginity. "Well, I guess if you want to not have a boyfriend, this is a great line of work to be in." Ash let out with a slight sarcastic tone.

Ash arched an eyebrow, "Juwhat? Izzat one of those meditation things?" Cautiously, Ash entered and sat down, crosslegged, on the mat. She almost did not want to give the impression that she was interested in bunking with this girl... But that those mats and a clothing bag would be a LOT better sleep than she had been getting... And in this town, Ms. Chatterbox was probably going to be the only good roommate she could find. Plus, boyfriend she said. At least no... issues to be had here. Simplicity would be nice.

Still, wrestling mats? Maybe she was a fighter. A sparring partner would be good. These Japanese girls probably fought different from American girls... Oh wait, she's from CANADA... Grrrreat.

"See? The mats are comfortable enough, right?" Cassie said, a little persuasively. She came back to the living room with a glass of water for each of them. She handed one to Ash and studied the look on her face for a moment. She didn't look happy... maybe she was just unhappy, or maybe she didn't like Cassie so far. She didn't know Cassie very much yet, so that was okay, a lot of people just needed to get to know Cassie to like her.

""Ju-jit-su. You know, submission grappling. Brazilian adaptation of the Japanese martial art. Popularized in the US and Canada and most of the rest of the world by the Gracie family. I'm surprised you don't know this, the AFW should like have classes or something." Which reminded her... "Oh! Have you had any matches yet? Did you win? I've only had one match and it was pretty good. Thomas Drake is my manager now, too, so that should be good."

Cassie kept watch over Ash out of the corner of her eye. She just had to figure out what she had to do to put her at ease. She would put on music, but the only thing she had to play it was her mp3 player.

Ash took the water and sipped from it, "Thanks," she gave a slight smile before her face turned back to it's usual aloof scowl.

Her eyes widened a bit, "You don't say. That's what that is?" She rubbed her chin thoughtfully, "So that's what that one asshole used in Jersey... Or was it Chicago... Or both..." Ash shrugged, "My school is the old 'Hit the other motherfucker really, REALLY hard' style. It works!" She smiled, pounding her fist in her hand.

"And matches?" Ash rubbed the back of her head nervously, "Er... not really... I've had... run-ins... scuffles... no actual matches." She muttered, somewhat sheepishly." She was beginning to learn this girl's pace. "Whoas What? Never heard of him."

Ash extended her hand, "My name's Ash by the way... Ash Paxton." Technically it was Trudy but she was sure this twerp would never call her Ash if she knew her as Trudy. "I guess I need a place to hang my hat, you need a roomie?"