Ignore it

"Witches and wizards in training," a calm voice, like someone speaking quietly, only much louder, begins to speak. Whoever's speaking really knows how to project. "I am Headmistress Kess." She pronounces it "Head Mistress", but you don't notice. "You have all come here to deepen your understanding of magic, but also, I remind you, to deepen your understanding of your classmates. For this purpose, as always, students are required to form Bathas, to foster cooperation between the Houses. I also remind you not to focus so much on getting to know your friends that you forget to go to final exams. Petunia, Alex, Peter, Xavier, Eli, Francine, George." She looked from table to table, presumably at the students who had done that. "The first year students can only go into town on weekends, and all students must have permission from a professor before leaving campus. Duels are permitted only when supervised by a professor who has agreed to the duel. You are not allowed to hurt your opponent, or fellow students. I can't even believe I need to say that. Finally, I encourage you to ask for help whenever anything goes wrong. Both myself, and your heads of house are always available. We won't judge you, we have seen worse, and we won't tell you about it. There is a door to my office in common areas of every house, and for those of you who notice that that's impossible... welcome to Alexandria, try not to get lost." There's some applause, and people begin to get food and eat.

You it in silent solitude, and when the meal is over, the two students who seem to be in charge stand up. "Alright, follow us, and we'll take you to the Toscra dorms. Try to memorize the way."

⚃⚃ + 1 (Care) = 9

The path is a little weird, but you think that you should be able to find your way to the dorms without much trouble.

When you get there, you are told that there are little cards on one of the tables with everyone's name on one side, and their room number on the back, with a key taped to it. Everyone's luggage is in the common area when you get there, having been sent there when you arrived, probably not by magic, as you still need to haul it to your room.

You wait until everyone has stopped crowding around the table before you get your card, and flip it over to see 861.

⚂⚀ + 1 (Care) = 5

You spend quite a while going up and down stairs, and looking at the numbers on the rooms, without looking too much like you're lost. You haven't even found the 800s, and you haven't asked anyone, but you're beginning to suspect they don't exist. Maybe this is some sick prank they play on first years? You've been carrying your luggage around, up and down the stairs, for over an hour, when it happens. You drop your card. You groan, and set down your bags so you can pick it up.

You stare at the card in shock. 198. No, it can't be. You pick up your bags and rush down the stairs until you reach the 100s. 198 should be at the end of the hall, too far to run, but you walk as fast as you can. You can see your name, and another one, Anastasia, on the open door. You were holding the stupid thing upside down the whole time?

You step into the doorway, and almost drop your bags with your jaw. In your search you saw into a few rooms, and you can tell that your roommate was responsible for this. The beds might have started pushed together, but they weren't made, and she had made both, with matching lavender blankets, and roughly two dozen pillows and stuffed animals combined. You realize that the only reason you identified the light purple as lavender is that you can smell lavender. You can see a few small glass vases with water and lavender, including one on the end table next to the beds, as well as a small lamp, with, of course, a purple shade. Even the blinds that you saw in other rooms had been replaced by purple curtains. By the dressers, there's a mirror with a counter that is exactly half covered with various beauty products, including lipstick and nail polish in what you figure is every color in the world, and some things you can't even identify. Her textbooks seem to be organized on one of the desks by color.

"Uh, Anastasia?" you ask her, interrupting her busily sorting various things into drawers.

"Oh, it's actually Anastaaaahhh-ziii-uh." she corrects you in a sing-song voice. "And you must be Eliza, right? Come on in!" You step in and put your bags down as she skips over to you, and reaches out and grabs some of your hair, you almost jerk back, but stop yourself, knowing it'd just make her pull your hair by accident. "Are you a natural blonde?"

"Uh... yeah?"

"That's totally perfect! I made friends with these two girls, and one has black hair, and the other has red hair, and since my hair is brown, we were like, wow, if we had a blonde too, that'd be great!"

"Right, uh, what's with all the purple?"

"Lavender." She corrected, "And it's my favorite color right now, like my lipstick, or my nails!" she shows them off as she speaks, and your a little surprised that her nails aren't that long, she seemed like she'd have very long nails.

"Right now?"

"My favorite color changes like, all the time!"

"But you decided to make the whole room pu- lavender?"

"Oh, well, I learned this neat spell, which can change the colors of things, so if tomorrow I decide I want everything to be red, abracadabra!"

"Oh. And that?" you gesture at the mirror.

"I made sure to leave enough for your stuff." she says proudly, "but it might be a good idea to share some things, there's not much space. Are you okay with sharing lipsti-" she stares at you in shock.

"What?"

"Are you not wearing any makeup?!" before you have time to tell her that, no, you aren't, she continues. "I thought your hair seemed like it was oily!" she grabs your hand, "When was the last time you had a manicure?! Do you not even moisturize?!" The last time you had a manicure, your mother told the man who worked there that you insisted on coming after seeing that she had gotten one the day before, and judging by the fact that he had gone with your mother into another room for half an hour while your nails dried, you're pretty sure she had an alternate motive for that. You were soured on most of that stuff long before that by boys staring at you, and your mom responding to anything girly with an assertion that you were just like her.

Still, you actually feel kind of bad about it, for what might be the first time in your life. You're embarrassed, and guilty. You suppose that it's because your roommate was clearly looking forward to this, but you're the biggest disappointment she could have gotten, the least feminine girl in the whole world, probably. Should you apologize? Then again, you've got nothing to apologize for, she's the one pushing her expectations on you, she's the selfish one, right?