under ordinary circumstances mimi would have liked chloe. if sue had not come she might even have chosen her from all the prep students for her roommate. chloe was exquisite to look at—shining black hair, wide dark eyes which were never looking squarely at you but beyond you; slim hands with shapely well cared for nails. she was sensitive and shy and lived way down inside of herself somewhere. it seemed strange to mimi to have slept in the same bed with a girl, to run in and out of the same room a whole day and not exchange more than a dozen words with her. if mimi couldn’t be friendlier than this she shouldn’t have been an honor camper. the two girls were dressing for supper, it was supper at sheridan every night but friday; then it was dinner with candle salad (pineapple with a banana standing in the hole topped with a flame colored cherry). betsy was stirring around in the bathroom humming “sheridan, my sheridan.”
“chloe,” mimi began. she couldn’t stand the reticence any longer—“do you want to change roommates? don’t you like me?”
mimi didn’t get to finish then for sue popped in.
“uniforms!” she gasped. “you look swell!”
“we do at that, don’t we?” mimi answered pirouetting before the mirror. the plain dark-blue dress with the white collar and cuffs was flattering to mimi and even more so to chloe. white framed her delicately carved face—you forgot the rest.
“i’ll be glad when mine comes—i feel odd.”
“you get to wear them long enough,” betsy called out.
“come on in,” sue called. she was greatly impressed with betsy. she moved out of the chair and flopped on the edge of the bed. but betsy did not sit down; she stood in the door combing her curly hair.
“the worst thing has happened to me. laura lou mitchell—last year’s most popular prep—who reserved this room with me last june is not coming back. mrs. cole just told me. gee! i was scared to death when she sent for me. i thought, oh, my gosh! what have i done now? believe me i was relieved when she told me about the wire from laura lou’s dad. of course, i’m terribly disappointed. the worst of it is i could have got magdalene or lida or anyone i wanted.” betsy did not say this conceitedly. she was attractive, popular, and she knew it but never, never, could she be called a snob or overbearing. “they’re all signed up now. mrs. cole is so cranky about changes. anyhow, they’d feel second choice now.”
chloe fastened the safety catch on her brooch, gave her hair a final smoothing down and turned her eyes away quickly. she knew about second choices. “it’s just as if mimi knew about me,” she was thinking for the hundredth time. “but she doesn’t; none of them do—i’ve never told a soul.”
“say!” sue exclaimed grabbing her head as if it were hurting and rolling her eyes, “i’ve an idea!”
“it must hurt terribly,” mimi laughed, “but do tell us.”
“summoning all the nerve and courage i have, i shall plainly and simply state my case.”
“simply,” betsy interrupted. “you sound like olivia already and i loathe the sight of the dictionary.”
“’scuse me for living,” sue murmured, “i just thought i had an idea.”
“oh, come on,” urged mimi.
“o. k.; here goes. betsy, if you can’t find anyone else to room with you”—sue hesitated—“you might try me; you could do a whole lot worse.”
“perfect!” mimi clapped her hands.
“why, i’ll have to speak to mrs. cole about it.” betsy was used to choosing and not to being chosen. when she saw sue’s round happy face darken, she added, “i hope she will let us; i believe we’d get on!”
the supper bell rang and betsy was gone. the minute betsy turned her back, mimi and sue danced wildly around the study table in anticipation, then started down the hall. chloe was left to turn off the light and close the doors. half way down the stairs mimi remembered.
“come on chloe,” she called back. “please excuse us, but you don’t know how badly i want sue with us.”
“yes, i do,” chloe answered quietly as the three girls moved toward the dining room.
one-half minute before heads were bowed for the blessing betsy stepped up behind mimi.
“mrs. cole says ‘yes.’” she had to stand by mimi during the blessing and all but fly to her table to be seated with the others.
during supper mimi was absorbed with the moving plans. that “scheme” she had been “scumming”—mimi had picked up many of her unique sayings from cissy—was working on her again.
then, too, she was busy getting acquainted with girls all over again. they seemed so different in their uniforms.
since this was the last free night for some time, betsy had so many callers she could not help move. chloe had an art conference so it was mimi who helped sue throw her things together and shut her trunk. the janitor would bring it in the morning. they felt like intruders when they butted betsy’s half-opened door wide open—they had no hands to turn the knob. “lazy man’s loads” cissy would call them.
“landslide?” a caller asked betsy.
“no, my roommate.”
“but i thought laura lou?”
“so did i, but she isn’t, girls, this is sue and you all know mimi by now i imagine. red-headed people always manage to be known.”
“couldn’t be a dirty dig?” mimi flushed.
“compliment,” betsy replied.
“which end of the closet is mine?” sue asked relieving the tension.
when betsy rose to show her and to help, the callers left.
“as soon as chloe comes home”—the suite was already home—“we must have a family conference.” mimi wanted to get them together to explain her scheme. “sue, don’t unpack yet,” mimi ordered. “i’m going after chloe.”
she was gone leaving good-natured sue who took orders alike from betsy and mimi.
“207-209 is called a suite,” mimi was explaining to her suite mates when she had rounded up chloe. “that’s wrong. it’s nothing but two bedrooms with a connecting bath. the only difference i see in it and the other second floor rooms is that we don’t have to use the community baths. a real suite,” mimi assumed her fourteen-year-old manner of wisdom, “has a sitting room as well as a bedroom.”
“i know it.” betsy couldn’t have them think she didn’t know what a suite was. “when father and i were in memphis at the——”
“i suggest we make this a real suite,” mimi was not to be interrupted. “let’s move both double beds in this room, it’s larger, and both dressers and fix the tables and chairs in the other room. we can put pillows on the trunks—that is your trunks—mine is a wardrobe and i will leave it open flat against the wall and hang a cretonne curtain over it, they will be a sort of divan.”
“grand!” from sue.
“i don’t care” from chloe. the opinion of second choices didn’t matter.
“let’s do it right now!” from betsy.
the next hour saw 207-209 transformed. pictures, scrapbooks, pillows, betsy’s table lamp, sue’s violin and music cabinet made the sitting room quite livable. photographs, quite a clutter of them. the best looking one was jack, betsy’s grown brother. mimi’s tennis racquet and betsy’s tennis racquet were hung crosswise on the wall, the way mimi had seen in pictures. the closet space was allotted, towel rods and tooth paste spaces designated, the beds made. lots were drawn for bed fellows and mimi and chloe were still together. then again, numbers 1 to 10 were guessed for the bed nearer the window. betsy won. sue was glad because she was a fresh-air fiend.
“isn’t this much better?” mimi asked proudly as the four tired girls relaxed in their bright pajamas in the living room.
“it calls for a celebration,” betsy agreed.
so saying she opened her dresser drawer and pulled out a large square tin box. “my treasure chest,” she informed her suite mates. “cake—a date cake—i’ve been saving for a very special occasion.”
“precious! too precious!” sighed mimi happily. “only one thing to make our plan perfect. a name for the suite. 207-209 sounds too ordinary for anything so grand.”
“let’s call it tumble inn,” sue suggested, licking her fingers. “i wanted to name our hut at camp that. i think it’s cute.”
“not ritzy enough,” betsy said, shrugging.
“i like it,” said chloe, who had spoken only once or twice all evening.
“good!” mimi said with an air of finality. “i like it too, because that’s the way i came in last night—tumbled in—and that will be the way we will get in most of the time unless y’all are better housekeepers than i.”
“we got hut honors at camp once, mimi,” sue remarked.
“yes, i know. chloe, can’t you make us a card for the living room door?”
“i’ll try,” chloe answered. the way she said it, mimi knew it was as good as done—clever, neat.
mimi went to sleep with a smile on her face. tumble inn was a nice place to live. she would make betsy like her. she would make chloe like her. she would like them so much they couldn’t help but return it. sheridan was nice, too. it would take more than the hectic trials of green cap week, which began tomorrow, to change her mind.
