C4, surveying the damage.

Another new home, another institute. Rita could only hope this one would be better than the last hellhole she'd stayed in, though she wasn't sure she even wanted to be here. Mark had seemed to think it was a good idea, a way for the two of them to clear their names, and to become the kind of parents Ceva deserved, but...she wasn't so sure. For one thing, he'd stayed behind in Portland to finish off his current job, and sent her off on her own. Ceva was already on the island, in the care of Leslie, the shrink who'd been such a huge help to her before, but Ceva was going, she'd be fine out here with Leslie. How was Rita going to cope without Mark? It had been hard enough to be separated from their beautiful daughter, now, she'd have no-one at all. Sure, she could go and see Ceva during the day, for an extremely limited period, but other than that, she was going to be completely alone for the first time since the two of them had escaped Saint Nicholas', maybe even longer than that.

Mark had taken her collar off before she'd left the motel they were living in to come to the island, and she was ashamed to admit that she'd cried for the entire trip here. What was she going to do if he never came back to her? What would happen to Ceva? There was no way anyone would allow someone like her to care for her own child, even if she did survive this institute, not while she was on her own anyway. Even Leslie probably wouldn't, despite all the evidence that she'd done her absolute best to take care of their daughter in impossible circumstances. That was not something she wanted to think about though, right now, she'd rather just get moved in, and worry about everything else later.

Getting onto the island hadn't been too bad, though she was shocked at just how thorough the search she had to undergo was. Wasn't this place supposed to be a shelter? If there were rape victims here, the broken, screaming when anyone touched them kind, how the hell were they going to respond to something like that? This place so far didn't seem to be any better than saint nick's had, and when they confiscated so much of her wardrobe, her opinion only worsened. No spaghetti straps, no cleavage on show, all her favourite shoes confiscated, what was she supposed to do? Mark hadn't given her any clothing pointers, he'd just told her to stay out of trouble, so she had no choice but to obey the code.

Reluctantly, she'd donned a yellow summer dress after the flowery one she had been wearing was confiscated, but she'd declined to rummage through the ruins of her suitcase for shoes. It wasn't a long walk to her new home, even carrying her half empty suitcase, and the whole way, she was thinking over the instructions Mark had given her. Look after Ceva, look after yourself, be careful, be safe, Try not to get in trouble, and don't let anyone else collar you. It might not seem like much to some, but staying out of trouble wasn't going to be easy for the firey haired slavegirl. Still, Mark would be here soon, to exert his control over her, and to put her back into clothes he approved of, she hoped.

Frowning a little, she stepped into the room they'd given her. C4, bed 3. Hopefully not somewhere that would be quite so explosive as the name implied, though given that there were already two beds filled, from the looks of things, she wasn't too sure about that. Two beds meant she'd actually have to wear clothes in the place she lived, that was another thing she hadn't done since Saint Nick's. Ass part of behaving herself though, just another hoop she had to jump through to keep these people happy. Who knew, maybe one day, when Mark was here too, they'd actually let her be herself! There was no chance of that happening, but it was nice to hope.

Still frowning, she tossed her suitcase onto the unclaimed bed 3, and began to unpack. There wasn't much left really, a single pair of shoes, a dozen or so outfits and a handful of other bits, she supposed her first stop once she wandered off of campus was going to have to be the clothes store. Oh, wouldn't that be fun? Almost as thrilling as meeting the roommates would be, and speaking of that, as she worked on hanging her dresses up in her wardrobe, the door opened again. For now though, Rita ignored it.

Emma’s day hadn’t started well. She hadn’t want to come to the island in the first place, hundreds of miles away from her family and everything she’s ever known, even just the thought of it sent her heart racing. Her parents had accompanied her on the trip over, but had to part soon after. That scene itself has been no better than a young parent dropping off a preschooler, and that she had had such a reaction in front of the island security made her heart sink and skin burn. If abandonment wasn’t bad enough, the full body search sent her over the edge. No one had told her about that! While she hadn’t had much that was confiscated, the invasion was unbearable. Her eyes were still red from her tear-filled protests, her throat still itching.

Even now, as she searched the rather spooky hallway for her assigned room, she still could not stop shaking. She crushed her backpack to her front and the hand on her suitcase handle was aching from the intensity of her grasp. She was sweating from the drastic change of temperature; her dark jeans and blue sweatshirt ill-fitting with Green Ridge’s warmer climate, but Emma couldn’t bring herself to take it off. With that gone, it was like one of her last security blanket’s gone. At least inside the Bennett Home for Girls – her new home, despite how ill that made her feel – was at a cooler temperature, though it seemed to make no difference to her already panicked body.

It was still early, but she wanted nothing more than to just rush into her room and curl up in the closest corner to sleep, or cry, or ram her head into a wall, or press herself so far into the corner that maybe she’d disappear for good. Emma tried to ease that train of thought into something positive, like Diana was always telling her, but her mind was momentarily blank. Her trek up the staircases, with narrow escapes of tripping and breaking her neck, and a short search down the hallway near the top of the house finally lead her to a door. C4, the same as was instructed. She already didn’t like it and hoped desperately it wouldn’t live up to the name. The door was shut, but she heard movement on the other side, so obviously someone was already there. The problem of roommates had occurred to her, but Diana had forced that worry down, saying it really wasn’t all that bad and that they still had their own space. But suddenly she didn’t want to go inside. Really, what was wrong with the hallway? It had a homey enough feel to it, and no one was there to bother her. She could just hole up at the end, maybe find a way to fit inside her suitcase and ship herself back to Maine.

Emma jumped when she heard the clopping of feet in the stairwell. Unsure how long she had spent frozen staring at the door, she was forced to change tactic now that she may have to face other strangers in a hallway with few escape routes. Squeezing her eyes shut, she took a deep breath, trying to remain calm. Her grasp on the door handle was hesitant, but she opened the door spastically and rushed inside, sure she’d back out if she wasn’t quick about it.

Her dramatic entrance seemed to go more-or-less ignored, and for a moment she thought she was alone before she noticed another girl unpacking her own suitcase. She stood frozen in the doorway for a moment, a deer in headlights, before realizing the other woman seemed pretty occupied. Her body eased and she slunk the rest of the way in, shutting the door quietly, and found the last unoccupied bed at the end of the room. From the looks of it, she already had three other roommates, a number that just begged to set off another round of tears, but she swallowed them down thickly. She shouldn’t cry anymore, especially in front of her new roommate. She had to make a good first impression, even though Emma was horrible at those (and second, and third...) she at least had to try. That was the point of being here, right?

Dragging herself and stuff over to the bed, she sank down on the mattress and shimmied to the center, clutching her backpack tighter. She slowly started unpacking, opening up her suitcase and setting her backpack at the edge of her bed. She pulled her stuffed cat out and set it in her lap, ignoring the rest of her stuff. Hugging it against her, she glanced back at the girl again and took a breath. “Hi. I’m Emma,” she said, her voice soft. She brushed her hair that had fallen in front of her face back to sit behind her ear, though she started curling the ends around her finger nervously. She glanced at the girl, then quickly away and focused on her nearly empty suitcase. “You’re new here too?”

Though Rita had ignored the girl's initial arrival, she did glance over when Emma failed to come any further into the room, a small frown on her face. Thankfully though, the new gigl did eventually remember how doors worked, and Rita soon got back to unpacking. She didn't have much left now the staff had taken everything inappropriate, but what remained still needed hanging up. Dropping her only pair of shoes to the ground and kicking them under her bed, she took the last few dresses out of the bag and moved to the wardrobe to get them hung up. What was Mark going to say when he got here and she didn't even have a collar on? he'd be furious, she was sure of it.

As she took the first of the plastic hangers out to hook a dress onto, the other girl spoke, and this time, Rita did bother to look straight over at her. "I'm Rita." she replied, not sounding all that happy to meet her roommate. She didn't want to be here, away from her boyfriend and her child, who would? Mark had said it would help though, he'd believed Leslie, so what choice did she have? Closing her eyes for a moment, she took in a deep breath, exhaled, and smiled over at Emma as she opened them again. "Sorry, I...I don't mean to be rude, I'm just under a lot of stress at the moment." she continued, giving a small smile, before turning away to hang the dress up. That done, she stepped back and walked towards Emma.

"I'm new too, yeah. I only just got here." she replied to the question, giving another small smile as she sat down beside her. If they were going to be roommates, it made sense for them to be friends, right? Who knew? When Mark got here, he might like the idea of having an extra girl around, wouldn't that be fun? "I've had to leave my daughter behind to come here. I've never been away from her for this long before, it's...really hard for me to cope. If I get snappy like that again, that's why. Sorry." she explained, moving a hand to touch Emma's. "Where are you from?" she asked, smiling softly. Emma was no Ceva, not either of them, btu she wasn't going to get into a fight with someone who had easy access to her when she was sleeping, as well as even easier access to what little she still owned. Becoming friends just made sense, didn't it?