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Dawn started to laugh. "No wonder Stacey said we'd have no trouble finding the right apartment."
Welcome to BSC NYC said the sign on the door. Kristy could tell that Claudia had made it, even though it was crafted of construction paper and glitter in a thrifted frame. She'd sent a similar sign to Kristy and Dawn when they'd ended up renting an apartment together sophomore year.
She couldn't believe she'd never been here before, but going to UCLA on a scholarship had meant she'd only taken a few trips back since she'd left the East Coast, and she'd seen the rest of the BSC in Stoneybrook. They'd discussed taking a trip to NYC but it had never happened. The days had slipped by too fast and then they'd had to go back to school. This time they'd carefully planned for this reunion. Kristy, Dawn, and Abby would fly in a day early, they'd have dinner and a Broadway show and catch up, and then take a not-to-early train up to Stoneybrook where their families would be waiting to welcome them home for the holidays.
But Kristy had been there when it started. Mary Anne, Stacey, and Shannon had all gotten accepted to Columbia University and Claudia into the Parsons School of Design and they'd decided to pool their resources and room together. And when Anna had gotten into Julliard and Jessi (at sixteen!) to the Joffrey School, they'd just added that to the pot. Somehow they'd managed to find an apartment in a rent controlled building not too far from anything. Six had become seven when Mallory had finally graduated and scored a scholarship to NYU.
Kristy felt a little left out sometimes, but consoled herself that it was worse for Abby, who had ended up at Ohio State on a soccer scholarship. At least Kristy had Dawn.
Just as Kristy was about to press the doorbell, the door flew open.
"Sorry," Shannon said. "Usually one of us would have stuck their head out by now, but we were doing a last minute tidying."
The room almost looked like it. It certainly wasn't as much of a mess as Claudia's room had been at BSC meetings in Stoneybrook, but they hadn't made it magazine pristine either. It looked lived in and cozy. Kristy suppressed another wave of jealousy. The living room was full of comfortable furniture, mostly the cast-offs of six different families, framed posters hung on the walls - Broadway shows, classical music, ballet, museum exhibits, book covers. Claudia and Mary Anne had teamed up to make the curtains, Kristy remembered.
It looked inviting, but Kristy wasn't sure where they'd fit three more people, when all of the bedrooms were occupied.
Then Kristy and Dawn were being hugged by their friends (even Abby, who had got there first) and they were given a whirlwind tour of the place. Kristy got a glimpse of a small kitchen, a dining area with a large table and plenty of chairs of varying designs, and her friends' rooms, full of oh-so-familiar objects in a not-so-familiar setting.
"One of you will get the spare bed in Mary Anne's room," Claudia explained, "and the other two will have to share the fold out sofa. We've had parents and siblings sleep on it, so you're not the first," she reassured them. "They claim it's comfortable, but we make no promises."
Dawn had immediately claimed the bed in Mary Anne's room, playing the sisters card. There had been a time when Kristy might have fought her for it, but tonight she really wanted to talk to Abby. She'd catch up with Mary Anne on the train ride home tomorrow.
The evening was such a success that by the time they were all ready for bed, they were already making plans for doing it again. Maybe at spring break if their vacations lined up. And as Kristy was getting ready for bed, she allowed herself to admit how much she'd missed her friends. There wouldn't be BSC meetings this Christmas break, but there'd be time to catch up, and Kristy looked forward to every minute of it.
