CHAPTER V
TUMBLE INN
Under ordinary circumstances Mimi would have liked Chloe. If Sue hadnot come she might even have chosen her from all the Prep students forher roommate. Chloe was exquisite to look at--shining black hair, widedark eyes which were never looking squarely at you but beyond you; slimhands with shapely well cared for nails. She was sensitive and shy andlived way down inside of herself somewhere. It seemed strange to Mimito have slept in the same bed with a girl, to run in and out of thesame room a whole day and not exchange more than a dozen words withher. If Mimi couldn't be friendlier than this she shouldn't have beenan honor camper. The two girls were dressing for supper, it was supperat Sheridan every night but Friday; then it was dinner with candlesalad (pineapple with a banana standing in the hole topped with a flamecolored cherry). Betsy was stirring around in the bathroom humming"Sheridan, My Sheridan."
"Chloe," Mimi began. She couldn't stand the reticence any longer--"Doyou 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 wasflattering to Mimi and even more so to Chloe. White framed herdelicately 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. Shemoved out of the chair and flopped on the edge of the bed. But Betsydid not sit down; she stood in the door combing her curly hair.
"The worst thing has happened to me. Laura Lou Mitchell--last year'smost popular Prep--who reserved this room with me last June is notcoming back. Mrs. Cole just told me. Gee! I was scared to death whenshe sent for me. I thought, Oh, my gosh! What have I done now? Believeme 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 havegot Magdalene or Lida or anyone I wanted." Betsy did not say thisconceitedly. She was attractive, popular, and she knew it but never,never, could she be called a snob or overbearing. "They're all signedup now. Mrs. Cole is so cranky about changes. Anyhow, they'd feelsecond choice now."
Chloe fastened the safety catch on her brooch, gave her hair a finalsmoothing down and turned her eyes away quickly. She knew about secondchoices. "It's just as if Mimi knew about me," she was thinking for thehundredth time. "But she doesn't; none of them do--I've never told asoul."
"Say!" Sue exclaimed grabbing her head as if it were hurting androlling 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 simplystate my case."
"Simply," Betsy interrupted. "You sound like Olivia already and Iloathe 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 withyou"--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 tochoosing and not to being chosen. When she saw Sue's round happy facedarken, 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 herback, Mimi and Sue danced wildly around the study table inanticipation, then started down the hall. Chloe was left to turn offthe 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 knowhow badly I want Sue with us."
"Yes, I do," Chloe answered quietly as the three girls moved toward thedining room.
One-half minute before heads were bowed for the blessing Betsy steppedup behind Mimi.
"Mrs. Cole says 'Yes.'" She had to stand by Mimi during the blessingand 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 sayingsfrom 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 manycallers she could not help move. Chloe had an art conference so it wasMimi who helped Sue throw her things together and shut her trunk. Thejanitor would bring it in the morning. They felt like intruders whenthey butted Betsy's half-opened door wide open--they had no hands toturn 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 bynow 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 musthave a family conference." Mimi wanted to get them together to explainher scheme. "Sue, don't unpack yet," Mimi ordered. "I'm going afterChloe."
She was gone leaving good-natured Sue who took orders alike from Betsyand Mimi.
"207-209 is called a suite," Mimi was explaining to her suite mateswhen she had rounded up Chloe. "That's wrong. It's nothing but twobedrooms with a connecting bath. The only difference I see in it andthe other second floor rooms is that we don't have to use the communitybaths. A real suite," Mimi assumed her fourteen-year-old manner ofwisdom, "has a sitting room as well as a bedroom."
"I know it." Betsy couldn't have them think she didn't know what asuite was. "When father and I were in Memphis at the----"
"I suggest we make this a _real_ suite," Mimi was not to beinterrupted. "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. Wecan put pillows on the trunks--that is your trunks--mine is a wardrobeand I will leave it open flat against the wall and hang a cretonnecurtain 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 sittingroom quite livable. Photographs, quite a clutter of them. The bestlooking one was Jack, Betsy's grown brother. Mimi's tennis racquet andBetsy's tennis racquet were hung crosswise on the wall, the way Mimihad seen in pictures. The closet space was allotted, towel rods andtooth paste spaces designated, the beds made. Lots were drawn for bedfellows and Mimi and Chloe were still together. Then again, numbers 1to 10 were guessed for the bed nearer the window. Betsy won. Sue wasglad because she was a fresh-air fiend.
"Isn't this much better?" Mimi asked proudly as the four tired girlsrelaxed 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 squaretin box. "My treasure chest," she informed her suite mates. "Cake--adate cake--I've been saving for a very special occasion."
"Precious! Too precious!" sighed Mimi happily. "Only one thing to makeour plan perfect. A name for the suite. 207-209 sounds too ordinary foranything so grand."
"Let's call it Tumble Inn," Sue suggested, licking her fingers. "Iwanted to name our hut at camp that. I think it's cute."
"Not ritzy enough," Betsy said, shrugging.
"I like it," said Chloe, w
ho had spoken only once or twice all evening.
"Good!" Mimi said with an air of finality. "I like it too, becausethat's the way I came in last night--tumbled in--and that will be theway we will get in most of the time unless y'all are betterhousekeepers 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 asgood as done--clever, neat.
Mimi went to sleep with a smile on her face. Tumble Inn was a niceplace to live. She would make Betsy like her. She would make Chloe likeher. 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 ofGreen Cap Week, which began tomorrow, to change her mind.