Note: This autobiographical account was written by Meryl, who's modeled for me a few times before.

...

What do these things say about me? Well, this year my husband had to go away on business. Not the entire year, thankfully, but most of it. I work from home, our daughter moved away the year before last, and it gets so lonely and vacant with just me. So, with my husband's approval, I decided to host a pair of college students for the school year. For our proximity to the campus, and the quality of our accommodations, what I charge would be criminally low if the main agenda was profit rather than company. Come September, both freshman students were excited to meet me, and I them. Yoko and Rowan had never met before, but I scheduled to meet them both on the same day; I wanted to make sure they'd get along with each other as well as with me, of course!

Yoko was full of as much confidence as her dainty frame could hold, and she charmed me immediately with her good manners. I could tell right away that we were going to be fast friends for the coming nine months, if not afterward as well! The first thing I noticed about her, aside from the winsome smile, was her hair. Yoko has the most perfect, lustrous, gleaming black hair hanging down past the middle of her back. She had it perfectly smooth, swept back, and tightly braided, with the ribbons in an elegant little knot.

Rowan tried, I could tell. He was nothing but good intentions under that nervous exterior. But the way he came off was, well...less put together, shall we say. He forgot his ID on the bus coming here, and I had to make several phone calls before he got it back. Unlike Yoko, who immediately bore all her things off to her room, Rowan had to be reminded of the backpack he'd left by the front door. He was earnestly sorry for everything, and ashamed of the impression he thought he was making, but actions speak for themselves. Rowan's hair was almost as long as Yoko's when he first arrived, but the first thing I noticed about the boy was a bit further down the back, and far less delicate in presentation, which just matches him so perfectly.