by Lisa Rayne

Created on: March 25, 2009

The summer before college started, I received my roommate assignment and called the person who I would first share a room with: Nicole. Over the phone, she seemed shy, but after agreeing who would bring the TV or the toaster, she quickly corrected me that she hasn't used the name Nicole in years. She goes by Aiko.

She arrived a few days late, which really peaked my curiosity as to who this Aiko character was. Arriving after class one day, I came home to see an American Girl doll propped in a doll-size chair atop our mini-fridge. The doll was staring at me, and I shook off the heebeejeebees when someone said,"Hi. You must be my roommate" behind me. Strangely enough, the doll looked exactly like her. A few days later, she explained that she had the doll made to match her hair and eye coloring and wears one black and one white sock just like she, herself, did every day.

Aside from a few obviously strange differences, Aiko had a strange obsession with her Japanese heritage. Being one quarter Japanese, her half Japanese mother even shrugged at her obsession of Grandma's homeland. Her grandmother now lived in Hawaii, and Aiko's straggly, long black hair which she said made her look like a Hawaiian proved her obsession revolved around not only all things Japanese but her Hawaiian culture as well. She had never lived in Hawaii aside from summers at Grandma's, but she wore a flower in her split-ended hair almost religiously. The strands surrounding her forehead had been dyed green.

As I began to notice this pattern of absurdity, Aiko's filthy habits arised as yet, another, reason to love her. She shaved her legs on her bed with an electric razor (stubble flying everywhere), never emptied her overflowing trashcan, and didn't wash her hair but once a week. When I began noticing the stench coming from her corner of the room, she informed me that she didn't wash her bras because her mother promised her she would do it at Thanksgiving. I wondered if she had ever done laundry with the stale way our room began to smell.

Oh how she loved bringing her mother into our lives, and we'd never even met her. Studying with other roommates outside our bedroom one night, Aiko screams bloody murder from inside our room to "Shut your mouths!" It was around 9:15 p.m. In another episode a few minutes later, the crazy woman storms outside and cries to us that her mother said she needs to go to bed by 9:00 p.m. She then slams the door and bursts into tears. Such tirades were common, and came to

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