The Apartment on 3rd Street

The first novel the series. It is written in third person limited from Lizzie's point of view. The story details Lizzie's first year (semester?) of college.

Synopsis
"The first book follows the usual 'country girl moves to the big city' cliche. Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Brooks is on the search for her independence when she moves from Oregon to Chicago. My goal is for a lighthearted coming of age story, with the focus on Lizzie overcoming her social anxiety to get closer to her seemingly 'out of her league' jock roommate Carson Mackenzie." --Cas, 2019/03/10

The Short(er) Version:
Lizzie Brooks moves from rural Oregon to Chicago in her search for independence. she meets her roommate, the attractive, athletic, and mysterious Carson Mackenzie. they are complete opposites and don't understand each other, and they stay out of each other's way. through all of this, Lizzie is trying to cope with her depression and estranged mother. she meets Sadie Hawthorne, a classmate whom she begins to crush on. she quietly slides into Sadie's group of friends, despite being a fish out of water.

Lizzie bumps into Carson's friends at the track and field, who become very curious about her and her relationship to Carson. Later, during  one of Sadie's friends publicly humiliates Lizzie. distraught, she rushses back to the apartment, where Carson comforts her. they start to become friends.

Carson and Lizzie gradually get to know each other and spend more time together. Carson invites Lizzie to spend time with her friends, and slowly Lizzie begins to integrate into the group. Lizzie must deal with the fallout of being outed. Carson's illness increasingly comes to light.

Lizzie deals with family drama, and she adamantly tries to get her aunt to understand that she is not moving back to Oregon. Carson falls ill and is hospitalized, and Lizzie discovers that Carson has Crohn's disease. Lizzie and Carson confess their feelings for each other, and they officially begin a relationship. Carson bumps into Sadie one day, and she tells her off for not stopping her friends from bullying Lizzie.

The Long Version:
Act 1

I. It begins....
Lizzie moves into the apartment and meets Carson. They get off on the wrong foot. Lizzie meets Sadie Hawthorne in class. For the next couple of months, she spends most of her free time with Sadie and her friends, and Lizzie develops a crush on Sadie. One day, Lizzie grabs a textbook for Carson that she knows she needs later for an open-book test. She wanders around the campus very confused until she finds Carson on the track. It goes about as well as can be imagined--she's surrounded by jocks, and some people notice she's new. Lizzie tells herself it would be easier if she just asked for help... she does not ask for help. She eventually finds the track but has trouble making out which one Carson is from the gate. She ends up watching the practice until Carson notices her. all wound up and frowny, she hands Carson the textbook and then splits. "here's your book Carson. bye"

the incident starts a "WHO IS SHE" mystery among the other nerds. everyone is fascinated because Carson has never really shown romantic interest in anyone (that most of them know of...). on top of that, Carson doesn't usually bring around new people, much less fidgety and quiet people!

"who calls you Carson...." they wonder. Carson usually tells people upfront to call her Mack, so they're surprised when she doesn't correct Lizzie. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) the reason is that Carson wants to keep some distance between them, which may be kind of backwards, but she doesn't think Lizzie would want to be on friendly terms and it's usually her friends who call her Mack. her parents still call her Carson, as do acquaintances and professors.

first they bug Carson about the mystery girl, and she tells them Lizzie is her new roommate. they want details... surely she must be more than that... did they hit it off, does Carson like her... Carson's just, "no she's... just my roommate, guys... i barely know her..."

​​​​the ringleader is Sasha. she thinks Lizzie's quite pretty but instantly gets the feeling that she doesn't like any of them all that much.​​​​​​ Luke wants to know all ABOUT HER, WHO IS THIS MYSTERY PERSON. Mia and Ethan are super intrigued! to Mia she rings as standoffish but interesting. Ethan sees her as someone that seems sweet but shy. they try to be more subtle about their questions, Ethan more so than Mia. Blair acts like she doesn't care, but she watches Lizzie like a hawk. Blair thinks she's kind of rude. she's subtler than the others but not as much as Ethan, who only quietly asks Carson about Lizzie once. (Blair is suspicious of new people, especially those who throw things off balance. Blair is really protective on how the group operates. it's why she's the slowest to warm up to Lizzie. she doesn't like change)

Sasha crashes on Carson's couch after either a really GOOD night out or a really BAD night out. her sleeping form scares Lizzie half to death. she makes breakfast for them the next morning, but then Lizzie absconds. (don't know where this goes, but during act 1 after Lizzie's run-in on the track seems the most logical place for it?)

Sasha's first appearance
Lizzie's introduction to Sasha is one she never quite forgets.

Lizzie comes home late one morning and "WHO IS THAT SLEEPING ON THE COUCH AND WHERE IS CARSON???" for all of five seconds Lizzie thinks the person on the couch is dead,,, thankfully Carson waltzes back into the room before Lizzie can find something to poke Sasha with (to see if she's dead) and "oh hey you're home, cool - oh and that's my friend, sorry she's drunk"

the surprise is in the morning,,, Lizzie wakes up to make her usual morning pancakes, walks into the living room and "........oh. the drunk girl is still here. except she's no longer drunk and she's only wearing a tank top and really short shorts and i swear i did not see that many tattoos last night. because it was dark... a /lot/ of tattoos this is Carson's friend???"

(contentmint: i'm sorry all the people in your life are hot, Lizzie. it's so hard.)

worst of all is when the Hot Formerly Drunk Girl starts talking to her. "oh hey you're up! sorry for crashing on your couch last night i must've scared you lol are you hungry?? i made quesadillas do you want one"

contentmint: "oh nooo she's sweeeeet" D:>

duskcastle: exactly lol. Lizzie mumbles a thank you and an apology to Sasha because she's totally not that hungry, grabs a banana, and scurries back to her room. poor introverted baby off-screen, when Carson comes back from her morning jog Sasha mentions that her roommate woke up "i offered her food but she said she wasn't hungry! it's breakfast time how can you not be hungry" and in that moment Carson just looks her friend up and down and "just this once, you're surprisingly dense Sasha"

Act 2

III. Being a kid and making friends. It's hard and nobody understands.
One of Sadie's jealous dude friends publicly humiliates her over her crush on Sadie. This ruins Lizzie's entire night. She flees to the apartment, trying to hold back tears. she was going to spend her entire night eating ice cream and watching cartoons, except "oh crap my roommate i barely know is here." Carson's in the midst of marathoning cheesy and terrible soap operas in her pajamas when Lizzie comes home. they're still pretty much strangers, but Lizzie was crying and Carson just can't ignore a crying person. "hey are you ok?" Lizzie's not and she doesn't really want to talk about it beyond "people suck." and Carson doesn't consider herself the smartest person, but she gets that and asks Lizzie if she wants to watch cheesy awful soap operas with her while eating ice cream together. it's still a little awkward, but Carson stops being The Roommate I Don't Know and Don't Want to Know to My Roommate Who's Kind of Nice, in Lizzie's eyes. it's their first bonding moment, and this is probably when Lizzie starts to fall, just a little, for Carson.

IV. Putting the friendmoves on
Lizzie and Carson start to get to know each other. Carson invites Lizzie to hang out with her friends. they meet Lizzie again at the library, then at the park.

at their first hangout all together, she's still very shy and still quite shaken from being publicly outed, so she doesn't say much and ducks back into her shell when she's the center of attention, and sort of clings to Carson mostly. Carson knows something bad happened, but not the details. as for the other nerds, well they can all sense she's even more skittish than when they first met her. it makes Blair stiff and cold, she doesn't deal well with skittish people. Mia gets really pensive, and she and Sasha try to more gentle with Lizzie. Luke doesn't know what to do, he gets antsier around anxious people too and becomes a chatterbox, which makes it worse. Ethan stays fairly quiet. he always seems calm and unobtrusive, which poor Lizzie reads as judgment.

But Lizzie gradually gets to know the group and becomes friends with them.

Sasha makes the conscious choice to help Lizzie befriend the group. for Luke, it's more subconscious; he wants everyone to get along. Sasha can tell Carson likes her, not in a romantic sense, but she knows Carson wants to get to know Lizzie better. so, Sasha wants to help her coax Lizzie out of her shell, and to find out what about her sparks Carson's interest.

Sasha and Luke help Lizzie get comfortable with Ethan and Mia, who Lizzie finds intimidated because they're the prettiest and most serious. Luke and Lizzie become close out of Luke's persistent silliness, which makes Lizzie realize he's harmless. Ethan and Lizzie get closer once he realizes how much she likes crafting. he's more of a cook than a baker, but they love making desserts together

Ethan and Mia help Lizzie get comfortable with Blair. it's a domino effects of nerd friendship. dominerds effect.

after some gentle encouragement for Lizzie and coaxing for Blair from the rest of the nerds, they go to....

The Beach
Sasha boogie boards, Carson swims, and Ethan takes Mia out jet-skiing. Lizzie and Blair sit on the comfy beach towel on the sand. (they're awkward, or so i'm assuming.)

Luke notices that she seems lonely and left out at the beach and knows Blair isn't the most open person, so he offers to make sand castles with her and lets her bury him in the sand (he is so patient, and it makes her so happy). they collect sea shells too, and with the shells she collects, Lizzie makes sea shell necklaces and bracelets.

the first person she offers a necklace to, after Luke, is Blair. she comes back to under the giant umbrella, where Blair is reading. she's super shy about it, but Luke gives her a gentle nudge forward. Lizzie presents her the necklace, figuratively extending a tentative hand in friendship. Blair is super shocked. and to her, it honestly looks kind of gaudy and she doesn't want to wear it but Lizzie has such a tragic puppy dog face she can't say no... she makes a show of acting like she doesn't really care but she puts it on right away.

Act 3

V. Romance goes here i guess
Carson's illness flares up, and she is hospitalized. Carson and Lizzie confess their feelings, then try dating.

"another idea is that i wanted to tie it in in some way to Lizzie's grief arc. Lizzie's realization that she doesn't want to lose someone else like she lost her father... and how that pertains to Carson... which makes Carson feel all sorts of heart-wrenching struggle--Carson is succinctly aware of her own mortality and the fragility of the human body... she doesn't want to bring that onto Lizzie when Lizzie's already experienced so much grief... that's part of Carson's confession to Lizzie,,,

"but Lizzie shuts down on Carson's doubts with her own spiel of "i hold you up, you hold me up, we're in this together

"then the kiss and then the cuddles at night before bedtime. Carson doesn't sleep in her bed anymore. and Lizzie doesn't sleep alone anymore,,,"

VI. The end?
Lizzie continues to deal with family drama. She wards off interrogations from her aunt about whether or not she is moving back to Oregon.

Carson goes up to Sadie's group and tells them off for bullying Lizzie. it makes Sadie rethink her life choices. she goes away for a bit and comes back a Changed Woman, but that's for later.

("possibly toward the end Lizzie reconciles with her mother" ???)

Misc. Events
(where do these go??)
 * 1) "an intimate scene with the group where they reminisce about their previous experiences together​​​​​​"
 * 2) "there's a short scene that i want to write between [Blair and Lizzie] that's meant to show the parallel between them, feeling as outsiders among the rest of the gang, but i haven't figured out the dialogue orz" --Cas, chat log 2017/03/24

Main characters

 * Elizabeth Brooks
 * Carson Mackenzie
 * Sasha Rodriguez
 * Luke Phillips
 * Ethan Lazzari-Qian
 * Mia Lazzari-Qian
 * Blair Moore

Supporting characters

 * Sadie Hawthorne
 * Joshua

Chapters (?)
...

Conception
The novel was originally meant to be more or less self-contained. It began as a queer twist on the cliche premise of "farmgirl moves to the big city," and of an odd pair learning to live together as roommates.

Carson/Lizzie Relationship
"i don't want the relationship to be antagonistic, but i do want it to be conflicted. i want there to be tension but not overt dislike, i want them to feel like they don't fit together, but not to where they lack chemistry. i want them to feel like they are totally different people, to not yet recognize the ways in which they are opposites but their puzzle pieces fit. they're supposed to think, in some small subconscious way, "this person would never understand or accept me, i want to look away but at the same time i want to stretch my hand out to her"

Common themes and tropes

 * 1) Opposite personalities attract, then discover that they have more in common than they first thought
 * 2) Hidden depths
 * 3) "You do you"

Hare/Tortoise Symbolism

 * 1) The narration mentions that The Tortoise and the Hare is one of Lizzie's favorite children's stories
 * 2) Lizzie has a plush turtle
 * 3) hmm i think it'd be cute for Lizzie to make the association, mentally at least, first, as one of the first signs that she's warming up to Carson,,, "hares are bunnies and bunnies are cute and Carson is kind of cute" - Lizzie's thoughts around the second act,,, --Cas, chat log 2016
 * 4) Lizzie gets a plush bunny, either for herself or Carson
 * 5) "i totally don't have a crush, my turtle was just lonely ok"
 * 6) what if she gives it to Carson but then Carson puts it next to turtle plush because she thought it looked lonely..... "she's too cute, i'm too gay, someone help" --Cas, chat log 2016

Original Timeline
The original draft of The Apartment on 3rd Street. differs significantly from the current version. Overall, the tone of the book was darker. Early versions of events and characters were changed to make it a more lighthearted story. On a happier note, everyone is queer now.

Read more about this early version.