Believe it or not, we weren't always the super sexy cool besties we are today.
I know right, you guys are totally shocked. So are we, just look at us.
What you may not know about us is that not only are we best friends, we are also flat mates. Put together by some cosmic force in the universe (a computer system in an office building somewhere), we have lived together since September 2021 when we were two cute little freshers moving to The Big City for University.
We'd chatted a bit in a group chat we were in with the other members of our flat, Elisia who we still live with now and love dearly, and a fourth member who shall remain nameless but simply didn't enjoy our company. We didn't actually get to chat properly until we moved in. Let us take you back to September 2021:
Josie
First of all we looked like this:
THOSE ARE ACTUAL BABIES WTF
I was the first of the three musketeers to move in, me and my mum had begun unpacking all my stuff whilst my dad and brother were in charge of shuttling the rest of my bags and boxes up and down the elevator. I didn't have much theatre memorabilia with me, I don't have any posters or anything as I mainly just collect programmes (the collection is really getting out of hand maybe one day I'll do a show and tell) but we were blasting the In The Heights soundtrack and singing at the top of our lungs.
Then, as I'm screeching away to '96,000' sat on the floor in front of like four half unpacked boxes, sweating profusely, Gaby walks in. I'm then scrambling to get up off the floor to say hi, I walk up to her and we do an awkward 'are we going to hug or are we not quite there yet' dance (I think we did hug in the end).
We quickly went back to our separate unpacking, I still had boxes arriving and Gaby had obviously only just gotten there and her things needed to be unvaccuum-packed.
Some time had passed and my mum was like "this is stupid you guys need to go make friends", shuffling from the other side of the wall and I heard Gaby's bedroom door open and close, and then the kitchen door open and close.
Before I had time to think, my mum had thrust my box of kitchen stuff into my arms.
"Go make friends."
I had already put some of my stuff away in the kitchen so I had already established residence in a cupboard, Gaby decided to to put her stuff in the cupboard next to mine (goals). She pulled out a 'SIX' mug and I was immediately hounding her with questions about what shows she likes and who are her #stagefaves (Carrie Hope Fletcher if you couldn't tell already). Then we talked about our joint love of the Heathers 2018 West End cast (I did a humble brag about knowing someone in it - cringe) and that was the beginning.
Shortly after, we took a trip to Frozen and had the time of our lives (Samantha Barks ily), now it's almost two years later and we've seen around 15 shows together and many more to come xx
Gaby
I remember when I got put into a group chat with Josie, Elisia and, of course, unnamed flatmate no. 4. I was actually sat in the Theatre Cafe on St. Martin's Lane, completely hammered off of their cocktails. I was sat there with a few friends and I remember being so excited just to get a glimpse of what my first year might be like.
Now, I'm not crazy. Of course, when I found out the names of these girls, I went straight to Instagram. Josie, as it happens, shared some mutual followers with me. It was just a few people I'd met in my time taking dance classes and MT workshops across the country with a performing arts associate program.
There's no way. I just remember thinking there is absolutely no way that I'm about to move down to my favourite city in the world, somewhere I love so much partly because of the West End, and I'm going to live with someone who also wants to go to the theatre every night. I knew this was going to be fun, and maybe probably quite expensive.
The day we moved in, I didn't really have much time to be nervous. My parents had decided that the best way to move me and my entire life 200 miles away for a year... was on the train. All of my belongings were vaccuum packed into 2 suitcases, 2 supermarket bags for life and 1 hiking rucksack that I had used for my Bronze DofE 4 years prior and refused to pick up since. When I walked into the flat, I saw Josie sat on the floor in the doorway to her room surrounded by clothes and books. As previously mentioned, she got up and we shared the awkward hug-not-hug. Me and my parents were in my room unpacking my programmes and my theatre merch t-shirts and my mugs from various shows and, my most prized possession, my Come From Away poster signed by the West End cast, when I made them stop and listen. Through the paper thin student accom walls, I could hear Anthony Ramos rapping 96000 from the In the Heights movie soundtrack. Oh my God. She might just actually be a fangirl like me.
After an awkward 'getting to know each other' chat in the kitchen and minutes of laughter following a not-so-funny joke about my broken blinds, because we didn't know what else to joke about, we soon got onto the topic of theatre. She had seen my Six mug and we spoke about Six and Heathers and Carrie (and I knew someone from Heathers 2018 too okay xoxoxo) and we knew this was going to become an incredibly fun and stagey year.
A week or so later, when Elisia took her first trip back home and left us unattended, we leapt to TodayTix and found ourselves sat in the Grand Circle of Theatre Royal Drury Lane that very night. And the rest, as they say, is history. :)
The glow up is real xx
Written by Josie and Gaby xx
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