“OH! I have never thought about that!” She is still moving around the room—straightening things that are already straight—when I can’t take it anymore, I stop her with both of my hands on her shoulders.
“Okay girl, maybe lay off the caffeine!” I laugh and she flops back on her bed and takes a deep breath trying to calm herself, “I need to get a computer and maybe some other supplies for my classes, want to come?” She shoots up on the bed and shakes her head yes.
“Do you want me to call an uber or are you going to the campus store?” For a moment I had forgotten that not all first-year students get to keep their cars on campus.
“Nope, I have a car exception for campus, it's just across the way,” her eyes almost bug out of her head, and I start laughing all over again. “I like you, like a little squirrel on crack.”
“Humph. You gotta bring your car! UGH! I am so jealous!”
“I might be a first year, but I am not fresh out of high school…” The sign-in person wouldn't have told her that I am not a normal freshman, and she wouldn't have known my age, not that I am too much older than her.
“Oh,”
“I'm 22, I took several years at a community college not far from here. Because my hometown is close, and I am not a standard freshman, they gave me a pass. I know that most of the freshmen are allowed to bring their cars here after their first semesters though, so you won't be without one for that long!”
I don't quite understand why they don't allow freshmen to bring their cars, but I also don't understand why all freshmen have to live on campus. I am more than old enough to live in an apartment and be responsible enough to show up to my classes, but I digress.
We walk over to my car and head to the big mall in the middle of the city. I might have been able to get what I needed on campus, but I am sure that they would have charged me out the ass for it.
No thank you.
Plus, if I am going to buy something as expensive as a good computer, I am going to do it from their store, not some second-hand one.
“While we are there, we should get you some clothes for rush, all of your clothes are dark, and I get the feeling that isn't going to fit in with the crowd.” When I packed, I didn't think that I was going to change my appearance to fit into my new life, but I might as well.
Maybe if I dress like a different person I will be able to feel like a different person.
I don't know exactly how I plan to do this, there are things about my personality that I cannot change. But lighter clothes and a more positive attitude seem to be easy enough adjustments. I don't think that I will ever be as bubbly as Raven is, but we will be a good contrast of redheads. She will be the bright shiny one and I can be the one that gives you a healthy dose of reality.
This friendship will be a match made in heaven.
***
“Alright, sisters! It's time to make an impression!” The girl at the front whisper-screams over her shoulder to the group behind her.
The house is typical of what you would expect from a sorority. Your standard Victorian-style mansion with ATA in huge freestanding letters in the front yard. I can see that the front area inside the house is a pale-yellow color, it flows well with the sky-blue front porch. There are scattered yellow chairs across the porch with matching tables, and it looks like it goes all the way around to the back of the house, but we haven't made it past the front steps yet.
As soon as the blond in the front turns back to the group of girls that I am standing with everyone else starts to move. They weave their way into the crowd and start talking to everyone standing around. The blond makes her way through the crowd saying hi and giving short hugs to random girls before she stops in front of Raven and me.
“Hello! I’m so glad that y’all made it out!” She gives Raven a short hug, but I guess something about my posture stops her from hugging me. “My name is Zoe; I am the Alpha Theta Alpha president.”
“I have been dreaming of ATA since I started looking at colleges! My name is Raven, this is my roommate Finley!” Raven's positive attitude matches Zoe’s and I suddenly feel very out of place.
There is so much shrieking and girls bouncing up and down while clapping their hands that I don't see how these people will want me to join them.I will never be a ‘WOO’ girl, and I will not be jumping.
“Oh good! We love to hear that!” Zoe jumps in to tell us some of the sorority history, as well as any of the charity work that they do and all the mixers that they take part in. She talks about living in the house and having such a tight-knit group of girls, explains what it's like to live in a house with so many other women, and the ways that each of the girls has their way of coping with such a drastic change to living at home with siblings to living in a house with no less than 50 other people. I smile along and add comments when it seems appropriate, but I don't miss the way that Zoe keeps glancing at me.
“Alright, ladies! Let's go inside and have some refreshments!” Everyone that was in our group gets her arm linked with one of the members, Zoe, Raven, and I hang back until one of the other women comes up and takes Raven inside.
Zoe links her arm with mine but when we get up the stairs of the porch, she pulls me off to the side and we walk around the outside of the house to the backyard. I start to ask her why she is separating me from the rest of the crowd, but I decide to wait and see how this plays out. She doesn't seem dangerous, and I always have my knife on me anyway, so I let her lead me away from the crowd.
I am kind of relieved to be away from all the excitement. A clubhouse full of bikers I can handle no problem, but a room full of girls giggling and using phrases like ‘oh my god’ and the words ‘like’ every other word—no thank you.
“Coming here wasn't your idea, was it?” Zoe finally says when we make it to a small table in the backyard to sit down.
“Is it that obvious?”
“You look a little like a deer in the headlights,” Zoe laughs and makes herself comfortable in the chair, folding her legs under her and leaning toward me.