Chapter One

08-23-08

Well here I am at Purdue finally. Mom helped me move in this morning. My room is in Windsor and I guess it’s ok, haven’t met my roommate yet though. Little nervous about that. I haven’t shared a room in my life. Mom thinks that it will be fine and said that we’ll probably end up being the “best of friends”. We’ll see about that. It’s not exactly a large room so I don’t see how we will possibly ever be able to get away from each other if we’ve had enough. I don’t know, I guess I just like my privacy, but it’s almost impossible for a freshman to get a single room here. It just doesn’t really happen. And there’s no way I could afford an apartment.

I’m kind of starting to regret not doing the BGR thing because this is a big campus and I have no idea how to get around it, plus I don’t know anybody here yet. I didn’t let mom know it, but I’m a little bit scared. She didn’t cry, but I bet she will in the car on the way home. That’s what she did when we moved Tina to college, and that was just to IU, practically up the road from our house.

I’ll be going to get my books today, and I have all tomorrow to kind of get acclimated before classes start. My first one is of course at 7:30 in the morning, the earliest class time you can have. That’s going to get old fast. I’m not a morning person. My classes are CGT 163, ENGR 100 (which is just some goofy seminar or something), ENGR 106, MATH 261, COM 114, and PHYS 152. Of course it’s the calculus class that’s at 7:30. It couldn’t be something easy like the seminar or speech class.

*****

Abby Brunswick surreptitiously sized up her new roommate, silently judging her on appearances. She did not feel bad about these thoughts though, as she felt that it was without a doubt, a road that went both ways. The girl was tall with dull brown hair and a lot of freckles. At this point Abby had not decided if she looked nice or not. Time would tell, she supposed. The girl extended a hand to her.

“Hi there, I’m Laura. You’re Abby I guess.” Abby nodded and shook her hand awkwardly. Who shook hands these days? “We’ll be seeing a lot of each other this year!” added Laura, her tone far too cheerful about that prospect than Abby was comfortable with.

“Yeah, yeah I guess we will be.”

Laura nodded and for a few moments they both stood there in the center of the room, looking awkwardly at each other and the surrounding walls.

“Well I’m just going to go ahead and get some more stuff out of the car,” Laura finally said, pointing to the door behind her.

“Um, ok, I’m gonna just keep unpacking here.”

Laura nodded and turned to pick up her car keys. She seemed to be moving in all by herself.

“You have your own car here?” asked Abby.

“Yeah, I’m a sophomore this year. I was in Shealy last semester, but I moved out for the summer and then this year they assigned me to Wood, so here I am.” Abby nodded and there was another awkward moment before Laura finally gave a quick nod and turned for the door again.

Abby had wished that she’d been able to bring a car here, but freshmen weren’t allowed to. Maybe next year it would work out, and with a job she would be more likely to be able to afford it. For now though, the bus would have to do if she actually wanted to go anywhere. Not that she expected there to be a ton of demand for that, it was just that she enjoyed the freedom of being able to drive herself where she wanted to go.

When Laura got back up to their room with her first load of boxes on a big luggage cart Abby was just finishing organizing her desk. She had laid out all her notebooks and new supplies in neat rows along her shelves. Laura began unpacking and Abby felt that tact compelled her to break the uncomfortable silence.

“Um, do want some help or anything?” Laura looked up in surprise.

“No, I’m fine thanks. It’s just a matter of putting stuff where I want it. But, thanks for the offer anyway. I appreciate it.”

“Sure thing. I guess I’ll go get some lunch then. Guess I’ll see you later then.”

“Ok, see you. Have fun.”

Abby stopped by her Resident Assistant’s room to get directions and then made her way to the nearest dining court. As she stepped into the building and was assaulted by all of the other voices echoing throughout the huge dining room, Abby was assaulted by a surge of loneliness. It wasn’t that she missed any person in particular but her stomach suddenly felt slightly sick and she was very, very aware of the fact that most of the people around her were traveling in groups, laughing and talking, catching up after a summer apart. She quickly grabbed a tray and added herself to the line nearest to her without paying attention to what she was actually in line for. It moved quickly and at the end of it she helped herself to a plate of pasta and a piece of garlic bread.

Out of the line she stood looking around the room trying to decide where she was going to go. Finally she caught sight of a small table beside a bank of trashcans that was unoccupied and she made for that, weaving her way between tables and oblivious people. Once at her own table she set down her tray and sank into one of the chairs. The sense of loneliness had not left her and in fact grew as she sat in her corner, observing the rest of the people in the dining room. There were some couples within her view, but mostly it seemed to be small groups of friends gathered at all the tables. She felt very awkward to be sitting alone. She decided that as soon as she got back to the dorm room she would see if her internet connection was working yet and try to send a message to one of the friends from high school that she knew were also moving in today.

Abby did not know that many people who were planning on attending Purdue, but there were a couple. She and her best friend had both decided together to go to Purdue and they’d both been accepted here, but when Ashley’s boyfriend had decided to go to Ball State, Ashley canceled all plans to attend Purdue at the last minute and had followed him there instead. She hadn’t even bothered to tell Abby until two weeks ago. That’s what bothered Abby most about it.

“She could have at least warned me that she was considering it,” she thought. “Instead of slapping me in the face with it just as I was packing to come here.”

Abby did not try to deny that she was still very mad about that. More though, she was very hurt. Ashley had acted like it was nothing and Abby had not told her exactly how much it had hurt her. Instead she’d just kept it to herself, and they hadn’t spoken since then. Adding insult to injury, Ashley had not tried to contact her at all when previously they had spoken almost every day. They’d only known each other since fifth grade; Abby had thought that they’d be best friends forever. She tried to tell herself that perhaps that would still be the case. After all, they’d had arguments before. None that had lasted this long, and never about something this serious, but it had happened.

As quickly as she could Abby finished her fettuccini and rose to leave. She’d had enough of this sitting around and thinking about how hurt and alone she was. She could cry about that later, in her own room. That was when she remembered that she didn’t even have her own room to cry in.

“Fine, in the shower then. Just go,” she told herself. She quickly rid herself of her tray onto one of the tall conveyor racks that would carry it back into the kitchen and out of sight, and made her escape from the dining hall. Halfway back to Wood, Abby decided that she didn’t want to return to the tiny dorm room just yet and so continued on past the Windsor halls towards the campus proper. There was no reason not to go ahead and pick up her text books. She remembered driving past the University Bookstore on the drive in with her mother, and she thought that she could find it again fairly easily.

Once she’d hit University Street, she followed it down until it met with State Street, and she followed that East. She was sure that it would be quicker to cut between the buildings and walk across campus, but as of yet she figured that she’d better stick to the streets that she remembered. It was not that far of a walk as it was and she managed to reach the bookstore without any problems. The place was absolutely teaming with students, jostling this way and that, searching for the books that they needed and buying overpriced notebooks and pens.

Abby followed the signs and descended into the basement of the building, grabbing a basket along the way. All the texts were arranged by subject in alphabetical order so once she managed to fight her way through the rest of the people with the same intent, she found her books quickly. Along with her texts she bought a Purdue class planner that had a map in the back of it. That she kept out of the bag to plot a course back to Wood with. She tried to walk briskly so that maybe she wouldn’t look like such a newbie, but in the back of her mind the thought still lingered that everyone she passed knew that she didn’t really belong yet.

Abby sighed and thought again of Ashley. If she was here then this wouldn’t be so uncomfortable.

“Oh stop it,” she scolded herself. “Quit feeling sorry for yourself and just do what you have to do.”

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Word count: 1,752

Total word count: 1,752