Dancing in the Rain (The TUSH Duology-Book 2)

Week 1

Monday, August 24

Perhaps I should have started this narrative on July 20 when the e-mail came out that everyone would have to live off of campus except for first years, transfers, international students, RAs...I'm reading over the email right now...those living in San Antonio, those living in City Vista...I think I'll copy and paste from the e-mail at this point...dangit! It's adding these stupid bullet points! Oh, whatever.

Students facing housing or food insecurities, and/or or a difficult remote learning environment; Students who are currently involved in supervised research or a project that requires on-campus completion; Student athletes participating in fall and winter sports who must return to campus for conditioning, in hopes of competing once athletic conference restrictions are lifted.

And all of a sudden, the bullet points are gone. (There weren't spaces after the semicolons. I had to put those in myself.)

Did you read that? Well, if you haven't gotten the point yet, I'm not going to Trinity this semester. If anything, I could have added a little preface about mid-March when we all got sent home, but then we'd get into last school year, and if I wanted to talk about last school year, I'd do it in the first book.

Anyway, I'm staying home. Coronavirus has sent everything to shit. Like, the entire world. Including Trinity. I was hoping to go back to campus in the fall; I even got a housing assignment. (Murchison 210. I was hoping for a change of scenery, and it looks like I'm still getting one.) I guess Murchison 210's going to some...just look at the list above. I'm not going to bother writing it down again.

It sucks because in March, I thought I was going to be returning to campus after spring break, but then they added a second week of spring, and then bada-bing bada-boom. School's continuing. You'll just be at home. I actually enjoyed being on campus with Matt, Kai, and the spirits.

In case you can't tell, being a sorcerer has become my thing. The student government association told everyone we should find one or two organizations that we're really passionate about. I guess the sorcery club is my one organization. I wonder how they'd react if they found that out.

Matt and Kai! I haven't heard from them since the start of summer. I had taken a summer internship, and they were probably doing other stuff. I was already looking at my phone looking at/brooding over this dumb e-mail. Why not call them?

Could I do group calls? I'll just call them individually. Let's start with Matt.

I opened the phone app. I shuddered at the prospect of opening the phone app, but I've already done it, so why stop?

I found Matt's number in my contacts and clicked on it. I placed the phone to my ear. One ring. Two rings. Three. Then I heard Matt's voice on the other end. "Hello?"

I sighed in relief. "Matt! It's been a while, isn't it?"

"Yep. Whatcha callin' me for?"

"I just wanted to see how you were doing. You know, with classes starting and everything."

"Oh, I'm doing just fine. I'm getting settled in on campus, even if it is a bit empty. I hope we can start doing group events again."

Wait. What did he just say? "You're getting settled in on where?"

"On campus. I'm living on campus. I'm in Prassel 114. It's a little far from, like, everything, but at least I'm here, right?"

"But how? You're not a first year or a transfer student or anything like that."

"Don't you remember the e-mail? It says students can apply for limited on-campus housing."

"But didn't it mention something about like research and student athletes?"