Even The Playing Field | BOOK #1 IN THE PSU SERIES

Seven

Naomi Black

"And then he said 'I can do anything I want, baby. I'm Matti Williams.' Like are you fucking kidding me? He acts like he's the king of the land." I rant to Sloane and Finn in our living room apartment. They follow my mouth with their eyes widened.

"I mean, well, like, he is the king of Happy Valley..." Finn says with her head looking down. Sloane smacks Finn's legs, "This isn't the land of the king, it's the land of America. Not everything revolves around Matti Williams." I state back.

"He's quite dreamy though isn't he..." Sloane says looking ashamed. "Sloane! That's not the point! You guys are supposed to be on my side!" I whine. They both nod. "No, you know what. She's right. He might be tall and handsome and have a 40 million dollar contract on the line, but fuck him! He isn't making our best friend do all of the work in a pottery making class!" Finn and Sloane give each other high-fives as I fall back into the white couch.

What was I going to do?

He wasn't going to do the work. I obviously can't rat him out to the professor because she somewhat stated that only one partner has to do the work for it to count for both.

So I have to do it.

What the fuck.

I did not sign up for this.

"I'm so hungry." Finn groaned. Sloane nodded in agreement, pointing to her stomach. "I need to go eat before I become grouchy. Plus you know how I've been trying to get better at eating." Sloane spoke.

Finn Wright and Sloane Beck were polar opposites but they scratched each other's backs when needed. They were a good team together- the entire friend group was. But the blonde haired bitch and the red headed devil worked like two peas in a pod.

Speaking of friends. Natalie would be here but she's studying for calculus with Griffin. Awe. Imagine having a supportive football player that wanted to succeed in college. Could never be me.

"So are we going to get food to cure this hungriness?" I say as the girls bolt off the loveseat. "Let's go. I want the tenders bar." Sloane says. Finn nods, "Yeah I want the soup and salad bar today though, it's potato soup and you know how much I live for that shit."

We all grab our things and head across campus. It was a somewhat shitty day, I was wearing a long-sleeved, big shirt with under armor shorts, and a pair of vans. It was somewhat sprinkling so our peaceful walk to get food turned into a slight jog to get the goods.

Walking into the dining hall with squeaky shoes was not as secret as I hoped, but it's okay, we didn't come for anyone, we just wanted the food.

"I'm getting a sweet tea, see you guys in the check out line." I nodded to the girls as I walked to the other side of the dining hall. Looking for my lemon, sweetened green tea Brisk was easy, however, grabbing it was the tricky part. Being a five-foot girl was tough when you're trying to grab something from the top shelf.

I stretched my arm up and put my tippy toes to work.

Ugh.

Still can't reach it.

A person coughed behind me interrupted my struggling.

I turned around and wow was I ecstatic to see my favorite person and his people. "Hey short stuff, do you need some help?" I glared at Matti. Standing behind him were Reese and Blake. "I don't need your help," I said back.

"Oh really because you're kind of holding up the line for the drinks..." He goes on to say. I cross my arms and look up at him. "Listen, I don't need your help." I walk around and behind all three of them and grab a cafe chair. With the chair in my arms, I walk in front of the cooler and place it in front. I look Matti directly in the eyes, stand on top of the chair, grab my tea, get off the chair, and grab the chair to put it back.

"I don't need your help with anything, especially our art class," I say to him and walk past him with the chair. "You're still upset at that?" I ignore him while I walk away with my tea towards the girls.

"What the hell just happened over there?" Finn says. "You're lucky everyone is in class right now because that would've been embarrassing," Sloane adds. "Okay, but I wanted to prove my point. I don't need his help with anything. I am a strong woman. I can do this class all by myself." I responded.

We started walking back to our apartment with our food, luckily the rain cleared up, but we were abruptly stopped by an apparent sorority sister. "Hey sisters! Chi Omega is having a huge banger tonight if you want to come! Here's a flyer: take it! Maybe you'd be interested in joining the sisterhood." We say thanks and she walks away.

"Woo! The sisterhood! Are we in or not?" Sloane asks.

"I'm in and I bet so is Nat," Finn says and they both look at me. I shrug, "No more parties. I have to focus on school." They both groan.

"Are you serious? Naomi, you're only this age once. You're only a sophomore. Do you know how boring your life will be when you're a nurse? Wake up, coffee, wipe asses, coffee, sleep, and on repeat. You know what if you don't go that's fine I guess I'll just have to chug the rest of our Pink Whitney, maybe even bong a loko-" I cut off Finn, "Okay fine! I'll go!"

They both cheer.

Great, so much for not partying this semester.