Sister Circle✔️

17. Nothing Supersonic to See

JILL POV

She was enjoying being Dean of Pledges over the first line she ever brought in. She would not be the youngest anymore. Essence was only nineteen about to be twenty. She liked Essence so far, but she did not know her well, so it was her mission to get to know her. She scheduled one-on-one sessions with the ladies and she met with Essence first.

They met off-campus and had lunch at the mall and did some shopping. It was nice to see her not in the context of being on line.

"I can eat like a pig, so forgive me," Jill said, devouring her pretzel bites and cheese. There was not much of a food court at the little Bloomington-Normal mall, but hey, she could make anything a meal.

"This mall reminds me of my hometown. Small, barely any stores worth anything, and nothing great to eat."

"Hey, you talking about my pretzel bites? This bomb baby!" They were taking a shopping break and sitting on a bench while she ate her food. She liked the mall because even though it was smaller than all the malls in St. Louis, it had everything she needed. New clothes, new shoes, and a Victoria's Secret.

Essence laughed. "I need real food." She was only drinking lemonade and said she would eat later.

"Girl I like to eat!"

"At least I found some great deals," Essence said looking over her bags. "I love to shop. When I have free time, I just drive up to Chicago and shop."

"I'm from the Lou, I just hit my city to shop for real, for real. We have everything there and more." Just enough to keep her on budget. Her parents sent her some money, and working at the radio station she got a small stipend. No real money, but she got by.

"I've never been to St. Louis."

"WHAT? You're from a small town in Illinois, not far from St. Louis, and you've never been? Are you afraid of the big, bad city?"

"No," she said with a laugh. "I'm closer to Chicago and I like it there. I hope to move there after graduation. I don't want to go back to Galena."

Jill had no idea where that was. She did not know Illinois well. She barely knew all the small little towns in her home state of Missouri. She was open to moving away after graduation. "I'm going wherever I get a job!"

"You want to work radio?"

"Or something in media, I would Vlog or podcast maybe, there are so many things nowadays to do. I actually have my own Youtube channel but I'm slowly putting up content. That's a lot of work with everything else I do."

"I hear they make lots of money with that."

"Not me!" She stuffed a pretzel bite in her mouth. "Not yet anyway. It's just fun."

After she ate, they did a bit more shopping. Essence had a lot of money to spend, Jill was trying to catch the clearance and sale items. After they were done, they headed back to campus. Jill helped her take all her bags up to her dorm room and then she sat at her desk and talked with her.

Her room was mostly bare, with nothing personal around. No pictures of her mom or sister. No pictures of friends. No art on the wall, nothing to show her personality. From the clothes she bought, everything was about being cute and showing off her body. But no signs of boyfriends.

"Tell me something about your personal life? Like your family, friends, boyfriends...or girlfriends, we're cool with that."

She hesitated a moment. "My family? Well...we're a little different. You know my mother is white. My father, I don't know, has never been around. My older sister is white, I mean, her father is white. I was the black sheep of the family, literally. My mother's parents are racist...imagine how that was growing up."