Story Projects

Slice of Life Project "The Surprise"

The first day of college was nerve-racking. I parked my newly-bought used car perfectly in the student parking lane between two heavy pickup trucks. I kept critiquing myself about how I parked in lanes, so when I did this, I was happy. So far, my day has been going smoothly. I opened my door, and the ambient sounds of the garage mixed in with the chattering of people hit me all at once. It reminded me of my high school rush hour during transition periods, but this was double the volume. Good thing I brought my headphone to drown out the noise. I played a playlist that shuffled video game soundtracks that were epic with orchestra-level instruments, then walked over to the elevators.

Two elevators were situated adjacent to each other. I took the furthest one because it didn't have anyone standing near it. The moment I walked into the elevator and turned to reach the button panel, a woman wonders in. She almost ran into me if it wasn't for my quick reaction to step back. Her enormous boobs rubbed against my chest before she stopped.

"Oh, sorry," she said with a gasp. I turned down the volume of my music so I could hear her better if she spoke.

"You're good," I said.

"Cool." She pressed number two on the panel. On that floor, it took us up to the sky bridge that led into the campus. "Are you going here as well?" Her question made no sense to me. I thought she would know that I was going on the same floor. She could've guessed, judging by my appearance and today's date being the start of the fall semester.

"Um, yeah."

"Sorry. That was a dumb question. I'm so nervous right now. I'm a freshman." I wasn't paying much attention to what she was saying. Her outfit, beautiful freckled face, brown hair, and the rounded fat body was alluring. She caught me staring at her, so I nodded my head to pretend I was paying attention to what I said. "Are you a freshman, by any chance?"

"Yes," I said, cracking my voice. "I am."

"That's good. What classes are you taking? Besides the one class, we all have to take."

"PE, history, math." She gasped as if she saw something crazy. It startled me that I jumped a bit.

"Me too! We might be in the same classes." I told her the names of my professors, and it turned out she also had them too. I was kinda excited that a beautiful girl like her was my classmate. "Just in case we get drafted into being partners, or I'll need assistance on some homework." She paused mid-sentence to unlock her phone. "Can you give me your phone number?" That question made me internally scream for joy. Day one of college, and I achieved a girl's number before I even knew her name.

"Sure." We exchanged numbers without telling our names first, so I made a motion to ask. "What's your name?"

"Kathleen Reilly. You can call me Kat if you like."

"Okay, Kat. Joshua McEwan is my name." Her eyes popped open when the sound of the elevator doors pulled apart. She looked over her shoulder while blindly putting away her phone back into her purse. "Hey, since we got the same classes, let's walk together."

"Sure." I realized I had already said that word, so I said, "Yes."

We walked to our first class together, taking the sights of our campus and having small talks. I found Kat was a year older than me. She took a year off from doing any school when she graduated. I should have done the same, but at least I didn't have to go through seven hours of schooling in college.

The first class we entered was American history. This curriculum started when the pilgrims came to settle in what is now known as New England. My professor's room had two columns of rectangular black tables that were positioned in eight rows. No one was in the room, so I checked my watch while taking a seat in the back. I was thirty minutes early.