A Guide to Love (ONC 2023)

Chapter 3

Mila stretched a little, looking around the dorm. They had done a good job of cleaning up the dorm and making it look homier, the desks stacked with textbooks and pencils, beds made, closets full to the brim. As far as she could tell, Scarletta was calling home to her mom, while Kathleen was out, trying to find the music room.

Sitting down on her bed, she decided to write letters to Lila and Laura, the twins that had caused so much laughter and brightness in her childhood.

𝒟𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝐿𝒶𝓊𝓇𝒶 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐿𝒾𝓁𝒶,

𝒮𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒻𝑜𝓇𝒹 𝒾𝓈 𝑔𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓉, 𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝓌𝑜 𝓃𝑒𝓌 𝓇𝑜𝑜𝓂𝓂𝒶𝓉𝑒𝓈, 𝒮𝒸𝒶𝓇𝓁𝑒𝓉𝓉𝒶 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒦𝒶𝓉𝒽𝓁𝑒𝑒𝓃. 𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓎'𝓇𝑒 𝒷𝑜𝓉𝒽 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝓃𝒾𝒸𝑒, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝓂𝒾𝓈𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝓌𝑜 𝑜𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊. 𝐼'𝓂 𝓌𝓇𝒾𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓂𝓎 𝒷𝑒𝒹, 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑔𝓊𝓎𝓈 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒! 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝑒𝑜𝓅𝓁𝑒 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝓂𝒶𝓏𝒾𝓃𝑔, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓁𝑒𝓈𝓈𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓇𝓉 𝓈𝑜𝑜𝓃. 𝒜𝓈 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌, 𝐼'𝓂 𝓂𝒶𝒿𝑜𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒾𝓃 𝒫𝒽𝒾𝓁𝑜𝓈𝑜𝓅𝒽𝓎.

𝒳𝒪𝒳𝒪, 𝒽𝓊𝑔𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓀𝒾𝓈𝓈𝑒𝓈,

𝑀𝒾𝓁𝒶

Finishing her letter off, Mila sealed it shut, and sat on her bed, listening in on Scarletta's conversation with her mom.

"Mom! College is amazing! Like, I have amazing dorm rooms, and amazing friends already-"

We're friends already?

Scarletta paused for a second or two, listening to the audio on the other side. "School starts tomorrow. Yes, I know. I'm prepared for all the horrors of human biology." She paused again. "SHUT UP!!! No way you're trying to convince me to get a dating app! That desperate to get me 'out there' and 'enjoying the college life?'"

Suddenly, it became silent. The winds outside had stopped, and Mila heard clearly, "That's where I met your dad."

Scarletta went silent.

The awkward silence was back again.

*_*_*_*_*_*

Scarletta was bored. After a disastrous call with her mother, which ended on awkward terms after her father was brought up. Swinging off her bed, she bounced up, fluffy bunny slippers hitting the ground. Mila looked up from her bed, where, after sealing all her letters, she had gone to read.

She looked up to find Mila reading a tattered copy of Six of Crows and flopped onto her bed. "I love that book. What's your favorite quote from it?"

Mila shrugged. "Maybe 'I will have you without armor, Kaz Brekker. Or I will not have you at all.'"

"You a romantic?"

Dog-earing the page, she threw the book onto her desk with precise aim and fell onto her back, Mila seemed to think about the question. "I don't know. I've always had the hope and dream of getting a cute, thoughtful, funny guy, but, other than that? Not really. I'll have those daydreams about finding 'the one' every now and then, but doesn't everyone?" She paused. "And what's your favorite quote?"

Smiling up at the ceiling, Scarletta kicked her slippers off. "It's actually from Crooked Kingdom. I don't remember it clearly, but I'm pretty sure it was 'Has anyone noticed that the whole city is looking for us, mad at us, or wants to kill us?' 'So?' Kaz asked. 'Well, it's usually only half of the city.'"

Mila smiled at her. "You're more of the humo-"

CRASH!

The two stared at each other, both wondering what had just happened.

"CRAP!" a voice came from the other side of the wall.

"OH SHUT UP!!"

Scarletta sat with Mila, both listening to the two girls swearing and yelling.

*_*_*_*_*_

Kathleen was lost.

Stanford was even bigger than she had thought, and after she asked a teacher to unlock the music room for her, she had gone to follow her, only to find that, the teacher being at 5'2, was shorter than the rest of the students, and thus, Kathleen didn't know where the teacher or the music room was.

Weaving around a group of girls busy taking selfies, she dodged a frisbee flying towards a sandy-haired boy. After almost spilling her books onto the ground, getting chased by a seagull, and almost tripping over a game of truth or dare, she finally decided that, although an introvert, it was time to ask somebody.

"Uhm, excuse me?" she tapped the shoulder of a nearby presumably teacher, and waited.

"Yes?" the boy turned around, showing himself as a student.

"Oh! Sorry. I was going to ask a teacher where the music room was, since I just lost a 5 '2 teacher."

"Sorry?"

He looked confused, unsure of what the U.S. standards were. Realizing that he wasn't from around, she grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. I didn't know you weren't from here."

He smiled. "Mostly just surprised that this is the second time since I came to America that someone thought I actually know what's going on."

Her lips quirked up, and she hefted the bag up again. "I need to get going. Maybe someone else will know where the music room is."

"See you!"

Waving behind her, she weaved around the amount of people again. Hearing her phone ring, she pulled it out, the name on the screen flashing.

Aspen 🤮

Sliding to accept, Kathleen pressed her shoulder up while carrying her guqin. "Hello?"

"You idiot! I thought you said to 'meet me at the music room'."

Kathleen rolled her eyes. "Surprise! I can't find the freak-"

She tripped, and cursed. "As I was saying, I can't find the music room."

She could hear him propping the door up, and rushing out. "Where are you? It's actually quite easy to find the-" the phone fumbled a little, and she could hear him fumbling.

"Aspen...?"

"Sorry, the door propper wouldn't stay up."

Shifting the guqin from one hand to the other, she sighed. "I'm at the main park area."

"On it." Aspen hung up, and Kathleen debated between continuing to wander around or to hang around and wait for Aspen to show up.

Minutes later, she could see his ebony head bobbing up and down, and she waved. He waved back, one head taller than the girls drinking Starbucks and boba tea next to him.

Aspen dodged a stray tree branch and reached Kathleen, his flute hanging off his back. "How did you manage to lose sight of the teacher?"

"She was, like, 5'2. I don't think that's my fault."

Rolling his eyes, Aspen grabbed her by the arm and dragged her off to the music room. "I swear to God, one day you won't even remember your way home."

"Do I have a home?"

He paused, "Fine, since you're so insistent on 'I belong to nobody' your house."

"That's not my house, that's my auntie's house."

"FINE! Your aunt's house."

"Speaking of which, you want dates, black sesame, and goji berries later?"

"Fine...since you need to get rid of them so much."

"I knew there was a reason I'm friends with you!"

Aspen smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Yeah, that's why we're friends."