The Note Swap

Chapter 1

[Unedited]

RRRiiiinnngggg....

Deep in my sleep I knew that was the alarm but my mind was refusing to wake up. After about a minute of non-stop ringing a pillow hit me and I suddenly sat upright.

"Damn it Lily! Turn it off!" That was Rose, my roommate. She's definitely not a morning person.

I sighed and got up. Senior year I had the misfortune of having several morning classes. As early as eight. It really was a struggle but I was really interested in these subjects, I had no choice. I carefully walked around the room gathering my things for class. Rose was a light sleeper while Daisy, my other roommate, sleeps like the dead. A nuclear bomb could go off in campus and she wouldn't even flinch.

I look at the sleeping forms of my roommates and smiled. We're almost halfway through senior year and while making friends was not on the top of my list when I went here, I was glad I found two friends I really can say have my back.

Rose is our wild child. With her dark black hair, green eyes and tall willowy body, she looks to exotic it's hard for the boys not to take a second look. Despite being out partying most nights, she keeps her grades high. For that, I envy her. She's popular too, not cheerleader-popular, but still popular. I hear jealous call her "white trash", but she doesn't care.

I hate to call Daisy a wallflower. But she calls herself one. She's so shy and quiet. But since we all came together our freshman year, she opened up a little but only to us. She doesn't think she's beautiful but behind those thick, black-rimmed glasses are the bluest eyes I've ever seen. She also hides her curves with baggy clothes and keeps her long blonde hair in a bun. She's the richest among us and can afford to buy designer clothes but instead, spends her money buying books and vinyl. For a rich kid, she's no upstart at all.

I sighed as I brushed my red hair until it looked presentable enough. I noticed new freckles on my nose. Darn this Irish blood in me, I thought. They seem to have a life of their own multiplying like rabbits. I washed my face and brushed my teeth and attempted to put a bit of color with lip gloss and mascara. I quickly dressed up in my college "uniform", jeans, v-neck shirt and VANS slip-ons, and grabbed a coat.

My dorm was a good ten minute walk from my first class. I was taking Journalism but signed up for several classes on Women's Studies. I wanted to be considered a strong, independent woman and the professors who taught these classes were inspiring.

I was out of breath when I took my seat. I barely beat the bell. I immediately took out my notebook and pen and prepared to take down notes. Prof. Angela Garfield was famous in her field and I loved hearing her point of view on past and present issues on women 's liberation. Fifteen minutes in the lecture, the bane of my existence sits beside me.

"Hey Lily," Mark Foster whispers to me. "Can I borrow your notes after class?"

I rolled my eyes, looked at him and flatly said no. I should have just said yes to make him stop pestering me. But I know his kind. The Jocks. They don't stop once, they're like parasites who leech off you until there's no blood left.

I have successfully avoided any jocks in my class since freshman year. But my luck ran out, Murphy's Law probably, and ended up with one of the most popular jocks in school. Why Mark Foster is taking Women's Lib is beyond me. He probably thinks it's an easy A for him. Or maybe with most girls taking the class, he thinks he could use his charm to worm his way for a higher grade.

Mark is the center in our basketball varsity team. And he looks like it standing 6'5. He's like an Adonis, all blonde and muscular. My classmates love it that he's here but I don't.

"Mr. Mark Foster. It figures you can't take down notes on your own" I whispered back.

"Hey, I have a bit of a hearing problem! No need to get you panties bunched up!"

Oh no he did not just say those lines to me! Not in this class!

I was about to answer when suddenly the bell rang. Before I could shut him down he was out of the auditorium. What can you expect from a jock! I hated all jocks! Whatever sports they play they are all the same in my book. No brains, all brawn. All think they're God's gifts to women!

I walk out of the building seething. Next class I'll make sure to sit far, far from him. It was a big class anyway, no need to go near him again.

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To earn extra cash for school, I work in the library. It was a two-birds-one-stone kinda thing because I love being around books. I also love the peace and quiet. I get a lot of my homework down while handling check out area. Not a lot of kids borrow books anymore because of the internet, but there's something about doing manual research that I enjoy.

"Hi Lily! You're shift doesn't start till three. You're here early." said Mrs. Thompson, the head librarian. She was not the typical librarian, you'd think she'd be an old maid with white peppered hair and thick black rimmed glasses in drab granny clothes. But she's actually very pretty. Although small in height, she has long blonde and quite sexy. She always wore cigarette pants that reminded me of Audrey Hepburn. he is in her mid thirties but looks even younger. She gave me the job when she noticed I spend so much time in the library. Extra money never hurt anyone so I said yes.

"Hi Jane. I'll do a bit of homework before I start work. I'll just be at the back." I entered the maze of bookshelves and settled in a little corner by the History reference section. I liked it there because nobody seemed to go there. Sometimes when I had nothing to do I'd grab a book and just read. If I saw a passage or line I liked, I'd write on post it and leave it there. It's just a game I played ever since I started working here in the library. I wondered if anybody saw those notes and what they thought of it.

I found a biography on Marie Antoinette and read a few lines. I took out my pink post it and wrote:

"I for one would love to live during the renaissance. I wanna live with all that grandeur and extravagance! Eat all the cake in the world! Hahah! How about you? Would the dark ages appeal to you? World War II?"

I closed the book and looked at my watch. It was almost three. Time to start my shift.

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Author's Note:

This is a new story I'm working on the same time as When We Were. Two stories at the same time! I just had to start this before I lose all the thoughts in my head.

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