Freshman Year

Part 1

Emerson texted a bunch of people in her smart math class. Sure enough now Lauren, Hadley, Addison, and Audrie were sitting in her dorm room floor studying for math. They took turns sharing what they didn't understand until they had mostly figured out. After about 10 minutes of this they were all dying. It was almost too much. What on God's green earth was Mr. Gomez thinking? They continued doing this being bored out of their minds.

"Can we do something fun?" Ellie asks spinning on a computer chair in the corner.

"No we are studying!" Emerson says.

"Truth or Dare!" Hadley shouts. Emerson shoots her a look. "Oh come on, Em, we have been studying for forever. We deserve a good long break!"

"Okay the last time we listened to you, your wall got... redecorated." Emerson said. "And do not call me Em."

"I think that truth or dare sounds perfect!" Audrie says staring at Ellie. She planned to get something out of her.

"Nope this is not about me! I'm just gonna go find something. I think I lost it." Ellie says standing up and leaving.

"She loves him, and she knows it!" Hadley jokes.

"I heard that!" Ellie shouts through the door. "I don't like him!"

"Yes you do!" Audrie yells in a sing song voice.

Emerson finally sets down her pen. Her eyes focus on her friends who are anxiously waiting to play this stupid game. She rolls her eyes and nods.

"Yes!" Hadley yells excitedly. "Okay, Em, truth or dare?"

"Dare." She mumbles while staring at Hadley. Hadley suddenly had a quick spas attack.

"Oo I got one." She slaps Emerson's leg. She may have hit just a little too hard.

"Ow! Hadley, not so hard!" She rubs her leg.

"I dare you to lay down and let me do a cartwheel over top of you!" She exclaims.

"Goodbye life!" Emerson says as Hadley shoves her onto the ground. "I never even had my first kiss!"

"Oh shut up. I am not gonna land on you!" Hadley says with an evil laugh. Emerson looks at her skeptically before closing her eyes. Sadly for Emerson, Hadley lands the cartwheel then falls backwards.

"Ow! Hadley get off!" Emerson shouts. "You are crushing my ribcage!"

"Oops." Hadley says slowly standing up. "Okay somebody ask me."

"Thats not how this works." Emerson states.

"Well it is in my book!" Hadley says. She was anxiously waiting for a truth or dare that would never come. All of their phones buzz.

Shady Pines: 'Homecoming this weekend! Tomorrow is nerd day, and Friday is spirit day'

"Wow. Tomorrow is literally thursday and they are just now telling us that it is spirit week?" Hadley says. "Un-freakin-believable!"

"Well we need to do something for it tomorrow!" Emerson says. "We can go to the campus store and get some stuff for it!"

"The campus store only has school stuff!" Hadley complains.

"Well then we can walk to walmart. Which one would you prefer?"

"Fine. Lets go." Hadley says standing up.

"Wait shouldn't we finish studying?!" Lauren says.

"We will come back to it." Hadley says. Even though they all wanted to do good; they couldn't bring themselves to sit back down.

_____

The alarm goes off and everyone slowly starts to get up and get ready. Emerson rubs her eyes as she watches Lauren walk out of the room to take a shower. Emerson had taken one the night before so there was no reason to wake up quite yet. She looks at the ceiling for a long time before hoping up and grabbing what she needs. She puts on kakis and pulls them up as high as possible. After that she puts on a bright yellow shirt and glasses. The last thing was her knee length socks and flats. She didn't put any make up on. Everyone put their hair in pigtails before heading downstairs.

Brooke almost instantly spots Carter and she waves. He clearly did not dress like a nerd. He had a beanie on his head covering up his blonde hair, dark colored jeans and a plain white t-shirt. He almost could pass as your typical bad boy. Emerson laughs as Brooke's face turns red from embarrassment.

"I look like crap meanwhile he looks like that!" Brooke has a mini heart attack.

"You look fine. Like a nerd but fine." Emerson pats her shoulder reassuringly. "So are you two officially a couple or what?"

"No... I mean we kissed but-" She tooks and cringes.

"You what?" Emerson says in disbelief. "How come I was never informed of this?!"

"Well i wanted to keep it a secret until he officially asked me to be his girlfriend. It just kind of slipped..." Brooke just shrugs trying to brush off the matter.

"Why didn't you tell me though?" Emerson asks.

"Because I didn't want you to make a big deal out of it." She hisses back. "Now be quiet he is coming over this way."

"Hey, Brooke." Carter says. His green eyes meet and hold her gaze for a long time. That is until Emerson ruins it.

"Um I am still right here." Emerson says. "Please don't start making out in front of me."

"Oh right..." Carter says as if Emerson just became visible. He scratches the back of his neck. He was clearly embarrassed. "Hi Em!" He says in a girly voice.

"Are you seriously trying to mock me right now?" Brooke asks crossing her arms in front of her. Then he gives her a knowing smirk, and she smiles back. He knew that he could kind of control her when it came to even friends. Which in reality he could do that with just about anyone. "She doesn't like being called Em." Brooke mumbles stupidly.

"I know, but Em and I are tight like that. I can call her that now." Carter says smiling at the two girls. He puts an arm around Emerson's shoulders not even thinking twice.

"No." They both say in sync. Emerson shrugs off his arm. All the while Brooke just stares at the arm he used to wrap around Emerson. She was slightly jealous of her own best friend. That jealousy started to turn into rage.

"Hey, Brooke, what's wrong?" Emerson snaps her fingers in front of Brooke's face. "Your face is red."

"Just... Nothing." Brooke shuts down. "Absolutely nothing!"

She turns and walks away without so much as a goodbye. Emerson watches Brooke's retreating figure before finally turning to Carter. Carter just had this lost puppy dog look written all over his face. He glanced down at Emerson.

"What was that?" He asks pointing to where Brooke was standing just moments ago.

"I'm not sure." She says calmly.

"Well your the best friend." He raises his voice a little.

"Well your the boyfriend!" She snaps back.

"Not yet." Carter says deviously. "I am not her boyfriend yet. Oh and by the way I got a new roommate last night, and Brooke said I should tell him to talk to you. However you don't always get someone like me." He says way to cockily.

"Where is all this coming from?" Emerson says clearly agitated.

"I got to stay cocky for when I ask Brooke out. I know she will say yes, but I swear I will pee my pants in anticipation of her answer. It's called confidence. Oh speak of the devil." Emerson turns with wide eyes to see Carter's new roommate. "Emerson meet Nash." Of course that was only background noise as she continued to stare at him.