The Evanent

Chapter 1: Padmei

The box tumbled to the floor as soon as I walked over the threshold, all its contents spilled out in front of me. "Crap." I groaned bending down to pick it up.

"Come on, Mei, you're a genuine butter fingers today. How do you expect to finish moving in if you drop every box?" My best friend, Kat, walked straight past me to plop her box next to the small pile forming. "Can you believe we actually did it? We're here!" Still standing at the pile of boxes, she exclaimed, doing absolutely nothing to help me with my fallen things. "We made it, in college and we have our own place! Could it get any better?" Finally, I got everything back in the box and started to get up. "Scratch that, it could get better. Hot guys could move in next door!" She squealed, making me snort.

"If hot guys move in, you might as well drop out. I know for a fact that you won't be able to focus if they're next door."

"Oh I'll focus alright." She said with a dreamy, faraway look. "I'll focus on them." We both couldn't help but laugh.

All through high school, guys swooned over Kat. With her dark brown hair, sun-kissed olive skin, stormy blue eyes, and masterful makeup skills, she was one of the prettiest girls in school. Because of the fact that Kat and I had been such good friends since Elementary school, I was popular by association, though I didn't have guys swooning over me. I'm not ugly, though I pale in comparison to her, I just wasn't society's idea of beautiful. My dirty blonde hair was rarely straightened or curled, it usually either stayed out in the natural waves I always liked, or it went into an up-do when it got frizzy. My clay-like hazel eye were never rimmed in charcoal, never had colors over my ivory skin and I was never able to get the sun-tanned look everyone loved, I had to settle for the sun-burnt look.

"Come on, we only have 3 boxes left." Thankfully my Dad and brothers helped move in our furniture already, so the big stuff was already in its place. That just left us with our boxes of clothes, Knick knacks and space fillers, but we still had plenty to move in. "You know, I don't remember packing this much, Kat. Are you sure we are the only two living here?" I joked as I brought the last box in.

"You know I couldn't leave much, but I did what you told me to, I only brought the essentials."

"Essentials, really?" I was holding a small pink tutu with multicolored glitter. "Kat, seriously?" I exclaimed.

"I need it!"

"It doesn't even fit you anymore! You used it once, in the third grade. Back when you thought dancing was your calling, and we all know how bad that turned out."

She snatched it from my hand, throwing it into the box she was unpacking. "It's a security blanket!"

As I dug through the rest of the box, I realized that everything there could be described as one of Kats "security blankets".

"You need to let some of this go, we're adults in College. We live on our own, we have no need for your old dance outfits. Send them back home, Kat, let your parents look over them for a while."

She walked over to the wall-length front window and sat on the ledge, looking down at the tutu. "You're right, we have no need for them. I'll send them back... only if you send back your baseball bat." When I shook my head, she retorted with, "When is the next time you'll play a full game and still study for your classes? A normal person might be able to find the time, but not us."

She was right, I wasn't going to have time to play baseball, not just because I was studying Forensic Chemistry and would need to spend most of my time doing labs, but also because I only played when my brothers were there. Now that they aren't in the next room, I won't be playing as much as before, but I had a different use in mind for this bat.