Chatoyant College, Book 1: New Student Orientation

Chapter 7: Leaving the Past Behind

When they got out to the gates, there were six buses waiting in the wide road that ran in front of the school's gates and a small crowd milling around on the pavement. They spotted Lorelei, who was holding a clipboard, and headed toward her. She waved at them with a grin. "Hi, girls! Corrie and Edie, right?"

"Right!" said Corrie, while Edie marveled at her ability to remember their names. "And you're Lorelei."

"Very good!" said their RA with a laugh. "I'm in charge of the soup kitchen volunteer group. Did you want to do that one?"

"I'm not sure," said Corrie. "I kind of wanted to do the reading to children one. What do you want to do, Edie?"

Edie was startled to have her opinion asked. "I hadn't thought about it. Reading to children sounds like fun, though."

"Go see Cita, then," said Lorelei, pointing with her pen to a tall South Asian woman. "She's head of the biology department and in charge of that particular group." Corrie and Edie went in the direction she'd indicated. Out of the corner of her eye, Edie thought she saw a boy follow them, but told herself not to be so paranoid. There were lots of people moving around in all different directions. They gave Cita their names and got on the bus once she had them written down.

They found a seat together near the front and Corrie smiled at Edie. "Thanks for coming with me. I'd be pretty uncomfortable on my own in a bus full of people I don't know."

"Really?" Edie beamed at that. She'd never thought she could be really helpful to someone like Corrie. "But you seem so confident. And you barely know me!"

"But I figure I have to get to know you, since we'll be living together for the rest of the year. Well, unless we have any huge differences that..." Corrie's expression suddenly changed, her eyes widening and her jaw tensing.

Edie's heart sank, sure that Corrie had suddenly realized there was a problem and they couldn't live together. She didn't think she'd be able to handle changing her roommate when she was just getting to like this one. "What? What's wrong?"

"Shit, shit, shit. What is he doing here?" Corrie moaned, sinking down into her seat. "Don't let him see me."

Well, this was unexpected. Was Corrie actually frightened? She always seemed ready to take on the world--at least, for the short time Edie had known her. "Who?" Edie asked, looking around while trying to position her body so Corrie was harder to see.

"My ex-boyfriend," Corrie said in the same despairing voice. "The tall guy wearing all black."

"I see him," Edie said. He was sitting at the very front of the bus with his body half turned around, trying to scan the bus without being noticed. He was tall and thin but not lanky, and was definitely the same guy she'd noticed earlier. "Wow, I guess I should trust my instincts. I thought I saw him following us earlier, but then I thought that was stupid."

Corrie nodded miserably. "He probably was. He told me he wasn't going to go here! I thought he was heading down to Boston! He got into a bunch of schools there. Goddess, I can't believe he followed me here."

The boy looked at Edie, and she quickly looked away, not wanting to seem as though she was staring at him--that would call attention not only to her but to Corrie, which was exactly what she wanted to avoid. "Is he stalking you? You should call the police!"

"I don't want to do that! He's not violent or anything. He's just kind of creepy. And annoying. Besides, if my mom couldn't scare him away, I don't think the police could."

"Your mom is scarier than the police?" Edie wasn't sure whether Corrie had been serious or not, so she kept her tone light, making it halfway a joke.

Corrie grinned weakly. "To him, yeah. Oh, Goddess, it just occurred to me that he might be less intimidated now that I'm away from my mom. I so do not want to deal with him today. I guess I'll talk to him... tomorrow. Yeah, that's what I'll do." She took a deep breath as the bus began to move.

Edie looked around. "I guess it's too late to get off the bus now."

"Oh, yeah," Corrie said quickly. "I'm not going to stop him from letting me enjoy stuff I want to do. I just don't want to talk to him." Her hand sought out Edie's and squeezed it, giving Edie a jolt of surprise. Corrie had made it pretty clear that she was straight, hadn't she? But all she said was, "I really appreciate your coming with me, Edie. I would definitely not be so confident without a friend with me."

Friend. Wow. That gave Edie an inner glow quite distinct from the one she usually associated with holding hands with a girl (not that she'd had too many opportunities to do that). "You... really consider me a friend?" she asked quietly.

Corrie looked quickly over at her, frowning for a moment, then grinned. "Of course! Maybe we don't know each other that well yet, but I don't see any reason we won't get along really well."

Slowly, Edie grinned back. College was probably going to go pretty well.