Chatoyant College, Book 1: New Student Orientation

Chapter 22: At the Carnival

When Rico and Dawn had finished their ride on the Tilt-a-Whirl, they found where their friends were sitting on the grass and started to walk toward them. Before they reached the grassy area, though, Rico spoke quietly. "Dawn, there's a movie showing out here tomorrow night. Would you like to go, um... with me?"

She would have grinned foolishly if she hadn't already been. "I would like that, Rico." She didn't know what the movie was. She didn't care.

When they reached Corrie, Edie, and Duncan, the other three were sitting or laying on the ground with their cotton candy and popcorn, and Dawn tossed herself down on the ground beside them. "Hey, guys!" said Corrie. "Want some?" She offered her cotton candy to Dawn.

Dawn shook her head. "Fun as the Tilt-a-Whirl is, it's still spinning around, and if I eat anything now I'm likely to lose it in five minutes."

"Ew. No cotton candy for you, then."

"So you had fun on the Tilt-a-Whirl, then?" asked Edie. Dawn nodded, then caught Edie's eye and gave her a slight I'll-tell-you-about-it-later nod. Edie grinned, then frowned suddenly.

Dawn turned to look in the direction that Edie was looking, but she didn't see anything worth frowning about. The grassy area was full of people she didn't know. There was a group of girls, all with varying shades of blonde hair, a pair of boys quietly talking and holding hands, a guy chasing a girl with a squirt gun, a guy reading a book under a tree, and three girls arguing, but she didn't see any reason for that expression to be on Edie's face.

Edie reached over to touch Corrie's arm gently, getting her attention. "Don't look now," she said in a low voice, "but I think someone is watching us."

Corrie turned her head, apparently seeing something Dawn didn't, and sighed deeply. "I said I'd talk to him today, didn't I? I'd better get that over with." She stood up and marched toward the guy under the tree.

"What's going on, Edie?" Dawn asked, puzzled.

"That's her ex," Edie said, gesturing at the guy. "I think he's kind of stalking her. She says she can handle it on her own, though."

Rico frowned and looked in her direction. "I hope she's right."

Corrie had reached him now; he wasn't too far away, and her voice carried clearly back to them. "What are you doing here, Paul?"

He jumped, nearly dropping the book in his hands. "Reading a book."

She shook her head. "You're not reading, and that wasn't the question. Why are you at Chatoyant?"

"It's a good school," he said defensively.

Corrie crossed her arms, clearly not accepting that as an answer. "You got into a lot of better schools." He looked down at his feet and mumbled something. Corrie's voice rose in pitch. "Your family can afford any of them!"

He looked up at her, clutching his book so tightly his knuckles were white. Dawn hoped he didn't rip it. "But none of those other schools have you, Corrie! You know exactly why I'm here, so why are you asking?"

"I was hoping you had a better reason," she said tersely. "And that means you lied to me again, Paul. You said you wouldn't follow me to college."

"I couldn't tell you I was going here!"

"Did you think I wouldn't find out?" Corrie turned her head to the side, her eyes squeezed shut, before turning back to him and speaking again. "Even if I hadn't broken up with you in the first place, I am hardly going to want to go back to you if you keep lying to me!"

Dawn couldn't help listening to all this with fascination. There hadn't even been this much drama in her high school. What had happened between them, she wondered?

"Please, Corrie." He was positively whimpering now. It was pretty pathetic.

"Just leave me alone, Paul. Don't try to talk to me, don't follow me around, don't even think about me. Okay? Can you handle that?" They were silent for a long moment, then Corrie turned and stalked away. Paul just stared after her, loosely holding the book in his lap. By the time she reached the others, Dawn could see that she was shaking. She jumped up, following Edie by a split second, and they ran to take her sides, practically holding her up. "Let's just walk away," Corrie whispered, her voice sounding hoarse. "Let's get back to the dorm."