Chatoyant College Book 2: Initiates

Chapter 9: Naive

Edie had sat down and was discussing the joys of Goldfish crackers with Dawn (that was the not-quite-healthy part of her salad) when she heard a shy voice behind her. "Hey, mind if we sit here?"

"Of course not!" Dawn exclaimed.

Edie turned and grinned, seeing Annie and Salome behind her. "Please! Um, the seat next to me appears to be taken--I don't know if you know Marlin, he lives in Gilkey too--but you can sit on his other side or over there." She gestured at the other side of the table.

"Great!" They moved around the table, Annie sitting across from Edie, Salome next to her, across from Marlin's spot.

"Who's this Marlin fellow?" Corrie asked, leaning over Edie to look at his ID card. She sounded interested.

"He's in my French class. He seems like a nice guy. I guess he wants to sit with us."

Moments later, the boy himself appeared. He grinned at them. "Hi, Edie. I hope you don't mind me staking out a spot next to you."

"The more the merrier," she grinned. "I think everyone here lives in Gilkey--have you met everyone?"

He looked around, frowning slightly and pushing the hair out of his eyes. It immediately fell back into its former place, but she supposed moving it even momentarily helped him see. "Well, I know Lorelei and Charlie, of course, and I think I've seen some of you around, but I don't know everyone's names."

So she introduced around the table, realizing as she did just how many people were actually sitting at the table with her, theoretically her friends. She made a quick count in her head. Nine, besides her. The number made her a little dizzy. At least the table was set up in such a way that she couldn't really talk to or socialize with everyone; she wouldn't be able to hear them all! That was a small relief; she wouldn't have to feel pressured to actually socialize with anyone. It was strange to have this many people she felt more or less comfortable around, though.

It didn't take long for her to finish off the salad she'd created, and while it was fairly tasty, it did not leave her feeling full. She stared down at her plate mournfully. Should she go get more food? What was there to get? She had to--or wanted to--eat something healthy, but portion control was probably important, too.

Annie, apparently, noticed her frown. "What's wrong, Edie?"

She sighed. "I want to lose weight, so I'm trying to eat healthier, but I'm still hungry. And I probably shouldn't eat anything else."

Annie looked like she was going to say something else, but Marlin interrupted. "You're on a diet, Edie?! That's absolutely ridiculous! You don't need to lose any weight. You look great the way you are."

She sat there blankly for a moment, unable to come up with anything to say. Her mind was totally empty. How did you respond to that? It was like a compliment that was criticism at the same time. "Uh, thanks," she said finally. "I'm not happy with my weight, though. Maybe I'll get, um... a veggie burger."

"I recommend them," said Dawn, around a mouthful of one. "Not the best I've ever tried, but good."

"That settles that, then." Edie pushed away from the table and took her plate to the burger station, glad to be moving away from the table for a moment. True, she was now surrounded by strangers, but at least she didn't feel pressured to say anything other than "Veggie burger, please" for a little while. She stuck a brownie on her plate on the way back.

The burger was edible--better than it might have been, certainly, but not as good as a real one. Then again, she hadn't been expecting it to. The brownie was much better. They walked as a mass back to Gilkey (though she couldn't help noticing that Dawn and Rico were a little separate from the rest of the crowd). Marlin parted from them along with Lorelei and Charlie, on the first floor, with a "See you later."

Corrie pressed her lips together until they were white. Edie frowned at her. "What? Is something wrong?"

She shook her head. "I'll tell you when we get back to our room." Her eyes were sparkling.

Dawn stopped at the fourth floor. "I'm going to watch TV with Rico for a bit," she told Edie and Corrie. "See you guys later?" They nodded, then continued up to the fifth floor, saying goodnight to Annie and Salome at their door.

Once the door was shut behind them, Corrie burst out laughing. Edie stared at her, momentarily taken aback. "What? What's so funny?"

Corrie just laughed, throwing herself onto her bed. Eventually she took a deep breath and started falling down. "Marlin!" she cried. "Oh, it's adorable!"

"Huh?" Was she making fun of his name? It was an unusual name--some kind of fish, she thought--but not so that it would provoke this kind of laughter. And Corrie wasn't the kind of person to laugh at something so inconsequential. She sat down on her bed, waiting patiently for Corrie to explain.

Her roommate picked up her head to look at her, grinning. "Did you seriously not notice?"

Edie shook her head slowly. "Notice what?" She couldn't think of anything unusual. Did he have a weird tic or something?

Corrie sighed and let her head fall back on the bed, still giggling. "Oh, Edie. You're so cute and naive. He was flirting with you like crazy."

"What?" She thought back. That would probably explain the weird compliment. Otherwise, she didn't get it, but she shrugged and smiled. "I guess you would know better than me. Geez, why did you take so long to tell me? If you'd said something while he was still around, I could have explained and saved him the trouble. Poor guy."

She snorted. "He'll figure it out soon enough. It's obvious that you had no interest in him whatsoever." She pushed herself up, leaning on her elbows. "Maybe I'll steal him away from you, anyway. He's cute. Nice muscles."

Muscles were something else Edie hadn't noticed, but it didn't matter. She didn't care whether or not he had muscles. She finally laughed, mostly at Corrie's expression. "Well, he's all yours."