Chatoyant College Book 2: Initiates

Chapter 24: You and Your Boy

When Dawn got back to her room, she found a note on her desk from Naomi. In her messy, loopy handwriting, it read, "Dawn--we went to dinner, you and your boy should join us." Tossing the note into the recycling, she wondered briefly who "we" was, but decided it was most likely Naomi, Corrie, and Edie. Rico had gone toward his room, so she jogged back down the steps and knocked on his door.

"My friends already went to dinner and I think I'm going to join them--do you want to come?"

"Sure," Rico said, looking up from his computer. "Duncan too?"

"Of course." Duncan had to find his ID card, then they all walked through the evening (just starting to cool) to the dining hall. She spotted the people she'd predicted, plus Lorelei, at a table near the entrance, and they got food and sat down.

"Did you catch Byron today?" she asked Corrie with a grin.

Corrie shook her head and gave a dramatic sigh. "Dressed in my best man-catching clothes, and not a sign of him all day."

"Wear your least flattering clothes tomorrow," Dawn suggested. "Then you'll be sure to see him."

"With my luck, probably," she laughed. "At least I didn't see Paul today. But speaking of male attention, Edie, did you talk to Marlin today?"

Edie nodded, taking a sip of water, but looking somewhat perplexed. "I barely had time before class started, but yeah, I told him I'm a lesbian. He didn't seem very upset. In fact, he didn't look like he had any idea what I was talking about."

"What, like he was pretending he wasn't flirting with you?" said Lorelei.

"Jeez, did everyone notice except for me?" Edie laughed a little, shaking her head. "It was more like he didn't really believe me."

Naomi snorted. "Kind of an idiot, then."

"Maybe," Edie admitted. "He seems nice, but I don't think he knows what's going on most of the time."

"So how did your walk go?" Naomi asked Dawn with a sly smile.

She found herself blushing. "It was fun. Even if Rico is crazy and didn't think it was hot out today." She didn't tell Naomi about making out by the statue of Vertiline Gravette; she seemed to be enjoying some more lurid fantasies. "Lorelei," she said instead, "Do you know who Vertiline Gravette was?"

"The statue to the north of Gilkey, you mean?" Lorelei asked. Dawn nodded, and Lorelei shrugged. "She's not the only statue like that on campus; there are a couple more on the western part. They're kind of a school mystery. People have tried to look them up but as far as I know there's no record of any of their names. My theory is they were friends of Lady Chatoyant who didn't have enough money to get campus buildings named after them. We don't live in the original Gilkey building but there's been a building on its site ever since the school was founded, and it's named after one of her benefactors."

"Oh no!" said Corrie.

"What's wrong?" Dawn asked, quickly turning to her.

She was grinning. "It's a mystery. Now I'm really going to want to find out who she was. Too bad there's no dates on the plaque--that would help narrow it down... Naomi, you're the costumer, right?"

"I guess so," she said slowly. "My theater production class is just starting, though. I mean, I'm planning to take higher-level costuming classes, but obviously I haven't gotten to them yet. Why, what do you need a costume for?"

"I don't need a costume, I just thought maybe you'd be able to tell what era she comes from based on the clothes she's wearing."

Naomi nodded. "I might be able to guess. They wouldn't necessarily have used the actual clothes she wore, though; if the statue was made after she died it might be clothing of that era. I've seen that done before."

"How is your theater production class going, anyway?" Dawn asked, realizing that she really didn't know very much about what her roommate had been up to.

"Oh, it's a lot of fun," Naomi said. "The teacher is this little old man who looks like an elf."

"I have him for Intro to Acting!" Edie exclaimed. "He's so nice. How come you're taking theater production, though?"

"I don't know, it seems like my kind of thing?" Naomi shrugged. "I like sewing and I figured there might be more costume-making in that than in art classes."

"That's not what I meant." Edie put her fork down, frowning slightly. "I'm taking Intro to Acting partly because it's a prerequisite for all the other theater classes. How did you get in without taking it?"

Naomi raised her eyebrows, surprised. "I don't know. I guess they don't care that much about the prerequisite."

"Oh well," sighed Edie, stabbing a piece of broccoli with her fork. "I guess it's not a big deal, I can't expect every class to be exactly what I want anyway. And it is a fun class."

"And we decided that's what's important, remember?" said Dawn firmly.

Edie looked up and grinned. "Right."