Lavender

Chapter Three

I groggily clamber out of bed on Monday morning, and try to tame my wild bed head before pulling on a tank top and running shorts. Then, I take off through the back door for a rejuvenating morning run.

Once I'm back home and clean of sand and sweat, a black, grey, and white striped pleated pencil skirt, a black long sleeve tunic, and black pumps are laid out on my bed. My head starts to hurt from scrutinizing my first-day-at-a-new-school outfit.

I wish I still had roommates to tell me that whether or not I looked ridiculous.

Back in Georgia I lived with three of my closest friends, Annalise, Gabriella, and Hannah. After meeting at orientation my first semester of college at the University of Georgia, we were inseparable, considering our mutual love for shoes, makeup, and good margaritas .

That is, until I left without a word to any of them three days ago.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The main lot at school is packed with students already coming and going from classes. After twenty minutes of driving in circles to find parking, I finally find a spot in between a red convertible and a green smart car.

"Shit shit shit!" I mutter as I hurriedly grab my purse, notebooks, and coffee mug. Being late on my first day of class is not how I want to start things off.

Hustling inside the closest building, my heels click loudly on the shiny linoleum floors. There are already a ton of students seated in my classroom, so I take the nearest open seat next to an Asian girl with long, straight black hair and brown, almond shaped eyes.

"Hi! I'm Kimi." She says with a high pitched voice and holds out her small hand, showing off freshly manicured, pink nails.

"Cora." I shake her hand politely.

"I am in love with your dress!" I exclaim, taking in her Vera Wang floral patterned dress, her dark blue cardigan, and her dark blue flats.

"Thanks! I like your skirt a lot. Is it Armani?"

"It is! The new fall collection is pretty much the love of my life."

And that was the beginning of the second friendship in my new life.

In the course of the hour long class on finance I find that Kimi and I wear the same size clothes and shoes, her family is from Japan, we're both majoring in marketing, her boyfriend, Stanley, is on the USD football team, and she absolutely adores her sisters in her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma.

So pretty much her whole life story, and nothing at all about finance.

When our professor releases the class Kimi and I walk out together, discussing who we think is hotter between Gerard Butler and Brad Pitt.

"Easy, Gerard seems like the kind of man that likes wild, hot sex, while Brad seems like he would like it scheduled two times a week," I argue.

Laughing, she leads me to a room full of computers, bean bags, and wooden tables. Students are scattered across the room, some studying and some just socializing.

She introduces me to Stanley and a few of his fellow football teammates, who were all in the "just socializing" category, based on their lack of notebooks, laptops, or even a pencil.

Stanley, who I immediately identified by his brown "sex hair" -Kimi's words, not mine- and his t-shirt with USD Football printed on the front, is in the middle of telling Kimi about how bad his accounting professor is, when I hear someone call my name.

My eyes dart to the corner of the room where the voice is coming from, slightly in a panic.

No one knows you here I tell myself in an attempt to calm my nerves.