Blossoming Rose

Chapter 1

     It took only a moment for Emily to cast her gaze across the faces of the few students milling around the lecture hall. It was filled with all the usual types - the attentive freshmen, the delinquents in the back, the girl quietly snoozing with her head on her desk. They were everyone she would expect from an introductory course in biology taught by the dullest professor on campus; everyone, that is, except for the one person she needed. 

     "Come on, where are you, where are you..." she muttered to herself. Moving out from under the doorway to allow another student through, she quickly dialed a number on her phone from memory.

     The call rang three times before anyone picked up. A groggy voice sounded from the other side of the line. "Nnnnhh. Whaddya want?" Emily heard a distant rustling in the background and frowned.

     "What do I want? Sarah, it's me, Emily. Where the hell are you? Class starts in five minutes," Emily whispered angrily into her phone, watching people gradually filter into the large room.

     "Oh. Uhhh... I'm prolly not gonna make it, sorry. Had a rough night. Or morning. Whatever."

     "Oh no you don't! You promised me we would sit through this together. There is no way you're leaving to make it through the most boring lecture series alone. You know you need this credit too, and they'll get on your back about absences if you pull-" Emily's tirade was cut off by the click of her friend hanging up. She growled in frustration and shoved the phone back into her pocket. "Asshole!"

     Turning back to the now-full lecture hall, Emily broke her thoughts away from her absent roommate and scanned the room for empty seats. Spotting two vacant desks nearby, she quickly pushed past a group of chatting classmates and slid into the first chair. She settled herself into the seat and unpacked her bag with practiced ease. Two pencils on the right, notebook set in front, course syllabus on top, every color of highlighter on the left (except purple, ugh), and phone turned to silent and placed on the upper right hand corner of the desk. She shifted the outermost pencil half an inch to the left to give herself a one inch margin on each edge of the desk. Perfect, she thought with a small smirk. She could at least restore this much order to the chaos of her ruined morning.

     Straightening the hair band around her ponytail, Emily gave one more glance around the room. Not too bad a turnout, all things considered, she mused. The professor, Dr. Reed, was notorious amongst the students of her small community college for his dry lectures and monotonous style. She was only stuck in this class because her best friend and roommate, Sarah, had persuaded her that it would be an easy A. Not that Emily, a straight-A model student, needed it, but she was willing to keep her friend company while she suffered through the course... which was why it was so infuriating that Sarah would ditch her for an hour's beauty sleep on the first day of school.

     Sarah was a party animal, staying up until dawn and pulling stunts like ditching class on a near-daily basis. Emily, on the other hand, preferred to return to the apartment she and Sarah shared to focus on her coursework because, aside from her unblemished academic record, Emily was exceptionally average. Standing at 5' 2" and weighing an exactly normal 130 pounds, she was visually unremarkable. She had blonde hair which fell past her shoulders, but she always kept it tidy and symmetrical in a tight ponytail. Emily admitted that she lacked Sarah's charms and natural beauty, and although her deep blue eyes shine brightly and stood out from her plain features, she had resigned herself to a life of blending in with the crowd.

     "Ahem. Salutations to everyone." The deep voice of Dr. Reed snapped Emily out of her thoughts. She turned her head to see him step up to the podium and clear his throat again. "I hope you all enjoyed your summer holidays and are ready to return to your studies. This semester, you will be delving deep into the fascinations of the living world and the wonders that surround us. Did you know that our campus alone houses over 230 variants of..."

     Emily began to tune out the droning of his voice. She had read the textbook for the class the previous week and could recite the professor's points in her sleep. She felt her eyes already beginning to unfocus until the scraping of a chair snapped her to attention. Looking up, she saw a young woman slip into the seat beside her.

     "Sorry! Don't mind me," The latecomer whispered with a small grin. "I got lost trying to find the room!" The girl pulled out a notebook and began hastily scribbling the notes on the whiteboard.
     Emily looked her up and down, giving herself something to do to stay awake. The new girl looked to be about the same age as her, and a quick look at the student ID hanging off of her purse revealed that she was also a junior in the same year as Emily. Unfortunately, the girl's jacket partially covered the ID, obscuring her name. She wore tight jeans which hugged her waist and thighs, showing off curves which most women would kill to have. A purple tank top hung loosely around her shoulders, although Emily noticed it fit snugly around her chest, which was... sizeable, to say the least. However, what drew Emily's attention the most was the long, smooth, jet black hair which fell to the girl's upper back, interrupted only by a purple streak which ran down one of her bangs. It matched the dark purple lipstick which covered her plump, glistening lips. Emily had seen plenty of styles like it, but even with the inclusion of her least favorite color, she found herself strangely allured to the almost enigmatic beauty of the woman next to her.