Duke Basketball

Chapter 1

"Yes, Mom I'm really fine, I promise!" I said, rolling my eyes. My mom had just left my dorm about 5 minutes ago and was already calling me. I thought you were supposed to be independent in college.

It's not that I don't like my mom, we're actually really close. She was just worried about me leaving home for the first time. In fact, I was more worried about her. It had always been us. Just us. Now that I was gone, it was just her. She wasn't used to that.

"Okay Mom. Mom. Mom! I'm going to go now, I'll call you tomorrow. Love you, bye!" I finally hung up to phone and turned around to see a petite, dark haired girl.

"Overprotective Dad?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Mom, actually." I smiled, extending my hand out for her to shake. "Lucy Turner."

"Mia Bayker." She said, shaking my hand. She flung her black bag on the unclaimed bed. I studied Mia, noticing her shoulder length, straight, black hair and tan skin tone. She was small, but didn't carry herself as though she was. We looked at each other awkwardly for a moment when she opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by the slamming of our door. A tall blonde girl walked in on the phone.

"Daddy! You promised I wouldn't have to talk to Matt! He's always so mean to me!" She whined. She was carrying a small purse over her shoulder and wearing oversized sunglasses on top of her head.

"Well, that must be one of our suitemates." Mia said, with an annoyed look on her face, as the blonde girl walked through the common area into the room opposite of ours. Mia and I were making small talk when the girl finally came out of her room.

"Hi! I'm Mackenzie, but you can call me Kenzie!" She said brightly. I smiled, slightly taken aback by her energy.

"I'm Lucy." I glanced over at Mia expectantly. She didn't budge, keeping her eyes glued to the floor.

"And this is Mia." I introduced her. Mia, who still wouldn't look up turned around and continued to unpack her things. Kenzie raised her eyebrows, clearly both offended and annoyed.

"Well, okay then. I'm going to go out, it doesn't look like our fourth has arrived yet." She said to me, "See you later!" and she walked out the door.

I looked back at Mia, waiting for a response. Still, nothing. Finally she spoke.

"Do you want to go explore campus? There's probably a lot of stuff to do around here."

"You can go if you want, I'll probably wait for the last one to come. We can meet up later though." I told her. She nodded as we exchanged phone numbers.

"Sounds good, I'll text you. Bye!" She said as she walked out the door.

I waited about 25 minutes getting myself situated when a girl walked through the door with what I assumed to be her mom. She had super curly brown hair, darker skin and green eyes. She smiled as soon as she saw me and immediately walked over to introduce herself.

"I'm Carter! It's so nice to meet you!" she said.

"Lucy. Sorry, nobody else is here. They all went out to check out the campus but we were all thinking of meeting up later." I said, feeling bad that I was the only one there. This didn't seem to discourage her at all.

"Oh, don't worry about it! I totally get it. Duke's campus is totally gorgeous." she remarked. She was right, I couldn't wait to get out and tour the area.

"I was going to go now, but I'm fine waiting if you want to unpack first." I said. Something about Carter made me instantly like her.

"No need for that!" Carter said tossing her stuff into her and Kenzie's room, "Let's go!" She quickly gave her mom a hug and kiss, telling her she'd see her in 5 weeks.

We walked out of our dorm and around campus, stopping at the Duke Chapel and the buildings we knew our classes were in. We finally met up with Kenzie and Mia by the main dining hall. We all went and got coffee and talked.

"So, Mia, what are you majoring in?" Carter asked her.

"Psych, I've wanted to do it for a while now." Mia replied.

"That's awesome! What about you Kenzie?" Carter turned towards her.

"English Literature, my dad thought it would be best." She said. Mia scoffed.

"Did he also pick out your outfit for you, Princess?" She asked.

"What did you just call me?" Kenzie's voice was dangerously quiet. I felt something that was not good in it, and I think Carter did too, because she started talking before Mia could answer.

"Okay, change of subject. What about you Lucy? What's your major?" She asked.

"Public policy. What about you?" I said, taking a sip of my iced tea.

"Well, I love Art, so definitely somewhere in that area. I'm leaning towards Art History, with a minor in Journalism." She responded, drinking her small coffee through a straw.

Our conversation went on for about an hour. Luckily, no more issues between Mia and Kenzie came up. We all eventually went back to the dorm to get ready for classes the next day.