Duke Basketball

Chapter 5

The day started out normally, I had my class with Luke, drank my tea and did all as usual. I was hoping Luke would forget about our conversation last night about Krzyzewski but he mentioned it right after class. I had a 2 hour time gap between my systematic inquiry class and my history class so I decided it was time. I went to Krzyzewskiville, and walked straight to his office. After all these years, I still knew where it was. I walked in and knocked on the door.

"Come in!" I heard him say. I walked in. "Lucy! How are you?" he asked clearly surprised I was there,getting up out of his chair to greet me.

"Hi Grandpa." I said in a very flat tone.

"So, it's been a while! How's your college experience been so far?" I thought about telling him the truth, explaining how much I hate public policy and how I failed my first test.

"School's been, great!" I lied, faking my enthusiasm.

"Lucy, I'm not a moron. I can tell you're not happy here. What's going on?" I finally brought myself to look at him again, deciding to just tell the truth.

"I hate my major so much but I don't want to disappoint my mom by switching." I said, honestly. My grandpa thought for a second before finally speaking.

"She won't be disappointed. She loves you, Lucy. She trusts you to make your own decisions and you need to do what you feel is the right thing for you right now." He said. Hearing him say that surprisingly made me feel 10 times better. I felt like he would actually be able to help.

"I've been thinking about it and I might want to switch to psych." I said, nervously, bracing myself for his response. He nodded.

"That sounds great. If that's what you want to do you should go for it. I think you'll really enjoy psych anyway." I got up and smiled at him.

"Thanks Grandpa. I'm going to talk to my advisor but we should get lunch sometime." I said as I walked out the door. I was surprised at how fast I warmed up to him. I expected myself to stay stone cold the whole time. I thought about everything that had just happened. It seemed surreal that I was actually talking to him. All my life, he had been some shadowy figure in the distance; I knew he was there, but much too far to be of any help. Every year, the couple things I got from him (a birthday card, Christmas if I was lucky) seemed to remind me that he was a real person, not just an actor on TV I saw every time I watched basketball.

I looked up. I had reached my dorm. I swiped my card in the keypad above the handle and, after the little click that let me know it was open, opened the door, expecting the common room to be empty. Surprisingly, Kenzie was sitting on the couch, shuffling through some papers on the coffee table in front of her. She looked up as the heard the door squeak and seemed as surprised to see me as I was to her.

"Hey! I thought you had a class now? Why haven't I seen you around before?" She asked.

"Usually I'm at the library during this period, or at office hours. I thought I'd come back to the dorm at least once or twice though..." I said. Kenzie shrugged.

"Maybe. I've gone out a few times. Maybe it was one of those. Here," She patted the seat beside her. "Come sit." She scooted over a little and I obliged, sitting down next to her.

"So, how are you liking your classes so far?" She asked cheerfully. I groaned. None of my friends really knew how much I had been despising my public policy classes, and now I had to explain to them that I was completely changing my major.

"Well, now that you mention it, I've actually been completely hating my public policy major." I said, flinching when Kenzie turned her head so quickly I almost ate her hair.