Expectations

Chapter Three

"WHAT ARE WE?"

"DYNAMITE"

"WHAT ARE WE?"

"DYNAMITE"

"WHAT ARE WE?.... TIK TIK TIK TIK TIK TIK TIK TIK, BOOM DYNAMITE, B-BMOOM DYNAMITE," 

Crowds of first year science students surrounded three picnic benches, all screaming at the top of their lungs, fighting to be heard. All froshies (as they would call us) were divided into three groups, either blue, green, or red. I was part of the blue team and had to wear a blue shirt with the words DELTA team written across the front. I was surrounded by other blue teamed froshies, and we were currently having a cheer-off between the three groups. 

The rules were simple- whichever group was the loudest would win. 

Frosh leaders were standing on top of each picnic bench, facing their team and shouting at the top of their lungs. 

 "WE NEED TO BE LOUDER BLUE TEAM, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!," a petite frosh leader yelled out with an impressively loud volume. She followed with

"WHEN I SAY DRAGON, YOU SAY FIRE" 

"DRAGON"

"FIRE!"

"DRAGON"

"FIRE!"

My voice strained as I cupped my hands around my mouth and cheered louder each time. I felt a sense of liberty each time the words escaped me, feeling more and more comfortable as the cheers progressed. 

In the end, green team won the cheers, but I was still happy as adrenaline coursed through my veins. I was more than pumped up for the events to come. 

Once the cheer-off was over, the frosh leaders took each group to different areas among campus to begin ice-breaker activities. Blue team was taken to an open space near the back of the Galilei building, up a set of stairs outside. There, the froshies were told to get into a circle as we'd go around, individually saying our names and majors. "My name is Niara, and my major is biomedical sciences," I said out loud in a confident voice to the 30 or so faces staring at me.

The people around me nodded and smiled as I smiled back, feeling a sense of ease within the group. I heard the girl next to me speak up. "I'm Nicole, and I'll I'm in the undecided sciences," I heard her say. 

She had a hint of an accent, but I hadn't noticed it at first. I smiled at her as she looked around at the group. She had long blonde hair with brown highlights and fringe bangs reaching just past her eyebrows. Her skin was fair and I had a hard time placing where she was from- something I was never good at. There was something about her I really liked, a specific vibe that resonated with me. Unlike others, she seemed a bit reserved, but at the same time she came off as more genuine and authentic than most of the people I had met. 

Slowly but surely, we all introduced ourselves in the circle and started the next icebreaker activity. Two girls I came to know as Dia and Silvia stood next to me and as we made conversation for the next few minutes before the coming activity. They were from the same high school as each other and seemed eminently close to one another. "Wow, we're both from the city of Brayton as well," Dia said.

"How do you like it there?" I asked the two girls. 

"It's alright, a bit too far from the University for my liking," Silvia replied as she took her sunglasses out from her bag. 

For frosh, we were all provided a backpack with little goodies inside such as hats, sunglasses, deodorant, and water bottles. It was included in our frosh ticket, along with a few other things like shirts and daily planners. I can't believe they gave us all this stuff, I thought to myself as I looked at her dark sunglasses and black hat with the words GALILEI COLLEGE inscribed on the front. 

Most of my belongings were still in the bag they handed to me on the floor beside my feet. I was happy I didn't need to carry around my suitcase everywhere because there was a room designated for our belongings downstairs in our college's building. "Alright, time for a game called Huckle Buckle," I heard a frosh leader call out from behind me. I turned around and faced him as he gathered the blue team and explained the rules of the game. 

"The rules are simple. Choose a partner and form a line opposite to them. Stand across from each other and when I say 'huckle buckle shoulders,' you and your partner run towards the middle as fast as you can and touch shoulders with one another. The last partners to touch shoulders gets disqualified. This will go on with varying body parts until only one partner is left standing," he said loudly, turning around every so often to face everyone in the circle. 

I played this game many times before at camp and was actually pretty good at it since I was a fast runner.  But the only issue was....

Looking down at my feet, my heels stared back at me. I sighed as I slowly reached down to take off my heels. Of course there'd be running activities, why had I even thought about bringing heels in the first place? I had a pair of runners in my suitcase, but I couldn't just run down there and get it in the middle of an activity. My black socks touched the cold pavement below me and I prayed to God there weren't any glass pieces on the floor. "Partners?" I asked Nicole who was standing next to me.

"Sure," she said with a smile. 

We walked to opposite sides and got into our lines, facing across from one another from many meters away. She giggled at me and pointed to my socks. Shaking my head, I laughed it off and rubbed my feet across the rough pavement, getting a feel for it before running. "Sucks to be you," I heard Dia jokingly say from beside me. 

"Uh huh, you'll probably still end up getting disqualified before me," I said with a smirk. 

She looked at me and we both laughed. "Huckle buckle heads,", I heard the frosh leader say from our left. 

Immediately, I broke into a sprint and ran towards Nicole. My feet hit against the pavement and I felt a pain surge through me as I stepped on a sharp stick. The pain didn't stop me as I continued towards her, slowing down as we got close and tilted our heads. Our heads connected, with a little too much force causing us to both grimace in pain. We all paused, waiting and looking around at other partners, searching for the ones that would be called out. "You and you. Disqualified." I heard the frosh leader inform from far away. I glanced at him and saw him point at a pair of girls near the end of the line. I sighed from relief. 

Many rounds passed by as my feet grew more and more painful with each step I took. "You and you. Disqualified." I heard from behind me. 

Without turning to look, I knew he was pointing at me and Nicole from the expression I saw on her face. "We tried," I said to her as I tiled my head and shrugged. 

She shrugged back and walked with me towards the railings where our bags were propped up against. Dia and Silvia stood there, having a conversation and watching us walk towards them. "Did you just lose?" Dia asked.

"Yep, we're here to join the losers," I said in a sly tone as I reached out to grab my bag. 

"Ha ha. Very funny." 

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