Turn

10

Drumming her fingers on the counter, Virginia pulled out her phone. 8:48. She should get going to Tracey's. Snatching her purse off the back of her chair, Virginia caught sight of the old book that sat on her shelf and stopped. She stomped back over, yanked it from the shelf, and tossed it into one of her desk drawers. Virginia slammed the drawer shut and it closed with an amazingly satisfying crack. With a smile on her face, she walked out the door and let it slam too.

She descended the stairs and stepped out into the twilight, the air still warm and sticky but noticeably cooler than it had been in the middle of the day. By November, so they told her, she might actually get some changing leaves and evidences of Autumn, but it was still mid-September and thus the temperature still soared into the nineties and the nights could drop into the seventies. She turned and darted up the steps.

As she swung open the doors into Eaton Hall, Virginia's eyes went immediately to the blue stones in the floor. She adjusted her step so as not to walk on them as she turned down the hall to find room 108, Tracey's room, the one she shared with a black-haired girl named Dana. Knocking lightly, Virginia waited for a moment before the door was opened by Tracey's roommate. Dana was dressed like she was in for the evening, her short, black waves damp from a shower and her face scrubbed of makeup. If that wasn't enough, her gray, oversized sweat pants convinced Virginia that Dana would not be coming with them.

"Hey," Virginia offered a smile. "Is Tracey here?"

Dana just stepped away from the door to allow Virginia entrance.

Their room was evidence of the girls' lack of friendship; you could have drawn a line right down the middle and bisected nothing. Tracey's side was obviously the one sporting the pink camouflage bedspread and the poster of Johnny Cash on her ceiling. Dana's was dark, with navy and white on the bed and a stack of CDs as tall as Virginia. She couldn't imagine having that kind of relationship with Catherine. How could she survive without help from her roommate, her best friend?

Tracey came back into the room and Virginia was glad for it.

"Oh hey! You look great," Tracey offered kindly.

"Thanks, so do you," said Virginia, suddenly self-conscious of her attire.

Tracey wore dark jean shorts and a light blue crop top with a dozen strings crisscrossing the back. She looked amazing, just a great deal less dressy than her companion.

"Did I overdress?" Virginia asked nervously.

"No!" cried Tracey, waving her hand. "You're perfect. This is for that one kid, right?"

She hadn't really thought about her dressing this way for him, exactly, but she conceded the point that it probably was exactly that. "Greyson, yeah. He said he'd cone tonight."

"Cool," Tracey quickly looked at herself in the mirror. "He's on the football team right?" Then, before Virginia could answer: "Yeah, he is. I remember Jay talking about him. He's a running back or something, right?"

It was a wide receiver, but Virginia didn't bother to correct her.

"That's good because I'm meeting Jay and a couple of the other guys there. You and Greyson will fit right in, I'm sure," she smiled.

Virginia didn't see that she had much other choice. "Totally. And who is Jay? What happened to what's-his-name, Mr. School Spirit?"

Flashing a bright smile to her, Tracey tossed her arm over Virginia's shoulders even though the younger was taller by about an inch. "Oh Colin? He's last week's news. Jay is this week and Virginia, he's dreamy!"