TRU Life: Freshman Year (Lesbian)

Monday

After Kleo looked back in my direction for the fourteenth time, I looked at Tracey. She only rolled her eyes, which meant she knew she was in Kleo's line of sight. "Now, I want you to discuss with your neighbor about what 'collaboration' looks like, project-wise." Professor Lawrenz said. Then, I turn to Tracey. "You've got a new secret admirer." I tease. I snicker when she doesn't say anything. "You ever give any thought as to how you're gonna handle the situation?" I ask. "I'm gonna get her alone, and break it to her." I nod in agreement. "Okay, how?"
"Do y'all have any plans to do anything?" she asks. I shake my head. "No. I'm sitting my ass down for once. But, you gotta see what plans she has this week. You'd better get in there, early. She always has somebody to chill with." I tell her. She groans. "Everybody swears she's a damn celebrity. Won't let her have one damn second to herself."
"Yeah, but the good thing is, you are in the inner circle. Y'all have hung out alone before, so it can't be too hard to get her to do it again."
"Gwen, the last time few times we were by ourselves, you had to bail and a few days ago she called everybody else to tag along."
"Well, she thinks you're cute now, so try it again." she smiles. "You see I popped out in the red dress." she says, causing us both to giggle. "And you still got the curls poppin'!" I point out. "Don't wait. Shoot your shot today." I say, sounding like a commercial.

A few hours later, I was stuffing papers in my bookbag. We were just dismissed from English class. Professor Ramirez had just assigned us a storytelling project. I was not with it at all. I'm not a writer. "Look at you, smiling like you just hit the lottery." I say to Cam, who was clearly excited about it.
She laughs. "I've been waiting for this assignment. I was born for this shit." she said, still cheesing. "I already have an idea on what I'm gonna write."
"How?!" I ask, incredulously.
"'Cause it was on the syllabus. I knew it was coming." I cracked up. "Oh, you a nerd forreal!" I retort.
"And proud of it." she replies.
"...So what's it gonna be about?"
"It's gonna be about a girl named Carly Carerra, hearing Selena's music for the first time."
"Selena Gomez?" I asked.
"That would be interesting, but about as believable as a world with no evil. Quintanilla, girl. Quintanilla."
"Mine is gonna be about a rich girl finding out she's poor and jumping through hoops to get it back." Bridget interjected.
"Actually, that sounds... intriguing." I admit. "I wanna read it."
"Did you not hear Ramirez say we're reading it out loud?"
I gasped. "Bitch, what? Where was I at?"
I asked out loud, but I knew I had probably been in my own world. On one hand, I was nervous about Tracey and how she would fare essentially asking Cam out again. Then, I was thinking about what I had seen and heard last night. I felt good about my decision to sit on the Kleo information, but wondered how Cam would react once Trae revealed it. After talking with Cam for a few more minutes, I made my way to KP's for our weekly study session.

Later, KP was breaking down the context of the chapter to me. "The author used those terms to highlight how bad this character's life is. He used 'em throughout the story, which means..." KP trails off, intentionally.
"The story is sad." I reply, looking at the sample passage in the textbook.
"Yeah. So, what you gotta do now is come up with a tone for your own short story." I rub my temples. "I don't even know why Ramirez even gave us this damn assignment. If I wanted to be an author, I'd take Creative Writing or something." I vented.
"I'm sure whatever you come up will be great. Hell, make it a true story. Just make sure to be obvious with your tone so people can understand what kind of story they're reading." I sighed. She laughed. "You stress yourself out too easily. She gave you two weeks. How long did you say it had to be?"
"Four pages. And we're reading them out loud." I tell her. She nods her head. "That doesn't sound so bad. Okay, here's what you should do."
"Enlighten me." I say.
"Do the outline, 'cause that's what it's there for. You know, add a few bullet points for the story and then expand it over the next few days. Then, write the story out. Lastly, practice reading it aloud."
"Read it aloud? To myself? That's dumb as hell." I say. My nerves were pretty bad at this point.
"You know you always got me. Try your own hand at it first and then, if you need help, hit me. Even if I'm busy, I'll make time for you. And if you need somebody to read to, you can read it to me." she reminds me.
"I know, and thank you. I just get a little nervous about creating stuff. I don't want it to be bad." I admit.
"Well, it's gotta exist, first." she jokes. I giggle. We were coming up on the end of our study session. I closed my textbook and put everything back in my backpack. Immediately, though, I panic started to set back in about this assignment again.