Chatoyant College Book 2: Initiates

Chapter 14: Essaying

"So what are you two doing now?" Corrie asked her friends as they walked outside the library into the bright sun.

"Another class," said Edie. "Intro to Acting."

Annie nodded. "I have class too--Statistics, unfortunately."

Corrie gave an exaggerated sigh and hung her head. "Fine then, abandon me. I guess I'll just write that stupid essay."

Edie laughed and patted her on the shoulder. "It's not so bad. You can get it done and then laugh at me when I'm still working on it much later."

"Oh, that makes me feel better." She grinned. "Well, I'll see both of you later, I'm sure."

When she got back to her room, she decided to call her mom instead of starting her essay right away. She was at home, and they had a nice chat, Corrie assuring her that classes were going well and yes, she was getting along very well with Edie, who was also doing well and was very happy with the books. Her mother, she was glad to hear, was doing fine, though she missed her. She had decided not to tell her mother about the incident with the faeries; it would only freak her out, and there was nothing she could do about it. Hopefully, nothing like it would happen again.

After she'd hung up the phone she opened a blank document to start her essay and stared at it, her hands resting on the keyboard. Did Jasmine think she was being nice by offering an open-ended assignment? Why did teachers always think that? These were the worst. What should she write about? There were always the controversial issues like abortion or the death penalty, but she didn't want to make anyone else read her thoughts on those, even if it was just Jasmine. She moved her hands to rest her chin on one, gazing out the window. Then an idea came, and she began to laugh to herself even as she turned to her computer and began typing. She could write about running! Maybe Jasmine could even show her how to make her essay more persuasive and she could get other people doing it.

Even as she wrote the essay, though, her mind began wandering. She wondered who that handsome guy she'd seen running that morning could be. How could she meet him? Well, there obviously weren't very many people who ran like she did--certainly not so early in the morning. Maybe she could ask around to see who else did. Then again, who could she ask? She didn't know very many people herself yet, and certainly no one who seemed hooked into the campus social network.

Well, if she didn't think of any other way, she could ask Lorelei. She knew everyone in Gilkey, and she was an upperclassman, so she would be more likely than anyone else to have met him before, especially if he was an upperclassman as well. If Lorelei didn't know, maybe she would know someone who did. Satisfied with her decision, she was able to turn back to her essay and finish it, except for the conclusion paragraph, before she had to go to another class.

Biology would not have been Corrie's first choice, but it had been hard to find classes that were available when freshmen registered. Besides, there was a science requirement to consider, and she wanted to get the uninteresting classes out of the way as quickly as possible so she could have more fun in the later years. She would have liked to be able to take more English classes, as that was her intended major, but Academic Writing was the only one really available to a first-semester freshman.

She found the science building with a little difficulty; she had already been in most of the other academic buildings, but she didn't realize at first that it was a class building and not a dorm. It had the same plain, whitewashed walls as the dorms. The only difference, when she found the doors (which she managed by following the flow of traffic), was that they were large double doors, currently propped open. She found her classroom, thankfully, without much trouble. The teacher was a short, soft-voiced Asian man with a thick accent, and while there didn't seem to be too much of importance in the first class (just going over the syllabus), she resolved to sit in the front of the class next time; that would improve her chances of actually understanding what was going on. Science was not her worst subject, but it certainly wasn't her best, and she feared failing at the college level if she couldn't follow along.

There was no one she knew in the class, but she didn't expect to do much socializing, anyway. Most of the other students were freshmen, but there were a few older students she suspected were finishing their requirements at the last minute. They looked as bored as she felt.

The hallway was crowded when her class let out--apparently a lot of other science classes let out at the same time--but through the mass of people she caught sight of a familiar head of black hair. And those shoulders; covered as they now were with a T-shirt, she could see the way the muscles moved under the skin, and she knew who it was. She grinned to herself. The day was looking up.