The Intern

Chapter 1

The wind was especially harsh as I made my way from my faculty to the dorms. I guess this was something one should expect by studying in a city that is, in fact, called the Windy City. Every step closer to my dorm was followed up by my hair being whipped in my face, stinging my skin, and attempting to keep my coat closely wrapped around my body. Once I caught sight of my dorm, I quickened my pace, dodging through the other bodies that were suddenly taking up the quad. Curse classes getting out at the same time, just let me get safely to my dorm. Pushing past the last group of people, I reached my dorm, quickly swiping my card to grant me access to the warmth of the building. Thank goodness Thanksgiving was coming up. Thanksgiving meant Arizona and Arizona meant heat. Pulling my scarf off, I made my way up the steps to my room, fortunately only on the second floor. Juggling my laptop case sliding off my shoulder, my scarf, and thermos, I managed to pull out my ring of keys and unlock the door.

"Hey, what's – whoa. Did you come out of a hurricane or something?" My head snapped up to find my roommate, Jess, at her desk, her mass of curly black hair pulled into a large bun at the top of her head.

"What ever you do, do not go outside," I told her, pointing to the trees bending in the powerful wind.

"Got that memo, thanks. Seriously though," she got up and moved towards me, plucking a leaf out of my hair, "you look like you walked out of a hurricane."

"One more day, that's all I'm saying. Then I'll be safe and sound in a calm, dry desert." I stripped off my coat, draping it on my bed and grabbed my brush, attempting to untangle the rat's nest of hair that I had.

"That does not sound appealing."

"Well, of course it's not appealing to you, you're from Alaska. You like calm, dry, and freezing."

"Why yes I do and it's wonderful." I made a face and Jess laughed.

"So am I taking you to the airport tomorrow still?"

"Yeah, if you're up for it." I gave up on untangling my hair and settled on putting it in a bun. I'd deal with that later.

She nodded her head, turning back to her computer. "We'll leave at five-thirty, okay?"

"Sounds great," I replied, pulling out my suitcase and began loading up my belongings so I wouldn't be stressing in the wee hours of the next morning to get all my things together and be panicking. A few days home sounded like bliss. Just me and my parents and even my brother and sister were coming in! They didn't even live in Arizona anymore when my sister found a job as an x-ray technician in New York and my brother got married to a girl from Florida and they thought it best that they move there.

"Oh Talia!" Jess squeaked and I looked up at her as if she was about to tell me urgent news. "Did you hear back from any of the internships?"

Those internships were going to kill me. As part of my English major program with the focus in Journalism, I had to actually have experience somewhere. However, I didn't want the cop out of the local magazines and newspapers circulating through Chicago, so I applied elsewhere, which my professors allowed. I had had three interviews for the six places I applied and I only needed one to give me the green light.

"No! Thank you for reminding me!" I got to my feet, grabbing my mail key off the dresser and made my way downstairs to the mailboxes.

There were three places in the entire university that were the sources of all gossip that circulated throughout campus. The student lounge was always the first as the majority of all faculties met there for coffee and "studying" and there were so many reasons I stayed away from that specific area. Number two was the laundromat. Apparently washing clothes resulted in all the talk of raging parties and hook ups. Probably because they found clothes that weren't their own and the beer and food stained. Lastly were the mailboxes. It wasn't like there were masses of people surrounding the mailboxes, it was just one person to the next until everyone had heard about it. The bulletin board was across from all the mailboxes which didn't help either. Even if you thought someone wasn't in on the conversation, they were in on it.