When In Doubt - Freshman Year

Chapter 1

The campus had instantly appeared, and Matt noticed the red brick dorm buildings named Wigen and Fleming/Hovlid. It was North Campus, which he'd remembered meant upperclassmen mostly lived up there. The center of town had appeared next, right at the intersection of Broadway St. and Main. Apartments, local restaurants, shops, a bookstore, and plenty of townie bars littered along the street; one bar that'd stuck was named "The Pickle."

Who in their right mind would name a bar The Pickle?...Matt winced at possibly how many regretful decisions had probably been made in there over the years. Probably don't even want to know that actually...

A long line of cars in the parking lot had students in the same color shirts all directing them on where to go next. There was some station in front of the athletic center, the Johnson field house. A couple of overly peppy girls stood there, and greeted every car who'd stopped in front of them.

His dad had pulled up and lowered his window.

"Hey there, Welcome to Stout!" One girl had greeted them with a mega-watt smile. "My name is Christy, and I'm going to help make this big move a little easier for you folks today, I just need to know your name what dorm you're moving into today?"

Matt's parents both turned back towards him to answer.

"Umm...my name's Matt Anderson, and I'm going to be in, umm...I'm going to be in HKMC." Matt had been so nervous that he'd almost forgotten where he'd be living.

Christ Matt...Way to look stupid in less than five minutes here...

"You're going to love it there!" Christy bounced in her step. "HKMC was where we'd lived last year; we were all on the same floor and look at us now! Still the best of friends!" Christy emphasized her point by bouncing over to the girls, and shared an Instagram worthy group hug with the girls.

Matt attempted to return their smile, but inwardly had wanted to curl up in a blanket already and hide away from everything.

"Ok, next we'll just need your room number," Christy had turned towards the stand, where a gigantic corkboard displayed all the different dorm rooms of each building with two sets of keys hooked under each room number.

"I'm in Chinnock 316," Matt replied.

Christie handed his dad his set of keys along with other welcome/orientation pamphlets in a goodie bag, and told them to specifically follow the green color-coded traffic cones to get their next instructions. They hadn't even made it twenty feet before another group of students in green shirts had directed them to park in a spot.

Matt gazed up towards HKMC. Like the other dorms, it'd been constructed with red bricks with a landscaped concrete walkway up that'd lead up towards the glass doors of the main lobby. It'd been named HKMC for the four halls it was comprised of: Keith, Hansen, Milnes, and Chinnock. His dorm branched off to the right, and was paired with Milnes, which was the girl's dorm.

A group of students in athletic wear surrounded their car and greeted them, and had begun to haul Matt's bigger items like the futon, and his suitcases full of clothes.

"Well thank god we have you guys here!" Matt's mom smiled with relief. "How did this whole thing get organized anyways?"

"We're the Track & Field team," A girl with dark skin and high ponytail had replied. "All the athletic teams return to campus early to help out with Freshman move-in day." She'd grabbed another bag out of their trunk, and followed the others.

Matt had noticed some of the guys that'd worn cut-off tank tops, their muscles strained from exertion as they'd carried his futon. Matt had also noticed one particular guy had a tattoo along his ribcage and wondered what it'd said, but looked away before he could've been caught staring.