Alex's POV
She was a 21-year old freshman. Truth be told she wasn’t really ready to go to college right out of high school. Even though she had been recruited heavily to play soccer by same major Division I schools. So here she is three years later at a Division II school playing soccer and studying Communication. She knew that she wouldn’t get any offers to play Division I anymore but was pleasantly surprised when she got offers from quite a few Division II schools. She had chosen this one because they had a reputation for excellence in soccer and had won the last two championships.
She sighed and looked at her class schedule again. She had a class at 9 but because she couldn’t sleep last night (her first soccer practice was this afternoon), she had gotten up early. She decided to stop by the student center to grab a coffee from the coffee shop. She grabbed her coffee and walked to class. She was the first person there and chose a seat near the back of the room. She didn’t understand why she had chosen to take a history general this early in the morning. She was instantly regretting it.
Slowly the classroom begin to fill in. She felt extremely awkward being the only one who was not eighteen years old. Everyone seemed to be avoiding her, because all the seats around her were open. Finally with one minute to spare a girl with freckles sat down next to her.
“Damn I hate morning classes.” the girl said.
Alex assumed she was talking to her, because she was the only other person near.
“Yeah me too.”
“I’m Kelley by the way. You are?”
“Alex.”
“Well Alex are you a freshman?”
“Yep….”
“Shit, I’m probably the only upper class man in here. I failed this class my freshman year.”
“I’m 21 if that helps though. Decided to wait a few years before starting college.” Alex responded.
“Oh thank god, we can go to the bars to study.” Kelley said with a smirk.
Just then the professor walked in and immediately handed out a syllabus and lectured them on how they couldn’t blow this class off, because there was so much material to get through.
“Don’t have to tell me twice..” Kelley muttered.
Alex stifled a giggle and returned her attention to the professor. She started to think that this whole college thing wasn’t going to be so bad after all.
********
When the class was finally over, she walked out with Kelley. That was the only class either one of them had that day, so they decided to go buy the book for the class. They walked into the bookstore and quickly found the history books. They were by far the largest books in the store.
“Holy shit, Alex this book is $300 bucks new and still $220 used. Wanna just buy one copy and share it?” Kelley asked.
“Yeah no way I can afford to buy all my books if there that expensive.”
Kelley grabbed a book and took it to the till. She paid for it, and they walked back to the student center for lunch. Alex paid for Kelley’s lunch and gave her the rest of the money that she owed her. The main dish in the dining area today was chicken alfredo pasta.
“It’s actually pretty ok. I’d even recommend it.” Kelley said with a smirk.
“Um, ok..”
“Well there’s certain things that they make that you never under any circumstances do you eat!” Kelley exclaimed.
“Thanks I’ll keep that in mind.”
They sat down and ate their lunches.
“So whats your story?” Kelley asked.
Alex finished chewing her food before answering. “Well, I’m from California. Played soccer in high school. It was pretty much my whole life. I got a ton of offers to play for Divison I schools when I graduated. I just wasn’t ready for college, I was burned out. So I didn’t accept and waited until now. I got an offer from a few schools, but this was the best one in soccer so I chose to come here.”
“Hmm, so do you know to much about the town, or even your way around?”
“Not really I’ve only been her for four days. The first three were spent on incoming freshman orientation and stuff like that. I haven’t really gotten a chance to explore at all.” Alex responded.
“Really that’s a bummer.” Kelley said as she gets the biggest grin on her face, “I appoint myself your tour guide!”
Alex starts to laugh. “Do I really need a tour guide, this town isn’t that big.”
“Of course! How else will you find all the most awesomest places to eat or spend time at?”
She has a point Alex thought. “All right. Sounds like a plan to me. But I have soccer practice all week. I won’t really be that free until the weekend.”
“No worries, we’ll find the time to show you around.”
They finished lunch and walked over to the library. Their professor had already given them a small assignment even though it was the first class period.
“I can’t belive we have to do a paper already.” Kelley complained.
“I know but I want to get it done so I don’t forget.”
“You’re one of those people, huh?” Kelley teased.
“Yep and proud of it!”
They spent the next three hours finishing their assignment before Alex had to get ready for soccer practice. As they went their separate ways Kelley yelled back at Alex.
“You have to check out this one bar. It’s called Heath’s. Well you need to check it out because I work there.”
“That means I won’t be going there ever!” Alex yelled back.
“I AM MAKING THE BIGGEST POUTY FACE EVER!!!!!” Kelley yelled back.
Alex laughed and waved at her new friend and walked back to her dorm room, and got on her cleats and her practice gear. She was a little nervous for her first college practice, but knew she would be fine.
********
Practice was intense. They just finished another round of suicides and Alex was about ready to fall over. She was tired, her legs hurt and she realized how out of form she was. This made her nervous, because she just wanted to start. But the way she was performing today, she doubted she would get off the bench all season.
A short girl with short brown hair looked over at her and gave her a thumbs up. Alex shook her head and returned the gesture. The other girl laughed and went back to the side line.
Her performance wasn’t the only thing that was worrying her. Her coach legitimately scared the shit out of her. Alex knew that Hope Solo was a great coach and that she looked scary, she just didn’t realize how much scarier she was in person. Finally after another fifteen minutes of just running they started doing some 5v5 games to wind the practice down. Alex felt a little bit better about herself after she scored a goal in each of the three games that her team played.
The short haired girl was on her team and after practice she approached Alex.
“Hey I’m Meghan and you must be Alex.”
Alex nodded her head.
“Hmm Coach was pretty excited to get you” Meghan laughed. “But anyway seeing as today was the first of classes and the first insane practice so of us that are of age were going to get a drink later tonight. You in?”
Alex told Meghan that she was more than willing to go and Meghan told her she would give her a ride. She just needed to be ready by 8 so they could miss the after work rush.
Alex walked back to her room feeling satisfied how she had ended practice. She was also pleased that she got along with most of the people on her soccer team, even if her coach scared the crap out of her. Maybe this college thing wasn’t going to be so bad after all.