Chapter 1
Tobin looked out the window as her parents drove away. They had just dropped her off at the University of Oregon. She didn’t envy them the long drive back to New Jersey. The three and a half day journey here nearly killed her. Primarily from boredom, but also the awkward silences that seemed to permeate the car during the last day of the journey. She sighed and turned away from the window and looked at all of her stuff that was strewn across the room. She had been lucky enough to get into one of the two person suites.
They had a small living area in the center of the dorm, with the bathroom directly behind it and the bedroom off to either side. Her stuff was currently covering the couch and the chair in the living area. She grabbed a suitcase and moved it into the bedroom that had her name on it. She unpacked her clothes and went into the living area and grabbed the rest of her stuff. She put everything in its place. She plugged her computer in to let it charge and grabbed her guitar. She tuned it and ran through some scales. Playing soothed her nerves and just put her in a good mood.
She changed from running scales to doing some basic chord changes. She wasn’t trying to do anything intricate she was just doing things that were mindless and had become second nature. After fifteen minutes of playing she heard the dorm room open. She could hear voices in the living area.
“Sounds like your roommate is already here.” a male voice said.
“Yep, and she plays guitar. That’s pretty neat.”
Tobin put her guitar down on her stand and opened her door. “Hey I’m Tobin. You must be Kelley.”
A girl with a ton of freckles turned to face her. “Yep that’s me! Nice to meet ya.”
Tobin smiled and shook her hand. “ Do you guys need any help getting your stuff up the stairs?”
“If you don’t mind that would be awesome.” Kelley responded, “We only have a few things left.”
Tobin went with them and helped Kelley carry the last of her things up the stairs and into their suite. She noticed that Kelley also had a guitar case with her. After they had gotten everything in the suite, Tobin gave Kelley and her parents a moment to say goodbye. After Kelley’s parents had left Kelley quickly gathered everything and put it in her room. Tobin went back to her room and opened her computer and started Netflix. She started to watch House of Cards for like the third time. She was halfway through the episode when she heard a knock on her door.
She opened it to see Kelley standing there guitar in hand.
“So I heard you playing when he got here. Wanna jam for a bit?”
Tobin smiled and grabbed her guitar. They sat in the living area and just messed around in a bunch of different keys. They took turns playing rhythm and lead parts. Tobin marveled at how easy it seemed to play along with Kelley. After an hour or so she noticed that they had good chemistry together musically. When it was nearing three o’clock Tobin stood up.
“So orientation starts in like fifteen minutes. I don’t really want to go, but we have to.”
Kelley put her guitar away. “We should probably go and get good seats,” she laughed.
They walked down to the auditorium where freshman orientation was being held. They found seats near the middle of the room and sat down near one of the aisles. They talked to each other about where they were from. Tobin found out that Kelley was from Georgia which was a longer drive than Tobin had. They found out that they both had siblings. And they had both been playing guitar since they were nine years old.
“Dude I feel like your my long lost sister or something,” Tobin laughed after they found out they both loved The Rolling Stones.
“I know right. This is insane!”
Suddenly Tobin felt a tap on her shoulder. She whipped her head around and saw a girl with long blonde hair standing behind her. She had on a flat-billed hat that was backwards and her arm was covered in tattoos.
“Is anyone sitting here?” she asked Tobin.
“No have a seat. I’m Tobin and this is Kelley,” Tobin introduced them.
“Ashlyn. Good to meet ya.”
“So Ashlyn what are you here for?” Kelley asked.
“I’m a music major. Specifically percussion.”
“Woah no way dude! Kelley and I are music majors also! We’re both stringed instruments.” Tobin replied.
Before Ashlyn could respond, a man stepped up to the microphone that was on the stage. As he began to speak the microphone squealed with feedback. Everyone in the auditorium simultaneously put their hands over their ears.
“Dude sound guy! Turn his microphone down. Jesus!” Ashlyn yelled.
Tobin and Kelley started to laugh. The man on stage struggled to hide a smile at Ashlyn’s words.
He thanked Ashlyn for her input and got the crowd to laugh. He then proceeded to talk to them about the activities that the student association had planned for all of the incoming freshmen over the next three days before the other students would start to arrive. He talked about the dormitory meetings that they would have over the next couple of weeks. He also talked about meeting with other people in their chosen majors and some just fun activities that they were not required to attend, but that he thought would be a good idea to. He told them that this was really their only meeting today, but they had rented out a mini-golf course for the evening.
Tobin looked at Kelley and knew that she would be down for mini-golf later. Finally the dude, who was apparently the dean of the student association, was done speaking. Tobin was a bit bored and her mind had wandered to the things she loved: music, surfing, longboarding and soccer. She was wrenched out of her daydream when Kelley punched her shoulder.
“Yo, what was that for?”
“Well the meeting has been over for like three minutes and you’re sitting her with glazed eyes and drool coming out of your mouth. We thought you were going to sit her forever. We actually got up and half way left before we realized you weren’t with us.” Kelley said as Ashlyn laughed.
“I don’t drool!”
“Whatever Tobin. We were going to back to Ashlyn’s suite. She’s in the same dorm as us.”
“Cool. Let’s go.”
The three cut through the campus’s green to get back to their dorm. Tobin was pleasantly surprised that Ashlyn’s room was on the same floor as theirs. However, her room was on the east side of the building, while Tobin and Kelley’s room was on the west side of the building.
When they got into the room they plopped themselves onto the furniture in the living area.
“So Ashlyn, what’s your roommate like?” Tobin asked.
“Ugh, man she’s so lame. She seems like super high maintenance and sorta snobbish.”
Tobin walked over to one of the bedroom doors. “Her name is Alex Morgan?”
“Yeah, apparently she’s super good at soccer.”
“She can’t be that great. I’ve never heard of her.” Kelley stated.
“Beside’s you can’t trust someone with two first names, right?” Tobin asked with a grin.
Ashlyn laughed. “Most certainly.”
They had a couple of hours to kill, so Ashlyn plugged in her Wii U. They decided to play Mario Kart.
“Just to let you know, I pretty much rule at this game.” Ashlyn bragged.
“Whatever, you’ve never played me.” Kelley said.
Tobin decided to keep her mouth shut, because she knew she probably wasn’t very good at it. Video games weren’t really her thing, but with all the trash talk going on her competitiveness was bound to come out.
After about an hour of playing each of them had won four races a piece. Tobin was surprised she seemed to be a natural at this particular game. They knew they only had time for one more game before they needed to head out to the green so they could go to the mini-golf course.
“So last one. Rainbow Road?” Ashlyn asked.
“Yep.” Kelley replied.
Tobin had no idea what Rainbow Road was, but she agreed. She soon found out. After the first lap when she had fallen off the track no less than five times she began to get frustrated. She was in last place, but both Ashlyn and Kelley were starting to fall off more often. Then she got it, the bullet. She used it and she raced into first place with just a lap to go.
“No way are you going to beat me Tobs!” Kelley yelled.
Tobin laughed at the nickname that was starting to stick with Kelley and Ashlyn. “I’d worry about yourself,” she replied.
Tobin concentrated as hard as she could. She was in the zone. She could see the finish line in the distance. When suddenly a blue shell slammed into her kart. She flipped and fell off the course. Of course, in the time it took her to get back to the track Ashlyn had sped past her. She tried her best to overtake her, but it was no use. Ashlyn crossed the finish line first, while Tobin got second.
“What now? I am the master!” Ashlyn yelled.
“At least I didn’t get last.” Tobin grinned at Kelley.
“Shut up! I let you get second. Didn’t want you to cry.” Kelley mumbled.
“Uh huh, whatever helps you sleep at night.”
“Hate to stop all the bullshit that is flying around here, but we should probably get going if we want to make mini-golf.” Ashly said.
They gathered their things and walked down to the parking lot next to the green. There were buses lined up to take them to the mini-golf course. They got on third bus, and noticed that the bus only had two seats per row. Ashlyn and Tobin looked at one another.
“Loser has to sit by herself!” They yelled at the same time as they jumped into a row together. Kelley sighed and sat behind them.
“You guys suck.”
They waited for the bus to leave by recounting their crazy Mario Kart skills. Tobin and Ashlyn pretty much teamed up on Kelley and how she needed to practice. They were in a heated discussion on which character was better, Yoshi or Toad, when Kelley noticed someone had just sat next to her.
“I hope you don’t mind, but this is pretty much the only seat available.” the girl said with a shrug to her shoulders.
“No problem. I need a break from these two losers anyway.”
The girl laughed. “I’m Christen thanks for letting me sit here.”
“Kelley. And these two are Ashlyn and Tobin.”
Ashlyn flashed Christen a peace sign and Tobin shook her hand.
“Don’t let her fool you. She’s just butt-hurt cause we wiped the floor with her in Mario Kart.” Tobin said.
Christen smiled. “I love Mario Kart. I pretty much never lose.”
Ashlyn perked up at this. “I guess I know what we’re doing after mini-golf.”
“I’m down. I’ll show you how a pro plays Mario Kart.” Christen laughed.
Kelley couldn’t help but notice how Christen’s smile lit up the room, or rather bus. And when Christen brushed up against her, how her skin tingled.
*********
After a good fifteen minute drive they were finally at the mini-golf course. They found out that group sizes were four people so they all got into one group. They got their clubs and balls and it was a fight who was going to be the one who had to take the pink ball. Tobin instantly grabbed the blue one, while Christen grabbed the black one. That left Kelley and Ashlyn to fight over the pink one. Kelley grabbed the red one just a hair before Ashlyn could.
“Damn. I hate pink.”
“Ha loser, you're too slow!” Kelley exclaimed.
“Wanna make a bet?” Ashlyn asked.
“I’m interested.” The three other girls said almost in unison.
“So the loser has to buy the other three breakfast tomorrow before our meetings start.” Ashlyn offered.
“Dude I’m down.” Kelley responded.
“Yo, one of you guys is buying me waffles tomorrow morning.” Tobin grinned.
“Sure.” Christen said.
They soon found out that Christen was by far the best at mini-golf. After her third hole-in-one in five holes, the other three didn’t even try to distract her any more.
“Dude, what are you the Rain Man of mini-golf?” Tobin asked.
“I grew up in a small town. All we had to do was mini-golf.” Christen laughed.
“Figures.”
Kelley found herself being very excited whenever Christen made a good putt or a hole-in-one. She used every opportunity to give Christen a high-five that she could. She’d think about what that meant later. But right now, she was in a tight race with Tobin and Ashlyn in their little bet.
It was getting down to the wire. They were on the sixteenth hole out of eighteen and Kelley, Tobin and Ashlyn were all within three strokes of one another. Christen, however was way ahead of them. The hole they were on had a nasty hill that they had get over and then a crazy tunnel thing that the ball had to go through to get to a small square of green. Tobin and Ashlyn successfully got their balls over the hill on the first try. It was Kelley’s turn to putt. She put all of her strength behind her putt, and the ball went over the hill hit the wall and miraculously went into the tunnel. The ball came out of the tunnel skipped over the hole, and hit the back wall and slowly rolled into the hole.
“Holy Crap! I just got a hole in one! Suck it Bitches!” Kelley yelled.
“Good to know that your a gracious winner.” Tobin laughed.
“Whatever! Your just jealous.”
That shot proved to be what Kelley needed to get second place. Ashlyn and Tobin both had problems with that hole and fell behind Kelley. In the end Tobin just edged out Ashlyn for third place.
“Frick, now I have to buy you guys breakfast.” Ashlyn complained.
“Are you thinking of backing out? Cause I will toilet paper your room.” Kelley said.
“How exactly are you going to get in there?” Christen asked.
“I’ll have her roommate, Alex, let me in.”
“Yeah I doubt she would do that. She looks like she doesn’t know how to have fun at all.” Ashlyn said.
They got back on the bus and made the trip back to campus. They went to the student center to grab some food and all made the trek back to Ashlyn’s room so they could continue their Mario Kart tournament. True to her word Christen beat all of them easily every race.
“Geez are you good at everything?” Kelley asked.
“What can I say, I’m pretty much perfect.” Christen joked.
They stayed up until two in the morning alternating between playing Mario Kart tournaments and watching Netflix. They agreed that they would start a show that none of them had seen. They decided to watching Rules of Engagement. Finally they all went back to their rooms. Christen also happened to live in the same dorm as them just on the second floor, not the third.
Kelley and Tobin walked back to their room and said goodnight. They set their alarms for 9:30 the next morning. Ashlyn was treating them to breakfast at 10:30. As she crawled into her bed, Tobin thought about how lucky she was to have a good roommate like Kelley and to have met two other awesome girls. She fell asleep with a smile on her face.