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I spent my first week of classes getting into new habits like for when I get up, when I would study, or when I would eat meals. Jenna and I usually had breakfast and dinner together, talking about our days, classes, and all the other things that had happened. I spent my time outside of classes at my work-study job in the campus Human Resources department and meeting with my SGA committees. Life felt frenzy even though I knew that the hectic pace will calm down. I made sure to have lunch with my different friends, including Eric, Steve, and Gwen. By Thursday everyone was talking about a party that Eric was having at the Honor's Dorm that Saturday. As SGA president, he got away with a lot and had the best parties on campus. I was excited to tell Jenna about it; when I got back to the room that afternoon, I found her on the floor, surrounded by crafting supplies.
"What are you doing?" I asked as I walked into the room on Thursday evening.
"I'm doing the decorations for our door," Jenna said without looking up.
She had a massive roll of brown wrapping paper, sheets of construction paper, washi tape, markers, letter templates, and sparkling lights. Gwen was this excited about our dorm room a few years ago and had found tons of ideas online but then got bored once classes demanded her focus. Jenna wasn't Gwen. Unlike Gwen, she was obsessed with notebooks and journals, even using an expensive one for her classes. We had already bonded over our planners. This included an extensive collection of expensive pens, markers, and highlighters that you had to buy online. She even designed her own stickers when she needed to relax. I was already used to seeing her in the middle of a crafting mess. I dropped my stuff on my bed and joined her on the ground.
"I want it to be school themed, so I was thinking of making a pretend chalkboard with our names on it and some apples. I'm going to do some sketches for each month, so I can plan ahead and make sure they're pretty."
I helped her find the right cutouts, stickers, and tape for her display. Her theme made it easy for me to help her get the correct patterns.
"What about a fall theme?" I asked, curious. "For October?"
Jenna's eyes widened with excitement
"I could totally do two doors a month!" Jenna said, putting down the big black marker in her hands and picking up her sketch pad.
"Will you be able to do that much with classes?"
"Can you, like, help? Would you want to help?"
Knitting was really the extent of my crafty side. Sitting here and hanging out with her was fun, but I didn't want to do only this.
"Let me think about it. Maybe there's a better solution than you doing two doors a month," I said, trying to be nonchalant even though I had a plan already.
Jenna gave me a big goofy grin, one that I had learned meant she was happy but embarrassed.
"I almost forgot! Do you want to go to a party in the Honor's Dorm on Saturday?" I asked.
"Really? Are freshmen actually allowed to go?"
"Sure, you'll get to meet Gwen and Steve. I know there will be some cute guys there. There'll be plenty to drink, too."
"Won't we get in trouble for drinking in the dorm?" Jenna practically whispered, her eyes widening again.
"Don't worry, the RA's in the Honor's Dorm usually look the other way, and the guys are good at hiding it. Plus, Adam will be there, and he's always sober."
Jenna tilted her head to the side a little as if in deep thought or confused.
"He doesn't drink?" she asked.
"Not really. His father used to have a problem with alcohol, so I think Adam's worried that he would have it too," I said with a shrug.
"Wow."
Jenna didn't react other than that, but I didn't want her to think less of Adam because of his father.
"I trust Adam with my life," I said, playing with a pair of crazy scissors that cut in a wavy pattern.
"I like Adam, he's been really nice to me."
"Adam's a sweetheart and is exactly what an RA should be. Hey, instead of going crazy with the door, would you be up for helping Adam with the bulletin boards on the halls?"
Jenna sat there, seemingly taken aback.
"Did he ask you to ask me?" She eventually asked, looking confused again.
I thought about the blank bulletin board at the entrance to the floor. It was depressing, and I was willing to bet it would be covered in junk soon.
"No, but I don't think he knows he needs help. I think he needs someone exactly like you to keep those boards looking nice. Plus, it will give you a chance to use all your ideas."
Jenna beamed, and I was positive this was the right way to channel her energy.
***
"Are you almost ready?" Jenna said to me the next night as she bounced on her bed.
We were getting ready to walk over to the Honor's Dorm. Although I hadn't told her this yet, I was considering setting Jenna up with Eric. This party would be an excellent way to introduce them to each other and see if they hit it off.
I looked over at Jenna and suddenly felt overdressed. She was in jeans and a school t-shirt. Her thick hair was pulled back in a ponytail and sneakers on her feet. I was wearing a sundress and putting on more makeup than I usually wore. I often dressed up for parties but seeing her dressed so casually made me remember this was only a keg party in a dorm, not something fancy.
"OMG," I said, "if that's what you're wearing, then I need to change!"
Jenna settled back on her bed while I stripped off the dress, pulled back my hair in a clip, and quickly pulled on jeans and a pink tank-top. I put on flats as I grabbed my small purse and slung it across my body. Jenna got off her bed and followed me out the door. This was her first real college party, so I didn't complain as she practically ran across campus, keeping me out of breath.
"We need to slow down," I said when we were about five minutes away from the other dorm, which was on the complete opposite side of campus.
"Sorry," Jenna said, falling back and nervously laughing. "I forgot you're, like, not as tall as I am."
I smiled because we looked like a study in opposites. I was five and a half feet tall with blond curly hair, unlike tall and dark-haired Jenna, who was almost six feet tall. Walking with her left me feeling like I need to go back to a gym to build up my endurance. Once she slowed down, I was able to walk next to her and tell her more about the group of people we were likely to meet.
"So, Adam's already over there?" She asked as I went through a few of the people she might meet.
"Yeah, his girlfriend Mel is an RA on another floor."
"Do you like her?"
"She's fine... It's fine."
Jenna looked at me, her eyebrow raised.
"She's not my favorite person. It's fine, really. I'm going to introduce you to Eric. He's definitely one of my favorite people."
"What's he like?"
"He's baby faced with chubby cheeks and blond hair. He looks innocent, but he's not. He's totally into books and can talk all day about any topic. The drunker he gets, the more philosophical he gets, and he can get you anything you need. He's always cool about including everyone. You'll probably find him surrounded by people, just talking. He's the President of Student Government, so he knows everyone."
"You think he'll like me?"
"I like you, and he's my friend. He's the perfect kind of guy to date in college. You'll experience everything."
Jenna smiled, and soon, we were at the front door of the Honor's Dorm. It was the nicest dorm on campus, with some rooms having floor-to-ceiling windows. The first floor seemed deserted, but I could hear music playing on the third floor. We took the elevator up, and the door opened to a packed hallway. Everyone from every dorm came to the party. Jenna and I snaked our way through the crowd to find the drinks and a place to stand.
I heard someone yell my name and saw Gwen jumping up and down, wildly waving her hands while facing my direction, her long brown hair pulled up in a messy bun. I made my way to her, making sure that Jenna was behind me. When we got to Gwen and Steve, Jenna already had a cup of beer in her hands.
"Don't drink that!" I said, taking it away from her.
"Why? Some guy handed it to me, straight from the keg."
"Did you know him?"
"No."
"Never take a drink from a guy you don't know."
Jenna looked wounded.
"Honestly," Gwen said, giving Jenna a smile. "Only take unopened bottles from anyone, even if you know them. It's the only safe way."
"Actually," Steve said. "Never take anything from anyone ever. Bitches be crazy."
Steve's lousy joke was what it took to put the smile back on Jenna's face. He handed her an unopened bottle of beer. She waited for some cue from me before opening it. As we stood there, I introduced her to both Gwen and Steve. Gwen and Steve were about the same height as me, Jenna towering above almost everyone, including some of the guys. Steve, who had brown, curly hair that got bushier through the semester made sure to get us all safe, unopened drinks.
We made our way to a quieter spot and hung out together for about an hour, talking the entire time, Jenna clearly having a great time. She and Gwen seemed to like each other right away and Steve, who was always easy-going, continued to make bad jokes and getting Jenna to giggle in response.
"I haven't seen Adam yet," Gwen eventually said.
I rolled my eyes in response.
"Where's Eric? Have you seen him?" I asked, avoiding a conversation about Mel.
"He's in there, playing a drinking game with some guys," Steve said, pointing to the door next to us.
I could hear male laughter and cheering coming from the room. I grabbed Jenna's arm and led her in. Eric saw us as soon as we entered the room. He gestured us over to him and made two other girls get up from their spots so that Jenna and I could sit next to him.
"Lovely, Amelia," Eric said, kissing both my cheeks. "Have you abandoned Gwen for a younger, prettier model?"
When I introduced Eric and Jenna, he gave her his coyest smile, one that I had seen him use countless times to melt male and female hearts alike. She blushed at his compliment, and I took that as a sign that she liked him as much as I hoped she would.
"Stick around, ladies. I need all the luck I can get tonight. These men would like to see me passed out under the table when our game of Bullshit is over."
The game of Bullshit is a popular drinking card game. You drink if you're caught in a lie about the cards you're holding. Since most people struggle to lie when they're drunk, you can quickly get wasted. We sat with Eric for nearly the rest of the evening, eventually getting into the game ourselves. Eric flirted with Jenna all night. She wisely nursed one beer, only taking sips when caught lying about her cards. Clearly, she had no tolerance and was drunk before we left. I later learned that had been her first beer ever. We didn't leave the table until I saw Adam walk past the door. Jenna followed me when I got up, but I noticed she and Eric exchanged texts before we left the table. He winked at her as we walked away.
This was a sure sign that a hookup was bound to happen soon. Am I wrong? If he hadn't shown any interest, I'm sure I would have backed off this idea. Can you blame me for encouraging her to pursue him?
When I finally found Adam, he was getting into an elevator with Mel. He and Mel had been dating for the past six months, having met when they attended a meeting for new RAs last spring. I didn't think they were that compatible, she kept trying to make him more like the guy she wanted him to be instead of simply loving him. I worried that, if he knew that, he would stay with her out of spite. She had cooled considerably when he got placed in Woodhouse Hall, and she was in the Honor's Dorm.
Adam blocked the elevator door from closing when he saw us.
"You leaving already?" I asked Adam as I got in with Jenna on my heels.
"We're exhausted," Mel said.
"It's been a long week. We're walking back to Woodhouse, want to come with us?"
I looked at Jenna, who looked both drunk and exhausted.
"Yes..." she slurred.
"I heard you helped Adam get names on the room doors," Mel said, practically interrupting Jenna.
"I can't resist a man in a crisis," I said with a small, smug smile.
She looked annoyed, but this was an ongoing battle between the two of us. She wanted to push me out of Adam's life, and I was pretty much stuck there. There had yet to be a girlfriend who could convince him to push me away, so I never had to take the bait.
"The doors here were all decorated," Jenna said slowly. "I'm glad I decided to do ours."
"Your door looks really pretty," Adam said. "I assumed it wasn't Amelia who did it. She isn't big into papercrafts unless it's her organizer."
"She knits! I saw all the fancy yarn in our room."
I shrugged, I had been knitting all my life and most of my fancy, expensive yarn had been gifts from my mother.
"You should let Jenna help you with dorm decorations," I told Adam. "She could do the bulletin boards with you."
"I don't need to do anything to them," Adam said.
"You should, people will put up junk if you don't take control of them," Mel said.
"She's right, Adam, there will be ads up there by the end of the weekend," I said.
"It'll be fine," Adam said, a bit annoyed.
By the next morning, the first ads for jobs, roommates, and tutors were already stapled to the empty bulletin board. On my way to breakfast the following day, Jenna had decided to sleep in, I found Adam surrounded by a pile of torn paper, a stapler, and something he printed in his hands.
"Help me take these down," he said.
His face was red, and he was sweating while breathing heavily through his nose. This was his reaction when he got annoyed about his personal rules not being followed. I helped him take down the remaining flyers before he started stapling his papers to the board. He had made signs that said "DON'T POST WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM ADAM1!!" in a font large enough to fill the page. Yes, the typo of the number one was there, and I struggled to contain my giggles.
"This won't work," I said.
"It will."
"Fine, you're the one who'll be pulling off all the flyers and getting angry. You should let Jenna decorate it. She has all this creative energy, and you might as well take advantage of it. Plus, she has the supplies already. She has this crate under her bed of construction paper, cheap yarn, stickers, fancy scissors that cut shapes, markers in every color. Did you know they still make the markers that smell like fruits?"
"No, I didn't. I always loved the apple flavored one."
"She's willing, and you're going to be desperate. I bet she'd let you smell her markers."
"It will be fine, Amelia. You don't need to solve everyone's problems."
I shrugged and left.
After breakfast, I went over to the library to get some classwork printed. It was a hot day, and I was sweating by the time I got to the library. I made a beeline, even though I just had breakfast, to the coffee shop in the library where I grabbed an iced tea.
"Hey Amelia," someone said from behind me in line.
I turned around to see Sally, a friend from the years I had lived in the Honor's Dorm. Sally was a constant in my life, but we weren't close. She was a well-organized, focused, and productive student, which made studying with her a guarantee that I'd put in the work to get the grades I wanted. We had one class in common this year, a history class we had both been putting off. It was little more than memorizing facts.
"Do you want to study again this semester? I spoke with Norma, and she's excited," Sally asked.
Norma and Sally often seemed attached at the hip. In every class I ever had with Sally, Norma, plump and short, with a learning disability that got her special services from disability services, too was in the class. Sally worked with her to make sure she had the support she needed in their classes. Norma was the chattiest person I knew, but Sally was terrific at getting her to focus.
"Let's do a group text to set up some dates. I'm living in Woodhouse Hall, and Adam's my RA. I'm sure he'll set up some study nights for midterms and finals that you both can come to.
"I heard a rumor you were living there! I was going to ask you about it."
"Yeah, why?"
"According to my mom, even though everyone approved the new dorm plan, a bunch of alumni are fighting it. I know you're in SGA and were on the committee that evaluated the plan last year."
This wasn't the first I had heard about the alumni fighting the campus about Woodhouse Hall. The committee had been boring, the faculty spent most of the time complaining about the entitlement of students, but insightful because I learned about how the administration views the campus. They're aware that Woodhouse Hall is a necessary dorm, but they also knew it did nothing to attract students. Dorms, as I was told many times, are one of the ways students make decisions about where to go to school. It hadn't been in my case, but they shared articles showing research. I even went and spoke to one of my professors about the research and had used the committee as a class project. With opinions on both sides, it seemed that dorms were an easy way to attract students. At the time, I only had second-hand knowledge that the dorm was miserable to live in.
"I've only heard rumors. What's going on with it?" I asked Sally, always interested in campus gossip.
"Someone is trying to get the dorm registered as a historical building, so it can't be torn down. My mom is pissed, you know?" She said with a shrug.
Lois Fairfax, Sally's mother and President of Lacock State University, had a valid reason to be angry. Thanks to Sally, I had heard all about President Fairfax's irritation about everything on campus. Sally seemed to view it with a mix of amusement and benign acceptance. It's as if mother and daughter shared opinions on these issues.
"Did this happen over the summer or recently?" I asked.
"I was away most of the summer, doing an abroad program in Ireland. When I came home, it had all blown up, and they might have to reconvene the committee to deal with the concerns the alumni group has raised," Sally said, getting excited and talking faster.
"Can you tell me what some of the concerns are, or will I find out soon enough?" I asked, now hungry to know more.
Sally looked around, checking to see who might overhear us.
"I don't think it's that big of a deal if I tell you. I mean, it's why I asked you about living in the dorm. There is one group focused on some historical building thing, and the rest are rallying alumni who lived in the dorm. They're saying it's a great dorm to live in and that's why it shouldn't be torn down. I was curious about it really being a great dorm. Is it?"
"Are you going to tell your mother?" I asked, not sure if I should share anything yet.
"Probably, she brought it up, so, I mean, she'll probably ask me what you think."
I had to think about it for a moment. If this was circling back to President Lois Fairfax, I had to be sensitive to how the information would be used, but I didn't want to lie.
"I think it might be too early for me to say one way or the other," I finally said.
I watched Sally's face fall a bit, but she seemed to be thinking.
"I'll tell her you're willing to give some input if she needs it, but you need time."
***
I returned to my room in the middle of the afternoon to find Eric hanging out with Jenna. They were having an animated conversation, Jenna laughing at something when I walked in. He was sitting on the floor, and she was at her desk, so it was pretty clear this wasn't a hookup... yet.
"I thought we could all go see a movie and grab dinner," Eric said.
"Are you sure?" I asked, looking at Jenna.
If she didn't want me to come, I was more than happy to give them space. Jenna gave me an encouraging look making it clear she wanted me there.
"Yes, I like to be flanked by pretty ladies," Eric said.
I grinned, feeling more excited for Jenna than anything else. After Eric left to get his car, Jenna's energy level shot up.
"OMG Amelia, he just, like, showed up and said he was here to see you."
Jenna bounced off her bed and opened her closet, looking for something to wear. She ran her fingers over her lips, something she did when she was anxious.
"Well, we are friends, and if he wants to hang out with you, it's a good excuse."
"We just talked and talked for, like, two hours. He's super easy to talk to."
"If you want me to back out tonight, I can."
"No! I'm not ready to go out alone. I mean, what if he gets the wrong idea?" She asked, her eyes getting wide.
I smiled and turned on the fan I had by the window to help the air circulate better and cool me off.
"He's probably going to be cautious. He doesn't want to be accused of attacking someone because he moved too soon or misinterpreted the signs."
"Did something happen?" she quickly asked.
"There are always rumors. Eric's well known on campus, and I think he becomes a magnet for these things. There haven't been any accusations. With everything happening in the world today, he's cautious. He might wait for you to make a move first. If you want him, be clear and don't send mixed messages."
"Should I wear something for a date?" Jenna asked.
She was wearing the black yoga pants and t-shirt she seemed to prefer when she was hanging around the room. "What would you wear on a date?" I asked.
"I don't know, I didn't date much in high school."
"Well, what did you wear when going out with friends?"
She looked at what she currently wore, considering it. Since we met, she had been dancing around something that happened in high school. She clearly didn't want to tell me more; I suspected she was trying to put it behind her and redefine herself.
"Jeans and a shirt, maybe a nice pair of sneakers."
"That sounds good. You should be yourself."
"But you're wearing a dress."
I had pulled a dress out of my closet and was preparing to take a quick shower, so I didn't smell gross. I hoped this could also give her time to relax.
"I wear them all the time. Even in the room to hang out."
"So, don't dress up?"
"I don't think you should try to be something you aren't. If you're comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt, then that's what you should wear."
Jenna relaxed and pulled out a pair of clean jeans and a cute t-shirt.
The evening out was fun. Eric seemed interested in Jenna. He made sure to give her as much attention as he gave me. What I didn't acknowledge at the time was that he shouldn't be giving me any attention. We were already friends. At the movie, his knee kept bumping into mine, or our arms would touch. He kept looking at me for cues. I was encouraging, assuming this was about his interest in Jenna.
"Was I okay?" Jenna asked when we got back to our room later that night.
"Of course, you were! You looked cute, and you gave him the right message."
"Should I do anything like text him or something?"
"No, I would wait. I'll flesh him out a bit more at the SGA meeting next week. Why don't you come?"
"Can I come to a meeting? I'm not a senator or anything."
"Totally come! If you want to get involved, you can; if not, well, at least he'll see you there.'
Jenna smiled. I liked seeing her confidence boosted because of one good date.