Chapter One
1725 Words
"Here's your dorm room key Miss Miller." says my dorm advisor Megan.
"Thanks," I say taking it.
I start to make my way to where I will be living for the next 9 months. The last 3 months have been insanely crazy. Summer's gone and past, Uncle Dave and Aunt Mandi moved to Sylvania. Of course, they did this just as I was leaving. My parents have been officially divorced for 2 months. This morning my Dad and brothers said goodbye to me at the airport. I said goodbye to everyone else, including my boyfriend Jon last night. I'm now officially a student at Rivaux College. I go down to where my dorm should be and open the door. I walk in and find one of my 2 roommates. She's dressed in a mini skirt and dress shirt making me feel under dressed in my jeans and a hoodie. She spins around and sees me,
"Oh, who are you?" she asks.
"Your roommate Angela Miller." I say introducing myself.
"Oh, nice to meet you Angela, I'm Makayla."
"Call me Angie," I correct. I hate my real name.
"Where's your stuff?" she asks.
"My cab's holding it."
"You took a cab here?" she asks in disgust.
"Yep be right back!" I say leaving the room and going to the back of the dorm. I go out to my cab, "Thanks how much do I owe you?" I ask the cabbie.
"On the house," he says with a smile.
"Thanks," I say grabbing my bags. I quickly go back inside to my room. When I get there, I find Makayla and another girl already in a fight.
"Girls! Girls! Chill!" I say dropping my bags and coming in between the two. "Angela Miller nice to meet you." I say introducing myself to my other roommate.
"Katie," says the girl.
"So, what's going on?" I ask hoping to quickly make peace.
"Forget it," Katie says leaving. A guy comes in carrying multiple bags,
"Katie where do you want these?" he asks.
"Doesn't matter," she replies. He just sets them by the door.
"Thanks Dad," she says hugging him. He mutters a goodbye and leaves making it just the three of us. We all stand there in an awkward silence just staring at each other.
"I get the single bed!" Makayla finally says breaking it and I just sigh.
“I’m cool with that” I agree not wanting to cause any problems as Katie just shrugs. "Do you want top or bottom bunk?” I ask Katie.
"Preferably bottom," she says nonchalantly. I nod and go grab my bags that I kinda dropped at the door when I found Makayla and Katie fighting. I drag my stuff over to my bunk including my gear which must have grabbed Katie’s attention.
“Do you play?” Katie asks nodding at my bag.
“Yeah I do, kinda the reason I came here.” I admit and Katie smiles.
“Me too, ever since I was little.” I hear a knock on the door and look over to see Brian.
"Hey Ang!" he says.
"Brian!" I say running up and hugging him "Long time no see!" He steps back,
"Are you shrinking?"
"No, I'm pretty sure you’re growing." I say laughing, “How did you even find me? I haven’t even had a chance to text you and tell you I made it.” Brian shrugs,
“I got bored, my parents dropped me off stupidly early, so I figured I would just walk around the different dorm buildings and bother the different DA’s until I figured out where you were staying. Plus, I haven’t seen you since the beginning of the summer, I miss my friend.” He says pulling me into another hug. Katie comes closer,
"Are you going to introduce us?" she asks smiling.
"Sorry, Brian these are my roommates Katie and Makayla."
"Nice to meet you." says Katie.
"You too, so Ang wanna meet up for supper?"
"Sure, why not?" I say.
"Sweet I'll be back at 5:30." he says leaving. Katie turns to me,
"Is that hottie your boyfriend?" she asks.
"What? No!" I say quickly. "I met him at a rink like 40 minutes away from here back in January. We're just friends. Just really excited to see him cuz I haven't seen him since he visited the States in June." I explain.
"Wait the States? As in your not Canadian?" Makayla pries.
"No, I'm American, Rivaux saw me play and gave me a scholarship." I tell them.
"So, you’re pretty good then." Katie says.
"Yeah I guess,"
"So, there's nothing between you two?" Makayla asks again.
"Well I mean he wants there to be or wanted there to be. He mentioned it a couple of times but living in separate countries would have made it difficult."
"But now?" Katie asks.
"Still no, I have a boyfriend back in the States."
"So, you’re trying long distance?" Makayla asks.
"Yeah,"
"Is he cute?" Katie asks. I sigh and dig into my backpack pulling out my laptop.
"He did this not me." I say showing them the picture Jon set as my wallpaper before I left. It's the picture of us together at the BGSU Ice Arena on our first date.
"The answer is yes, wow he's cute." Makayla says.
"Yeah he is." Katie says in agreement. I shrug my shoulders,
“He’s alright I guess” I say laughing.
"Well I'm going to go find my friends." Makayla says leaving.
"Thank goodness," Katie says as soon as Makayla is out of earshot.
“What’s up with you and Makayla?” I ask curious. “I didn’t expect my roommates to be in a full out fight within the first five minutes.” Katie sighs,
“We grew up with each other and have always been in the same class, I was kinda hoping that starting high school was going to be the time I got to get away from her. We never have really gotten along, so I was just less than thrilled to see that we are rooming together here.”
"So, you’re a freshman then?" I ask Katie.
"Yeah, are you?"
"Yep,"
"Wanna listen to some music?" Katie asks pulling out an mp3.
"Sure,” I shrug. We listen to Katie's music and I know most of the songs she plays. We shut the door and start to settle into our room, maybe at least Katie and I will get along decently.
~~~
Promptly at 5:30 Brian's at my door. We head across campus to where a nice cafe is.
"I have all my stuff unpacked and set up." I tell him.
"Wow I'm impressed, I haven't even started unpacking." Brian says.
"Then what have you been doing all day?" I ask.
"Being social, something you should try." he teases.
"Hey I'm social! I've been hanging out with Katie all day."
He just laughs as we enter the cafe. It's empty besides the workers and us two. We order our food and sit just starting to catch up.
"So how was the trip here?" Brian asks.
"Fine, it was a peaceful hour. I just plugged in my ear buds and ignored the world." Words can’t explain how desperately I needed that because the last few days getting prepared to move have been anything but that.
"Sounds nice, how'd you get here from the airport?"
"A cab drove me," I say shrugging my shoulders. Brian rolls his eyes,
“I offered to have my family come get you, so you didn’t have to do that.”
“Your family was busy moving you, I didn’t want to inconvenience them.”
“Ang, I live like 45 minutes away from campus, moving me wasn’t that hard. It wouldn’t have been an inconvenience.” I just shrug and don’t even respond. "So, how are things you and Jon?" he asks as we eat.
"What'd you mean?" I ask.
"Well I didn't know if you two broke up or not since you moved here."
"No, we're giving long distance a shot." I tell him.
"Oh,"
"Why?" I ask.
"Just curious,"
"Okay?" I ask confused as an awkward silence starts. "So, how do you like your roommates?" I ask just trying to restart conversation.
"I'm with Derek and Jared so it's cool." he says. I smile, Derek and Jared are pretty cool. I don’t know them that well, but I met them once when I played shinny in Canada and then saw them again over the summer at one of our tournaments.
"Lucky! You know people, I'm just lonely and confused." I tell him.
"You got me, and your roommates seem pretty down to earth." I start laughing,
"Well Katie's pretty cool but Makayla? I’m not too sure about her.”
"Wasn't Makayla the blonde?"
"Yeah, she kinda seemed judgmental when I walked in. Then for whatever reason, her and Katie do not like each other at all."
“Did Katie say why?” Brian asks interested.
“No, just that they grew up together and never got along. Katie’s super cool though, I got to know her a little bit better as we unpacked.”
“Does Katie play hockey?"
"Yeah,"
"So, you two will be teammates." Brian says happily.
"If I make it." I hate to admit it but I'm really nervous about tryouts. If I don't make it, I moved up here and left everything for nothing!
"Ang, you’re kinda guaranteed a spot, just like me."
"What?"
"They gave us a scholarship because of how we play. If we didn't meet their standards, they wouldn't have bothered with the scholarships. They don't give full rides to just anyone."
"It wasn't a full ride!" I object not wanting to make a big deal of it.
"Okay fine, they only paid 90% of it.” Brian says rolling his eyes as he gets up, "I gotta get back to my room, Derek and Jared want to hang out."
"See ya later." I say leaving the cafe and heading back to my building.
- Writer
