The sun shone brightly through the blinds of dorm room 118 while the inhabitants inside protested with groans and struggled to pull the covers over their eyes. The late night partying at the keg party on Vernon Street hadn’t been much help for the three young women’s beauty sleep.
Terra was the first to roll out of bed. Straining her mascara streaked racoon eyes, she glanced over to the red digital letters on the alarm clock.
“You guys, you might as well just get up. The alarm’s going to go off in ten minutes.” She said in her sleepy gruff voice.
Marlin grabbed the pillow and pulled it over her head tightly while Jolie continued to hide her face under a bunched fist full of blankets.
“I’m awake...I’m just resting my eyes.” Marlin growled.
“Would you just get up! We have to get ready for the outing today. You know if we are late they will leave without us!” Terra reminded them argumentatively.
“I don’t wanna go clean up the stupid trash in the woods that other people threw . I’d rather just stay in the bed and take the stupid “F” for not showing.” Jolie added.
“We volunteered over a month ago. They didn’t have many people sign up for the Earth Day clean up...we can’t let Coach Stephen down. Please?” Terra pleaded with her roommates in the little squeaky voice that normally got the perky redhead her way.
“You just want to follow behind Coach looking at his ass.” Marlin snickered and Jolie revealed two fingers from under the covers, rubbing them together in the little primary “sicky sicky sicky” fashion.
“Hey!” Stomping her foot lightly against the carpet, Terra pouted mockingly. “Well...who could help looking at that ass? To know what I was thinking...it’s obvious that I’m not the only one.” She laughed.
“Well...yeah.” Marlin admitted while laughing and finally pulling the pillow off of her head and slinging it on the floor. Gradually the boney girl fought the urge to crawl back in bed and stood up, stretching.
Terra watched as Marlin raised her arms in the air, mouth open wide in true feline manner. The girl’s short ebony hair was all over her head, making her look even more tom boyish. She then raised a brow as Marlin turned around to walk towards the bathroom, getting a big “Good morning” from her stark white ass in a pair of royal purple thongs with bright yellow rubber duckies on them. There was the famous little tan “V” shaped birthmark on her left ass cheek. After seeing a movie at the theater together, the three had started referring to it as “the mark of Budda”.
“Can’t you wear normal underwear?” Terra asked sarcastically while giggling a little.
“These are the normal ones.” Marlin called back before walking into the bathroom and shutting the door behind her.
Getting Jolie up took a little more effort, but eventually Terra was successful. The three finished dressing and rushed down into the main lobby.
A group of about fifteen other students had gathered in the lobby. Some attempted to find comfort in the hard plastic chairs while others leaned impatiently against vending machines. Coach Stephen sat somewhere in the middle of this grumpy circus, glancing at his wrist watch in a vexed manner as the girls approached.
“It’s about time you ladies joined us.” He griped while slipping a hand through his salt and pepper hair. “Let’s move out!”
The ride to Panther Falls had already lasted close to an hour. A lot of the students had fallen asleep once more on the bus.
Jolie, brushing a few strands of golden brown hair from her eyes, watched Marlin and Terra while they dozed. She chuckled lightly to herself as Marlin’s head lay slumped over to the side, a small stream of drool trickling from the corner of her mouth. She wondered to herself if she would save her roommate some embarrassment and wake her.
“Nah.” Jolie thought to herself with a smile.
Unexpectedly while her friend slept she found her eyes resting on Marlin’s cleavage which peeked slightly from beneath the partially unbuttoned shirt. It was one of those little fitted numbers with bright neon patterns and shiny buttons, like one would wear to a rave or techno party. Her short black hair was styled in a spiked, unkempt manner framing her pale, heart shaped face and giving her a pixie like quality. She was so beautiful, though in an unconventional way.
Jolie blinked twice to remove the thought from her head.
“What am I doing? I’m not a lesbian!” The girl thought to herself before turning to look out of the window at the moving scenery.
The van eventually came to a halt near a thick wooded area. The sliding doors sounded as they were opened. A gush of fresh mountain air rushed in and smacked the sleeping student’s senses, though it was the coach that snapped them back from dreamland.
“Wake up slackers!” Stephen called out loudly in a joking manner. “Have I got everyone’s attention?”
Groans filled the air.
“Good.” He paused for a moment while fumbling with something in the floorboard. “You are going to search these wooded trails high and low for any trash, bottles, or man made debris you can find. Take these garbage bags with you and fill them. In the next three hours, whoever fills the most garbage bags will win the fifty dollar cash prize. At the end of the three hours we will meet back up at the van here. Please keep track of time so that we don’t have to come looking for you.” Coach Stephen looked straight at the three ladies with the closing request, his deep blue eyes flashing. “Any questions?”
Everyone shook their heads.
“The only thing I ask is that you stay away from the falls themselves. We are here for an Earth Day outing, not to frolic in the water. Not to mention how many accidents occur at these falls every year. This project is for helping out, not for producing liabilities. We clear on that? Alright then, get to work.”
Jolie, Terra, and Marlin walked down an overgrown path with their shiny black bags in tow. There seemed to be plenty of beer cans and soda bottles to fight over, just not for three girls in one spot.
“Okay.” Terra said with a deep breath of irritation. “This isn’t working. We need to just split up if we are ever going to do enough work to compete for the money, and I’m sorry you guys but talking and keeping each other company is great, but I really need that money.”
“Yeah. You’re right. I could use fifty dollars to pay on my cell phone bill.” Marlin agreed.
“I don’t care. We can just meet back up at the van.” Jolie said while sweeping her long hair up into a ponytail.
Terra walked off first, grabbing pieces of wadded up paper and a few Coors Light cans as she headed down what seemed to be a promising path. Meandering along, she swatted a few stray vines as they whipped across her path. Not far down the overgrown trail, she realized that her bag was almost halfway full.
