Ashley and Jill shared one bedroom, and Jasmine had the one next door. Her roommate for the night was a very inquisitive and spunky blonde. It was not long before Jasmine was in the other room, sitting next to Ashley on her bed. They had left the doors open, but hadn't ventured out yet as they were comparing notes from the day. The blonde came in to see where her "roomy" went, and ended up making herself at home on the other end of Jill's bed. She interrupted their conversation to find out how they knew each other, and Jill obliged with a simple explanation that they were friends from high school. It wasn't until Ashley was relating what all she had to take this semester that the girl finally put two and two together.
"Oh my God! You're Ashley Roberts!" she exclaimed, pointing a finger at the accused.
Ashley gave a polite smile and held up her hand to display her wedding band. "Ashley Smith, now."
A number of girls from the next study and just outside in the hallway scurried into their study to take a peek. Looking through the doorway, they could see the redhead giving a shy smile at them with a small wave. Some asked how she came up with Ashley's Song, and she related the tale. The girls did a string of self-introductions, and Ashley gave another wave, saying her own name, which gathered a lot of nervous giggles. She asked where everybody was from, and Jasmine laid back on Jill's bed. She knew this would be a while because as good as Ashley was at engaging crowds, crowds engaged Ashley. Jasmine wanted either of two things -- to stay in and just chat with her friends, or go out to see some of the nightlife. Option two would only happen if a university-approved sorority ambassador happened to invite specific girls out, and the first option was heading out the window since things were rolling toward a sing-along event.
Unknown to Jasmine, Ashley had texted Amy her room number after dinner. It was almost on cue when she showed up just as Jasmine's roommate requested Ashley sing her hit song. Ashley saw Amy and begged to give a rain check. She introduced Amy to the girls that now packed their room, study, and spilled into the hallway. Amy asked to speak to Ashley about class schedules, and most everybody took the hint. Jasmine's roommate finally got it when Amy gave her a cold shoulder, but Jasmine and Jill stayed put. Amy asked Ashley if she was ready to go and Ashley said only if Jill and Jasmine could go too. Amy agreed and waited for them to make a pit stop before heading out.
The hallway was quite busy now, as sorority officers were checking out the fresh blood coming into the school. The scene reminded Ashley of a courtship, although the lines were blurred as to who was the contestant and who was the prize. The recruiters sized up potential pledges, and would zero in on the promising ones. In turn, the new students would surround the recruiters the second they stopped to talk, trying to gain attention unto themselves. Their room was at the end of the hall, so Amy winked at a couple of her sisters and ducked out the fire exit. As they descended the eight flights from their top floor, Ashley asked why they didn't use the elevator. Amy asked if Ashley wanted to run that gauntlet, and the point was well taken. The scene on each floor was very similar, the high-pitched excited chatter spilling through the doors as they passed.
They headed south toward Sorority Row and Amy explained as they walked that the security speech earlier in the day was no joke. The campus is very open, and easily accessible from every side. FSU has a reputation for having a very friendly, very attractive, and very plentiful female population. In a way, it made the campus a target for sex crimes. Serial rapist and killer Ted Bundy had made a good portion of his notoriety from this campus, and a number of security features had been installed after that nightmare. Still, even though there were call boxes everywhere, better lighting, and a beefier campus police force, the one thing that made the place safer was training students to have a heightened awareness to what was going on around them. That part was easier now that the medical school had replaced the last patch of dark woods on the property.
Aside from the sober warnings, Amy was fun to be around. She was funny and intelligent, even if a little scatter-brained. Jasmine and Jill thought that she was a lot like Ashley in some ways, and they liked her immediately. Amy announced Sorority Row when they entered the street, and it looked more beautiful at night than the last time they visited during Joe's football game against Florida High.
Their time inside the house ended up being short-lived. The upperclassmen that had either stayed through the summer or returned early to start getting things set up were all very sweet and warm. Each was capable of gracing a magazine page, and the combined beauty in the room could make even the Pope reconsider his lifestyle choice. But, Ashley naturally put them at ease, and Jill exploited the relaxed talk to extract information. She had a way of using filters in her head to bore down and get to the real truth, and a few warning flags had raised in her head. Jasmine caught the look and touched Ashley's arm. She fibbed, saying that she wanted to visit another sorority that she was invited to at dinner before they had to be back. Numbers were exchanged, and they turned down Amy's offer of walking them back.
They left the house and Jasmine asked Jill what she thought. Jill said that the ladies were genuinely nice, but their recruiting was weighted heavily toward looks. No questions were asked of them relating to their majors or hobbies, and that's what set off the alarm in her head.
"It's a party house," Jill said. "Not like Animal House party, but underneath, they're definitely boy-crazy. That's all fine and dandy, but I got shit to do, and not enough time for that."
Ashley nodded, feeling the same way. They asked Jasmine where she was invited, but she said she made up the excuse, hoping for a way out and thought that mingling with their future classmates would be more fun. They were turning the corner to head north toward the dorms when a pleasant feminine voice called out to get their attention. They turned to see a bubbly, yet concerned, young lady jog toward them from the front of another southern mansion. She had guessed that they were new and asked what they were doing without a guide with them. They explained where they had been and that they had refused an escort. She smirked at the rival house's name and introduced herself as this year's president of her sorority. The girls braced themselves for a pitch, but instead, she said she would walk them back to the dorm so that campus police wouldn't harass them for being out without an escort.
As they walked, she offered nothing about her sorority, but asked all kinds of questions about them. When Jill baited her by mentioning Ashley's CD, she simply said that she thought one of her friends had bought one. The towers of their dorm came into view and Jill asked about her sorority. The escort said that they were about leadership, community, friendship, and had a healthy social life. The order of the answers prompted more questions from Jill and facts about dues, member responsibilities, and benefits of sisterhood were generously given. Jill was sold even before Jasmine got information about the numerous social and dating events, which were an inevitable part of any co-ed school. Glancing at Ashley's ring, the sorority president said that they did not exclude married pledges, although it had been some time since someone had entered as having been hitched.
Jill wanted to sign up when they got to the dorm, but was told that tonight was all about questions and answers on the school, and Greek life. No actual recruiting, or at least paperwork, could be done until rush week during the second week of school. She addressed the campus police officer stationed outside the dorm by first name and kissed him on the cheek, fibbing that the girls were with her. He smiled, nodded them inside, and said that he would see her later. They asked if she wanted to come up to their room, but she winked and with a nod toward the officer said that she had to get things ready for someone about to come off shift.
It was eleven when they returned and the crowds in the hallways had thinned out somewhat. Ashley decided to try the online registration from her phone, but the site stated prohibitively that class registration would open at midnight. She got the idea to try the backup phone system and gasped in surprise when it asked for her access code. She grabbed her trial schedule and punched in the ID numbers, gleefully hearing "confirmed" for each one. Quietly, she told Jill and Jasmine to try it, and they were successful as well. Jasmine clued in her roommate after she was done, but the loophole had closed. They chatted about nonsense until twelve, and Ashley tried the website again, to ensure her choices had stuck. The volume of students trying to get in jammed the connection, and she gave up after an hour and a half, occasionally hearing groans of disappointment and frustration down the hall and across the bathroom.
Ashley woke at five and unable to get back to sleep, she looked again to see if her selections were still in the system. The site popped right up, and everything was still in order -- each class also displaying the tag "full" beside "confirmed." She padded over next door and gently woke Jasmine's bunk mate, offering her the use of her phone to register. She took the opportunity to have a shower and get dressed for the day before the bathroom would have to be fought over. When she got out, the roommate thanked her and said that most of her first choices were taken, but she got a lot of second choices that she was happy with. Ashley laid back down in her room and sent a text to Joe in hopes of passing the time until the sun would start to light the windows. He was up, but said that he had a bad night. They switched to calling, and chatted about it for a while before Joe said that he was going to get ready and would see her downstairs before they headed to breakfast.
He held Ashley's butt when she jumped up and attacked him with kisses. Still holding Ashley off the ground, Jasmine kissed him on the lips and made way for Jill and Joe to kiss each other's cheek. The scene caught some stares and open mouths from some of the other freshmen filing past toward the student union. The rest of the morning was pretty boring, even though it was intended to be a pep rally of sorts to get the students excited about the fall term. A guidance session was offered for those who couldn't get their trial schedules to work out, but since all four got their choices, they picked up their confirmations and were released.
Kim was interested in their stories at lunch, but insanely jealous. The community college orientation was a handful of small assemblies where packets of information were handed out. Her course choices were straightforward as her only request to the counselor was that she obtain an AA degree in the fastest manner possible so she could join her friends at the university. The sororities sounded fun, and she wished she could have hung out on campus. But when Joe told his story, she was heartbroken.
For him, everything was fun as well, right up to the part when the frat recruiters arrived. One of them recognized him from the campus paper last fall when it did a story on the top football recruit playing at the on-campus high school game. It pitched Joe as the possible savior to the university's quarterback troubles. But then, a second article in the winter announced that Joe had changed his mind, electing not to play football at all. He ribbed Joe about not hacking it, the ribbing turned to taunts, taunts into harassment from a number of recruiters and students alike. The junior also said that Joe's girlfriend at the time was hot and crudely said that maybe he would show her real pleasure. Joe had made a fist to show his wedding band and said that Ashley was now his wife. Things appeared headed to a physical fight, and the floor moderator ended up calling police. An officer showed up and his presence alone made the provokers back off. Joe ended up camping out in his room, reading news on the netbook computer he brought.
