When Monday hit again, Reema was ready to tackle another week of university. She had a few classes to attend with some breaks in between, which she used to scout out some student associations and clubs. Her parents would be happy to hear that. In fact, she called them on the way to one. She wished she hadn't, though, because her dad kept reminding her how they looked good on CVs (although Reema wasn't sure he knew what CV actually stood for) and in applying for jobs and internships. It was all stuff she knew, of course.
After the day was done, she returned back to her residence where she ran into Cassie, coming out of her expectedly lively room just as she passed by. "Hey!" the blonde called out, making the Indian girl jump.
Reema laughed off the ambush. "Cassie. Scared me."
"My bad," she replied. As Cassie checked her out, she saw a mousy girl that was so easy to pass over. Her hair was lacking any shine and her big rectangular glasses still did her a disservice. She wore a pair of murky brown jeans that didn't belong anywhere but the back of closet or in a garbage bag. Over top, she had a purple tee that wasn't worth much either. Cassie didn't completely dismiss it, however, if only for the wrinkles in the middle of the shirt created by Reema's great chest. Reema was hunched over, weighted down by her bulging Jan Sport bag. Cassie would probably have to fix her posture too.
Cassie pointed to the backpack. "All done for the day?"
"I know, right? Finally," Reema said, showing a fairly large, white smile. Cassie noted some potential.
"I wouldn't know, I've been here since this morning," Cassie said in her own kind of humour. "How was your weekend? You went away, right?"
"Um, yeah, I did. I went up to see Miguel," she said, then laughingly added, "...Western's huge."
"There's bigger than here?"
"Apparently," Reema played back. "Then we kind of hung around in his room. It was nice."
"Cool. You going to visit him next weekend too?"
Reema wavered. "Yeah, I don't know...I think we may have rethought our original plan. We kind of decided it might be better if we made it a monthly thing - semi-monthly, if possible."
"That's smart. You don't want to kill yourself too much, right?"
"Yeah," she said, and then asked with a hint of a grin, "How was your weekend? Any crazy parties while I was gone?" It might have been a judg-y dig at Cassie and her 'lifestyle', but with everything she had seen out of Cassie so far, it was a legitimate question.
"Aha, no parties. Just a bit of dancing downtown," Cassie said understatedly.
Downtown. That was a half hour ride out of campus. Reema flashed to the mental image of a loud, stuffy night club. Even after people started to turn eighteen at her high school and started to go out, Reema didn't partake in that scene. It was way out of her comfort zone.
"That sounds like fun," Reema politely said.
"Yeah, it was. It's always cool to get out and meet new people, you know?" she said, adding that she was at karaoke last week. "Anyways, you wanna come in and chill for a bit?" Cassie pointed back to her room.
Reema shook her head. "Thanks, but I got a lot of work to do. Sorry."
"Ahh...priorities...I get it..." Cassie nodded along. "They're a bitch. I guess I'll leave you to it." Then, she went in for a hug, pushing right into Reema's cushy chest, again relishing the opportunity to take advantage of them. "See ya, alright?"
The embrace surprised her. Reema figured that meant they were officially friends now, even if she didn't quite understand why yet. Cassie was nice enough, but as Reema thought about it when she went back to her room, it was odd to have a girl as a friend. It was even odder to have a pretty blonde girlfriend. Reema's friend group in school was mostly guys. While they weren't the entire female population of her high school, there were these clique-ish type girls that Reema might have originally associated Cassie with. Perhaps she misjudged her. Perhaps it was like Cassie was saying: university was about meeting people you normally wouldn't associate with.
She had another casual hall encounter again with the Blomshell again the next day, but they really hung out together the day after that. This was the day where they had a lecture and tutorial together. Cassie stopped by her door in the morning and suggested they walk over together. Reema was ready, save for putting on a sweater. She returned with a university branded hoodie she got at the student store. Cassie offered her a closed mouth smile and then told her they should get going.
At the lecture hall, Reema started down to the front when Cassie's voice beckoned her.
"Up here, Reem," Cassie told her.
The Indian girl stopped. Cassie stood several steps above her. "Oh. I kind of like being up close..." she meekly said.
Cassie shrugged. "I mean, it's up to you, but you hear and see the same at the top as the bottom. Trust me." The blonde teen saw Reema's wavered expression. It was killing her not to be teacher's pet. There probably wasn't a class in her high school that she didn't claim a front row seat. "If you really wanted, you can still talk to the prof during the break."
Reema was still a bit divided when she said, "OK."
They sat next to each other again in tutorial. Reema saw that Cassie, with her 'extrovertedness' outside of the classroom, she wasn't really chatty inside of it. On occasion she tried to get her attention with something else, but Reema snickered and told her to focus. Even in lecture Cassie wasn't as rigorous with her note taking as Reema was. She could glance over and see that Cassie was 'just checking one thing' on Facebook. It was peculiar, but it didn't set off too many alarm bells. Perhaps that was just her style.
That night, they repeated their jointed essay venture from the previous week. Even if she didn't overtly show off her brain in class, Reema saw that Cassie did have the savviness to get through the school year. She had good ideas and Reema assumed her natural role of coordinating and organizing things into something concise and presentable. They had good time talking and they finally finished the paper, which was a big plus.
When the end of the week hit, Reema was quietly nestled in her room. It was Friday night and there were rumblings on her floor about people going to the local campus watering hole or downtown for a 'good night'. Reema figured she could entertain herself with some World of Warcraft or a movie later on, but that was if she finished her work. Her dad would've made her skip the movie altogether, but with him not here, she was free to have some fun.
It was a quiet and productive evening, so when Reema heard someone call out from her main room, it was a bit startling. "Hey, hey, knock, knock! Anyone home?" chimed the cheery voice.
Reema stopped highlighting mid-sentence and called back, "In here!" Cassie appeared in her tiny white shorts, telling her that her door was unlocked and that she let herself in, if that was OK with Reema.
She told her it was. The truth was that Cassie was so liberal about leaving her door unlocked and, more often than not, wide open, so Reema took her suggestion on being less uptight about shutting her door. She didn't bow to what other people normally did, but Cassie's suggestion that she was the only person that locked was odd. It was up to her, but maybe it would be better than she didn't isolate herself. Night time was a different issue. She locked it then.
Cassie casually sauntered into the room, surveying her computer screen, although not without glancing down at her body again. "Whatchoo doin'?"
She didn't have to really ask, however. Reema was
always
typing up an assignment or reviewing her lecture notes from earlier in the day. Again, she was dressed in drab, colourless sweats. Still though, she did like how those wide hips filled out the computer chair.
"Just reading up on the Lawrence article Professor Trevor was referring to in lecture," Reema responded.
"Oh wow, Reema...so studious to look that up! That's amazing of you!"
Reema lit up at the commendation. "Yeah! It's quite good...I can Facebook you a link, if you'd like?"
"Yeah, sure that'd be great," Cassie politely accepted. Reema really was a hopeless keener. That wasn't even on the required reading list. She was giving herself more work to help her 'better understand the material'. "Actually, I came in here to tell you that a bunch of us are going to go to karaoke for pub night tonight. You should come!"
Reema remembered Cassie mentioning her rave reviews about the week before, but she politely shook her head. "I can't," she meekly smiled. "I've got that Anderson reading to do for our class."
"Oh," Cassie said, dropping her enticing, animated smile. "That's kind of cool. You're so good with being ahead with stuff. That's due, like what, next week...?"
"I know, I just wanted to a jump on it so I don't have cram it in the night before," the girl explained.
Cassie laughed. "You're Reema Ahmed, university all-star. I'm pretty sure that won't ever happen."
Reema had never been called an 'all-star' in any regard. She had set herself well in her school work that it wouldn't really be falling behind. Perhaps she could spare a night out. Plus, she liked karaoke and Korean culture. She had been a couple of times in high school with Miguel. He probably would have liked to come tonight too. He was probably going to studying, though.
"C'mon, I'm sure it won't be the end of the world if you don't do it tonight," Cassie said, echoing her friend's thoughts. "It's Friday after all. That's fun night!" She flashed her perfectly white and straight teeth again, playfully singing her enticement, "It'll be a lot of funnnn..." As if that wasn't enough, she pointed out that friends tended to spend time in fun
social
environments - places that weren't their dorms, class, and if lucky, the laundry room. Tonight would be the first opportunity for such a hang out.
In her own sly and playful way, Cassie was pushing hard because getting Reema out tonight was vital to her plan with this girl. The first step was to introduce her into more social situations. She had to be careful, though. If she started big, she'd scare her off and that was a waste. First she'd get her out to an innocent, fun event - a gateway outing of sorts - to break the ice. Karaoke was so silly and fun that a 'vanilla' girl like Reema shouldn't have had a problem with it. There would be alcohol, and Cassie would make sure Reema indulged, but she would deemphasize that part - despite it being
very
important.
