During her high school years, Diana was an outstanding student who achieved excellent grades throughout her studies. She had applied and was accepted to the Navy's Reserve Officer Corps (ROTC) program as she pursued a BSN degree (Bachelor of Science in Nursing). The program meant she was entitled to a fully-funded tuition scholarship, plus a textbook allowance, as well as a stipend for living expenses.
Upon graduation, she would become an Officer in the Navy Nursing Corps. The absolute certainty of a professional future was the most attractive feature influencing Diana's choice for her college ambitions.
Part of the program required her to complete two, four-week training sessions, conducted in the summer, either at Norfolk VA or San Diego CA. Usually these are conducted between freshman and junior years, and between sophomore and junior years, or between junior and senior years. At her request, and considering her excellent credentials, she was allowed to take her first training session in the summer before her freshman year. When she left for Norfolk, she forgot to take her birth control pills with her. When she got back, she neglected to resume taking them as the excitement of entering university occupied her mind.
Since she had all her college expenses paid for her, there was no financial burden to her parents. Mind you, they were well off and prepared to finance her education expenses, as they did not wish any of their daughters to start their adult life in debt via student loans. That being the case, it was easy for Diana to finagle her parents to obtain a brand new car, compact GM SUV, for her to start her freshman year at the School of Nursing, University of Michigan.
Diana was not from a poor family; both of her parents were well paid attorneys. Her father was a partner of one of the more prestigious law firms in Detroit, and her mother was one of the corporate lawyers for General Motors (GM). Nevertheless, she was frugal by nature. She did not relish the expense of moving to Ann Arbor, especially since it was only about an hour's drive from her parents' house. For Diana, there was no anathema to living with her parents, since she had as much privacy as she would wish. Considering her parents' very active professional life, she seldom saw them during the weekdays, so it was a no brainer as far as she was concerned to opt to commute to the school.
She had determined that her non-academic goal for her freshman year was to lose her virginity once and for all, by engaging in heterosexual intercourse. Alas, it was not to be for various reasons. Her top priority was to achieve good grades to ensure that she maintained her ROTC scholarship in good standing.
The academic course load of the Nursing school was intense and occupied a great chunk of her time. Also, for her ROTC obligations, she had to take a weekly drill instruction and a Navy orientated course. She found the workload not only demanding, but also interesting, which tended to tamp down her active libido.
The University of Michigan tended, in the main, to espouse mostly liberal values, as reflected by the attitudes borne both by the majority of students and faculty. An anti-military atmosphere was part and parcel of such political sentiments. It did not help in establishing friends and acquaintances that she was the sole ROTC student in her class year at the school of nursing. The total number of all ROTC students represented a tiny fraction of the entire student body at UM. Since Diana commuted to school from her parents' home, it gave her less opportunity to form an acquaintanceship with other students. It was no wonder that she did not make even one relatively close friend during her freshman year.
Things drastically changed in her sophomore year, as Diana struck up a friendship with her partner in one of her lab classes. Her name was Makayla Brown, and she was a strikingly good looking Afro American woman. She was tall like Diana, at five feet ten inches, and she weighed about one hundred and ninety pounds. Overweight true, but on her, she looked sensationally voluptuous. She always was the center of attention in whatever gathering she found herself. Diana was aware of Makayla's existence during their mutual freshman year, but it wasn't during their sophomore year when they became more intimately acquainted.
In the first week of the semester, their interaction with each other was confined to school work and incidental matters. Being astonishingly parsimonious, considering that she was more comfortably well off than most of her fellow students, Diana invariably packed a lunch. One day, during the second week, she had forgotten to bring her lunch, and so was forced to eat at a dining hall at the school, if she did not want to starve herself. As the last class that ended before noon was the lab class, she asked Makayla if she would like to join her for lunch. The latter accepted, and the two of them repaired to the nearest dining hall on campus.
Their lunch turned out to be a mutually interesting meeting, as they got to know each other better personally. Makayla had grown up in a fairly safe neighborhood in Detroit, with a single mother and three other half-siblings. Her mother had a clerical job in the city government, and as a result, Makayla experienced a modest but adequate upbringing. Although her mother was relatively promiscuous, as evidenced by the fact that each of her sibs had different fathers, nevertheless she insisted that all of her children would take their education seriously. As a result, Makayla, who was the oldest, attended a demanding charter school for her elementary school education, and a private Catholic high school for her secondary school education.
Makayla proudly exclaimed, "With my mother's encouragement, I studied fucking hard to make sure I got fucking good grades. And I did get great fucking grades, so I didn't need no fucking affirmative action bullshit to get into U of M, and this school so I could make something of myself."
Diana asked, "How can you be sure that affirmative action played no part in your acceptance at U of M?"
"Because in my application, where it asks for 'race', I marked the 'do not want to say' box."
"Still, your first name probably gave you away that you're black."
"Fuck that! I know I got better marks than most of the bitches in our class."
"Oh? And how do you know that?"
"Cause I fucking asked. So what was your GPA in high school?"
Diana told her, and her grade was, apparently, higher.