This story is based on real events, but in reality never happened. At least, not to my knowledge!
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I had just moved into the froshie dorm at Patoka U. at the beginning of the semester and was feeling a bit blue. I never expected to feel so homesick - hadn't, in fact, expected anything, as I was the first one in my family to ever go to college. No one had prepared me for the culture shock of college life - all the many types of people, from all over the world. To a girl from homogenous small-town America, who had never spent more than a week from her family, this was a huge adjustment. And I was not making it very successfully. I pretty much cried myself to sleep every night, quietly, so my roommate wouldn't hear me. I was having problems making friends as well - I was painfully shy and had a lot of difficulty talking to people I didn't know. My grades were awesome, but that was because I never did anything but study.
That all began to change when my roommate got into a bit of trouble - I never did find out what it was, but it was apparently bad - and had to go home suddenly. I was so glad I wasn't her the day her parents came to get her - they looked so angry and disappointed. She was moved out in about an hour and she left, crying in the back seat as her father yelled while they drove away. I was worried and nervous - there was no way they'd let me have a room to myself. Who would be my new roomie?
I didn't have long to find out. I came back from an afternoon class to see posters of Circus Oz, the Joffrey Ballet, Robert Downey Jr. and Zooey Deschanel all over my roomie's side of the place, and Vampire Weekend and Daft Punk playing on the iPod stereo. Oh lord, I thought to myself, this is going to be interesting. Wonder what she's going to be like? Just then, a 150-lb, 5' 7" ball of energy came barreling into the room, almost knocking me down. I got a glimpse of red hair and intense green eyes and then creamy-pale skin as her arms wrapped around me to keep us both from falling.
"Oops!" she giggled, and then as we righted ourselves, she stuck out her hand. "Heyas, new roomie!" she chirped out. "I'm Lorrie, your new roomie. And oh am I so glad this opened up!" She twirled around in glee, flinging out her arms and encompassing the whole room - and almost knocking me in the head. Still, despite the oddness of her behavior, I found myself smiling. I was to find later Lorrie had that effect on everyone - somehow, she was able to make all around her catch her infectious enthusiasm. I also found out that she could talk anyone into doing anything ... but that's a bit later. "I had to share a two-bedroom dorm suite with four other girls! Can you imagine? I couldn't even put up my posters!" She raised her hand dramatically to her forehead in a gesture of martyrdom, and I had to laugh, it was so exaggerated. She looked at me and grinned back - and our friendship was sealed from that moment on.
Lorrie, I found out, was an artist and drama double major whose biggest dream was to go to New York someday and tread the boards - or to Paris and paint - it changed back and forth from day to day. She was irrepressible and everyone around her was drawn in by her bubbly personality and utter fearlessness. I found myself being her sidekick in all her adventures. She somehow always seemed to know where the best parties were, where the fun events were happening, and I found myself being less and less homesick as the days went by. Yeah, my grades may have slipped a bit, but I couldn't have been happier. I finally felt like I fit in somewhere - and Lorrie had a lot to do with that.
Just like she had a lot to do with our craziest stunt ever. Now, we had done a lot of what I would call crazy stunts, like crashing parties, pulling pranks - but nothing like what we did after Christmas break. See, our college has a Winter Olympics week, some sort of spirit-raising thing that usually got yawns and catcalls, except that for the last 10 years, a senior dorm had decided to turn the tradition on its head and have a Nude Olympics - a one-night run around the outside of the dorm, usually on a very cold January night, wearing nothing but a hat, socks and shoes . Participants would maybe wear a scarf as well, but women were specifically discouraged from doing that, as the scarves could be used to hide the biggest reasons they were encouraged to participate.
I thought it sounded dumb. Lorrie, of course, thought it sounded wonderful. She had always had a huge exhibitionist streak, always wanting the limelight, the spotlight, which I attributed to her wanting to be an actress. I just didn't realize that her exhibitionism extended to sexual areas as well - although the fact that she had absolutely no problem with making out in a room full of people at parties should have given me my first clue. When Lorrie first suggested going and running, I laughed so hard I almost fell off my bed.
