The crisp Autumn air of a new semester was in the air. Katie was walking onto her college campus for the first time. She was moved in, unpacked, and ready to meet whatever challenges were thrown at her. Her blonde hair was put back in a neat pony tail. Her glasses and clothes told other students and professors that she was both gorgeous but scholarly wearing a fairly tight blue and gray knit sweater and even tighter faded blue jeans. With her laptop and books packed in a brand new magenta and gold back pack, Katie set out from her dorm ready to conquer the day. Her walk across campus to get first class was about 5 minutes but in that short time, the relatively unknown first year student captured looks from no less than a dozen guys wondering all sorts of college boy thoughts.
The boys didn't bother to say anything to her. She unintentionally gave off an "I'm obviously taken or out of your league" confidence that likely deterred any would-be suitor from stepping up to the plate and taking a swing. Some of them were cute, but Katie was focused on her first day of classes and wouldn't let some silly boy stand in her way. And that would remain true. However, she was unprepared while walking across the quad that she would cross paths with someone who would totally upend her day and maybe her entire semester.
At that moment another girl was walking from the opposite direction toward Katie. The two were about to cross paths when Katie looked up and saw her. Her subconscious instincts kicked in and she thought for a moment that this girl resembled someone she knew. But strangely, they had never met. She was wearing sweatpants bearing the college's logo atop a basketball, clearly indicating that she played for the basketball team. She sported a long-sleeve T shirt that carefully hid much detail about this mystery girl's torso aside from the fact that she was fit and seemed to have perky breasts, or at least a bra that helped them seem appear to be so. Her hair was also pulled back but in a messy pony tail. Her face was predominantly pale but flushed red in the cheeks as one looks after an intense workout.
Her eyes were a beautiful hazel color surrounded by a light touch of eyeliner. But other than that, she sported no makeup to accompany a natural beauty which most would pass by but for some reason Katie couldn't. She unknowingly stopped walking. Standing nearly in the middle of the sidewalk, this girl brushed past Katie and said "Excuse me" politely but with no intention to carry out any further conversation. And as she brushed by, Katie caught a scent of something. Perfume? Surely not. Deodorant? Body odor? Pheromones? Likely a trifecta. Whatever it was, it struck Katie as immensely overwhelming to her senses and caused her head to swivel as she watched this girl walk past her.
Katie was struck with curiosity with the strength of an insatiable craving. But this craving was new to her. As she walked to class, her mind was fixed on this girl. As she took her seat, she had a great idea. Each sports team has its roster posted on the university website. Katie pulled her laptop out of her bag, connected to the college's abysmal wifi and scoured their website for the athletics page, then the basketball page. Finally she was met with disappointment as she realized they had not updated the rosters yet for this year.
Katie searched instagram and Facebook as well. But to no avail. She let out a short, quiet laugh dripping in self-pity as she thought about just how stalker-ish her feeble attempts were. Unfortunately the laugh was loud enough that her professor heard. "Is something funny?" he asked sternly. "Fuck!" Katie thought to herself. "No ummm...I'm sorry I..." Her professor interrupted, "What is your name?"
She'd been caught. Katie's face grew red as the professor and her entire Intro to American Lit class listened intently. "K-Katie" she stammered. "Well Katie," the professor continued, "if you're hoping to succeed in my class, you ought to log off TikTok dot com or whatever has captured your attention and pay both me and this course the respect we deserve." Several students chuckled at how clearly out of touch this elderly professor was with pop culture. One of those students happened to be sitting one empty seat away toward Katie's right.
"He ought to pay more respect to the fashion industry at large" this unexpected ally muttered in a whisper. Katie smiled at him, afraid to laugh again, as she also found the professor's outdated sports coat and tie choice to be more disjointed than T Swift and Kanye. This guy who had clearly taken her side in the dispute was tall, thin, but not very attractive. Hey, at least he was on her side.
Against her own will, Katie remained focused for most of class. But as the professor droned on, the girl from the quad this morning popped back into her head. Her attention once again shifted back to the girl. Why was she so focused on her? Katie had never been interested in girls. She's always been straight as an arrow. Ok, maybe she did have a little crush on a few girls but nothing she ever acted on and certainly nothing as debilitatingly distracting as this crush, or more likely, this infatuation.
Suddenly the sound of books and laptops closing broke her train of thought. Katie gathered her things, put her laptop away and began walking toward the door. The guy sitting beside her caught her attention, "Hey I'm heading to the caf to grab something to eat. Wanna come with?"
Coincidentally, Katie was already planning on heading for some food since her nerves kept her from eating anything before class. "Sure. I'm pretty hungry." She replied.
As they left the classroom and walked out onto the quad, the guy introduced himself, "I'm Ben...I would ask your name but I know you're the infamous Katie." They both laughed. Ben continued, "How are you liking college so far?"
"It's great!" Katie replied enthusiastically. And she wasn't lying. She was so happy to be away from home finally. Her parents were very controlling and never let Katie go out past 10 or go to sleepovers or even have boys over alone in her room. A radically new sense of freedom was refreshing and promised some opportunity to grow and experience new things.
"How about you?" Katie asked Ben. "I'm really enjoying it. I love the classes and I've met some great people," Ben replied. "I think you might be one of them." Katie blushed and looked down at her feet, feeling a little embarrassed but also flattered by his compliment.
"You know," Ben added, "I could really go for a drink with some food and sadly, the caf isn't cool with BYOB so why don't we just swing by my dorm instead?"
Katie paused in her reply for a moment. She had just met this guy. What if he was a serial killer? She moved past that thought as she knew she had listened to too many true crime podcasts. What were his motives? Where would this lead? Did she care either way?
"Yeah a drink sounds good after sitting through that class." Katie replied. They walked back across the quad and passed the caf. The campus was busier now that everyone was heading to class or lunch or whatever.
Ben and Katie talked along the way. Nothing serious, just basic conversation about their respective majors, where they're from, and in no time they were back at this dorm building. All the dorms on campus were separated by sex. This would be Katie's first time inside a boy's dorm.
