Sara never thought she would move away for college. She loved living at home with her parents and had lots of friends from high school that she didn't want to move away from. But, in the past few months, she realized that she was ready for some distance from her family, more freedom, and independence.
It was move-in weekend. After just meeting her roommate, she was getting settled into her new room. Her new roommate, Anna, was nice enough, and they were both excited about living in a dorm with lots of other students.
"I can't believe they have a dress code at this school," Anna said, looking through her new student paperwork, "We didn't even have one at my high school."
"Oh, yeah? What are we not allowed to wear?" Sara asked.
"Well, it looks like there's a list...leggings, short-shorts...dresses must be fingertip length, no sagging pants."
"Interesting," Sara said, looking through her own papers.
A knock on the door disrupted the girls from their dress-code distress.
"Come in!" Both girls chimed.
The door swung open and there stood a stranger.
"Hey, I'm Katie! I'm next door," she said, glancing at the name tags on their door. "Which one of you is which?"
"I'm Sara," Sara replied, "and that's Anna."
"Are you guys going to the back to school bash?" Katie asked, "I don't really want to go by myself."
An hour later, the girls were walking into one big university party on the campus green with a giant sign that read "WELCOME CLASS OF 2010." They stuck together for the whole evening. After getting snow cones, the girls ran into some of Katie's high school friends.
"Hey guys! Sara, Anna, this is Travis and Austin," Katie introduces everyone.
They all shook hands, feeling unsure how informal to be with each other after a weekend full of school orientation. They talked about high school, sports, moving into the dorms, and saying goodbye to their families. Sara felt Travis's eyes on her the entire conversation.
All of a sudden, the crowd erupted into a big dance mob. Sara hung back, not feeling confident enough to jump in. As the crowd moved away, Sara felt Travis next to her.
"Where did you say you're from, Sara?" he asked.
"Kansas City," she replied.
He kept asking her questions about home. Who is this guy? She thought. He seemed nice enough.
"I'm not really interested in hanging out at this back to school bash much longer," she said.
"Do you want to get out of here?" He asked.
She grabbed his arm, nodding her head and moving farther away from the crowd. They walked towards his car and agreed to go into town to get ice cream.
"Do you have a boyfriend?" He asked once they were on the road.
She was excited to be adventuring with a new college boy, but was getting annoyed with his pushiness.
"That's an awkward question to ask someone you barely know," she said.
He blushed, and that made her smile.