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Sami walked the campus alone, the day after arriving, to get the lay of the land, to find her classroom buildings, student center, etc. She grabbed a bite at the student center and seeing an ad in the Campus Newspaper for wait-staff, Sami went in search of a job.
The Grille was a campus hangout just across the street from the campus, but it was also an oft-frequented spot by the locals of New Orleans. Sami liked the décor and the 'feel' of the place and strived to impress during her interview.
It worked; she was hired and though she didn't know it then, The Grille would be a place of steady employment for the next four years.
Walking back to her room, when she opened the door, her senses was assaulted by an abundance of 'pinkness'. Stopping to stare at the other bed, her roomie's bed, it was covered with a pink blanket, pink pillow shams, posters on the wall above the bed that had varying shades of 'pinkness'.
"Hi, you must be Samantha," she heard a chipper, bubbly voice exclaimed from behind her back.
Turning, Sami saw for the very first time, Bonnie Sue Madison, of the Gulfport Madisons don't you know.
"Er, yeah, but please, I'd prefer that you call me Sami, if you don't mind."
"But Samantha is such a pretty name," Bonnie Sue said as she followed Sami into their room, "I'm sure you'd prefer Samantha, wouldn't you?" obviously oblivious to what Sami had just said to her.
"No, I get called Samantha enough at home; Sami would actually be preferable, Bonnie."
"Oh, call me Bonnie Sue, Samantha; everyone does," came the bubbly, chipper response.
Hello? Earth to Bonnie; did you not hear what I just said, Sami thought.
Choosing to drop the 'name game' thingy, Sami decided to unpack the last two boxes of her crap; all the while, Bonnie Sue kept a steady stream of chatter going from her side of the room while she did the same with her remaining boxes of stuff.
Her voice soon became a low hum of 'white noise' to Sami, sort of like an insistent gnat that keeps buzzing your head, you know? Closing her eyes as she hung a few things in her closet, Sami thought of killing Bonnie; right here, right now, but the mess, how would she cleanup the mess?
Banging her head against the door of her closet Sami begged for someone, anyone to please kill her; now, please kill me now...
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"Oooof" Sami's voice exclaimed as she slammed the ball across the net, with a fury.
"Great shot, Sami," Coach called from the sidelines, and then signaling with his arms, he called the girls to the sideline where he was standing.
"Okay, we still have some work to do, ladies, but I think we have what could be the nucleus of a very good team; I'm encouraged by the effort you gals have put into your individual game, and into the two practices."
"We have a team meeting next week on Tuesday, don't forget; now, give me two laps around the court and hit the showers," he said in dismissal of the team.
Toni's locker was next to Sami's and from the first day of the team gathering together, Sami and Toni sort of gravitated towards each other. When, at the first practice, it became very apparent that Toni was a great set-up player, their bond as teammates became stronger. Toni had a very nice touch with her setups, laying the ball in 'just the right spot' for the kill-shot; and Sami's kill-shot was one of the best that Coach had ever seen.
"Hey Slick," Toni called to Sami, "you need a towel?" Toni was standing at the shower room entrance, holding a couple of towels in her hands.
"Yeah, T, hang on a minute and I'll be right there," Sami replied, pulling off her jersey and tee shirt, then her shorts and panties; walking into the showers together, they grabbed the next two that opened up.
The water pressure was great, Sami thought, as her skin stung from the assault of the showerhead's stream, the fog of steam very heavy in the shower room. Sami soaped up and without seeming too obvious, she more or less ogled her teammates as they walked around in varying stages of dress, or undress.
They'd been in school a few weeks by now, getting settled into class-mode, study-mode, and with the team, practice-mode. Their first 'real' game was still a few weeks off and, as a team, they were ready to begin scoring points for real, now.
As Sami rinsed the soap from her body and hair, she'd decided that a couple, okay, maybe more than a couple, of her teammates were definitely 'fuck-worthy'.
"Hey Sami, want to grab a bite with us," T asked as she was stepping into her jeans at their lockers, "a couple of us are heading out for some food."
"Yeah, T, I'd like that," Sami replied honestly, glad on the inside that she had been asked to join.
Sami had been very busy since arriving at school with all the school stuff; she had also made contacts with a couple of Public Relations firms that handled advertising and crap in New Orleans, her portfolio being well-received. She had a couple of small photo-shoots for a local, large high-end department store already, and it looked promising as a source of extra income for her, Sami thought.
Her social life? Well, there really wasn't a lot of that, but then Sami wasn't really at college to enhance her social life unlike a lot of college students. No, Sami's goal, at college, was to distance herself from the hard-scrabble life that had been hers in Jackson, Mississippi. Oh, she'd go back to visit, of course she'd go back to visit; she loved her parents, she really did, but her mantra was still, "their life would not be her life."
The girls walked to a casual restaurant a few blocks from campus, laughing and joking, as teammates will, with each other. The talk among them was light, irreverent, with more than the occasional F-bomb being dropped into the conversation as they ate and teased each other. Sami felt as if she belonged with this bunch, and that, as much as anything, made her feel that her decision to go to college was, indeed, the right decision.
Toni had become a good friend in the short weeks since school had started. She was a tall girl, maybe a half-inch taller than Sami's 5'10" height; she carried a few pounds more than Sami did but was far from 'soft'; no, T was not quite muscular, but rather, more like 'toned', in shape. She was cute, Sami thought; not a raving beauty, but attractive. She and Sami both had a sardonic sense of humor, always quick to laugh, and always quick to drop a humorous line into a conversation.
Like Sami, she was focused on her course load and on her game.
"How's it going with Miss Bubbles?" As Bonnie Sue came to be called between themselves; Sami had used T as a sounding board to complain about Bonnie Sue's ability to push Sami's buttons, though in fairness to Bonnie Sue, she wasn't aware that she was doing so.
"Girl's on another fucking planet, T, she really is; she hasn't a fucking clue," Sami said in response.
"Typical southern 'girly-girl'," T offered up; "And what is it with these double names?" T observed, "Hell, I'm from the South and I'd kill anyone that called me Toni Marie."
"Toni Marie? Is that your middle name? Marie?" Sami asked, laughing a bit when she did so.
"You fucking tell anyone that and I'll kill you," Toni said quickly, joking, of course, at least Sami assumed that she was joking.
