-18-
Both of the girls stayed at school for the summer, hoping to make up some of the ground they had lost from missing the fall semester after Katrina last year. Class loads were heavy for a summer semester, for both of them, and they worked hard at their studies.
The bad news is that it left them little time for fun stuff, especially Sami with her job at The Grille and all. Add that to her photo shoots for the agency every couple of weeks or so, and our Sami-girl was one busy little beaver that summer.
Sami had talked with Bonnie about the project that Marcia wanted to do, using them as her models, and Bonnie pointed out, correctly, that the fall semester would be better for them both to do that. She was interested, alright, but not this summer.
Sami, agreeing with Bonnie, told Marcia that they were interested but not until the fall. Marcia was disappointed but resignedly asked Sami to call her when they were ready.
Sami stayed at school for the July Fourth holiday, picking up a couple of extra shifts from some co-workers who wanted the holiday off to party. Bonnie went to her home in Gulfport for the holiday, there being another family reunion at her parents' place.
"Can't really not go, sweetie," Bonnie said as she kissed Sami goodbye in their room, "they have these things every five years, and well, you how family is."
"Yeah, I do," Sami said, and then kissing Bonnie once more, she slapped Bonnie on her ass, saying, "Now get out of here, ahead of the traffic, and drive safely, okay?"
"Okay, baby, see you next Monday," and with that, Bonnie left for her drive to Gulfport.
Sami finished a report for her management class and hurriedly changed for her shift at the restaurant, rushing out of her door and damned near running into the girl who had her hand raised to knock, and which caused the young woman to jump back a bit.
"Oh, shit, you scared me," Sami laughingly said once she was over the shock of there being a body right outside of her door.
"I'm sorry, I was just about to knock when you opened the door so fast; hell, you scared me too," the girl replied with a laugh of her own.
"Wait; don't tell me....Bea, right? Room 312, right?" Sami said as her brain downloaded the information to her mouth.
"I'm impressed," Bea said with a chuckle, "I figured that you had blown off my invite to come and visit," brazenly looking at Sami as if she were a piece of meat that she was choosing for dinner.
"Been really busy, Bea, not unsociable," Sami replied as she locked the door to her room, "and now, I'm on my way to work across the street and I'll be late if I don't hurry," moving past Bea and heading for the stairwell.
Bea walked/ran down the stairwell with Sami and when they made it out of the dorm to the steps, she stopped Sami with a hand on Sami's arm.
"Look, I won't keep you; I'd just wanted to see if you'd like to hang out a bit over the Fourth, if you don't have anything else going on, that is," Bea offered as an explanation.
Looking at her watch, Sami realized that she still had a good ten minutes to make the two minute walk, so she relaxed a bit, and motioned with her head for Bea to walk along with her.
"Well, the only day that I'm not working is the Fourth; The Grille's closing for the holiday," Sami said, adding, "and my roomie's gone, so yeah, I guess so; what'd you have in mind?"
"I don't know, maybe hit a couple of bars for a few brews; you know, just kinda' hang out."
"I'm still about ten months shy of being 'legal' for the bars," Sami admitted to Bea, which caused Bea to smirk a bit.
"Please; this is N'awlins, honey, I know plenty of places where we can have a few without any problem at all. Look, I know you're rushed right now; drop by my room when you get off tonight and we'll figure something out, okay?" turning to walk away, her eyes on Sami.
"Okay," Sami said as she watched Bea's fine ass walk away from her, back to the dorm.
Her ass was the reason that Sami remembered everything else when she almost ran Bea over as she left her room; Sami remembered admiring her ass that afternoon, in the stairwell, when they had first talked.
Turning to look again at Bea as she walked towards her job, Sami thought that all in all, this whole thing was a bit strange, but what the hell, it surely beats the crap out of staying in her room on the Fourth, alone.
_________________
"It's open," Sami heard Bea's voice say from the other side of the door when she had knocked.
"I almost didn't come by," Sami admitted when she walked into Bea's room, into Bea's private room, "I thought it might be too late."
"Nah, I was just catching up on some assigned reading shit," Bea said as she got up from her bed to welcome Sami with an offer of a coke or water from her dorm-sized fridge.
"Who'd you have to kill to get a room all for yourself?" Sami asked as she took the offered coke.
Laughing, Bea told her that she was the RA for the dorm, and RA's get their own rooms, "The school figures it gives the RA and the residents a private place to discuss any problems or concerns of the residents."
"Very fucking cool," Sami replied, as she dropped her tall, slender body onto the futon, with her back against the wall, facing Bea's bed, where Bea had taken up a sitting position, facing Sami.
"I knew our RA was named Bea, and I can't believe that I didn't make the connection when we ran into each other a few weeks back," Sami said after a sip from the cold can of cola.
"That's alright, sugar, I like to try to keep a low profile, so, no harm, no foul," Bea replied with a sweet smile for Sami.
Bea was a senior, and 23, graduating at the end of the upcoming fall semester with a degree in English and had been accepted to graduate school at UT, in Austin, Texas. She was Bonnie's height, give or take an inch, which made her 5'6ish, and Sami figured, about 120 lbs or so.