Growing up in my family meant you were a football player if you were a guy or the girlfriend of one if you were a girl. But even though I was six foot tall and one ninety, I didn't like the fact that my father could hardly walk from his old high school injuries, my oldest brother had already had two surgeries on his knees, and my second oldest brother was on the concussion protocol at the college he attended. No, not me, I wanted to have knees when I got older and a brain that still functioned. When I informed my family that I wasn't playing my senior year of high school you would have thought I committed a felony. Everything from how stupid, disrespectful, concern over what others would say, no scholarship, and anything else they could think of was thrown at me. I nodded as they went on but my mind was made up. I was going to turn eighteen soon and would be expected to make my own adult decisions in other aspects of life, why not make a decision on my health as well.
I was tormented by the whole family including my mother all summer. It finally settled down when my brothers reported to football camp early in the fall which gave me two weeks of peace before I would leave for school. They were living in temporary housing until school started which meant they would be home for a break and leave the same day I did for their campus. They were only an hour away so most of the dorm stuff waited until they could settle into their permanent housing. That allowed an additional opportunity for them to be complete jerks for couple a couple of days. My drive to the university would take about six hours and I planned to leave around six am so that I could get there around one or two allowing for a one hour time change and a lunch/fuel stop along the way. I had my car packed and went to bed around eight thirty the evening before avoiding any more so called family time.
I wasn't expecting a sendoff but my mother was already up waiting for me when I entered the kitchen. As mothers do she embraced me in a long hug with tears in her eyes telling me how much she would miss me. At some point during the hug my little sister wrapped herself around us both and said "Me too."
The drive didn't take too much wind out of my sail because I was very anxious to start this phase of my life. I was eager to learn and had a semester of English 101, Physics 301 with a Lab, Macroeconomics, and an Intro to World History on my schedule. I had been on campus numerous times and found a place close to the student union where I had to find the outside table with the letter C (last name was Connors) and check in. Things went pretty smoothly since I had attended the student/parent orientation last month. I found my dorm on the map and ran back to my car to attach the student parking sticker to the window and then drive over near the building to unload.
After my third or fourth trip up the stairs I kept telling myself that my tote bins were heavier than I remembered but trudged up each flight to the third floor anyway. Then for some stupid reason I thought I would carry my last tote along with my rolled up bedding on my last trip instead of making two. The weight or awkwardness of it wasn't the problem. Getting the door open on the top floor without having to set everything down was. I was able to grab the door handle and pull just enough to get my foot in the door so I could kick it out. And here is where the stupid part came in, as I kicked it open and tried to dart in, the door hit my other foot and stopped and I plowed face first into the edge of the door knocking my contact out and then hearing the soft pings as if bounced through the grated stairway and down a few floors. There was no way to find it because I did not know how many flights it fell or where it could have possibly landed. On top of that, I can't see worth a darn without them.
My afternoon only got worse from there. When I started unpacking I found that my totes were in fact heavier and even worse contained clothing I couldn't wear. My frickin brothers had pulled all of my shorts, jeans, t-shirts, and polo shirts out replacing them with corduroy pants, flannel shirts, along with comic, Star Wars, and other t-shirts from the dollar store. At the bottom of one of the totes was a fifteen pound bag of grass seed, something my father wouldn't be happy about when it went missing, and at the bottom of another was two five pound bags of sugar, something my mother would not be happy about when she can't find hers.
First things first and that was a trip to the closest Walgreen to find some readers so I could see. Fortunately they did have one pair I could use. The bad thing about that was the fact that the only pair that I could see out of were those big thick frames and didn't allow a hint of style to be shown. Ugly and big, but I had no choice. I tried a couple of shopping centers nearby and couldn't find anything open. When I found some kids on bikes jumping the curbs at one of the malls I stopped and told them of my plight to find clothes.
"You aren't going to find any stores open. It's Sunday."
"What about a Walmart?" Certainly they would be open.
"They're going to build one out on Lancaster Road next year." Was the only thing they could think of?
I thanked them and moved on because the only thing I could think of now was strangling my brothers.
My roommate showed up later that night and was about five inches shorter than me and maybe the same weight so borrowing from him was out of the question. He had a great sense of humor though. He thought my brothers were hilarious and said he can't wait to meet them. He laughed until he fell asleep in his bed that night. Just what I needed in a roommate I thought. He'll be lucky if he doesn't wake up in a bed filled with grass seed.
The noise in the dorms woke everyone up early. Some who did not sleep in anticipation of their first day were up ready to go down to breakfast. Some did not sleep because of the strange bed and a snoring roommate? And then there was me. I was up early trying to find the least embarrassing thing I could find in my totes. I settled on a dark brown pair of corduroys and a plain or somewhat plain brown plaid shirt. I felt and looked like a dweeb.
My first class was a Monday Wednesday physics class that had a Tuesday Thursday lab. So that meant the first four days of the week would start exactly the same every day at eight AM. The instructor turned out to be a comedian. He too was going to make my life interesting. When he walked in everyone was still jockeying for desk position and he just let everyone keep moving around. In fact he even mentioned that we should take our time, get comfortable with each other and especially the person we were seated next to. The classroom had two person benches and lab tables throughout. After five minutes of noise as some did get up and move he turned on his smart board at the front of the room that had his introduction on it. The introduction was followed by a seating chart. Yes a seating chart. Everyone had to get up and move. The professor thought he was funny and mentioned that maybe it would have been easier if he had it on the board first thing. OK, so now I have a use for ten pounds of sugar.
When I found my name on the graphic I was seated at the front right table next to the name of Jennifer Coldwell. Since everything was alphabetical Jennifer Coldwell - Jeremy Connors only made sense. She was at the table as I walked up and I was taken aback at how pretty she was. She had long blonde hair, greenish blue eyes, dressed very nice, and had a figure that couldn't be real. Her proportions would have been perfect except for the fact that her tits would have looked gigantic on anyone. I know I was staring because I heard her say hello twice before I looked up. She introduced herself and shook my hand as I mumbled something. I also learned that she was a junior transfer and two years ahead of me. She had accumulated her GenED and some other prereqs at a junior college to save money.
The first week was no easy journey in this class. The instructor dove right in and we had a lab to do on Tuesday and Thursday with the written portion submitted by Monday at eight AM next week. He also had some self-taught lab procedures we all had to complete and those answers were to be input on the school website. These were not graded, but you had to answer correctly to move onto the next one. Jennifer turned out to be very pleasant and waited to Thursday to comment on my excessive inventory of flannels. After a quick explanation she was qualified to be on the list of people who thought my brothers were funny. She did give me a nickname which from her was ok to use but irritated me when others used it. She called me her little Brain Geek. Within a week and a half that is what I was being called by others. Little Brain Geek.
As you can imagine Jennifer was approached by a lot of guys and girls because of her appearance and anytime we would be in the common area of the science building to work together we were constantly interrupted by people trying to hit on her. Unfortunately because of my appearance I think she kept me off of her radar. We got along great, I just don't think she considered me beyond that. About three week in she asked if I could talk to her alone.
"I have been invited to this party thing and I need to bring a date. It won't be a real date, but I need to have a guy with me for this party and I was hoping you would go with me?"
"Ok, I think I can be 'not a real date' for one evening." Said with a sarcastic tone.
"Wait there is more." She said while looking down.
I knew she was hiding something but she wouldn't look me in the eyes at all.
"You see, it this sorority thing. And my date has to dress up, sort of."
