Commit this to memory / Motion City Soundtrack
Sam didn’t know why she was nervous. It wasn’t like it was the first time she was off on her own. Hardly. And it wasn’t like there was any kind of …danger. She snorted at that thought. She was at a college orientation visit. What could happen? Well, what could happen to her, who had brain and had been around a few blocks, even if she was only 18?
Still, she scanned the campus as it spread out before her. So…rural, even the thought dripped with distaste The buildings were actually, like far enough apart from each other that you could drive between them. Sam wrinkled her noise. Why was she there? She was going to NYU. She knew that, there was no reason to come this place.
She sighed audibly. She was there because if she didn’t at least appear to be keeping an "open mind" and ‘considering her options’ there would be hell to pay and it just wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t like she had anything better to do, anyway.
She turned the volume up on the Ipod, hiked her backpack a little higher on her shoulder and started following the cutesy signs directing potential victims. Only a weekend. Two nights, a day and two halves. Easy.
Some bubbly cheer-leader type was waving hello and directing people on.
“Last name.” Bouncy girl asked with a perky smile.
“Dessen. D E S S E N Samantha.”
"Welcome to U.U! You’re team Blue. Hey that rhymes!” She giggled. “Just follow the Blue!”
“Yeah!” Sam answered with the same bouncy tone and fake grin, it fading as she took the step away. Okay, maybe she was wrong. This might not be easy. What the hell was team blue? She was sure not going to ask Little Miss Sunshine.
Sam gazed around and noted a rainbow leading her toward what looked like it should be a gym. “This is going to suck.” She muttered, her fears confirmed as she stepped into a large gym with several dozen tables all color coded.
How was she supposed to tell Blue from Aqua? Well, at least she could rule out the reds, yellow, oranges, purples and green. That left three possibilities based on her eye sight. What if someone were color blind?
“This is going to suck.” A deep, bass voice muttered about a foot off to her left.
Glancing at the voice there appeared to be someone even more out of place than she felt. The sentiment had been communicated by a tall, angular, scruffy young man who looked like a cross between Scooby’s friend and the guy who played the hobbit.
“Hey, you know what ‘mauve’ is?” The guy asked looking pathetic.
“Purple – red… kinda pink.” The last made her smile as the young man looked pained.
“You wouldn’t possibly be joking would you?” He asked, though he clearly was resigned.
"Sorry.” She shrugged and started toward one the possible blue tables. One glance back showed the young man being told ‘no’ at the pink table, looking relieved and being directed on.
It was two tables and a color Sam would be told was “Tiffany Blue” before she found her destination. It was twenty minutes later when she realized Tiffany referred to the store, not the girl handing out name tags.
It took an hour for all Team Tiffany Blue to assemble, get their name tags and troupe off like kindergartners on parade to a suite of dorm rooms, decorated with the same blue color streamers, signs and of course balloons. On the hand, there were also big bowls of appropriately colored M&M's.
Ditsy girl no. 47 was team leader. She was a sophomore and loved U.U. ‘Because if you love U. You love everybody.” After a few more inspirational words, she told everyone to find a room. Boys to the left, girls to the right. They’d have twenty minutes to pick, get to know each other and then meet back in the den.
Sam glanced around, there were four boys and four girls to Team Tif and as far as she could see, two rooms other than the ‘den’ they all stood in. Finding the room didn't seem a Herculean task.
“Ready, ooohkay…” Sam muttered in fake cheeriness as she followed another into the girl’s room. There were two bunk beds separated by a window with one desk, a closet that was way too small, even for one male dwarf and a door that lead to a bath shared by another girl’s room. She already missed her room back home. A room she didn’t share, unless of course it was an invited guest.
A girl with a hair-do that resembled a poodle, squealed and called a top bunk, jumping up into it like the puppy she looked like. Another, that looked like she should be in a girl’s version of a boy band, pushed passed Sam and announced she wanted a lower bunk, SHE didn’t climb.
Sam gave another exasperated sigh and took another step in looking up at the free bunk and down at the free cave. Neither held much appeal. She looked around for the fourth girl. A shy thing that was chewing a corner of her hair.
“Your call. I don’t care.” Sam said to the mouse, who looked terrified and answered by repeating Sam’s words.
“I’ll take the top.” Sam decided, thinking it would be better to climb than risk having some one or some thing fall on her.
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