Awakening (Covenant College #1) (2 page)

Despite the fact that we’d been together for four years, Will and I had taken a pragmatic approach to our relationship. We were together, but we weren’t fanatical about it when I was still in high school and he was in college. I had a feeling he’d had a few flings – but I really didn’t want to know about them. For my part, I’d taken a good friend to prom and there might have been a little messing around. Nothing major, though.

When I told Will that I would be going to Covenant he was excited. We’d agreed that we were going to give monogamy a shot. I figured we’d start that tomorrow. I was kind of interested in meeting the guys out in the hallway.

I opened the door – figuring if anyone wanted to meet us this was the way to go about the process -- and Paris pulled out a deck of cards.

“You know how to play euchre?”

I smiled. I knew I was going to like Paris.

Brittany
and Tara had finished unpacking at this point. It may have been uneventful, but it was the perfect night of bonding.

If this is college, I thought,
then
this is going to be a great year.

I couldn’t know how truly wrong I would be.

Two

The next morning I didn’t wake up until almost 11 a.m. I felt Paris stir in the bottom bunk about the same time consciousness claimed me. Our late night gab session had gone until almost 3 a.m. – but it had been a great way for all of us to get to know one another.

I rolled over and saw that
Brittany
was not only up but had made her bed. I hoped she didn’t expect the same from me. I had no intention of making my bed again until I returned home in the spring. I couldn’t see in the bottom bunk, but I had a feeling Tara was up, too. It looked like Paris and I were going to be the late sleepers.

I climbed out of the bunk, muttering something unintelligible to Paris as I moved toward the door into the common room – which was shut. Paris responded with something equally as garbled. Somehow I was getting the impression that the right side of the room was going to be grumpy in the morning. That was fine by me. The less someone talked to me when I first got up, the better.

When I went into the empty common room, I noticed that neither
Brittany
nor Tara were there. I couldn’t muster up the energy to care as I climbed into the shower – where I let the never-ending stream of scalding water wake me up for the next twenty minutes. When I exited the bathroom, Paris went in behind me and closed the door. We still hadn’t exchanged morning pleasantries.

I went back into the bedroom to dress and put my makeup on. I dried my hair and hastily tied a purple bandana over it as I donned a tank top and cutoffs.

Paris took less time to get ready than I did – and I couldn’t help but be a little jealous at how good she looked even though she hadn’t put on a stitch of makeup or done her hair.

“Want breakfast?” One of us had finally spoken.

“Sure,” I answered. “Although, it’s technically lunch now.”

We made our way down to the main floor. Our dorms were on the fifth floor and we both wordlessly took the stairs down. I had a feeling it would be a different situation when it came time to climb back up – but that was something I’d tackle later.

When we reached the dining area, we both handed our school IDs over to the girl at the door. She swiped them through the machine without even bothering to look up at us and make sure our faces matched our IDs. I guess lunchroom fraud wasn’t a big deal.

Once inside the cafeteria, Paris and I both plodded to the line to check out the food. You hear horror stories about college food – but it looked pretty good to me. I settled for chicken fingers and fries. I noticed Paris got the same thing. I was glad to see she wasn’t a health nut.

Once we both had our trays, we turned to decide where to sit.

“Paris, Zoe, over here.”

We both turned to see
Brittany
and Tara seated at a table a few feet away. We made our way to the table and sat down with them.

“We were wondering if you two were going to ever get up,”
Brittany
’s voice was like nails on a chalkboard. That was definitely a sound I wasn’t going to want to hear when I had a hangover.

Tara seemed to read my mind because she hid her smirk behind a cup of coffee. Instead of saying something snarky, I shoved the straw from my pop into my mouth instead. It was too early to be bitchy.

“Did you sleep well?”
Brittany
was not to be deterred.

“As compared to what?”
Apparently Paris didn’t like being around bubbly people when she first got up either.

Brittany
looked confused.
“As compared to sleeping badly.”

Sarcasm was going to be lost on this girl -- that much was obvious.

“We slept fine.”

The conversation jumped from theme to theme after that, with all four of us discussing what classes we had signed up for and our need to go book shopping at some point. We all had our first classes on Monday. Since it was Friday, we figured we had plenty of time to go and buy our books.

“Let’s just go Sunday,” Paris said, dipping her chicken fingers into a big pile of ketchup.

“That’s the day before classes,”
Brittany
frowned.

“So?”

“Well, don’t you want to start reading them right away?”

Paris and I both froze with food in our mouths. I swallowed, trying to buy time before answering. I should have bought more time.

“You were a nerd in high school weren’t you?”

Brittany
looked hurt. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Who would want to read textbooks before they have to?”

“Someone that loves to learn,”
Brittany
was becoming a little shrill. “I don’t want to fail out.”

“You’re not going to fail out,” Tara soothed, shooting me a dirty look for getting
Brittany
worked up. I sensed a divide forming in the room. Paris must have, too.

“I don’t think that’s what Zoe was saying,” she said. “I think she was just pointing out that it might be a waste of time to read the textbooks before hand – especially if we’re only covering certain chapters in class.”

Nice save.
Although that’s not really what I was saying.

Brittany
seemed to relax at Paris’ explanation. “I never thought of that.”

“I just don’t want to think about school when we have the weekend in front of us,” I said.

“What are we going to do?” Uh-oh,
Brittany
was a “we” person.

Paris seemed nonplussed by the development, too. “I don’t know,” she said carefully. “I’m going to a party at my boyfriend’s tonight.”

“A party?
With beer?”

I smirked at Paris as I took another sip of my diet coke. I wondered how she was going to handle this.

“Yes, there will be beer there.”

“Are you going to drink it?”

“Yes.” Paris turned to me. “You’re coming, right?”

I got the feeling she didn’t want to be stuck alone with
Brittany
.

“Sure,” I said with a laugh. “Will and I agreed we weren’t going to see each other this weekend so I could get to know you guys and he could party with his frat brothers.”

“Which frat is he in?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I think
it’s
Alpha Chi, or something like that.”

“That’s the best frat on campus,”
Brittany
said knowingly.

“Really?
What scale are they grading on?”

Brittany
looked confused again. I was starting to think she was socially retarded. God, I hope she wasn’t home schooled.

“The guys in Alpha Chi are supposed to be very academically minded,” she said knowingly.

“How do you know that?”

“When I stopped to get a brochure on Delta Zeta they told me,” she said.

Paris and I exchanged looks.

“You’re going to rush a sorority?” Paris asked. She looked as worried as I felt.

“Yes,”
Brittany
was excited. “Probably not until next semester, though. I want to get settled before I rush a sorority.”

“Why would you want to rush a sorority?” Whoops, did I just ask that out loud?

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Why would you?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

Paris stepped in. “I think what Zoe means is, why do you feel the need to rush a sorority? Can’t you make friends on your own?” Yeah, that was so much better than how I would have phrased it.

“Yes, but a sorority isn’t about friends . . . it’s about sisters.”

Uh, gag me.

Brittany
must have seen the look of distaste cross my face.

“I notice you don’t have the same problem with fraternities,” she sniffed.

“I think fraternities are equally useless,” I offered. “It’s just that I think the guys go into fraternities so they have easy access to women for sex and older guys on hand to buy beer.”

Paris snorted out her laughter. “I would agree with that.”

“And why do you think girls go into sororities?”

Now this was a dangerous question – and
Brittany
didn’t look like she was going to let it go. In a typical situation, I would try to deflect.
Brittany
didn’t seem like the type of girl that could be distracted, though. I decided to be honest.

“I think girls – some girls,” I corrected myself hastily. “I think that maybe they join sororities to buy friends.”

There it was.

Brittany
looked offended. Tara looked interested in her reaction.
And Paris?
She looked like she was fighting to keep from laughing out loud.

“Why would I need to buy friends?”

“I didn’t say you needed to buy friends,” I offered lamely. This conversation was getting uncomfortable. “I just think it’s weird that you would want to go into a sorority where you have to pay money and they make you do lame things and then they want you to agree to essentially think just like them.”

I should have stopped there. I didn’t.

“It’s like a cult,” I finished.

Paris coughed to cover up her laughter.
Brittany
looked furious.

“That’s not true,” she argued vehemently. “Sororities are about making lifelong contacts and friends. It’s about networking.”

“Why do you need to pay to make contacts? Why can’t you just make contacts on your own? And why do you have to do it with a group whose whole purpose is to keep out other people? To only let in those that are desirable in their eyes?”

I was on a roll now.

“And who decides who is desirable? If they don’t like your haircut, are they going to keep you out? If they don’t think you dress appropriately does that reflect badly on you? If you prefer ‘True Blood’ over ‘The Vampire Diaries’ are they going to blackball you?”

Yep, I should have stopped while I was ahead.

Brittany
launched into a lengthy diatribe describing the merits of sororities and how I was a bigot. Quite frankly, I tuned her out. Paris was shaking with silent laughter besides me.

For my part, I concentrated on my lunch while trying to feign interest on whatever
Brittany
was whining about now. Finally, I realized there was a lull in the conversation. I realized everyone at the table was looking at me.

“What?”

Paris bit her lower lip to keep from smiling. “
Brittany
just wanted to know what you were wearing to the party tonight.”

“That’s not what I asked her,”
Brittany
argued.

“Yes it is,” Paris replied.

“No it’s not,” she said.

“Yes it is,” Tara stressed.

Brittany
decided to try one more time. “No it’s not.”

“Yes it is!” Both Tara and Paris were done with the conversation.

I smiled sweetly at
Brittany
in an attempt to placate her. “It’s still warm out so I figured I’d just wear a pair of cutoffs and a top.”

Brittany
seemed to be waging an internal debate. Finally, she just gave in and nodded.
“Sounds good.”

Something told me the sorority debate wasn’t over yet.

T
hree

After lunch, we decided to go shopping for some furniture for the common room. No one wanted to sit on the floor anymore – especially one that didn’t have a rug.

There weren’t a lot of places to choose from – especially on a college budget – so we all settled for Meijer.