Immortal Secrets (2 page)

There was only a ten minute gap between the end of my History class and the start time for my English class. Even with
a
fairly long walk and having to climb the stairs, I made it to English in plenty of time. I found a seat near the back, sitting next to a smart looking white guy with glasses. Smart looking with glasses is really another way of saying that I was sitting next to a guy that looked like a nerd.

As soon as he looked over at me, I wished that I was still being ignored. He was really checking me out and making no attempt to hide it either. It was really kind of creepy. I told myself that it was okay. Judging from his looks, it wasn’t hard to imagine that
he
had next to no experience with women.

A younger looking woman with blonde hair came in and introduced herself as Dr. Sloane. She didn’t do the whole thing where the students all had to say there name and where they were from. She did pass out our syllabus and tell us all how much she was looking forward to teaching us for the next semester. She briefly discussed some of the assignments we would be working on.

After that she moved onto expectations she had of us as students. She also talked about what we could expect from her. The woman was one of those goody-goody people. She reminded me of a dessert that I would get at a restaurant. It would look good but turned out to be so sweet that I couldn’t finish more than half of it. I could already tell that I would not be able to stand Dr. Sloane for extended periods of time.

Dr. Sloane actually cut class a little short and dismissed us early. I started to gather my things up and leave. I guess I didn’t leave fast enough though.

The nerd leaned over and introduced himself. “Hi, I’m Carl. So, I guess we’ll be sitting next to each other this semester.”

“Oh hi, I’m Lisa. I guess we will be sitting next to each other.”

“So where is your next class?”

“Oh, I’m done for the day. I think I will just head over to the library and check it out.”

“Wow, what a coincidence. I was just heading there myself. I can walk you over there, if you like.”

There really wasn’t a polite way of saying no. “Okay, that sounds good.”

I let Carl walk me over to the library. He was trying to tell me about the little town he grew up in and how much he liked being at Texas Tech. I pretended to listen while I beat myself up for telling him I was headed to the library. I just assumed that he would have another class he needed to get to. I hoped this wasn’t going to be a sign of things to come. The cutest guy I had seen ignored me. The geekiest guy I had seen
was all about trying to talk
to me.

As soon as we got to the library, I asked at the front desk if Bart Tucker was in. The lady I talked to said he wasn’t in at the moment but that I could leave a message for him. I didn’t want to leave him a message. Bart Tucker was the man I was supposed to report to tomorrow. That was my first scheduled day to work in the library.

Since Jenny had set up my job in the library, I had never actually been inside the campus library. Carl was more than happy to take me on a tour of the library and even walk me across to the student union building and gave me a tour of it as well. Thankfully, it was getting close to being noon at that point. I finally ditched Carl by telling him my Aunt was coming to pick me up any minute.

Aunt Jenny picked me up at lunch time and we headed home in silence again. Maybe I could call the mob and they could come put me out of Jenny’s misery. We were definitely not hitting it off. As soon as we got home, I headed for the kitchen to find some lunch.

Jenny followed me. “So, how was your first day of college?”

I glared. “Look, you can drop the whole concerned aunt thing, okay? I mean I get it. You don’t like me and you think I am bad person.”

“I don’t think that at all. I admit that I don’t care for your attitude sometimes and I do have a problem with some of the choices you’ve made. I do think you’re trying to be a good person. Truce?”

“Okay, I’ll try to have less attitude. I promise to be a good little girl.”

“You know, this isn’t a permanent arrangement. I am only going to stay with you until after the trial.”

“That is like two or three more months away.”

“Look, I will try to lighten up. Sometimes I forget that you are an adult and can make your own decisions about stuff. I am just trying to keep you safe. I promise to be a little nicer about it, okay?”

I held my hand out with my pinkie finger extended. “Pinkie promise?”

Jenny did the same and locked pinkies. “Pinkie promise.”

Chapter Two

Day two of my college life started on Tuesday morning. I found my Political Science class easy enough. However, I was totally unprepared for the size of the class. My class was in Holden Hall
,
but it was not in an ordinary classroom. It was a huge auditorium looking room and there were at least 300 students. I used the situation to remain very anonymous. I sat in the back of the room and did not speak to or look at anyone else. Many of the other students looked content to do the same.

Our professor introduced himself as Dr. Rush. He looked like an older gentleman with gray hair. Of course, it was hard to tell a lot from as far away as I was. All he did was pass out our syllabus and then launch directly into a lecture about the constitution. It was easy to see that this class would be perfect if I wanted to sleep in and skip class here and there. Who would even notice?

After Political Science, I made my way over to my Chemistry class in the Natural Sciences building. This class was even bigger than my Political Science class had been. I was all set to fade in to the woodwork again when I saw Brenda from my History class. She was sitting near the front of the auditorium that passed for our classroom. She was waving for me to come sit next to her.

We had a female professor named Doctor Barnes for Chemistry. She didn’t waste a lot of time going over our syllabus and pretty much went straight into her first lecture of the semester. I had now been to all of my classes once. The only unknown left was working in the library and that was coming up after lunch.

I reported to the library at one o’clock on the dot. I finally met Bart Tucker. He was a black man about thirty years old or so and looked like he was in great shape.  I shook his hand when I met him and I could feel the strength he had. He gave me a little more detailed tour than I had gotten from Carl the day before.

In a nutshell, my job was to help out the library patrons. When I wasn’t doing that, I was supposed to restock any books that had been turned in. It didn’t sound like it was anything too hard. Not that I was surprised. After all, this was a job that I had gotten through the government. More to the point, I had gotten it through the marshal service.

Bart was showing me where the newspapers were stored. “The only thing that I ask is that I know where you are at all times.”

That seems a little strange. “Okay, but can I ask why?”

“Well, I just need to coordinate breaks for you and the other employees. So if I need to know what area you are going to be in. We can’t have students looking for help and not being able to find any.”

“I guess that sounds logical enough.”

I made it back home with Jenny a little after five o’ clock. Now, I finally had a grasp on all my classes and my supposed job. The job had turned out to be every bit as easy as I thought it would. I could get used to this whole college thing. I just needed to get through these next few months and the looming trial. Then maybe my life could go back to being sort of normal.

I woke up on Wednesday morning, excited to be going back to school. More to the point, I was excited about going to History class again. I really shouldn’t have been excited at all, given how badly I had flamed out on the first day. Unfortunately, History was just about the only place I knew of that Jeff might be. I made a point of picking out my tightest pair of jeans and doing my makeup. I was bound and determined to get him to at least notice me today.

I got to class early and noticed several of the male students taking notice of me and even a few of the other girls
noticed, if their glares were any indication
. They definitely had their claws out today.  The problem was that Jeff walked in, sat down, and didn’t seem to notice me at all. I decided he must be gay.

I looked across the room and saw a girl giving me the evil eye. If looks could kill, I would have been dead on the spot. She was a pretty red head who didn’t look like she appreciated the competition. Her whole look screamed “cheerleader”. I always hated cheerleaders. It seemed like her name was Allison something or the other.

Dr. Greene walked in and the class promptly started. “Before we get started, I would like to point something out that was in the syllabus. The role of the American Indian will play a major role in our studies this semester. To that end, there is a major project due in three weeks. Each of you will be paired with a partner
. I will pass those assignments out during class on Friday.”

Actually getting paired with Jeff was too much to hope for. I sure wasn’t counting on that. It really didn’t matter. Jeff didn’t seem interested in me or anyone else, as far as I could tell. Either he didn’t like women or he probably had a girlfriend. Who was I kidding? Of course he would have a girlfriend. The cute ones always had a girlfriend.

Near the end of class, I saw the first chink in Jeff’s outward, bad boy armor.  I caught him sneaking a peak at me. I could have sworn he was checking me out. Of course, it could have just been some wishful thinking on my part. Maybe he would decide to talk to me after class. I wouldn’t mind if he showed half as much interest as Carl had after English.

Unfortunately, my bad boy didn’t stick around and left History class without even another glance in my direction. Maybe I did just imagine him trying to sneak a peek at me. I mean he had to be looking in some direction and just because he was looking in my direction didn’t mean that he was necessarily looking at me.

I went onto my English class and tried to console myself with the fact that Carl still thought I was pretty hot. I thought about my infatuation with Jeff and his obvious lack of interest in me. About half through Dr. Sloane’s thrilling lecture about subject verb agreement, I decided that I was done worrying what Jeff Campbell was or wasn’t doing.

***

I was sitting in my Thursday Chemistry class but still thinking about who I would wind up paired with for my History paper. My thoughts were interrupted by Brenda passing me a note, asking if I wanted to grab some lunch in the food court after class. I slipped her a note telling her yes. It would be like a mini girl’s night out.

After class, Brenda and I walked over to student union. We found the food court only about half full. It wasn’t noon yet, so most of the lunch crowd hadn’t shown up yet. We found a table in a sparsely populated area.

Brenda looked around and then waved to someone. “I hope you don’t mind, but I also invited one of my other friends.”

I gave her a dismissive
little wave. “No problem, I’m just happy to have someone to eat with.”

I watched a slightly heavy set girl headed for our table. Brenda introduced me to her friend, Tina. The three of us ordered burgers and fries. We made small talk about our different classes. Tina seemed like a really bubbly person. She had a little darker skin than Brenda and I did. She explained that her mother was from the Philippines and her parents had married while her dad was in the Army.

Brenda looked around. “Speaking of guys who used to be in the Army, you two have a common classmate.”

I jumped at the insinuation. “You have a class with Jeff Campbell?”

Tina shook her head. “No, I mean I know who he is. I don’t actually have any classes with him though.”

I was confused
.
“Then who do we have in common?”

Brenda smirked. “Actually, I was referring to Allison. I believe that is who Tina heard about Jeff from.”

Tina’s face lit up. “Oh, now I get it. You’re the girl she keeps saying is a little tramp.”

My jaw dropped. “Excuse me?”

Tina shrugged. “I didn’t realize it at first. You are a lot prettier than she said you were. Now I see why she is so worried about you.”

I didn’t understand. “Worried about what?”

Tina leaned forward. “She was all acting like Jeff is her man and you are trying to steal him away. She is super possessive.”

My heart completely fell. “Her man? I didn’t realize they were together or that he was even interested in her.”

Tina said, “I don’t know if they are really together or not. I just know that this morning in Algebra that she said that the tramp in History class had better back off before she got her feelings hurt.”

Brenda put her hand on my arm. “I don’t think they are together. But at least now you know who one of your competitors is.”

I sat back and tried to sound composed. “It doesn’t matter if they are together. I have already decided that I am so over being ignored by Mister Campbell. Really, she can have him.”

I could see by their expressions that they weren’t buying it. That was okay, I didn’t buy it either. Really
,
for the first time in my life, I really disliked someone that I had never really even spoken to. I really, really disliked this Allison person. The fact that it sounded like she didn’t like me either made me a little happy.