The Billionaire Boys Club (Billionaire Romance Series Book 1) (3 page)

“Five minutes, Kels,” Jessica said, dashing past her and turning on the shower.

“Let’s go!” Kelsey said. She quickly grabbed toothpaste and her toothbrush from the blue caddy and began brushing vigorously. She spat out the toothpaste, took the caddy and ran back down the hall to their open room.
 

Placing the caddy on her desk, she quickly pulled on jeans and a sweater. She was tying her wet hair into a ponytail as Jessica dashed in.
 

“I can’t believe my alarm didn’t go off,” Jessica groused as she put on jeans of her own. “Stupid phone.”
 

“Complain later. We’ve got to go,” Kelsey said as she pocketed her keys and wallet into her sleeveless fleece.
 

“Ready,” Jessica said, fully dressed. Her wet curly hair streamed over her collar, leaving wet marks on her cotton turtleneck. She took her coat and purse and they quickly left, closing the door behind them.
 

The two girls ran down the hall and raced quickly down the stairs. Their shoes echoed through the empty dormitory. They dashed out the front door and out into the quad.
 

The campus was absolutely silent. Second and third year students hadn’t arrived for classes yet, and every other 1L was sitting in Darrow Hall, listening to Dean Wilson welcome them to the campus.

“Why does it have to be so far?” Jessica said, as their sneakers got soaked from running through the wet quad. It had rained this morning, but they were in too much of a hurry to avoid puddles.
 

Kelsey silently agreed. She glanced at her phone. 9:10. They were dead.
 

They skidded to a halt at the front of Darrow Hall.
 

“Room 101?” Kelsey said in a gasp.

“Yeah,” Jessica replied weakly. They turned down the corridor and began to look. They passed 105, 106.

“The other side, Jess,” Kelsey said. They turned back and headed to the doors at the end of the hall. They could hear speaking inside.
 

Kelsey opened the door as gently as she could, but the door was rusty and it creaked loudly as the Dean glanced through his papers on the podium. The entire audience turned to see who was late.
 

Kelsey and Jessica slipped into the room sheepishly, and looked for empty seats. But the room was practically filled to the rafters, as professors and administrators were also attending the event. They walked around looking as the dean continued, and finally found separate seats near the aisle.
 

“Excuse me,” Kelsey whispered as she slid past a seated audience member.
 

“Anytime,” he said. Kelsey looked down. It was one of the boys who had teased them last night. She frowned and sat in the empty seat next to him. Brandon smiled at her.
 

“You need an alarm clock here,” he said softly. “The staff won’t wake you up.”
 

Kelsey glared at him and turned her attention to the Dean. She glanced at her phone again. 9:15, she thought and sighed inwardly.
 

The dean continued for some time, concluding with:

"This is Darrow. Our school is named after a revered practitioner of the law. Throughout his career, Mr. Darrow put his clients first and treated his opponents with courtesy and respect. I believe this year's entering class can live up to that high standard. We expect no less from you. But we cannot force you to stay on the straight and narrow path.”

“Professionalism,” he continued. "Professionalism and courtesy. Two essential qualities of every good lawyer, yet so often neglected by lawyers. The core of the legal profession is service to clients. Service in the pursuit of justice.

"During your career as a lawyer, temptations will abound. You might think nobody will notice if you pad your timesheet and charge all your clients an extra few minutes today. And you might think nobody will notice if you threaten to seek sanctions against opposing counsel just because he disagrees with your interpretation of the law. He has to be wrong, doesn't he, if he disagrees with you?

"You might think you've clever when you backstab a co-worker, lie to a judge, or play silly games with the court rules designed to show how smart you are. But never turn your back on courtesy and professionalism. You begin here, as Darrow students.
 

"History is littered with stories of people whose overestimation of their own cleverness resulted in tragedy. Reprimands, license suspension, even disbarment. One problem with the stupidity of arrogance is that the stupid person is intoxicated with the illusion of his own infallibility.

"But I believe that everyone assembled here today is intelligent enough to stay on the path of courtesy and professionalism. To give opposing counsel a break when they need it. To make non-frivolous arguments... and to recognize that their opponents' arguments are seldom frivolous. To put clients first even when that results in a loss of personal income.

"Staying on that path is a choice. Every day you must make the choice to stay on it. And some days will be harder than others. But at the end of the path, if you have made the right choices, you will have the profound satisfaction of knowing that you have been a solid and worthy contributor to the honor and glory of the legal profession.

"Choose wisely. For you will be Darrow lawyers."

The audience clapped appreciatively. Dean Wilson had managed to keep them reasonably interested throughout the speech. Dean Wilson ceded the podium to a pretty woman in a red suit.

“Hello everyone.” She said brightly. “I’m Tania Miller, Associate Dean of Student and Academic Affairs. As we all know, being a law student is a very difficult role, and sometimes even the best-prepared student needs some support during the process. So I’d like to share with you some of the resources we have for you here at Darrow.”

Dean Miller went on for the next 15 minutes discussing the various clinics, doctors, and support groups available at Darrow. The Alcoholics Anonymous group, the suicide hotline, the peer counseling center. As the dean described the resources in detail, Kelsey felt her nerves again. Did 250 students really have so much stress during law school that all of these were needed? She glanced at the boy next to her, who listened without reaction.
 

Dean Miller left the stage after introducing her colleague, Rebecca Sanchez, the head librarian. After a brief introduction to the wonders of the library, she left the stage. Kelsey knew, as did the entire audience, that no one dragged themselves to the library to research cases any more. Everything was online. The library would be important for them, though, as a place to study.

Finally, a beautifully-dressed woman in a prim bun walked onto the stage holding a brown clipboard.
 

“Hello, everyone. My name is Ms. Davis. I am the Director of Administration. My job throughout this week is to make sure that everyone is where they need to be at all times, on time.” Kelsey blushed and out of the corner of her eye thought she saw Jessica slide down a bit in her seat. The boy next to Kelsey grinned.
 

“It’s 10 a.m., so we’re going to take a short break. Promptly at 10:30, each of you should be seated and ready to participate in your small group. Two groups will be important to you over the course of the next year. Your small group, which will determine which of your classmates will join you for your legal writing class, is the first. Your dorm group, which will be the mainstay of many of your social activities this year, is the second. For now, I will assign you to your small group.” Ms Davis flipped over a page on her clipboard.
 

“Students with last names beginning with the letters A through F will be in small group 1. Small group one will meet in Darrow Hall 201 until further notice.” There was a small amount of chatter through the crowd. Ms. Davis cleared her throat loudly and continued.

“Small group two consists of students with the last names beginning with the letters G through L.”
 
That would be Jessica’s group, her last name being Hunter. Kelsey smiled over at her. “Small group two meets in Darrow Hall 212.”

“Students with last names beginning with the letters M through R are in small group 3 and will meet in Darrow Hall 311.” Kelsey North’s group. She nodded and noticed that the boy next to her was typing something into his phone. She groaned inwardly. Was he in her group?

“Finally, students with last names beginning with the letters S through Z will be in small group 4 and will meet in Darrow Hall 316. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me or my staff. Otherwise, you are free to take a break, and please proceed to your specified small group by 10:30.” Ms. Davis nodded and left the stage. The audience rose, and students began to chat to each other. Kelsey followed the boy out of the row and saw Jessica.
 

“We won’t be together,” Jessica pouted, as they headed up the stairs slowly behind the rest of the students.
 

“It’s okay. We can meet new people,” Kelsey replied.
 

“After last night, I’m afraid to. Wasn’t that the boy from last night sitting next to you?”
 

“Yeah,” Kelsey sighed, reaching up to touch her now-dry hair. “He was.”
 

They headed out of the room. Jessica held her coat in her arms and out of the doors.
 

“Bathroom?” she asked. Kelsey nodded. She wanted to bring her hair down out of the ponytail.
 

The two girls walked down the hall where they saw a short line of women standing outside of a room.

“Upstairs,” Kelsey said. They walked to the end of the hall, where they found the staircase. Several people were climbing it. On floor two, they located the bathroom. Jessica went into a stall, while Kelsey began pulling her hair out of the messy ponytail it was in. She wished she had a comb.

“Do you have a comb, Jess?” Kelsey called out. There was a flush, then Jessica walked out, coat and purse hung over her arm. She began to wash her hands.

“I do. Hang on,” Jessica dried her hands under the weak dryer, then reached into her sizable purse. “No comb,” she said. “I have a brush.”

“Anything,” Kelsey said gratefully. She brushed her hair slowly, and her straw like hair began to get back its natural gleam. Jessica put on lipgloss.
 

Done brushing, Kelsey handed the brush back to Jessica.
 

“Thanks,” Kelsey said.
 

“Anytime,” Jessica replied. “Ready?”

“Off to small group,” Kelsey said. “See you at lunch.”

“We can compare notes.” Jessica grinned.
 

The two girls walked out of the bathroom and parted, Jessica waving as she headed down the hall. Kelsey walked to the staircase, and went up to the third floor. She located room 311, where a folding table was set up outside. Kelsey retrieved the nametag that said “Kelsey North” on it and walked into the room.
 
About 30 chairs were arranged in a semi-circle facing a whiteboard and small podium. A lone chair sat facing them in front of the podium.

She walked to sit on the other side of the room. She sat and hung the name tag around her neck. It was on a Darrow Law School lanyard.

She glanced at her phone as students filed in, most of them by themselves or with only one other person. She was on time. Kelsey sent a text to her friend Dylan Shaw as she waited for the other students to settle themselves. Kelsey hadn’t seen him today, and wondered where he was.

Kelsey and Dylan had met at Portland State University and had hit it off immediately. Just like she was, Dylan was smart, determined and athletic. They had been thrilled to both be accepted to Darrow.
 

Dylan replied right away.
 

Hey, Kels! What happened this morning? ;(

Overslept
, Kelsey replied.
 

No worries, you’re here now. Small group 3, right? I’m in 4. Which entry are you in?
 

Entry 2,
Kelsey responded.
 

No way! Me too. Uh, oh gotta go. We’re starting.
 

See you
, Kelsey closed. She looked up. The seats were mostly full, but the one in the front was unoccupied. Kelsey glanced at the time. 10:30.

At 10:38, a disheveled-looking young man walked in. He ran his hand through his hair and took the seat in front.
 

“Hi, I’m Keith Macauley.” he said. The students looked at him with interest. He wore jeans and a green flannel shirt. I’ll be in charge of your first-year legal writing course. I’m a third-year here at Darrow.”

A pretty young student raised her hand.

“Yes?” Keith said.

“A professor doesn’t teach this course?” she asked in surprise. Keith smiled at her.
 

“Trust me, you’ll have plenty of time with professors over the coming year. Consider this your vacation.” The class burst out laughing as the girl looked down at her iPhone. He looked her over, then said, “Are there any more questions?”
 

No one raised their hands.
 

“Good,” Keith said. “Then we’ll continue.” He stood and rolled his sleeves up. “The legal writing course at Darrow is known worldwide for helping some of the most innovative and best lawyers get their points across clearly. Darrow has produced two Supreme Court Justices as well as some of the finest professors and lawyers in the country. And like all of you, they all started here. In this class.”

Keith continued. “This is actually the only time that we will meet formally this month.” He glanced at the pretty questioner. “All of you will be a little busy getting used to your classes. However, it’s important to start getting to know the people that you will eventually begin working with on writing assignments.”

The pretty girl looked up again and raised her hand. “We don’t work on writing alone?”
 

Keith grinned at her in amusement. “Eventually you will,” he said patiently. “But one of the hallmarks of a Darrow education is to teach you to work as a team. Most law schools make everything an individual battle for their students. But whether you become a lawyer or a professor, ultimately you will have to work with others. Darrow wants to help you to do that well.”