College Daze (Working Title)
Please forgive me for writing this. Or at least for posting this. It wouldn't leave me alone and attention whore that I am I have to have someone read my work. I won't whore out for reviews but I would like to know if you guys think I'm being true to the characters and the authors' writing styles. I know I wont be perfect and look forward to constructive criticism. Just remember that this was never meant to be a serious story, just a plot bunny turned writing exercise and Reprise comes first...followed eventually by Balance Beam. I make no promises on any kind of updating schedule and have only the barest bones of plot and outline.
Suze
"Its fine, Mom. Really. My roommate's cool, no skulls or pentagrams or Britney Spears, I swear." I assured my mom over the phone. It was my first day of college. Well, technically tomorrow's my first day of college, today was just orientation. I met my roommate, got my ID card, and learned what was and was not tolerated at Western Washington State University. Oh, wait, you're probably wondering what I'm doing going to college in Washington, right? Last time I checked in I was a Junior of Father Junipero Serra Mission Academy. Well, that was two years ago and I'm now a freshman at WWSU.
It wasn't my top choice, wasn't even in my top ten, but hey, I didn't have to sell my firstborn to afford it and they accepted me despite my abysmal transcripts and spotty at best record. It also helped that the campus was just two miles from the hospital where Jesse was doing his residency. It's a pretty Podunk town, not much to do unless you happen to be the outdoorsy type, which I'm not, but apparently there's this one surgeon in the ER who is, like, world renowned or something and almost never takes interns or residents but who somehow decided that Jesse is the exception. So here he came and here I followed.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those pathetic limp girls to mindlessly follow her boyfriend everywhere and get all depressed when he doesn't call her back immediately. Please, I have a spine; I'm much more proactive than that. But I'm also not the kind of girl to go off to college in one direction, send a boyfriend off to med school in the other and then wonder why a long distance relationship isn't working out. Besides they have a pretty good criminology program and I figure if I'm going to be solving murders and stuff all the time I might as well make a career out of it. Well, a paying one anyway.
I'd finally managed to get my mom off the phone by promising to call after my first day in class and tell her everything in agonizingly minute detail. And just in time, too, because my roommate was bounding back into the common room we shared. See, with the way the dorms are set up, we each have tiny closets fitted with a twin size camp cot and a writing table separated by a common room that's about the size of my bedroom back home in Carmel and we share a bathroom with the two girls in the suite next door. It's cool, mostly private. I was surprised considering how small the campus was and how little I was paying for my accommodations.
"Hey," I greeted my roommate with one of those chin nod things that you do to people you only kind of know. You know the one where you jerk your chin up minutely and turn your head a little to the side. Except when I did it, it looked like I had palsy or something.
"Hi!" she responded with a way too perky smile and wave. "I'm bringing my boyfriend over tonight, do you mind? Are you going to any parties tonight? We should all hang out." She fired all these questions at a speed I hadn't heard since I left New York, it made me smile. It was a bit of tradition on this campus and maybe all college campuses, I don't know, to have several simultaneous parties going on the night of freshman orientation.
Alice and I, that's my roommate's name, Alice, had already gotten to know each other a bit. The first thing we both did, ironically enough, was apologize for any night time disturbances in advance. It turned out we both had boyfriends we were planning on sneaking in after dark. And while I knew Jesse and I wouldn't be getting up to anything, he seemed like the perfect excuse for any ghostly activities that happened to be overheard from her end of our suite.
"Well I don't know what Jesse's hours are going to be like over at the hospital," I told her by way of excusing any last minute plan cancellations that involved double dates. "He just started his residency and I have no idea how much time off those guys are allowed."
"Oh, your boyfriend's a doctor?" She cooed her eyes lighting up dangerously. I hoped she wasn't gonna be a bitchy back-stabbing type who was gonna try to steal Jesse because he was a doctor. I was prepared for all kinds of Jesse related new interest questions so I was surprised when she asked "Who's his supervising physician?"
"Dr. Cullen." I answered immediately, not knowing what difference it made.
"Oh!" she laughed, her voice was disturbingly clear. Like wind chimes or something. It was almost creepy, in that too-perfect-to-be-real way. "Dr. Cullen is my dad," she confided conspiratorially. "Let me just make a phone call and we'll party the whole night away."
It was worse than I thought. She was a Daddy's-perfect-angel type. I should have known, I mean what college freshman drives a yellow Porsche anyway? I wonder if she got it for her Super Sweet Sixteen.
As I was thinking this, she was dialing on a sleek black smartphone. The kind that looked like it hadn't been released in the US yet.
"Hi, Carla," Alice greeted whoever it was that answered the phone. I took a wild guess that it was a nurse named Carla. "Is Dr. Cullen in surgery or consultation at the moment? . . . Okay, then can you ask him to call Alice when he has a moment? . . . No, it's not urgent; I just wanted to clear something with him. . . . Okay, thank you. . . . Bye!" She chirped in between pauses. It seemed her dad was busy at the moment, she didn't seem upset by it the way I always imagined the Kelly Prescotts of the world to be when the answer wasn't an automatic "yes". Maybe there are Kelly Prescotts with souls.
Before there could be any more awkward silences, I disappeared to my room to finish unpacking. So far all I'd unpacked was three outfits, two framed professional photos, and a large collage my friend CeeCee had made me earlier that summer.
The first picture was from when my mom married my step-dad, Andy. My mom was beautiful in her long white gown, and Andy looked very nice in his tux as well, around them were my three step-brothers, Jake, eyes closed but smiling with his face turned to the light, Brad, attempting perfect posture but managing only to look awkward, and David so tiny and adorable with his sticky-outy ears and red hair. With one arm hanging limply and one around David's shoulders stood me. I have to admit that despite the fact that I'd hated the dress at the time I looked good.
The second picture was taken this time last year as part of my senior packet. It was of Jesse and me holding hands and facing each other on the beach at sunset. We were both barefoot and wearing white and with all the little white flowers in my hair it looked almost like a wedding picture, too.
The collage contrasted with the two framed photos because it consisted of snapshots of me and my friends since I moved to California from New York two and a half years ago. It was covered with glitter glue and little bits of bright colored confetti, CeeCee had also abused her newspaper editor privileges to print out captions, thought bubbles, and subtitles on sticky paper and attach them to tell a hilarious story.
I looked around wondering where I could put the collage, but I had almost no wall space left after I'd already hung the two pictures and a poster from my favorite Broadway musical. It was then that I noticed a light tapping sound like someone hanging pictures in the common room, I figured if Alice could hang artwork in shared space then so could I and I dragged my heavy collage back to the main room.
That was when I saw Alice, standing on a chair using a shoe as a hammer. "Hey! Be careful! Those are Manolo Blahnik pumps!" I yelled when I saw what she was doing.
"It's cool, I'm done anyway," she shrugged and slipped back into her shoe which I noticed had no visible damage so I guess it was "cool" after all. Then she stepped back to admire her work. She had hung a large panoramic picture of what looked like a family reunion of disgustingly attractive people. Studying the picture closer I decided it had to be from the set of a movie she was in (she was a drama major). There were about ten extremely pale young people and several more very large dark skinned teenagers arranged in front of a beautiful old mansion and they all looked like a group of people who genuinely cared for each other but could still be set off at a moment's notice.
"You mind if I hang this out here?" I asked awkwardly gesturing to the collage that had been so lovingly made and suddenly seemed juvenile compared to the piece she chose to display.
"Ran out of room, too?" She asked with a giggle. "It's only fair. Do you need help hanging it?" She offered moving closer to study all the little notes and candid shots that had been included "for personality" CeeCee had insisted. In the middle of the board, unmolested was a shot from the third time Gina, my best friend from New York, came to visit. It was picture of Adam, my other best friend in Carmel, and CeeCee sitting on the back porch of my family's converted 1850s boarding house. Sitting on the steps was Jesse with me leaning against his side, shading my eyes from the sun while watching David who was clearly visible balancing on the porch rails behind his then girlfriend Shannon. My mouth was open like I was telling him something. Gina and Brad were playing a board game on the picnic table and Jake was caught just stepping into the hot tub Andy and Brad had installed my first summer living there. It was obviously a candid shot, most likely taken by my mom to document a rare moment of peace in the Simon-Ackerman household. It was amazing how that one picture captured everyone so perfectly, we all had the right amount of light and shadow and a stranger looking at this picture would go away feeling he knew us. Looking at the photo made me homesick for lazy summer days and toasting the sunset.
"Wow, these are really good," Alice complimented sincerely. "Who took them?"
"Well my mom took the centerpiece, but the rest of them are just random pictures my friends and I took. My brothers took a lot of them, too." I added quickly.
"Well, your whole family has the artistic eye. Where do you want it?"
I gestured to the blank wall opposite her panoramic. Our pieces were both about the same size and it gave the room some much needed balance. We had just started the process of hanging hooks when Alice's phone went off. She answered it almost before I registered that it was ringing, it must have a vibration delay or something.
"Hey, Dad." She greeted the caller a little bit more exuberantly than strictly necessary. But then again she was about to ask him for a favor. "No! It's nothing like that, calm down. . . Listen, you know your new resident? The prodigy from California? . . . Well it turns out his girlfriend is my dorm mate . . . Yeah, really . . . so I was wondering, me and Jasper were gonna check out a party and I want Suze, that's her name, to come with. . . . Yes, well it would be a bit like a third-wheel, yes. Unless you ?" She asked the last part all in one breath so that it sounded like one word, a funny contrast to the slow and roundabout way she had brought up the topic. After she asked there was a long pause during which she closed her eyes and crossed her fingers, it looked like she was holding her breath, too. And then out of nowhere she exclaimed, "Oh! Thank you! Thankyouthankyouthankyou! And Suze thanks you, too. Don't you Suze?"
"Yeah, absolutely I totally thank you!" I responded in a voice I hoped was loud enough to carry through the phone from where I stood.
In even higher spirits than before, Alice helped me hang the collage where it caught the best light for its angle and we divided the built in shelves between us. Under Alice's picture she had shelved several old and intimidating looking volumes as well as a couple of classics and the newest supernatural thrillers by one of my favorite authors. On my shelves I had a couple of crime novels, my absolute favorite romances, a few reference books on the history of the area in case I needed to help out any errant ghosts as well as a book of lore and a refurbished copy of My Monterrey that I'd found at a flea market not long after I'd brought Jesse back to life. I still had some empty shelf space so I added some of my favorite fantasy novels from when I had been younger and a book on Black Plague that David got me as a joke last Christmas. My side looked very youthful and eclectic like a college dorm on television, while Alice's side looked more like a professor's study. I already guessed she'd be studious and mature.
I had gone to make up my bed when I heard a knock from the main door. I didn't even bother to pause because even if Dr. Cullen let Jesse off early he still wouldn't be for another two hours at least. Right on cue I heard Alice squeal "Jazz!" and then slam the door. What I wasn't expecting was her to knock on my door.
"I'm decent," I called knowing there was no way she would think I was undressing in here at this time anyway. Alice swung the door open to reveal a boy, well a young man really he looked just a little younger than Jesse, several inches taller than her. He was as pale as everyone I've met from here so far and had this really glorious blond hair. It kind of reminded me of Bryce Martinson, the first guy I saved from a ghost on the West Coast. But this guy was way hotter than Bryce. Not as good looking as Jesse, but then no one looks as good as Jesse. But I will say that I was glad that I'd taken the time to dress up that morning, I was already in my best mini skirt and pink scoop neck cashmere sweater. I was barefoot at the moment but it wasn't like I was trying to seduce the guy or anything so I didn't think much of it.
"Hi, I'm Suze," I introduced myself to the stranger. "And you're Jasper, right?" I clarified just in case this was some other Jazz that Alice was thrilled to see.
"Yes, nice to meet you," he answered in a faint accent with a polite dip of the head.
"Cool, so as soon as my boyfriend gets off work I guess we're going party hunting," I said mostly to alleviate the tension in the room. The air was thicker than I was used to and there was a definite awkward vibe coming off of this Jasper character.
"Cool pictures," Jasper offered and I was suddenly very calm and relaxed. "The ones in the, I guess living room? I especially like the big one in the middle with all the people in it."
"Thanks. My mom took that picture," I added conversationally, "My best friend made the collage as a going away present; she has a vicious sense of humor."
"Yeah, I noticed all the tiny mustaches and thought bubbles. It's cute though."
I nodded hoping Alice would say something. Like mind reading, she immediately piped up, "My favorite was all the fake headlines. 'Breezeway Swallowed by Swallows'" she quoted naming the caption next to a picture of a timber that a ghost had once tried to drop on her ex-boyfriend's head.
"Yeah, that's CeeCee. But really, Alice, your picture is way better than any of mine."
"Naw," she disagreed, "yours is much more personal." Then she grinned a little manically. "It's got flavor!" she crowed before bursting into an everlasting fit of the giggles.
"Right," I agreed slowly, relieved when Jasper finally dragged her out of there and they disappeared into her room.
I had mostly unpacked and my closet was organized according to time of day each outfit was appropriate for when my cell phone rang. I snatched it off the bed side table and answered immediately recognizing the ring tone as the one reserved specifically for Jesse.
"Doctor, doctor, gimme the news," I sang into the receiver by way of greeting.
I heard faint laughter on the other end and began to pull my shoes on with my phone tucked between shoulder and ear.
"The most interesting thing happened to me, today, querida." Jesse began in a conversational tone.
"Oh, really and what was that. Did Carla propose to you? That skank!" I accused in mock indignation, but really I was smiling too hard to pull off the tone properly.
"Oh no, nothing quite so scandalous. Instead, my supervising attendant known for pulling the longest and hardest shifts any human could possibly stand received a phone call and let me off three hours earlier than expected."
"Really?" I asked with faux innocence. "My, my, what could have possibly gotten into the man?" I asked, by then I was in the main room checking my keys and the door to Alice's room had opened a crack and a golden eye was peeking out at me.
"I think we both know what happened, querida not that I'm complaining of course. But could you please refrain from disrupting my scheduled hours so often that I fall behind?"
"I don't know that's a tricky one."
"Susannah."
"Okay, okay, fine. Geez. It wasn't even my idea to begin with. My roommate wants us to go on a double date to a party."
"So you called my boss?"
"Nope!" I sang cheerfully. "She did. Seeing as how he's her dad and all." I did a little victory twirl and fell over the arm of the ancient couch, luckily no one saw that, as my skirt rode up several inches. Jesse apparently heard me fall though 'cause he laughed so hard and loud that I heard him outside the door.
I hung up on him and pulled the door open while he was still in the hallway and called out "My Jesse senses are tingling!" And there he was in all his glory, his mouth still open from getting caught mid laugh. I quickly ushered him inside and called for Alice and Jasper even though it was unlikely they hadn't heard him considering the size of our suite.
"Do you want to chill for a bit before we go?" I asked him once the door was safely shut behind him. I hadn't exactly been paying attention during most of orientation so I didn't know when the curfew to have all the men out of the women's dorm was and I didn't want to get caught by the RA on my first day. I knew that I'd be in trouble and making excuses soon enough.
Alice and Jasper quickly emerged from Alice's room and introductions were quickly made. Then we spent a few minutes watching Jesse admire the rooms even though he'd been with me yesterday when the whole family drove up to help me move in. Though I must say it looked a lot less sterile now, what with the wall art and nick knacks and everything.
After that we went out party hopping and a good time was had by all, several hours later I crawled into my tiny bed after kissing Jesse good night and groaned at the thought of waking in less than five hours for my first day of class. It's a good thing I can function on very little sleep thanks to all the practice I've gotten over the years due to my mediator duties.