Emily groaned. She reached over to the plastic storage container she was currently using as a nightstand and turned off her alarm without opening her eyes. I hate math, she thought. I hate math, she thought again. When she finally did open her eyes, the view was exactly the same: pitch black. This always scared her a little. Not because she was afraid of the dark but because it reminded her of The Pit and the Pendulum. I hate math, she thought again.

She stood up and clicked on her lamp, which was so blindingly bright in her basement bedroom that she threw her arm up to cover her eyes and accidently knocked herself back onto the bed. It was quite a fall. Her mattress was on the floor.

Once she made it back up again, she quickly began to grab clothes from around the room, smelling each one until she found a clean shirt and a passable pair of jeans. She grabbed her messenger bag and headed out for her math class. She would just have to get breakfast after class was over.

The utter darkness of her basement bedroom was just about the only thing she didn't like about it. Emily had lived in the dorms her freshman year at Vallance, and while she had gotten along fine with her roommate, Stephanie, a math wiz, soccer player from Kansas, she hadn't really liked the dorm style living. The mass shared bathroom, the cookie cutter rooms, the constant weekend sexile she'd had to endure whenever Stephanie hooked up with some guy she'd met and want some privacy with him in their room. And the whole thing was overpriced, honestly.

Emily had become very close to three girls at Vallance when she'd started working in the theatre scene shop building sets. She made many friends, of course, but the four of them had formed a sort of unit that felt more and more like family with each passing day. Eden, Charlotte, and Jo had become almost as close to her as her three best friends from high school—Spencer, Aria, and Hanna. Emily had a feeling that by the time she graduated from Vallance, these six girls would be the friendships she would carry with her wherever she went.

So, as their freshman year had been drawing to a close, she and her three college friends had decided to see if they could find a house near campus to rent together. They had located one almost immediately; an overlooked smallish house about 2 blocks away from campus.

It was easy to see why it had been overlooked. The entire outside of the house was covered in an ugly wooden clapboard siding. It had the appearance of an overgrown wooden children's toy block, with its straight front, back and sides. There was no porch, but it did have a sittable roof that was reachable from two of the upstairs windows.

The inside was better. Downstairs it had a big living room, small dining room, and a gross but cleanable kitchen. It even had a full bathroom with a shower. Upstairs, three bedrooms and a bathroom had been squeezed in at the top of a thin, narrow-stepped staircase (which each girl had managed to fall down by the end of September).

The landlord was a sweet, older Hispanic man named Horace who had rented the house to them for $500 a month and gave Emily permission to fix up the dark, musty basement into a fourth bedroom. Emily and Eden had decided to stay in Solomon over the summer to do the fix-up necessary on the house before the next school year began.

It had been a joyous summer. That was the only word Emily could use to describe it. Idyllic and swelteringly hot and loose as the days slipped by. She and Eden had secured positions at Vallance's fitness center. It didn't pay much, but they got by and usually had enough at the end of the day to buy a few bottles of Arbor Mist from the gas station convenience store down the street. The cashier there was famous around campus for "forgetting" to card students. After the sun set, they would climb out on to the roof and drink right from the bottle while the heat slowly seeped out of the shingles underneath them.

Spencer and Aria had come and stayed for almost the entirety of June. The three of them had discovered the best Mexican restaurant downtown. They'd spent long afternoons wandering in the local boutiques and picking the perfect colors to paint various rooms of the house. Sometimes they would stay up all night to paint because it was so much cooler working at night. The house felt like a different animal then, with every window thrown open and the moths lazily circling the floodlights they had borrowed from the scene shop. It was in those hours that Emily truly fell in love with the house. As shabby as it was, it was also beautiful, especially when she had her best friends next to her, singing stupid Taylor Swift songs at the top of their lungs. Emily had a framed picture of Spencer and Aria that she'd taken after one such all-nighter. The two of them were fast asleep in the middle of the kitchen floor, flecked and smudged everywhere with red paint and wearing matching blue jean overalls they'd bought at a thrift store just for the occasion, Aria's head resting on Spencer's legs. A few tears had leaked from Emily's eyes the day Spence and Aria had left, driving back to Rosewood in Spencer's silver SUV.

But then Hanna and her boyfriend, Caleb had surprised her, showing up just over a week later the day before Independence Day with enough booze and fireworks for a small army. They had done the holiday as only Hanna could. She'd decorated the entire house within two hours of her arrival and made up a batch of her famous sangria, to boot.

The next day had passed in a literal haze of smoke as the three of them and Eden spent the entire day grilling hamburgers, drinking, and shooting off firecrackers on the driveway. Caleb had taken a nap to sober up and then driven everyone to one of the dirt roads outside of town as the sun was setting. It had taken almost half an hour but they finally located the area where many of the small town's citizens had gathered to watch the fireworks display. They parked along the side of the road and stood at the edge of the field with everyone else just talking and watching the fireflies blinking around them until the show had started. And for a town whose population was only about 30,00, it wasn't half bad. Emily was enjoying this small town Midwestern life more than she ever thought she would. And when they'd returned to the house, to end the night, a spectacularly drunk Hanna had insisted on choreographing a "sparkler dance" and ended up burning her arm during the performance.

Hanna and Caleb had stayed for two weeks. Jo and Charlie had mailed some money to Emily and Eden for furniture buying, so the four of them had made it their mission to complete the living room and dining room while they had Caleb and Hanna around to help with the heavy lifting.

Eden, the only actress of Emily's three housemates, and Hanna got along well and they spearheaded the interior decorating mission with a vengeance. They'd tried the thrift stores around town first, but their furniture stock was rather low. At the local Big Lots they'd found a soft, brown, faux-leather sectional that Hanna exclaimed would look amazing with the golden yellow Aria had found to paint the living room. It was on clearance and the last one in stock, but the catch was they had to take it by the end of the day and there was no delivery available. After a quick meeting to decide what to do, Caleb and Emily headed out to rent a U-haul for the afternoon and Eden and Hanna had gone to work picking out the rest of the furniture.

$600 and five hours later, the four of them were collapsed, sweaty and gross, on the new sectional in the living room, arguing over who should cook dinner. Emily lost and made due with what she could find in the pantry. The friends had feasted on banana pancakes, pizza rolls, and stale Doritos that night. Emily suspected that she would remember the meal for her entire life as one of the most satisfying she had ever eaten. They had stuffed their faces by candlelight around the new dining room table.

By the time Caleb and Hanna had set off for Rosewood again, the house was starting to feel like a real home and Hanna had even christened it with a name. Because all the girls living in the house were involved in theatre and because of that awful wooden siding all over the outside she had dubbed it The Monologue Cabin. Once classes had started back up in the fall and all the students had returned, the name had worked its way around campus. Most people just called it The Log for short, though.

Emily hated math for a reason. She was dreadful at it, but she needed to get her math credit out of the way if she wanted to graduate. She had enrolled in the lowest level course Vallance offered in the subject, Mathematical Ideas (lovingly dubbed Math for Rocks by the students) and prepared for the worst.

This particular morning, like most, Emily was struggling to stay awake and distractedly jotting down poems in her notebook instead of taking notes on—

she lifted her head and listened to the professor for a moment—

estimation. The professor, in Emily's opinion, looked like a female Hobbit, and while she didn't dislike the teacher, she felt no warmth toward her either. Her lack of positive feelings on the class was due more to the fact that it was at 8 am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday rather than the professor herself.

But Emily was in a bit of a mood today. I estimate, she wrote in the margin of her paper, one large rock thrown at the professor's head would kill her. And put me out of my misery, Emily thought.

When class ended Emily threw her books in her bag and took off for the cafeteria. She and the girls split meals pretty evenly between cooking them at home and eating the school food. On her way to the caf she stopped in the mailroom, which was in the same building, since she hadn't checked her box in a few days. As soon as she finished dialing in her combo and opened the box however, she regretted it.

One thin, white envelope stamped with the school seal and "Vallance College Business Office" had been all she needed to know what it was: her third, and final, the letter informed her, notice requesting she pay her remaining tuition for the year. If they did not receive the money by the end of the month, she would not be allowed to continue with her classes. Suddenly Emily didn't feel so hungry. She stuffed the letter in her bag and walked back to The Log slowly.

Emily's father was in the army and her mother worked as well, but they were by no means rich. Her parents had told her that if she chose to go to Vallance that they would only be able to cover half of the $37,000 a year tuition. She would have to get grants, scholarships, and loans to cover the rest. Emily had considered going somewhere cheaper, but she had her heart set on the little liberal arts college with the amazing English department. Her first year had gone by well. She filed her FAFSA and qualified for enough grants and federal loans to cover her half of the tuition. But this year, Vallance had raised the tuition by $5,000 and Emily was scrambling to find a way to pay this extra amount. She had finally decided to apply for a private loan, but the process was long. Emily had no credit history so she'd had to ask her grandparents to co-sign for her. She was still waiting on the final YES or NO from Sallie Mae.

When Emily got home she still felt a little green around the gills from worry, but she knew she should eat, so she headed back towards the kitchen. She walked in and saw Jo leaning against the counter, eating an apple.

"Are you okay," she asked, noticing Emily's face. Jo was a little shorter than Emily with short, strawberry-blonde hair that was shaved on one side of her head. She had an openness about her that Emily found refreshing and eyes that seemed to change color depending on the color of her shirt and the mood she was in. She was the first close lesbian friend that Emily had ever had. All the lesbians Emily met in high school had been so few and far between she had immediately seen them as a possible dating option. But at Vallance, the dating pool was so much larger that she didn't have that issue anymore. It was so nice having someone she could relate to in that way without the pressure of someday the two of them becoming an item.

"Oh sure," Emily had replied sarcastically. "Vallance is just trying to kick me out still," she said grabbing a rather forlorn looking granola bar from her near empty shelf in the cabinet they used as a pantry.

"You still haven't heard back about your loan?" Jo asked with worry in her voice as well.

"Nope. If I don't pay by the end of the month, I can't keep going to my classes." Emily had just finished answering when Eden bustled into the kitchen.

"Good morning, ladies!" She exclaimed loudly as she opened the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of Naked juice. Then she spotted Emily's face. "What's wrong?!" she shouted at Emily. This was Eden's normal volume, most likely a result of years of being told to project by directors of the plays she'd acted in.

"Emily's sad," Jo replied. She figured Emily didn't want to talk about it, especially when Eden was in such a sunny mood.

"Do you want me to sing for you?" Eden liked to lift crestfallen spirits with rousing songs like Battle Hymn of the Republic.

"No, Eden, thanks," Emily replied quickly. She couldn't help but smile a little, too.

"You're coming tonight though, right? To the show? It's my debut as a dancer!"

"Of course. I'll be there," Emily assured her friend. "I wouldn't miss it."

The mainstage this weekend was the semi-annual dance show that the Vallance Dance Department put on, aptly named MOVEMENT! Eden had gotten involved in the theatre department as a freshman, but this would be her first foray into the world of dance and Emily was excited to see the results.

"Okay, good! See you tonight then," Eden said, pecking both her friends on the cheek, after which she headed for the door. They could just hear her starting to sing the opening notes of Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart as she closed the door behind her.

"Hurrican Eden," Jo said chuckling as she finished her apple. "Hey, you wanna watch last night's Grey's episode with me this afternoon?"

"Sure. I finish work at 4, but the dance show's not til 7 so we should have time," Emily answered.

"Cool. I'll see if Charlie wants to join us. We'll have to head over before you, though," Jo said about their other housemate, Charlotte, whom everyone called Charlie.

"Why?"

"I'm working the box office tonight and Charlie's running crew," Jo clarified.

"Oh, okay." Emily loved building sets in the scene shop for the theatre, but that's as involved in the department as she got, unlike the other three girls.

"Don't you have Econ in like 20 minutes?" Emily asked glancing at the clock on the kitchen wall. "Where's Charlie?" She and Jo had the class together, thankfully, otherwise, Emily suspected, Charlie would never make it out of bed in time. Charlie was the true night owl of the house. Emily sometimes heard her fixing the food at 2 or 3 am because the basement door was located only a few feet away from the stove.

"I'm going to make a wild guess and say: bed. I gotta go get that girl UP," Jo said leaving the kitchen. She stopped at the doorway to the dining room, though and said, "I'm sure you'll hear about the loan soon. It'll be alright Em."

"Thank you, Joanna," Emily smiled at her friend's grimace when she used her whole name. "I'll see you around 4. Bring chocolate!" Emily threw over her shoulder as she headed down into the basement.