I flinched awake to the sound of a jarring alarm clock. I let out a small groan. Morning. My worst nemesis. So we meet again.

"Ah!" I shouted as the lights were suddenly flicked on. I threw my elbow over my face to try to block the burning luminance. "My eyes! Why the f-"

"Shut up."

I took a chance and shifted my arm. Katerina was up and at 'em already. Her legs shuffled from under her nightie as she made her way to the coffee pot.

"Tell me the truth. You're the devil incarnate, aren't you?" I said, my voice rough.

"Room rule number one, Julia: don't talk to me before I've had my coffee."

I could hear the hot water go through the machine. The strong smell of coffee permeated through the room. The scent tried to unwillingly pull me out of my sleepy stupor. I grabbed the edge of my blanket and threw it over my head, leaving my feet bare.

The sound of the coffee hitting the pot made me feel uncomfortable. I squirmed on the mattress. I sat up and jumped off the bed. I exited the room and went down the hallway to the communal bathroom.

The bathroom was full of steam when I opened the door. A girl was leaning towards a mirror, a purple towel wrapped around her body. She looked my way and flipped her bouncy, blonde, slightly curled hair.

"Hey," she started.

"Out of my way, I have to pee," I said as I made my way past her.

I got to a stall and did my business. When I came back out, the girl was still there. I went to the sink next to her to wash my hands. She was leaning even closer, mascara wand in hand, applying the thick black goo to her already long eyelashes.

"Feel better after your tinkle, cranky pants?" she asked. Her mouth rested slightly open as she finished up her mascara application.

"Much better," I said. I dried my hands and held one out to her. "And the name is Jules, not cranky pants. And definitely not Julia." My roommate couldn't seem to get that through her head.

"Ooh, I like it!" She put her mascara away and shook my hand. "Pretty nickname. Like jewelry. Mine's Chessie. Short for Francesca."

"Yeah, so why are you putting your makeup on in here? Don't you have a mirror in your room?"

"Yeah, but my roommate is still sleeping. I wanted to get up early so I could look perfect."
I wish I was still asleep. Chessie got out a tube of lipgloss and started shining her plump lips.

"You look pretty much the same..." I said. It was true. She looked the same only...shinier.

"Oh, I know," she said. She smoothed her lips together and gave me a half-smile. "I'm gorgeous on my own. I just really like makeup."

Her eyes followed me up and down. Her half-smile became full blown. "You aren't half bad yourself."

"Of course not. I'm awesome."

Her fingers found the ends of my long hair. Her eyes searched up and down again. "You should come by my room sometime." She winked at me. "I'll make it worth your while."

She might be a bit odd, but I was too tired to care. I yawned. "I think I'll catch some more Zs. See ya later, Chessie."

"Sure, Jules. You get your beauty sleep, ma chère." Chessie went back to her mirror and bag of makeup.

I got back to my room, and Katerina was already dressed. A dress this time. Perfectly smooth. She was sitting at her desk, drinking her coffee and reading a book.

I splat back on my bead, not bothering with the blanket.

"Aren't you going to get ready?" she asked.

"Nope."

"There's only an hour left until we have to meet with our welcome groups."

"I have a whole hour?!" I twisted around and got my blanket. "Be a doll and wake me up fifteen minutes before. Or after. I don't really care."

"Are you finally going to unpack today?"

"Let's take this one step at a time. As of right now, my 'today' hasn't even started."

It didn't take long to fall back asleep with Katerina ignoring me. I was woken up again when I heard he door slam. Looks like she had finally left. I sat up and stretched. I looked at Katerina's clock across the room. I had twenty minutes. I might as well get ready. I got up and went through my boxes trying to find some clean clothes to wear.


My welcome group was meeting out on the main lawn. The wet grass from dew and the sprinkler system was soaking through my tennis shoes. My groups were sitting on blankets of various colors. I set my laptop bag down first and chose to sit on the black fuzzy one with the empty space.

"Cutting it kind of close, aren't you Jules?"

I looked across the way and smiled."What are you talking about? I'm always right on time, Gary."

"Don't call me Gary."

"Or what? You can't touch this awesomeness!" I bragged. Garrett rolled his eyes. "I didn't know you were in my welcome group. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Guess it just didn't cross my mind."

"Bullshit. You know it was Kateri-"

"Good morning, fish!" one person said loudly. "My name is Pete, and I am your welcome guide here at Wilson University!"

"Wu?" I said. That was kind of a lame acronym.

Pete snapped and pointed his fingers at me. "I like your enthusiasm! You all should be excited to be starting at WU this Monday. Can I get a woohoo?!"

Absolutely no one said anything. Either they were avoiding eye-contact with Pete or glaring in my general direction.

"Alrighty then! Since all of you are new here, why don't we go around and introduce ourselves? I'll start! My name is Pete Smith. I am a sophomore art major here at WU. I'm from a small town in Springfield, Iowa, and I collect and draw comic books. Anyone else want to go next?"

There was silence for a while, but then someone finally spoke up. They went around the circle one by one until I was the last one left.

"Alright, last one! What's your name?"

Through out that time, I had slowly become lower and lower inclined. I pulled myself back up, but my legs were a bit cramped.

"My name is Jules Beilschmidt," I said in a bored voice. "I'm from about 3 hours from here in a little piece of hell called Gilberton."

"Oh, looks like we got a repeat!" Pete interrupted. "You and Garrett are from the same place. You've got something in common."

Garrett face palmed from the obviousness.

"Really? I hadn't noticed," I said sarcastically. "It's not like we've known each other since birth or anything."

"That's why we have these activities," Pete said with an oblivious smile. "So we can all get to know each other and become friends."

I shook my head. "I'm undeclared and way too awesome to be putting myself through this. Do we really have to be here, Pete?"

"Ah, well...no," Pete stuttered out. "It's not required. But it's a good way to get to know the school and other people in your class."

I pointed to each person in the circle. "Sarah, Josh, Sam, Aubrey, Ashley, Jackson, Jake, Robert, Ben, Nick, and Casey."

Everyone was surprised by my attentiveness. No one had expected me to remember all of their names already.

"And let's not forget my precious little Gary-wary." I smiled at Garrett while he sent me a death glare. "I think I'm good in the name department," I said to Pete. There was rarely a time when I would forget a face.

I got up off the blanket. "Since I see no obligation to be here, I think I'll peace out. Who's with me!"

No one got up, though several looked like they wanted to. How lame.

Garrett sent me hand gestures, threatening me to shut up and sit back down. I ignored them.

"Suit yourselves. I'll go be awesome somewhere else."

With that, I grabbed my bag and walked back through the wet grass to my dorm room.