The next morning Lana can barely pull herself out of bed. It's 8:30 in the morning and she has to leave in 45 minutes. She throws her heavy legs over the side of the bed and slides her slippers on. Wendy's gone, probably already on her way to class. Lana begrudgingly gets ready for the day. She can never truly decide whether she enjoys the curricular side of college, but she always enjoys the first day of classes. So by the time she's walked to the school café and consumed an entire large cup of black coffee she is awake and cheerful.
Her first block of classes are successful, she finds the rooms, she's there on time, and she has at least one friend in each class. When she walks into the cafeteria to grab lunch before she heads to another lecture, she spots Wendy and a couple of the girls who were at the drive in. Wendy waves her over. But unwilling to rehash last night's awkward conversations so soon Lana smiles and points to her watch. She gives a shrug and mouths, "sorry" before she turns to grab a sandwich, pay, and get out as quickly as she can.
At the table, Wendy watches Lana hurry off. A bit disappointed, she picks at the pasta on her tray. "Wendy, you don't have to invite her to sit with us just because she's your roommate." Tracy says with a condescending inflection.
"What?" Wendy asks, shaking herself out of her daydreaming disappointment but not out of confusion at the statement.
"She's kind of weird." Tracy replied.
It takes a moment for Wendy to comprehend that her friends actually do not like her new roommate. They might not know each other from front to back yet, but Wendy hadn't thought Lana was weird. She was nice, thoughtful, and generally upbeat. "I like her." Wendy said curtly, hoping to end the discussion. To further indicate that she didn't want to talk about it, Wendy picked up her fork and shoved a mouthful of pasta between her lips. Tracy rolled her eyes, and a few of the other girls laughed but they didn't push the subject. They quickly changed the subject to boys, and topic of conversation that Wendy could have done without. She had never understood the need to talk about men: how attractive they were, the cute things they said to get girls attention, or how cool their car was. She always added just enough to the conversation to let her friends know that she was listening, even when she wasn't.
Today one of the boys they were watching noticed them. He sat at a table by the window with his apparently less attractive friend, whom Wendy hadn't noticed. His blonde hair was slicked back and he wore a white button down shirt under and oversized suit jacket. With a flick of his wrist he popped open a lighter and took a long drag from a cigarette. Seeing this, Susan elbowed Tracy in the shoulder and they both turned their attention towards him, giggling. They were loud enough to attract his attention. He looked over at the table, but he looked right past Susan and Tracy and his eyes met Wendy's. By the time he reached the table Wendy had worked herself into a panic. She was not expecting this and she felt suddenly nervous. People did not just randomly introduce themselves to her, but today was obviously an exception. He grabbed the empty chair next to her, spinning it around and throwing his leg over it so that he sat on it backwards. Wendy tried her best not to roll her eyes. How smooth, she thought, but still, she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.
"The name's James. And what kind of name might a pretty lady like you have?"
"Wendy" she replied quietly.
"Well, hey Wendy. Do you want to get out of here? I can feel you friends eyes all over us. What would you say to a walk around the courtyard?"
Surprising herself, she said yes and the two of them left the cafeteria. When they reached the door to Wendy's dorm they bypassed it, looping slowly around the courtyard two more times before finally parting ways. James was the kind of guy wendy had always pictured herself with. He was handsome, but he was also very sweet. On the surface he looked like one of those fast boys who didn't take no for an answer and often found themselves in trouble. However, he was quite the opposite. He explained how in the cafeteria she had caught his attention immediately, and that, if not for the persistence of his friend, he probably wouldn't have come to ask her on a walk. Normally Wendy might have thought he was playing around, to make himself seem more shy and vulnerable. But he stuttered a few times and seemed generally nervous, she it wasn't hard to believe his story. She learned that he was at school studying business and that he was originally from the west coast. It was a long way from home but he didn't have a family life worth sticking around for so he'd moved away as far as he could without running into the ocean.
Once they reached the steps of Wendy's dorm her put his hand on the railing, almost as if for suppert. "So, would you maybe want to go to the drive-in on Friday?" he asked.
"I think I'd like that." Wendy replied. He was so nervous, an endearing trait, and Wendy wanted to get to know him better. He smiled, and made an awkward reach for her face, planting a kiss on her cheek
"I'll see you around." He said before turning and walking down the courtyard.
Instinctively Wendy rubbed the kiss off her cheek. It was sweet, and she was looking forward to Friday.
Wendy was hoping to find Lana in the room when she got back, but when the door swung open she saw that there was no one inside. She settled at the desk and opened up a textbook, but she couldn't stay focused. After a brief nap followed by a dance session to a couple of records Wendy gathered her stuff and headed back out to campus for a meeting.
By the time both Wendy and Lana were back at the dorm they were too tired to do much talking. They crawled into their respective beds, wished each other a quick goodnight and turned out the lights.
Lana walked into her biology class and pulled up a seat in the very back. Usually Lana was a "front of the class" kind of student, but she hated biology. She didn't even know she had to take it until a phone call from her academic advisor had informed her that they'd forgotten to get her enrolled in a general science class. It made no sense to her, taking biology, as a journalism student. She tapped her pen violently on the surface of her desk. She noticed a brown-haired girl in front of her put her hands subtly over her ears. Suddenly remorseful Lana apologized.
"Lana?" the girl questioned as she turned in her chair.
Lana realized that the girl she had annoyed was Wendy. Figuring that they wouldn't have an classes together, neither of them had really talked about what they were taking this semester. Lana apologized again, voicing her annoyance at biology. Wendy gathered her things and moved to a seat next to Lana just as the professor began lecture.
It turned out to be a lot better than Lana had expected. Then again, she was almost certain that Wendy's presence helped immensely in that department. When she was bored she looked over at Wendy's notes which were neat and organized, but which also had tiny drawings scribbled all over them. Not the usually doodles, though. Lana was used to drawing a few simple flowers or maybe a pattern. But Wendy sketched faces with incredible detail, and ease. When she caught Lana staring at her sketches she gave a sly smile and turned the page in her notebook.
"Take notes for me" she whispered, pointing at Lana's pad of paper. Lana was slightly confused, but obliged and drew here eyes away from Wendy's sketching.
Wendy took a good look at Lana, who was clearly struggling to keep her eyes forward, and began to draw her face in profile. She drew the slope of her forehead, and nose. She drew the soft protruding lips, which curved, into a toothy smile. Now Lana was smiling that same smile, still trying to look forward, but taking quick glances at the sketch from time to time. When the bell chimed and everyone began to file out Wendy ripped the piece of paper from her notepad and quickly scrawled her name and the date into the very lower right hand corner.
"Do you have a lunch break now?" she asked Lana, attempting to bypass any praise or criticism from the gifted drawing.
"I do." Lana replied. She slid the drawing into the middle of her notepad to keep it from being bent. Her face was warm. She wanted to thank Wendy, but she was already steps ahead of her, on her way out the door.
They bought lunch and sat on the edge of the fountain in the courtyard. The sun was bright and warm, a perfect day to sit outside. Lana fed the sparrows pieces of her sandwich while Wendy told her about meeting James in the cafeteria. It bothered Lana, and she wasn't completely sure why. James seemed nice enough, but the idea of him hitting on Wendy irritated her. Wendy was happy about it though, so she shrugged it off. She didn't need to be protective over her new roommate. James was probably a really nice guy. She needed to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Wendy noticed Lana's discomfort but didn't ask her about it. Seeing James was not a big deal She could tell that she was smiling when she talked about him, but it almost felt like she was smiling because she needed too, not because James made her that happy. They hardly knew each other. Maybe that's why Lana looked uncomfortable.