LONELY HEARTS

Chapter 10

Freshman Year

By Tvdfanpam

TIME JUMP:

Ana and Kate have graduated high school. Ana was not home schooled her senior year after all. Kate had a fit about it and said Ana promised to go to prom with her and cried saying that high school was hard enough and she needed her sister with her during their senior year. They went to prom together with a group of friends; no dates. Ana was secretly relieved. They were currently setting up their dorm room at the University of Washington, starting their freshman year of college.

"Kate, I don't need a closet organizer. You know that you are my closet organizer. I will not be dressing in anything besides jeans and t-shirts or sweatshirts anyway." Ana whined to her sister as she tried to get out of helping her with the organizer.

"Ana, you know that isn't true. You were in People magazine last month. You have to wear nice clothes and fix your hair every day." Kate tried again. "You are famous now, Miss Hot Shot Writer." Ana rolled her eyes at her sister.

"You know I don't care about things like that. I don't know why anyone would want to see pictures of me coming out of Starbucks anyway!" Ana said as she unpacked a box of shoes. "Really, we can go home on the weekends, Kate. Twenty pairs of shoes is a little excessive, even for you."

"Some of those are yours, sister. Notice the tiny shoes?!" There is a knock on their door. Kate rushes over to the door and opens it. "Hello." She says politely to someone at the door.

"Um, hi. I'm Tiffany and I am your neighbor next door. Welcome to Harrison Hall. There is a floor meeting in 20 minutes in the RA's room at the end of the hall." She said shyly.

"Hi Tiffany. I'm Kate and this is my sister Ana. Come in please. We're just getting settled in. Have a seat if you can find one." Kate said as she looked around the room. It was a mess with stuff on every surface. "Sorry, sit here." She cleared off the desk chair on her side of the room so Tiffany could sit down.

"Are you Ana Cavanaugh, the writer?" She asked Ana shyly. "I read your books about adoption. My brother and I are adopted. Our birth parents were killed in a drive by shooting when we were 3 and 4 years old." She said in a rush looking down. Kate stared at her wide eyed, not knowing what to say to that.

Ana smiled softly. "Yes I am. I'm sorry you lost your parents as such a young age. I wrote those books because I just wanted to get the story out of my head; I didn't think that it would turn into such a big deal. I can't even go to Starbucks now without someone taking my picture." She said trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, I saw your picture in People Magazine. You made the list of Thirty under thirty this year." She gushed to Ana. Kate rolled her eyes.

"Please stop, you'll give Ana the big head!" She teased. She knew that wasn't possible. Ana was one of the most humble people she knew. Ana rolled her eyes at Kate.

"Okay, enough about me. What's your major Tiffany? Are you a freshman? Where are you from?" Ana asked quickly wanting to get the attention off of herself.

"Well, I am a junior and a Journalism Major. I want to work for the Seattle Times or possibly a news magazine like Time or Newsweek when I graduate. I am on the Student Newspaper and I am from Tacoma." She said. "I also work part time as a nanny. I went to Europe last summer with a family with three children."

Kate looked impressed. "Our father owns a newspaper. When you get close to graduating, give me your resume and I will give it to him." Ana was surprised because Kate didn't usually tell anyone who their father was. Eamon Cavanaugh was a big deal in Seattle. You could see Tiffany trying to connect the dots.

"Thank you Kate. I will keep that in mind. It was nice meeting you both. I am going to run to the bathroom before our meeting. See you in a few." Tiffany said as she got up and walked out of the room.

Ana's phone buzzed with a text. It was from Christian: Are you all settled into your dorm room? Ana texted back: Yes. Met the girl next door. Going to a meeting. Call you later? Christian: Okay. Going into a meeting myself. Two hours? Ana: Okay. She looked up to see Kate staring at her with a raised eye brow. "Yes, it's Christian. It's no big deal. So we text each other. It's not like we are dating or anything." Ana blushed as she shrugged her shoulder, not meeting her eye.

"Yeah right. Not dating okay. You're both so busy but I can see it happening soon sister." Kate looked at her with a knowing smirk. "But what do I know?" She said smiling.

"I know you are too nosy for your own good!" She laughed as she tried to frown but couldn't. She smiled instead. "Let's go get this year started! It's going to be good, I can tell!" She grabbed her UW water bottle and her lanyard with her room keys and followed Kate out of the room.

They walked down the hall to the open door and followed some other girls in and found a place on the floor to sit. It was close quarters with 20 girls in the small room. A perky blonde girl walked in carrying a clipboard. "I see we're all here. I'm Marietta and I am your RA. That means Resident Assistant. We are going to be best friends by the end of the semester." She began the meeting by smiling really big. "There is a welcome to UW BBQ tonight in the parking lot at 7:00 pm then a tour of campus. I hope you all can make it. A few rules: No men on the floor after midnight and no men overnight guests. This is a girl's only dorm." There were a few groans around the room. "The side doors lock at 10:00 pm Monday through Friday and at midnight on the weekends. No drugs or alcohol is allowed in the dorms." Nobody said anything to that. "Great. Let's go around the room and introduce ourselves, shall we?" She looked at Ana. "You start."

Ana blushed but spoke up. "Hi, I'm Ana Cavanaugh and I am majoring in English Literature. I room with my sister Kate." Ana motioned to Kate sitting next to her. "I'm Kate Cavanaugh and I am majoring in Journalism. No, we aren't twins." She said and got the laughs as expected. They went around the room and Ana thought she wouldn't be able to remember everyone's name. The meeting was short and sweet and they went back to their room to finish unpacking.

"That tall girl on the end looked familiar. I think we went to high school with her." Ana said. "I think in fact she was on the basketball team."

"I think you're right. I wonder why she is in the regular dorms. I thought they had dorms for the student athletes here." Kate mused as she wandered around unpacking boxes. "Unless she isn't playing basketball."

"I guess you'll have to ask her at the BBQ." Ana said setting her laptop on her desk. "I wonder when the bookstore opens tomorrow. I need to get my books for my classes. You got yours already, I know." Her phone buzzed again. It was Christian: Out of my meeting. You? Ana texted back: Yes. Calling you in 5. She looked up to see Kate smiling at her.

"Tell your non boyfriend I said hello." She said as Ana walked out of the room and down the hall to the stairs with her phone to her ear.

"Hey." She said a little out of breath. "I am walking down the stairs. Just met the girls on our floor. I think one of them went to high school with us." She chattered. "There is a BBQ at 7 then a tour of the campus tonight."

"Sounds fun baby. I'm glad you are going to school in Seattle. Do you think you can have dinner with me this week?" He asked. "I won't keep you out too late on a school night, I promise." He teased.

"Yes, Thursday night looks good." She answered as she walked out of the elevator and went into the common room off the lobby and sat down in an overstuffed chair.

"Great. I can't wait to see you. We'll go to my restaurant, The Tower Club. They have great sushi." He said.

"It's a date." She said smiling into the phone.

A/N: I updated my Pinterest page. Check it out!