Belle flipped on her new laptop and checked her email. She scrolled past a few messages from her parents reminding her to eat well and study and deleted a couple dumb forwards from some goofy kid in her media class. Finally, she found the email from Chloe that she'd been waiting for.
________________________________________________________________________
To: phantomdiva@julliard.edu
From: tinkerbelle@ucla.edu
Subject: phantom sounds awesome!
Chloe,
I'm so jealous that you're going to see Phantom. Will you get me a pin or something from the show? That'd be great! You really seem to be making the most of New York. I know that you've always wanted to live there and I'm so glad that your dream is finally coming true. I can picture you living it up, enjoying the culture, figuring out the subways…
And look at me, a California girl all of the sudden! It's so much fun. The football game was just great. We won 24-10 and I don't think I've ever cheered that hard. The stadium is out in Pasadena, which is like an hour from Westwood where the UCLA campus is. Quite the trek! But the ride over was fun. Philip's friend, Matt, is pretty cool. He's the one who owned the van. He was totally flirting with me and I had fun flirting back. But it still felt weird, you know?
Rush is going well. Mimi is rushing, too, and we seem to be interested in the same houses so far. There's another round of parties left, then we hear their decisions. It's sort of an archaic system, but what can you do?
I've gone to a few open frat parties. They're actually not all that great. The closed parties are supposedly better, but the open ones are kind of lame. Lots of high school kids were sneaking in – I can't believe I just said that. Only months ago we were high school kids! The beer is pretty bad at these open parties. Not that I'd know anything about good beer or bad beer! Philip helped protect me from the groping frat boys, which was nice. He's such a sweetie. Mimi drank a little too much at the last party and started to try to do a striptease on a coffee table. Luckily, Philip and I got her home before she could really embarrass herself. Sometimes I think that Mimi has all this pent up wildness that she needs to get out of her system.
I'm thinking of getting involved with the school newspaper or campus TV station. That could be fun. There's so much I want to do and so little time sometimes…I know, I know, I'm such a joiner!
Shawn called me the other night and we talked for a few hours. I can't move on when I still think about him. But I can't stop thinking about him. He said maybe he'll come visit. I don't know if that's good or bad….Chloe, what's wrong with me? Maybe I should just hookup with the first guy that comes along and try to forget Shawn Brady….
Okay, maybe I should go to bed. It's late and I never sleep anymore. My mom would just LOVE to hear that. She needs a new hobby or she needs to start babysitting Will more often – I certainly don't need her mother trip right now. Also, let me know what happens when you hear from Brady. He's sort of an erratic emailer sometimes.
alright, alright, I'm really going to sign off.
luv, belle
