Hola otra vez. About this chapter…I think I made it a little too much about Benny and almost nothing about Mark. Oh well. Enjoy.

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Benny leaned back on his bed and stared at the ceiling of his dorm room. White. He had always liked white. The simplicity of it, and how it could be changed into any color. He liked change. Change was progress. And without progress, there was no advancement. That's what his father had always said. But he didn't need to think about his father right now, not on his first day at college. For some reason though, he couldn't help himself from hearing his fathers voice in his head.

"All you need is an idea, Ben. That's all anyone needs to get themselves out of a place like this. There's nothing else to it."

His father had been wrong. An idea couldn't break the cycle of poverty that had trapped their family for generations, always leaving the next in line with a worse situation. His father had plenty of ideas, but they hadn't gotten them anywhere. Benny had spent the better part of his childhood watching and listening to him spurt out theory after ridiculous theory about how to change their destitute existence in a trailer in a small town in Virginia. He had watched as his father spent all their money on different money making schemes, each one requiring less effort than the last.

That was what had tipped Benny off to the key to success. A cardinal rule in his household that had been drummed into his head by his mother: if your father does it, it's wrong. So, when he was about halfway through grade school, Benny realized what he had to do. He had to become as hardworking as his father was lazy.

So he did it. Instead of getting a job after school and supplementing their family's meager income like his siblings did, he studied. He learned what the good colleges were looking for and made himself become the perfect student. Not only perfect grades, but all the right extracurriculars, baseball and drama club and Spanish club and student council. Just the right combination to make him seem well rounded, which he was.

When it came time to apply, he applied for every school he could think of, everything from the schools that he knew he didn't have a chance in hell to get into, down to the local community college. He was accepted into every one. He chose Brown for a simple reason, it was the best school he could get a full scholarship to.

Benny was jarred from his thoughts when the door to the room opened and three people came spilling in. A large man with black hair and thick eyebrows, a woman with a rosy complexion who was talking a mile a minute, and a thin boy of about Benny's own age with sandy hair and glasses.

"Of course, Marky, you'll have to call us once you get more settled in. And don't forget, we're only a phone call away. So if you need anything, anything-"

"Mom! I'm fine. Please just…" he glanced at Benny, who was still lying on the bed, staring at the people now rather than the ceiling. "Just go, Mom. I'll be fine. Please?"

The man made a sound that sounded like a cross between a cough and a snort. He clapped the boy on the shoulder and strode out of the room. The woman started after him.

"Well…I guess that means we're going. You know he would have said goodbye, Marky, but…" she trailed off, not sure of how to finish. She kissed to boy on the cheek and hurried after who Benny assumed was her husband. The boy ran his hand through his messy hair and turned to Benny.

"Uh, hey…sorry about that. They don't know when to lay off. Parents, you know?" he said nervously, sounding like he was asking Benny permission to speak. Benny smiled to put him at ease.

"I totally get it. I'm Benny, Benny Coffin. I'm your roommate, I guess."

"I'm Mark Cohen. Have you been here long?"

"Two days, I came from Virginia and wanted a while to get used to the city. Where're you from?"

"Ugh. Scarsdale. The most boringest place on earth."

Benny's mouth twitched into what might have became a smile. There was something about Mark that he liked. "Hey, we don't have to worry about that anymore. We're college men, the world is ours," he said, deepening his voice and trying his best to sound mature.

Mark laughed at his new roommate. "Damn, I'm starving. You wanna go see if there's anything to eat in this city?"

Benny paused. He wasn't used to this kind of familiarity, just jumping into being friends with someone. Mark was from Scarsdale, his family was probably loaded. What would he say if he knew his roommate was self-named trailer trash, whose parents had refused to bring him to school for fear of embarrassing him?

No, he thought. Mark wasn't thinking about any of these things. Oblivious little rich boy, has everything handed to him. Probably a business major. That was fine, Benny was a business major himself. He could deal with this. So what if his roommate had no personality, so what if they were complete opposites. So he formed his opinion then and there. Mark: not bad, not great. Could be useful. So not a real friend, not for long at least. Benny could take these things in stride. After all, he had broken a cycle of poverty that spanned over a century. Finding a use for one nervous white kid couldn't be that hard.

"Sure. Let's go."

Things were changing. Change is progress. That's what his father always said.

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Reviews please? Up next, Roger and Collins.