"Morning beautiful." Rick said as Traci walked into the cafeteria.
Traci rubbed the last bit of sleep out of her eyes as she sat down across from him.
"I do have a name you know." She replied.
"I like beautiful better, it suits you." He said.
"Oh well, in that case…by all means." She told him with a laugh.
"Thank you. Now let's go get some food beautiful." He said standing up.
Traci followed him and put what Eden Hall considered food on her tray.
"How was your trip home last night?" He asked her as they sat back down.
"It made me very grateful to be living here." She told him.
"That good, eh?" He said with a laugh. "Are you an only?"
She shook her head as she peeled back the top of her yogurt container. "I'm the oldest. You?"
"I'm the oldest too. My brothers and sister are the bane of my very existence." He said.
"My brother is really quiet so I barely notice him. My sister and I get along though. She'll be a teenager soon enough though and they'll be no living with her." Traci said. "Well if she's anything like I was."
"You weren't a perfect angel?" He asked in between bites.
Traci smiled sweetly. "Of course I was."
Rick laughed. "Why do I find that hard to believe?"
"I'm going to venture a guess and say it's because you're intelligent." Traci said.
"So what do your folks do?" He asked her.
Traci choked slightly on her cereal…parents, her least favorite topic.
Rick noticed. "You alright?"
Traci swallowed hard. "Yeah, went down the wrong pipe or something. Um, my Dad is a doctor at St. Paul Memorial and my Mom…well…"
"Is a socialite?" He guessed.
"Something like that." Traci said. "What about yours?"
"My Dad's a bigwig on the Alumni Board. To be perfectly honest I'm not exactly sure what he does. My Mom sounds like yours…DAR and charities and such." He said.
Traci nodded. "Exactly. I don't get why though, she could be a lot more if she wanted. It's like she settled."
"Something you have no intention of doing I suppose?" He asked.
"I know what I want and I know how to get it." She said confidently.
"My kind of girl." He said with a smile.
Traci was pretty much on Cloud Nine the rest of the day. Even her surprise quiz in Algebra didn't get her down.
"Someone's in a good mood." Brooke said walking into the dorm room.
Traci paused from painting her toenails and singing along with Britney Spears on the radio and let out a laugh.
"Yes, yes I am." She said.
"Does this have anything to do with your breakfast date?" She asked.
"This has everything to do with that." Traci replied.
"Well, details then." Brooke said sitting down on the bed.
Traci launched into an overview of everything from last Friday's meeting to that morning at breakfast.
"And then he asked me out for Friday night." Traci finished.
"Wow, that's awesome Trace." Brooke said.
"I think so too. Gah! I'm so lame." Traci said covering her face with her hand.
"Traci's in looove!" Brooke said with a laugh.
"Oh be quiet!" Traci said with a blush as she hit Brooke with her throw pillow.