Chapter Two | Don't Forget to Remember me
Song: Don't Forget to Remember Me—Carrie Underwood
Phoebe uncharacteristically tossed her backpack onto the chair of her desk and released a heavy sigh. She was exhausted and it was only three in the afternoon, however, it was Friday afternoon. Her first week of classes were finally done and Phoebe was definitely looking forward to a weekend of relaxation, catching up with her best friend and boyfriend, and sleeping in.
She briefly contemplated taking a nap but figured she hadn't taken a nap since kindergarten, why should she get into that habit now. Instead, she brewed herself a cup of coffee, climbed into a pair of comfortable pajama shorts, fished out her Samsung phone from her backpack, and quickly dialed Gerald's number.
The phone rang and soon she could see Gerald's handsome face on the screen and he seemed to be in the middle of the school courtyard rushing somewhere.
"Hey babe!" He panted, managing a wide, genuine smile despite the fact that he appeared to be very short-winded.
"Hi Honey!" Phoebe responded before her curiosity got the best of her, "Where are you heading to?" It was a Friday afternoon and she knew Gerald wasn't rushing to class because he didn't start until Monday.
"Our team meeting went a little long today so I'm trying to head back to my room as quickly as possible. I need to eat and relax a little before practice." Gerald spoke into the phone as he opened the building door to Maple Hall, "How was your day?"
"Exhausting." Phoebe sighed, "It's been a pretty long week."
"I can imagine. I'm already so busy, I can only imagine how it's going to be when I have classes to attend also." Gerald remarked.
"I really miss you."
"I miss you too babe."
"Did you find out if you're going to be playing in tomorrow's game?"
"Yes, I did."
"Well? Don't keep me in suspense!"
"I'm not playing in tomorrow's game, short of an injury occurring." Gerald answered, his face falling a bit. "I mean, I'm a freshman, I still have to prove myself to these people. I know they're not going to play me immediately but I know that they will soon." Gerald's face perked up a bit.
"That is an excellent attitude to have honey, I know that you can do it!" Phoebe smiled, her voice full of encouragement.
"Thanks, what would I do without you?" Gerald gave a smile but then turned his head when he heard a door open in the background followed by the sound of a male voice.
"Johanssen, we have to go over these plays before practice so they're fresh in our minds." The voice carried through the phone, although Phoebe couldn't see anyone but Gerald on the screen. "You know coach is going to tear us a new one if we don't know these."
"Well, on that note I guess I have to talk to you later. I'm going to go over a few plays with my roommate. I love you sweetie." Gerald told his girlfriend, Phoebe managed to squeeze out a quick "I love you too." Before the screen went black. She scrolled to her contacts and dialed her best friend's number, but Helga didn't pick up the phone. Phoebe rolled her eyes and threw her head back onto her pillow.
Phoebe was mindlessly scrolling through Facebook and Instagram when the door to her room flew open. Phoebe jolted up from her relaxed position on the bed.
"You almost gave me a heart attack!" Phoebe shouted, throwing a small decorative pillow at her roommate. "Who barges into a room like that!?"
"Sorry, calm your tits!" Siobhan joked, "It's just me—no worries." Siobhan smiled as she placed her books on the desk. She paused for a moment and looked back and forth between the door and her mini-fridge. "I think I'm going to put this meal plan to work and grab some dinner at Star Ginger, you wanna come with?"
"Nah." Phoebe responded with a sigh.
"Suit yourself." Siobhan responded before grabbing her lanyard and heading out the door.
Phoebe lost track of time when she heard a knock at the door. It was nearly 8:00 in the evening. She forced herself to get out of bed and slowly opened the door, revealing Siobhan standing outside of their dorm room. Her arms wrapped around the shoulders of Nadine Taylor and Vincent "Peapod Kid" Peabody, who were both decked out in swimsuits.
"Sorry, I forgot my key." Siobhan apologized with wide eyes before turning to the young couple standing at the door, "I just have to change. I'll only be two—maybe three minutes." Siobhan smiled, stepping into the dorm room and shutting the door behind her. "You have to come out with us tonight!"
"How do you know Nadine and Vincent?" Phoebe squinted her eyes with confusion.
"They were at Star Ginger—someone else you went to high school with was there too—I think he said his name was Lorenzo." Siobhan answered as she shuffled through her small dresser in search of something particular.
"Why were they half naked?" Phoebe readjusted her eyeglasses as she watched her roommate dance happily when she pulled a two piece tie-dye bikini from the wooden drawer.
"There's a pool party tonight and we're all going." Siobhan responded excitedly, quickly setting up the small Japanese partition the girl's had purchased for changing in the room modestly, "Apparently there's going to be a DJ and it'll be a great chance to meet new people." Siobhan reappeared from behind the partition wearing her bikini and placing a hand on her roommate's shoulder, "You have to come with us—it's going to be super fun!"
"I don't know." Phoebe hesitantly answered, "It's not really my thing."
"Well, what are you going to do if you stay home?" Siobhan questioned as she pulled her black curly hair into a high bun. Phoebe struggled to come up with a response, "See, you don't have other plans tonight so you might as well come out with us. If it's not fun, we'll find something better to do!"
Phoebe looked down at her phone, no notifications. She hopped down from her lofted bed and pulled open her wardrobe. She looked back at her roommate with an incredulous look.
"What!?" Siobhan, confused, looked back at the girl.
"Please don't stare at me. I need to get ready for this pool party." Phoebe joked, pulling a navy blue bikini out from her drawer.
"Yes! So you're coming!?" Siobhan jumped up with excitement.
"Yeah, why not." Phoebe responded. Phoebe quickly got dressed and the two girls headed out of the dorm room. Nadine seemed particularly excited that Phoebe was joining along on their adventure. The small group of eager freshmen walked across campus to Lorenzo's dorm room to pick him up and headed towards the pool party.
The party was technically a campus event but it definitely did not give off that vibe. A sea of Stanford students were mingling, some diving into the pool, some chatting by the punch bowl and other surrounding the DJ booth rocking out to their favorite jams. The pool itself was fairly dark, illuminated by strobe lights and colored LED lights.
"Let's dance!" Siobhan grabbed Phoebe's hand and led to the makeshift dance floor in front of the DJ booth.
"I don't really dance." Phoebe said meekly, she was never one to put herself out into the public eye but Siobhan didn't care about anyone who could have been watching. She raised her arms in the air and swayed to the beat of the music with a huge smile plastered onto her face. Phoebe was hesitant at first but soon warmed up to the crowd. Spending her time at the party alternating between dancing and playing around in the pool. The girls didn't arrive back to their dorm building until nearly 1 am.
"That was a really fun party last night." Siobhan remarked over brunch. She looked over at Phoebe who was glancing down at her phone and pushing her eggs around on her plate. "Alright sweetie, what's wrong?"
"Huh?" Phoebe broke the gaze she had on her phone and looked up at her roommate, "Nothing, nothing."
"Girl, you are not fooling anyone." Siobhan looked at her with a blank stare. Phoebe stared back but Siobhan didn't flinch or even blink.
"Fine." Phoebe said with a sigh, averting her eyes away from Siobhan's gaze. "If you must know, I'm concerned about Gerald. He's already got a lot on his plate and classes for him start on Monday. I'm worried about how his busy schedule is going to affect his school work—and how it's going to affect our relationship."
"Well, I know you'll need to give him a lot of support because he's going to need it." Siobhan said after a long pause of careful thought, "At the same time, you can't make all of your spare time about him. Enjoy yourself."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Phoebe sighed. She knew that what Siobhan said was true but she also knew that it was going to be easier said than done.
"Wow, they really do go all out for these events don't they?" Helga remarked towards her group as they walked into Red Square, a normally open area of the Quad at University of Washington that had been transformed into a fun mix between a carnival and dance party.
"Well, what do you ladies want to do first?" Jake smiled towards Helga and Madison. Madison returned the smile while Helga desperately tried to erase the scowl that she felt her face attempting to make.
"Oooh, look they have a photo booth. Come on let's go!" Madison exclaimed excitedly, as she took off towards it, Jake following quickly behind her. Gerald and Helga looked back and forth at each other with a shrug before begrudgingly following behind them.
"Look, they have games here. I wonder if they have darts." Helga pondered aloud looking over at Gerald.
"There's darts right over there," Gerald pointed to the right of him, "but I don't think you're ready to get whooped in darts tonight—so we better just keep walking Pataki"
"Oh no. I'll text Mads to meet us down by the games and then it is on like Donkey Kong, Geraldo." Helga responded as she whipped out her phone and quickly fired off a text.
"Mads?" Gerald chuckled, "Do you have a nickname for everyone?"
"Its part of my charm," Helga smiled, "now are you going to keep yapping or are you ready to get spanked in darts?"
"Alright, I forgot how evenly matched we were in these types of games." Gerald laughed, the pair had played nearly every carnival game available and had come up even. "Where in the world did Jake and Madison disappear to? Are you sure you sent that text earlier, because I haven't seen them since they left for that photo booth."
"Yes, I sent the text Geraldo. Who cares anyway, I couldn't take another moment of them making goo-goo eyes at each other." Helga remarked, pointing her finger towards her mouth and imitating someone vomiting.
"I thought I was the only one that noticed." Gerald laughed as they reached their respective dorm rooms. Helga jiggled her door open before Gerald even had his key out of his pocket.
"I guess I'll see you tomorrow Gerald." Helga remarked, putting special emphasis on his name before heading into her dorm room.
"Yeah, tomorrow." Gerald mumbled to himself as he unlocked the door. When he walked into his dorm room, the lights were off but he heard faint moans coming from Jake's side of the room and could make out two figures moving under the covers. He quickly closed his door behind him and walked across the hall to Helga's room, banging loudly on her door.
"Why are you knocking on my door like you're the freaking police!?" Helga demanded to know. She looked down to see Gerald doubled over with laughter.
"Can I hang out here for a little while?" Gerald managed to compose himself between laughs to ask.
"Why?" Helga questioned, folding her arms as she stood in the doorframe of her room.
"Because—your roommate is in my dorm room with Jake." Gerald answered.
"So, I guess that's why we couldn't find them at the carnival—they were too busy hooking up?" Helga burst out laughing, moving aside to allow Gerald access into her dorm room. "Take a seat, I guess we'll find something to watch until Madison decides to make an appearance back home."
Gerald took a seat on the grey futon the girls had set up in front of the TV. Helga grabbed a large bag of popcorn from their shelf along with two cans of soda and flipped the TV onto Netflix.
Arnold's English 101 course met every Monday and Wednesday and Arnold was counting the weeks until he no longer had to sit through it. It was almost as though the Universe truly had a sick since of humor because it wasn't enough that Mondays were arguably the worst day of the week, but he was just paired with Stinky Peterson for a partner writing assignment.
"Are you ready to tackle this assignment?" Arnold questioned the young man in an attempt to make the best of a terrible situation.
"Whatever. " Stinky replied, not once moving his gaze from his paper to look at Arnold. Arnold rolled his eyes in frustration.
"Well, let's find out what prompt we got." Arnold remarked, apparently to no one because it seemed as though his partner couldn't care less what he had to say. Arnold looked down at the paper and read the prompt they were assigned. "Oh boy." He whispered to himself.
"Okay class, I'm giving you twenty minutes to write a few paragraphs about each of these prompts then you will switch papers and give each other constructive criticism on their pieces. Sometimes our own minds get so clouded with our ideas that we need a second set of eyes to go over the piece to ensure that it is perfect. Alright—time starts now." Mr. Lowe stated.
Arnold raised his hand. "Yes Mr. Shortman?"
"I'm sorry to ask but is there any way that we could have a different prompt?" He questioned anxiously.
"No, eventually every person in this class will write all of these prompts." Mr. Lowe snipped before walking away.
"What is it?" Stinky looked over at Arnold and asked. Arnold slipped him their writing prompt. Stinky looked down at the paper. "Write about the best thing and worst thing to happen to you this summer." Stinky rolled his eyes, shot Arnold a look, grabbed his pen and started furiously writing.
Arnold immediately knew what he wanted to write about but he was afraid of how Stinky was going to react to it. He rolled his eyes and began jotting down his thoughts. Time seemed to fly by, because before he knew it, it was time to exchange papers.
Arnold hesitantly began to read Stinky's paper. Arnold thought he knew what Stinky was going to write about for the best thing to happen to him over the summer was, but he was surprised that Stinky explained that his best moment was also his worst moment of the summer. He described a wonderful date between him and his girlfriend, complete with candlelight dinner and a romantic walk through the park. He explained how he liked the girl for several years but hadn't gotten the courage to approach her until halfway through senior year. He recalled all the little moments that finally led to him asking her to be his girlfriend. Then he described a passionate kiss, which made Arnold's skin crawl a bit—considering Stinky knew he'd be reading it. Finally ending the story with the worst thing to happen to him over the summer, Arnold Shortman coming back to Hillwood. Arnold placed the paper down, unsure of how to even begin to complete the assignment on such a piece.
"I reckon we had similar subject matter in our writing pieces." Stinky observed. A clear attempt to try to bait Arnold into an argument. Arnold grabbed his backpack and snatched his paper from Stinky's desk making a beeline for the door. He heard Mr. Lowe's faint voice calling for him before he heard the door slam shut behind him. 15 more weeks. Arnold thought to himself. How the hell was he going to get through 15 more weeks!?
Rhonda had been dreading the first day of classes at Hillwood University since she ran into her former classmates at the freshman mixer where the people she once considered friends made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that they wanted absolutely nothing to do with her. Two things did make her first day of class a little better. The fact that she didn't live on campus and the fact that her first class didn't begin until noon.
Rhonda passed through one of the common study areas of the main building and briefly saw Lila and Eugene chatting with some fellow students. She surprised herself, after years of being the self-proclaimed HBIC of any situation, she was now reduced to avoiding groups of people to avoid an unwanted confrontation. She shook the thought from her mind and continued heading towards her first class of the day, Introduction to Art, and was pleased to see that she didn't share that course with anyone she knew. She attempted to stay focused on the Instructor in the front of the room as they went over the course expectations and grading standers, but instead found her eyes wandering towards the clock at the front of the room.
Finally, class was dismissed and Rhonda grabbed her oversized bag and headed out the door.
"Excuse me!" Rhonda heard a voice call with a very faint Spanish accent call out behind her. She cautiously turned around to see a tall, beautiful girl with coffee toned skin making her way towards her. "Sorry, I just noticed we have the same bag and I just had to introduce myself."
"Oh, I highly doubt that," Rhonda held up her bag and showed it off in a grandeur fashion, "This is an exclusive Hermes-"
"Yes, it's an exclusive Hermes Birkin, sold for a limited time during fashion week. I'm quite aware that we have the same bag, hence why I approached you." The girl interrupted, tucking a piece of dark brown hair behind her ear, causing Rhonda's jaw to drop open. "Now if you're done."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm Naomi Justice." The girl introduced herself, "And you are?"
"I'm Rhonda Wellington Lloyd." Rhonda scoffed, matter-of-factly. "Now, what is a girl of your caliber doing in little ol' Hillwood?"
"Honestly, I thought I'd be at one of the Ivy's right now—money doesn't buy admissions like they used to I guess." Naomi joked, "Seriously, my college plans didn't really work out but I figured University of Hillwood definitely beats University of Iowa." Rhonda laughed at the girl's candid description of how she ended up in Hillwood.
"My other option was University of Idaho." Rhonda chuckled and the girls laughed together. "I was just about to check out the dreadful meal options this campus has to offer, if you care to join me."
"Sure. I haven't met a single cool person since I got to this town." Naomi remarked as they headed towards the main dining hall. "Maybe this year won't be so bad after all."
"Yeah." Rhonda pondered, thinking about the stress of the previous summer and her lack of friendships at the moment, "Maybe it won't be."