"I think our beds should be on separate sides of the room--it leaves more space in the middle." Jarod commented.
"Yeah, but the only problem is if we do that, we cover up the outlets and we'll have nowhere to plug in the desk lights." I sighed, and glanced around the room. "How did you guys ever do it before?" I wondered aloud.
"Extension cords, big pain in the ass!" Jarod answered, grinning to himself. I smiled back, then frowned as I looked at the room again.
"Well," I began, "we could move a bed against the left side of the room, move the other one straight back next to the window, then move one desk to the right side, and one to the wall next to the door where the outlets are." I finished, wondering if it could work.
Jarod stepped back and looked at the room, trying to see the picture I was constructing in my head, then laughed out loud. "Brilliant!" he shouted to the ceiling like some mad scientist in an old movie. "Look out Trading Spaces! Ren Johnson's coming to town!"
I laughed, then stopped, and leveled him with a quizzical gaze. "You watch Trading Spaces?"
He looked a little uncomfortable, but shrugged and gave me a lopsided grin. "My sister likes it, and I dig the artistic stuff they do."
"You'd think it would've helped a little!" I teased, laughing. He laughed too, and was about to say something else, when a knock resounded through the room. Before we could answer, Darien and Nathan poked their heads through the doorway wearing a t-shirt and jeans.
"You guys finished unpacking yet?" Darien asked.
"Almost, we just have to move some stuff around. Why?" Jarod asked, beginning to shove a bed towards the left side of the room.
"We're starting up a football game behind the school. You feel up to it, Ren?" Nathan asked.
I glanced at Darien, who looked at me expectantly. Football? Was I going to get killed out there? "I, uh, don't really play…" I began.
"Come on Ren, I know you're kinda small, but we'll look out for you. Besides, it's prep-school, and let's just say we're not known for our tough guys." Jarod said, winking.
"That of course, doesn't include us!" Darien put in, smiling at me.
A warm feeling coursed through my stomach, and before I could stop myself, I nodded assent. "Okay, I'm in!"
"Awesome! We'll see you guys in a bit then." Darien said. He motioned for Nathan to follow, and they headed out the door, leaving Jarod and I to our work.
Just as Jarod and I finished setting up the room, I realized how awkward my new living situation was going to be. I had finished shoving the end of my bed against the wall when I turned around and discovered Jarod digging through the contents of his bureau wearing only his boxers. Heat warmed my skin before I could stop it, and I quickly averted my eyes. I may have been totally hung up on Darien, but Jarod was very cute, and I felt like I was violating his privacy or something by admiring his muscular physique. He'd make a girl very happy if he ever took his shirt off in her presence.
"What are you doing?" I stammered, not quite daring to look at him again.
"Changing, what's it look like?" he asked absentmindedly. "I can't play football in my uniform. You better hurry up and get changed too--they're all waiting for us."
My stomach dropped. "I have to change? In here?" I sputtered, without even thinking.
Jarod turned and stared at me hard. "No dummy, in Nathan's room down the hall!" he said sarcastically. "Yes, you change in here! It's your room isn't it? Why are you acting so weird?" he asked.
"I don't know… I'm just used to having my own room," I explained, getting a little defensive. "I'm a little shy."
He didn't look very convinced, but I must have looked really uncomfortable because his blue eyes suddenly softened, and he sighed. "Look dude, if you're that shy about it, there's a bathroom down the hall with some stalls."
I smiled with relief and nodded. "Thanks, sorry about that."
"It's no problem, but I suggest you get over this shyness thing soon. If you hog all those stalls, there's going to be some very angry guys around here. Some of them are pretty regular, if you know what I mean."
I wrinkled my nose, not quite believing he had said that, but shook my head. "Okay," I finally agreed, rooting through my drawer until I found a huge red t-shirt and a pair of jersey shorts. "I'll be back in just a minute."
I heard him grunt in reply behind me, and I left the room. Finding the bathroom was easy, and it was empty for now, much to my relief. However, its structure posed another problem for me. There were plenty of showers, but they were all set in the open like in the gym locker room back home. How was I supposed to clean up if everyone could see me?
"Look's like 4 a.m. showers for me," I muttered to myself, stepping into a green toilet stall and slamming the door behind me.
Determined to get ready quickly, I unbuttoned my shirt and exposed my small breasts, wrapped tightly in an ace bandage. It was inconvenient and not exactly comfortable, but it was a small price to pay to keep my identity a secret.
Making sure everything was in place, I pulled a white tank-top over my head, and followed it with the red t-shirt. I pushed off my trousers, and yanked on the jersey shorts, being sure to wear them low enough to hide the length of my legs. After slipping into my tennis shoes, I left the bathroom and met Jarod back in our room.
I deposited my clothes unceremoniously on my bed and caught Jarod's expectant expression out of the corner of my eye.
"You ready?" he asked.
I ran a hand through my short hair and nodded. "Yeah, let's go."
We exited the room without another word, our feet pounding on the mahogany floors as we ran through the hall and down the stairs. I smiled to myself, realizing it was kind of fun not having to be dainty. I hadn't run like this since I was ten years-old.
Minutes later we were crossing the lawn, heading towards the edge of the lake where a group of boys were already gathering. My heart was pounding in my chest, and I realized that this would be my first big test of masculinity. Jarod was right, most of the boys couldn't be classified as "huge," but they were a lot larger than me. Over half of them stood over six feet, and nearly all had the strong, lean muscles found only in teenage boys. None of them could wrestle in the WWF, but with a direct tackle, they were going to demolish my 5'4" frame.
I caught the violet eyes of Lucas Diamond in the crowd, and he flashed me a deadly grin. I gulped, knowing he outweighed me by at least sixty pounds and would have no problem creaming my butt once we hit that field. I was doomed!
"Don't worry about him," A voice said from my right.
I turned around and found Darien standing next to me, following my gaze with his steely blue eyes. Suddenly I couldn't care less about Diamond, and found it hard to breath standing at such close proximity to the object of my affection. He glanced at me and grinned, looking beautiful as the breeze picked up and tousled his coal-black hair. I suddenly could smell him, and inhaled deeply picking up the scent of fresh cut roses.
I quickly snapped myself out of it, however, and turned towards Darien, careful to look normal.
"Is he any good?" I asked.
"Yeah, he's really good, and he's got it out for you, so be careful." He glanced at me, and appeared to size me up. "How fast are you?"
I grinned, I hadn't thought about my speed. I held three track records back at my school, and two of them were faster than the boy's highest score. If there was one thing I excelled at, it was running.
"Fast enough," I said bravely.
Darien grinned, and nodded. "I thought so, it's always the small ones. Stay open, and I'll get the ball to you," he winked.
"You got it," I answered.
We divided into teams quickly. Darien picked me right away, but it wasn't necessary. I highly doubted the other captain was dying to have me play for him. We lined up shortly after making the boundaries of the field. Our team had possession of the ball first, and I was so nervous I was almost shaking.
Not surprisingly, Diamond lined up in front of me, but his smug expression was enough to rapidly steady my nerves. I was suddenly so determined to wipe that look off his face, I didn't care how bad he could cream me.
Nathan snapped the ball to Darien and I took off like a bullet. I raced past Diamond, spinning around him so fast his arms grabbed only air and his body weight carried him to the ground. I turned my head only to see the ball whirling towards me, getting closer and closer. I reached up, felt my hands close over the rough skin of the ball, and held tight. Pulling it down into my side, I took off for the end zone, the wind roaring in my ears. In seconds, I had crossed into it, scoring the first touchdown of the game.
My teammates cheered, all displaying a look of disbelief on their face… All that is, except for Darien. He smiled as he ran towards me, and when he reached me, he hoisted me into the air by my waist and ran around as I laughed above him.
"I knew you could do it man!" he shouted. "The other team is toast!"
And so they were. We defeated them by 21 points, and I had never been so exhausted in my entire life. I'd like to say I escaped Diamond every time we lined up, but I didn't. He managed to run me over several instances--- once hitting me so hard in the chest I saw stars, but I kept going. I scored three of our five touchdowns, had a ton of bruises, but I also had the boys' respect--excluding Diamond, of course. Walking back to the dorm rooms, I was sore, but happy. It felt good to be one of the guys-- but knowing Darien and his friends were showering compliments on a girl didn't hurt either.
"Did you see Diamond's face when he got that first touchdown?" Zach asked, cracking up again.
"It was priceless!" Jarod exclaimed. "I can't believe it, man. You're totally money! You dominate the sports field, and the ladies!"
Darien laughed and shook his head. "Is all this hype about you for real?" he asked me. I grinned and shrugged my shoulders.
"Of course it's true!" Jarod broke in. "I've seen it myself! You should have seen him when he left home. I'd never seen so many honeys in one spot, and they're were hugging and kissing him like he was going off to war!"
"Yeah, well, your definition of a 'honey' isn't always up to par with ours," Nathan said, laughing.
"Ha ha, very funny! But it just so happens that you admitted to thinking one of the girls was cute not even a month ago!" Jarod pointed out. Nathan scoffed and shook his head.
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
Jarod looked triumphant. "You remember those cute waitresses from that café in Richmond?" He gestured towards me and smiled. "He got a kiss from the one with the brown hair!"
I laughed before I could stop myself. "You thought Lita was cute?" I laughed harder as Nathan blushed crimson and turned away.
There was a brief silence and then Darien stepped forward. "You're from Richmond?"
I nodded. "Yeah, born and raised. Why?"
"Do you know the girls from the Comfort Café?" he asked.
I tried to keep myself from smiling. This was getting interesting. "Sure," I answered nonchalantly. "I grew up with them, what's the big deal?"
Malcolm grinned and stepped next to Darien and punched him in the arm playfully. "Darien here has a bit of a crush on one of them. Tried to get her number a while ago, but we had to get back to school. We all were taking summer classes and had to get back for lockdown."
I knew it! My mind shouted excitedly. He did want my number!
"Really?" I asked, feigning ignorance. "Which one was it? There's a few girls that I know that work there."
"Pretty, blonde, she wears a diamond moon pendant." Darien said quickly. "You know her?"
"Serena?" I asked. "Of course I do! She's a good friend of mine," I explained.
Wow, I thought. I'm pretty good at making this stuff up! I tried hard to keep myself from jumping up and down.
"Really? You're kidding!" Darien exclaimed excitedly.
"Nope, it's true," I said, laughing a little.
"Dude, this meeting was totally fate!" Jarod broke in, throwing an arm around my shoulders. "You have to hook this man up," he said gesturing towards Darien. "He's been mooning over that girl since we made him leave without getting her number."
I smiled softly and nodded. "I'll see what I can do," I promised.
"Sounds good," Malcolm said. "But let's get back inside for now. I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving!"
My stomach suddenly let loose a loud growl, and I blushed deeply. "I guess that means you can count me in!" I laughed.
And with that we headed back to the school to get some much-needed rest and relaxation.
"You ready for tomorrow?" Zach asked me as we headed through the double doors that let into the mess hall.
"As ready as I'll ever be," I answered, glancing at Darien from the corner of my eye.
I smiled. He had been trying to get my number! Maybe this charade was worth it. The first day had gone well, I had some great information, and I had made some new friends. All I could do now was hope that I could keep my cover until the end of the semester.