Title: The Life & Times of Sara Sidle

Rating: T

Summary: (You all know by now)
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters!

A/N: The college years! Yay!

College Dormroom- 4:30 pm- January 12, 1990

The room was lit by the evening sun shining through the white blinds on the the single window of the room. There were two twin beds in the room- one near the window and another closer to the door and the tiny bathroom in the small room. The floor was littered with empty chip bags and soda cans the inhabitants of this room had gotten over the months, serving as their lunches or dinners, sometimes even both.

At the moment, the only person in the room was a tall brunette, sitting indian-style on the twin bed near the door of the room. On the bed in front of her was a book she needed for an assignment. She always had her head buried in books, she wasn't like her roommate, living the life of a party. She didn't enjoy parties that much. She'd rather sit in the quietness of her dormroom with a good book reading on a weekend instead of dancing until she dropped, pouring gallons of alcohol down her throat until she finally collapsed and was carried back to her room.

The brunette looked up at the window in the room, squinting at the light coming in. She moved a strand of hair away from her face and got up from her bed, walking over to the window. Walking over to the messier side of the room, aka her roommate's side of the room, and almost tripping over something lying on the floor, she climbed on their bed in order to get a better look out of the window. She squinted a bit, trying to be able to get a better glimpse of everything. The campus was humungus, and truly gorgeous, but sometimes she wished it wasn't so big so that everyone could get around better without getting lost or distracted by the beautiful scenery.

After looking out the window for a long moment, she sighed and walked back over to her bed, jumping on it, landing on her knees, and smiled as she looked at the wall above her bed where she had various snapshots and other things taped. They brought back a lot of memories, some painful and some cheerful.

She looked at one photo in particular- it was taken on a sunny day. In the picture, standing tall in blue sneakers and jeans and a red t-shirt was her childhood friend Josh. He held both hands up in a thumbs-up sign and had a wide smile on her face. His eyes were covered with black sunglasses, and she smiled, remembering how excited he had been about getting those sunglasses.

Absentmindidly looking down at her wrist, she spotted the beaded bracelet he had given her so many years ago. She smiled, running her fingers over the beads and the deep but smooth carvings on each individual bead. She looked back up at the photos, smiling as she spotted another one.

Her foster parents. Ted was standing with an arm wrapped around Nancy and his familar chocolate cooki-dough ice cream pint in his hand. Nancy was leaning against Ted with a smile on her face and making a peace-sign with her other hand.

Sara turned and saw a lined piece of paper she had taped up as well. She smiled, pulling it off the wall for a moment and unfolding it. She giggled a little as she read what it said.

"Anyone gives you trouble and I kick their asses. I don't care if you're in Boston, I'll find some way to get over there! Anyways...have a great time. I know you'll become a great forensic scientist. I remember that Christmas I gave you that crime-scene kit. Your face lit up the second you saw that. You were always excited about learning something knew, and the life of a forensic scientist is for you. You have to see every case as a puzzle that's missing pieces. You get to put them together!

Maybe some day I'll see you in court. CSI Sidle, damn, that has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Can't you just see it- the judge sitting at his stand, me sitting at the counsel table with my client and you sitting at the lectern presenting the forensic evidence...that'd be awesome.

Sara, you were always like a little sister to me. I guess you know that though, don't you? I apologize for everything that ever happened to you in the past that caused you heartache. You deserved better and you do now. You're finally pursuing your dream and going to Harvard (even though you used the two thousand dollars Ted and Nancy gave you for plane and ticket fair...I told you that you should've gone with that electric guitar, damn, it was beautiful...).

Anyways, I'm proud of you. Damn, I sound like a mother now, don't I? Oh well, I don't care, I'm so proud of you, Sara. You're a strong person and I know you'll do great in life. Thank you for being my friend all those years and for putting up with George and Frankie (Frankie is standing over my shoulder as I write this, go figure...), I'm surprised you didn't rip your hair out having to listen to them all the time!

So...what am I going to do now? I'm off to college to get a degree and then I'm off to law school. Sure, this is going to take a few years, but if George did it, I can do it (and don't tell him I told you that because he'll smack me if he finds out I did...).

Looking forward to seeing you in court!

Love,

'Joshie' Deckard

Sara willed the tears away from her eyes. She would not let them fall. Not this time. She had cried every time she read that letter from Josh. He was a great friend, it had been so hard for her to leave him, they had both cried when they had that final embrace before she boarded her plane.

Sara smiled a little, wiping the tears away from her eyes, taping the letter back up on the wall. She smiled at the picture of Josh one more time before looking back down at the bracelet on her wrist. She remembered him telling her that he was always with her, and it was true.

Sara laid down on her bed, closing her text book and closing her eyes for a moment. She had no idea how she made it this far in life without cracking. Being able to deal with her mother and father's heated arguments for so many years without telling anyone about it. Being able to deal with her mother brutally stabbing her father to death without snapping. Being able to deal with going into foster care without ripping her hair out. And being able to deal with her own rape without finally losing it.

And here she was now, a way stronger person that she had been before, in her dormroom at Harvard, contemplating on whether or not she should hit the vending machine in the hallway and grab a candy bar or something to serve as dinner before going back to studying for the exam she had the next day. She rolled over on her side, burying her face in her pillow. She sighed deeply, wishing she could just sleep for the rest of the night, but she knew she had to study for the exam.

Sitting up with a sigh, Sara opened her mouth wide with a yawn and rose her arms up high above her head, stretching. She stood up, slipping her shoes on, about to go outside of the dormroom when the door flew open and in walked her roommate.

Her roommate, a black-haired girl slightly shorter than Sara. She was a true partier, coming into the dormroom late at night, drunk, only to collapse on her bed seconds after walking through the door. She had shiny blue eyes that stood out more than anything on her face. She had fairly short legs, though they were firm and strong. She was a tiny girl, with not much meat on her bones, though a more considerable amount than Sara, that was for sure.

At the moment, her roommate was standing in the doorway in front of Sara holding a beer bottle in her hand. "What is this?" Sara asked, pointing to the beer bottle. "You're 18," she told her.

"Yeah," she said with a smile. "Some seniors brought some on campus...but don't let anyone catch you with it, here," she said, pulling another bottle out of seemingly nowhere and handing it to Sara.

"I'm not drinking!" Sara told her, handing the bottle back to her. "And you shouldn't be either, you know that we have that exam tomorrow."

"Lighten up, Sara!" the girl said with a laugh. "Gosh! All you ever talk about is exams! Haven't you ever gone to a college party before?"

Sara looked down at the floor for a moment. "Well...no," she said. "But I don't like parties."

"Oh, come on!" the girl said. "They're fun!"

"I don't want to go, Cassie!" Sara told her.

"Oh, for god's sake, you're going out tonight!" Cassie said, grabbing the brunette by her arm and pulling her out of the dormroom by her arm, slamming the door behind her and locking it.

"What if someone comes by...?" Sara asked.

"That's what messages are for," Cassie said, pointing to the small package of sticky notes attached to the door with a pen next to them. "Alright, let's go!" Cassie said, running down the hall, dragging Sara along with her.

"Cassie! Let go of me!" Sara yelled.

Cassie heard her but didn't let go of her arm. She was having too much fun. She had wanted for so long to get Sara away from the campus for just one night and tonight was the night. "You're going to have fun whether you want to or not!" Cassie said with a giggle as they rounded a corner.

So much for studying.