She shared her dorm room with other one other girl, Ashley, who seemed nice enough.
Rachel didn't know for certain; unsure if she could trust her judgement. She was incredibly jet-lagged and disoriented from the flight. Even though it had been seven hours of traveling, the time did not reflect that due to the time zone change. She was far past ready for bed by the time she had gotten to her little apartment suite, but technically she had a few hours before it was a normal bedtime.
As she unpacked her side of the room, her and Ashley got to know each other better. Rachel apologized for being so tired and promised that she wasn't uninterested or something, just sleepy. Ashley seemed to understand, comforting Rachel in a sweet, sympathetic tone, but Rachel couldn't help her worry.
She learned that Ashley was from Port Angeles, a smaller town southwest of Seattle. She had three younger siblings, two brothers and a sister, a dog named Pepper, and had been begging her parents for a cat. Also, she was majoring in Speech and Hearing Sciences, which sounded really interesting the more she explained it. Not enough for Rachel to change her own major, nursing, but enough that she didn't mind listening to Ashley gush about it. It was nice that her roommate felt comfortable enough to share something she was passionate about so soon after meeting each other.
Rachel learned a bit more about campus and how things were laid out too. Apparently, the dorm building they were staying in was only for health science majors. Rachel was actually glad to hear it; hopeful that she had a greater chance on making some friends in the same major.
"Are all the halls broken out that way? Like each one is a different major group?" Rachel asked more to carry on the conversation than because she cared. She robotically hung-up shirts, while Ashley sat cross-legged on her bed, and wanted a distraction from the mundane activity. Selfish, of course…perhaps Ashley wanted a break from conversation.
"I'm not sure if they all are or not. I know a few of them are. Like ours is healthcare, cultures and customs is Poplar, and I know McCarty is business…."
Rachel closed her eyes from the force of the impact, pausing as she held a shirt in front of her. So much for getting away. So much for forgetting about him and everything that happened in Gatlinburg and those stupid dimples and piercing blue eyes that held so much love and-
"You good?" Ashley asked innocently.
"Yeah, sorry." Rachel took a breath. "Uh, my eyes are just a bit dry. That's nice that they're able to group some of the majors together. Can find people with related interests and majors and make friends or study together. That'll be fun."
Ashley just nodded. If she suspected something to be truly wrong, she didn't say so. Maybe they'd get along better than Rachel had hoped.
She turned in early but encouraged Ashley to stay up and hang out. There was no reason for her roommate to have to sleep just because she was tired, after all.
Despite her exhaustion, Rachel slept horribly and not due to Ashley staying up. She made it all the way to Emmett's truck, dialed 911, and led the authorities back to where she had been in the woods.
Judy's grief-stricken face punched her in the gut. Seeing Tim, a man who had been nothing but strong and kind, break down took the breath from her lungs. Or maybe it was her own sobs that caused the lungs to refuse to inflate. She couldn't tell.
Rachel woke up in a coughing fit. She tried to be quiet, knowing that Ashley was right next to her, but it was impossible to catch her breath. Dropping down from her bed, she fought the burn in her lungs until she made to the hallway. There, she coughed freely, trying to regain her breathing rhythm in order to give her body some oxygen. Her hands were placed on top of her head, elbows out to the side to open up her lungs, just as her middle school gym teacher had once taught her after running the mile.
She ended up on her back, sprawled out on the hallway floor. It was probably not the most sanitary place to lay, but her need to calm her racing heart did not overpower her need to not be a horrible roommate on their first night. It wasn't until a few deep breaths in that she realized the other people who had dorms on her floor could probably hear her coughing fit instead. Mentally, she apologized to them. Maybe she could get them bags of ear plugs and medicine and candy like parents did when babies fly for the first time.
When she had calmed down enough, she slowly opened the door to her room and tiptoed inside. Ashley was still sleeping from what Rachel could tell and she silently thanked the Lord for that. She'd heard enough horror stories on bad roommates from Madison, and Rachel did not want to be a story that Ashley told for the rest of her life.
Her first shot at starting over and not only would she mess it up for herself, but she'd also screw it up for an innocent girl who was unlucky enough to be placed with her. Perfect.
Though it was too early to wake up, Rachel couldn't go back to sleep after her nightmare. She laid in bed staring at the ceiling, begging her body to sleep. As the sky got lighter and lighter, Rachel watched the time on the clock above the door tick by. She tried different positions, different levels of blanket coverage, even different exercises, like blinking really fast until her eyes got tired. Unfortunately, that did not make her brain tired too.
Before she was really ready, she needed to get up and get prepared for her first class. Ashley's alarm still hadn't gone off yet, so she tried to be as quiet as possible when getting her clothes and towel.
Lucy had warned her about the shared spaces, though they weren't quite as bad as Rachel had anticipated. The water pressure sucked, especially for a place that was right in town. Though Rachel supposed there were a lot of people using the showers at the same time, which probably contributed to the lack of pressure. At least the water was warm, and the floors weren't visibly disgusting. Not that it stopped Rachel from wearing shower shoes. She was glad that Lucy had mentioned the idea to her because she most definitely would've forgotten and been thoroughly grossed out.
After showering and dressing, she returned to her room to do her hair. Ashley had woken up and went to start her day, so Rachel politely bid her good morning. The other girl didn't mention anything about Rachel's cough which she took to mean that she was in the clear or Ashley was far too nice to say otherwise. Judging by how Ashley handled Rachel's mishap the night before, it was probably the latter.
The food in the dining hall ended up not being terrible. It kind of reminded Rachel of hotel breakfast. There were a lot of options, but it was obvious that the choices were mass produced. Probably as healthy as it could get with the sheer number of kids to feed though. Well, Rachel hoped that was the case and that college cared about health.
She felt a little awkward sitting by herself, especially while most other kids seemed to have made friends. Back home, everyone knew everyone so even if you didn't show up to an event with someone, there was a pretty high chance that someone you knew well enough to sit with would be at the same place. Here, Rachel had only met Ashley and she was no longer confident enough to walk up to a table and make conversation. Suppose that's what she got for skipping out on 'welcome week' or whatever they called it. Rachel had preferred to hang out at home and spend time with friends instead, but at that moment it felt like she had made the wrong choice.
Her first class was an early morning general English literature class. The first couple years of college were general education classes, not actual nursing ones, which was a disappointment Rachel had been prepared for.
Dennis and Rachel had tried to explain that concept to Theresa when the woman had insisted that Rachel attend a four-year college. The other two had preferred a two-year college to start out. That way Rachel could get her associate degree from taking actual nursing courses and just transfer to a four-year college for her bachelors without really having to take any gen. eds. Theresa had been stubborn though, so Rachel relented just so her mother stopped arguing with them. After all, it wasn't Rachel paying for the school. What right did she really have to make too many demands?
The kids in her first class seemed fine. A few of the boys knew each other already but otherwise it was a conglomerate of kids who just happened to be taking the same course. That was also a bit of an adjustment for her. In high school she had known everyone in all of her classes pretty well. Sitting in an awkward silence with twenty other kids who also didn't know anyone, was just strange. She preferred the rowdiness of her old school mates. Hopefully things would pick up once everyone got to know each other better.
After her English lit class was chemistry. Rachel was far more excited for that than most of her other classes that year. She loved science in high school and while biology and human anatomy had been her favorite, chemistry was high up on her list. The other reason she had been excited for chemistry was because she had to have a lab partner; someone who she had an excuse to talk to and get to know. Though the lab portion of her chemistry class was a different day, she still would share it with all the same kids that the lecture portion had.
Her tablemate was also her lab partner, a shy looking girl named Bella. Both girls had smiled at each other and said hello, but that was as far as the conversation went. Rachel told herself it was because the professor was giving his lecture and thought that things would be better the next day during lab. Maybe she'd get some more sleep that night and be more chatty.
In between chemistry and her final class of the day, philosophy, was a bit of a break for lunch, and later, studying. There were a bunch of options for lunch as well, which would be nice so she didn't have to eat the same thing every day and hopefully wouldn't get sick of the food as fast. Lucy often complained about the food at her school and talked about buying groceries instead. Rachel didn't really have access to anything except the microwave in her dorm and really wanted to avoid eating microwave meals for the rest of her college career. Something about the way the little machines cooked the food just wasn't very appetizing. Things always tasted better coming off of a stove or grill.
Grabbing her mac and cheese, she scanned the lunch space to try and find an open table. Her eyes danced around the room, from student to student, landing on a boy with large muscles and dark hair. As her breath hitched, she tried to grasp onto any and every feature she possibly could, difficult since the boy wasn't facing her. In her mind, she willed him to turn around, begged him to feel her eyes boring into him and have that human instinct to see what subtle danger lay in the shadows behind him.
He did none of that and Rachel had no time to find a table with a better vantage point before Ashley called out to her. Rachel hadn't known that the girl had a break in her schedule at that time too. She didn't ask because she hadn't wanted to leech off of Ashley or smother her. But when Ashley invited her to sit at her table with a few other kids, Rachel felt obligated. Ashley had clearly extended to her a bout of kindness. She'd be rude to reject it.
Ashley introduced her to Becca, James, and Macy, all of whom she had met during welcome week. Rachel felt even worse for having not attended.
"Becca is a nursing major too, so you guys might have some classes together." Ashley offered, gesturing to the other girl. Becca didn't look familiar so far, but likely wouldn't until they actually got into the nursing curriculum.
"That's awesome that you're a nursing major too." Becca gushed. "I haven't really met anyone else so far. What made you want to go into nursing?"
Rachel knew the answer to that question, and it rolled off of her tongue easily. "I want to be able to help people. I just want a chance to be able to save them."