New Adjustments Ch. 2

After 16 grueling hours of travel, we finally reached the small city of Greenwood.  At first, I gotta admit I was excited, but it didn’t last long once we got there.  Not a skyscraper in sight.  “Some city…” I scoffed.

“It’s a college town, Rei.  You’ll find something to do.  There are university cliques everywhere.  Besides, Andrew needs a good place to go and I can’t afford a big university.  This is honestly the best choice for all of us,” mom said, trying to cheer me up.  “Look at it this way, when he enrolls, you can use the gym.  I hear it is public accessible on the weekends so you can check out all the college boys you want.  They have a pool, walking gym, work out center and a few aerobic classes.  It’s a real tight community school.  I think you’ll like it.  You can even take a few classes they offer at the high school level.  Just give it a chance.  That’s all I’m asking.” 

I smiled weakly and nodded.  She didn’t need to know just how miserable I was.  This sucks.  Mom enrolled me into the local high school:  Emerald High.  Sounds like a school for stone miners and rednecks.  And, with no surprise, a few days before school starts, I already notice a ton of differences between here and Connecticut.  First of all, as the new kid, I’ll already stick out but if I talk, it’s over with.  I could already hear the dramatic differences in my accent compared to the people here just from the few places we checked out for apartments.  I stared out the car window as we headed towards Andrew’s new college campus.  There were pine trees passing everywhere; none of my favorites, the huge white oaks or river birch trees, just pines.  This is lame, so lame.  We crossed a bridge and I realized to some relief, there was a lake here.  At the very least I could swim in the blistering summer heat. 

After settling into an apartment a few blocks from campus, we spent the next few days unpacking and getting to know the area.  Move in day for freshmen was this weekend and of course, mom had to work the morning shift.  That left me with Andrew and a car full of his crap to unload.

Saturday morning we got up, I begrudgingly got into his dirty car and immediately started to stare off into space.  A few minutes later, I noticed the car stopped and two large, dirty fingers snapped twice in front of my face.

“Hey, -tard, we’re here.  Help me unload the car.  My room is in Brookside building seven.  It should have a loft in it.”  Like I even know where that is.

“Whatever…” I mumbled.  Looking around, I noticed the campus really was pretty.  The beautiful fall day brightened my mood some so I easily ignored Andrew’s jabs towards my intelligence.  Not that he had much room to talk.  I looked up at the sky and stared.  The blue sky and bright clouds were a beautiful contrast next to the surrounding buildings.  They weren’t big or excessively fancy.  Just a small college campus with a few spiced up spots.  A lot of it looked fairly new; renovations no doubt.  This was definitely the place for Andrew.  Not a major highway for miles!  Or should I say interstate, now?  This is going to get so confusing.

“Seriously Rei, grab something.  The trees and clouds aren’t going anywhere.”

“Shut up” I said curtly.  Shuffling over towards the trunk of Andrew’s beat up ’89 Buick I kept my eyes on the clouds.  Smiling widely, I leaned over and picked up a hangar with a shirt on it.  “Ok, where am I going?”

“You can carry more than that!  Don’t be such a lazy pain.”  Andrew being an ass wasn’t completely out of character but I decided that his nerves were probably the source of his attitude at the moment.  “Just, whatever.  Go over to building seven.  Here’s my key to get in and prop the door open.  Mom’s going to be here after work and I want to have everything unloaded by then.”

I leaned into the trunk once more and grabbed a few more things.  He may be acting like a jerk, but I guess that doesn’t mean I have to; stupid conscience.  I wonder where building seven is?  There has to be a sign around here somewhere.  Looking to my left and right for any kind of instruction as to where building seven was, I decided to just follow a crowd of other people heading towards the dorm buildings.  I’ll just ask them, someone will know.

“Hey, umm, excuse me, sir?”  I tapped a gentleman on the back that, from behind, looked as though he was probably someone’s dad.  When he turned, I just stared and started to stutter.  “Umm, I…uhh…”  He just grinned at me.

“What can I do for ya?” he said with a clear smile on his face.  Still speechless, he continued, “Let me guess, sister of a freshman, right?”

“Umm, yeah…” I stammered.  So cute!  Talk you idiot, use your words!

“Cool.  I’m guessing a guy based on the clothes.  Which building are you heading for?”

“Seven” I said too quickly.

“Oh yeah?  Me too.  Do you know the room number?”

“Uh, 712, I think?  It’s supposed to be a loft.”  Finally, my voice started to regain its strength.

“No kidding!  That’s my number.  Hey, you must be Andrew Wyse’s sister, right?”

No way, no way, no way!  This super cute, super nice guy is Andrew’s roommate?  Someone must love him up there.  “Oh, wow, seriously?  Talking about coincidences, huh?  Yeah, Andrew’s my brother.  Just to let you know he’s kind of weird and a bit needy.  He probably won’t leave the room very often so I hope you don’t need a lot of personal space.  He’s also kind of lazy and bit stubborn.”  A hand suddenly smacked me on the backside of my head.  “HEY!”  I turned and Andrew had just come up with a few of his bags in hand.

“Hey, sorry guy, Rei is a bit chatty.  She can over dose someone with conversation sometimes.  Oh, the name’s Andrew.  Sorry, I’d shake your hand but they’re a bit full.”  The guy grinned at Andrew and winked at me.  Gorgeous!  So gorgeous.

“Oh, no problem.  I’m Christian, by the way, Christian Durante and apparently, according to, Rei is it?”  His grinning eyes looked at me and I nodded my head and grinned widely back at him.  “We’re going to be roommates.  Nice to meet ya man.”  He held out his hand to shake but then withdrew it realizing Andrew’s hands were still full.  So cool, he’s just so very, very cool.  Greenwood is starting to look more and more exciting.

“Oh, wicked.  So, are you heading towards the room now?  We just got here so we haven’t found it yet.”

As the guys continued discussing the ‘ooh’s and aah’s’ of being college freshmen, they headed towards the dorm while I slowly followed.  It was a guy’s only dorm, so awkward.  They made a few more inquiries and gave a couple of rude words to some skater idiots before they found room 712.  Tossing his bags on the first bed he spotted, I quickly followed with Andrew’s shirts, then I bolted out the door only to run smack into Christian. 

“Oh, my, gosh…I am so sorry.  It was a complete accident.  I’m so careless.”  Really?  Why couldn’t it have been Andrew?  I looked up at my brother’s roommate and his eyes continued to glow with humor.

“Hey, no prob’ girl.  I do it all the time.  I’m just glad it was you and not a wall this time.”  He seemed to grimace slightly at some memory but the smile quickly returned to his face.  “So, you gonna be hangin’ out with us once in a while?”

No way, no way, no way.  A college guy just asked me to hang out with him in his dorm.  No way!

“Or not?”  He stared, looking somewhat rejected and I quickly regained my composure.

“Yeah, sure, I just don’t think Andrew would like that very much, though.” 

“Who said we have to tell him?”  He winked.  “So, Connecticut huh?  Why such a huge move to the south land?  I mean, summers are pretty brutal but winters are a lot less white, so it balances out.”

“Mom got a new job.  I’m not exactly thrilled about it, but I think I could get used to it.”  I didn’t just say that out loud, did I?  He chuckled and continued on towards his side of the dorm.

By the time mom arrived, Andrew’s car was unloaded.  It was clear that her expertise on organizing things was going to be needed.  I sat with Christian and we chatted like we were old friends.  It was so easy to hang around with him.  We talked about things to do around Greenwood, which lasted about five minutes, and then we talked about college, classes, getting out of high school.  You know the basic ‘get to know you’ conversation.  Without being able to stop myself, I asked him the one question that was burning in me for days now.

“What are televangelists, really?”  I asked, thinking back to my last real conversation with Caitla.

“Whoa, random much?”  He gave a hardy laugh and I giggled along with him. 

“I know, it sounds random, but my friends in Connecticut and I have theories.  None of which could possibly be right, but we were just wondering if they’re as common as we’ve heard.”

“Well, below the Mason Dixon line, you get a whole new breed of religious zealots.  Baptists, as I’m sure you know, dominate this area but there are different versions.  There are the crazy psycho Baptists that think books like Harry Potter are going to send you to Hell, and then there are the normal Baptists that are just, I dunno, normal.  I’ve never really thought much into it to be honest.”

“Are you a Baptist?”

“Me?  Oh no, I’m Lutheran.  I grew up in a small town about an hour south of here.  It was a big huge German community that developed back in like the 1600’s or something.  My whole family is from there so I figured, I should get out, see the big city.” 

“And you chose Greenwood?”  I stared at him in awe.  He thought Greenwood was a big city?  Seriously?

“Where I’m from, sadly, yes Greenwood is a big city.  The closest city to us was Irmo and that was twenty minutes away.  My parents believed in the quiet life, and I’m grateful to them for that.  It’s nice to get away from the noise but when you’ve lived the quiet life your whole life; the silence can become a bit deafening.”  As we continued our conversation, I learned more and more about the south and more importantly, more about Christian.  He is such a great guy.  He was definitely date material, but I just didn’t see him that way.  He’s more of the ‘best guy friend’ type, but then again it’s nice to have any friend so soon after moving here.

Before I knew it, several months had flown by.  I was a regular at the Brookside dorm room, much to my brother’s dismay.  I had made a few friends at Emerald but because I was in mostly advanced level classes, I really didn’t connect with them very well.  There was one girl, Anna.  She was fun to hang out with.  We’d go shopping at the “mall” of Greenwood, if you could even call it a mall and study together sometimes but as for high school buddy groups, they were nil.  The only two friends I really have never judge me like the rest.  It was like a crime to be intelligent and a newcomer so I mostly kept to myself at school and spent the rest of the time with Anna or Christian.  I also kept up with Caitla as often as internet allowed.  We didn’t really have internet at home, we kind of snuck it in from our neighbors. Hey, if you’re going to leave the line unsecured, don’t complain when others borrow it, that’s my philosophy!