This Is What Makes us Girls

My overall first day can be summed up in one word: Lame.
All of my teachers were too friendly for their own good, they would address me by pet names like ‘hunny’ or ‘sweetheart’, none of which, I’m guessing, took the time to actually learn my name. Then they would ask me if I understood the work and if not I should book extra classes, although, I’d probably be better off studying the work myself.
I was making my way across campus to the dorm block, although I wasn’t up for spending the remainder of my afternoon in my room, the thought of sitting around campus while getting stared at didn’t appeal to me either. I felt it would be better to just keep out of the ‘public eye’ for today at least, I don’t think I could handle more ‘friendly’ confrontation from anyone.


I had finally gotten into my dorm room, the smell of lavender essence was the first thing to hit me. I hope that the burning of essence wouldn’t be a usual thing with my roommate, but I knew better.
“Oh, roomie, you’re here.” Ava said surprised, I do basically live here now, my mind chimed in. I shook the voice from my head and headed to what I assume was the sitting area. Perched on the sofa was Tony, Vic and Jaime; Ava sat on the armrest next to Mike who was now watching me with intense eyes as I awkwardly stepped into the room.
“Hi.” I said blandly before walking off in the direction of my new room. The room was bland, painted an off-white colour with very bland brown furniture to match. I grimaced at the room in front of me before throwing my bag down and plopping myself down on my bare mattress. So this would be my new home for the rest of the semester, if my girls had to see me now they would probably laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole situation. Ah, my girls. To think I wouldn’t get to see them every day broke my heart. I had grown up with them, we had been through so much and now a lousy move from schools has just thrown all of those years away. Thanks mom.


“Uhm, Lizzie?” I shot up and looked at Ava who was leaning against the doorframe; her blonde cork-screw curls hung at her waist, her grey eyes peered into my still-bare room.
“Yeah?” I asked bluntly, not wanting to evoke conversation, right now I just wanted to fester in my self-pity and not be disturbed while I thought about all the reasons my life sucked at this very moment.
“We’re going out for coffee, would you like to join us?” she offered me a small side smile, her sincerity was evident which made it hard for me to say no. I was going to question whether or not we’d be leaving campus for said coffee, but figured that this is a private school and they probably have coffee shops here. I nodded reluctantly before grabbing a light cardigan and following Ava out to the sitting area.
“She’s in!” Ava announced with enthusiasm, the guys all getting to their feet for our departure from the dorm room.


Turned out that I was right, there was a coffee shop on campus. It was a quaint little shop that sat on the corner of Block F, students sat around the coffee shop with their large mugs of, what I’m guessing, coffee. Some students were sitting on the crisp green grass, some were seated at large round tables, while some sat in their own worlds at smaller tables inside. We approached the coffee shop that I noticed was called ‘Cafe Nova’.
We sat at one of the larger round tables as we placed our orders for our beverages, the group launched into conversation when the waiter left, instantly sending me into my own thoughts. I don’t know why I agreed to come, I don’t fit in here with these children. They all seemed like they had grown up going to private schools, they all spoke with the same voice and knowledge when all I could do was pretend to understand.
I glanced up from my espresso to find that everyone was staring at me expectantly.
“What?” I finally said, they all cracked a smile before Ava spoke up.
“There’s rumours going around the school that you-“
“Already?” I asked dumbfounded. Ava nodded with a coy smile spreading across her lips.
“They say that you got arrested for killing a guy with a spoon.” I frowned, a spoon?
“I’d like to kill whoever came up with that with a spoon.” I remarked before finishing my espresso, Mike chuckled lightly before he launched into a new topic of conversation; grateful I sat and listened to how they reminisced about parties that had turned sour, like when Mike was caught having sex with his ex-girlfriend’s best friend. Or how when Jaime had gotten so drunk that he had walked around the entire party giving out free hugs which resulted in a very funny Youtube video after he crashed on the couch hugging a very surprised and slightly scared Vic. Vic then continued the story by saying how Jaime had pulled him in for the hug forcefully before passing out on the sofa not a minute later, as he explained his need to pee he re-enacted how he tried to get out of Jaime’s bear-grip but failed miserably and ended up holding it until the next morning.
Everyone had erupted into laughter at the fond memory and I only offered a small chuckle.


My first day wasn’t completely lame, I guess. The wacky group I found myself having coffee with did make up for the mediocre day.
I sat in silence as I continued to watch them converse and joke, not minding hat I didn’t contribute to their little stories, not minding that I was out of place.

Notes