Chatoyant College, Book 1: New Student Orientation

Chapter 19: Strange Noises

Dawn yawned, stretched, and closed the seventh Sandman book, then looked around the room. Edie seemed just as engrossed in book number four as she had just been in number seven, and Corrie was seated cross-legged on her bed with some other book. "What time is it?" she asked, feeling as though she hadn't spoken for hours; her mouth was dry and her joints were a little stiff from sitting.

"Hm?" Corrie glanced at her watch. "A little past noon. Why?"

"I'm not sure," Dawn said slowly. She thought that something had happened to bring her out of her Gaiman-induced trance, but she didn't know what. She wasn't hungry or thirsty or tired. Whatever it was, Corrie hadn't noticed it, and Edie was still absorbed.

She thought she might have her answer when she heard voices out in the hallway. She'd learned very quickly to ignore the sounds from the hall--there always seemed to be some, the sounds of dozens of girls going back and forth from the stairs, their rooms, and the bathroom--but this was different. The voices were male.

"Is this it?" asked one of the voices.

"I don't know," replied the other one. "We should have asked the RA."

"I wish there were names on the doors," the first voice came again. "People should write them on the whiteboards." Corrie and Dawn exchanged an amused glance. Quietly, Corrie slipped a bookmark into her book, stood up, and walked toward the door.

"Well, if it's not them, they probably know which room is theirs," said the second voice. "Let's just knock, okay?"

"That won't be necessary," said Corrie, stifling a laugh as she opened the door. "We can hear you. Oh, hey!"

Dawn jumped up, what she knew to be a foolish-looking grin spreading across her face. It was Duncan and Rico; Rico's wide shoulders took up most of the door frame, but wiry Duncan was still visible at his side.

"Ah-ha, this is the right room," said Duncan with a slight smirk. "Rico thought you lived in the room at the end of the hall."

"You're both right, actually," she said. "I live next door, but I've been spending most of my time over here. Besides, Corrie has the entire Sandman series!"

"Oh, cool," said Rico enthusiastically. "That is definitely something worth vanishing for."

"Speaking of vanishing," Dawn said as Corrie urged the boys to come in. "Hey, Edie." She walked over to her and poked her side gently. "Wake up! We have visitors."

"Hmm?" Edie dragged her eyes away from the page. "Oh, hi, guys!" She gave Dawn a sly look from the corner of her eye. Dawn tried not to blush. She looked around on her desk for a few minutes, tore a corner off a piece of paper and stuck it in her spot in the book, then looked up again. "What brings you two to our humble abode?"

Duncan shrugged his narrow shoulders. "We were just bored, and thought we'd see if hanging out with you three would be more fun than doing nothing in our room."

"Well, I'd suggest you join in on our reading party, but we'd run out of comfortable places for everyone to sit," Corrie replied. "Besides, you could probably sit around and read in your own room."

"I couldn't read Sandman," Rico said, gazing at her bookshelf. Dawn couldn't help but feel a little thrill of pleasure at the thought that he liked Sandman as much as she did. She'd have to ask him if he'd read any of Gaiman's other works.

"Are there any special freshman activities going on?" Edie asked. "Maybe we could all do one of those."

"Ah, I shall find out!" said Corrie. She walked over to her desk and found the paper with the list of activities, which was very well crumpled by now from being shoved in and out of her pocket. "Let's see. There's a trip to the city, but the bus already left, and anyway I would be bored out of my skull."

"You don't like cities?" asked Duncan.

Corrie laughed. "Oh, I love cities, especially that one. But the trip is going to all the usual historical sites and then letting people shop at the mall for a few hours. I'm from the city; I've seen everything there a hundred times and it's just not that good of a mall."

"Okay, then what else is there?" Dawn asked, walking over to her.

"Right, the list." Corrie looked at it again. "Oh, hey, there's actually a carnival going on right now."

"That sounds like fun!" said Edie enthusiastically. "Where is it?"

"Behind the gym, it says."

Duncan raised his eyebrows. "Where is the gym?"

"Ah, let me get out my trusty map!" Once again Corrie rummaged through the papers on her desk--Dawn had to wonder how she'd accumulated so much after two nights on campus--and found the map, which was marginally less crumpled than the list of activities. "It looks like it's on the other end of campus. Lots of empty space between it and the woods."

"Well, sounds like a good time to me," said Rico. "You all agree? Dawn?"

Once again she had to try not to blush. "Yeah, definitely."

"If it turns out to be boring, we can always just leave," said Duncan with a shrug. "It's not like it's far away or anything."

"That's the spirit, Duncan," said Corrie. Dawn could tell she was trying very hard not to roll her eyes, though she still had the smile that she seemed to wear constantly. "Let's go check it out."