Across The USA

Chapter One: Megan

It was a hot day for spring in Oregon. The sun was shinning through a thin layer of clouds and I could here birds chirping while I walked the short distance to school. It was the last day of High School and like always, I had all my stuff prepared in advance for college. I was accepted into Ohio State University, which was great for me because i finally got to leave my boring state. But not so great for my parents, because i was leaving the state. A win-lose situation. I left that night for Ohio. I had a dorm with a roommate and my classes selected.

I could here the faint ding of my phone over the padding of my converses on the concrete. I tucked my long brown hair behind my ear and simultaneously pulled out my phone.

Amelia: Are you ready to leave the state forever?

(She also got accepted into Ohio State)

Me: Yeah. Of course.

Amelia: Are you nervous?

Me: That's a stupid question.

We had been friends since 6th grade and we were looking forward to being able to go and explore the world together, if you count going to college exploring.

I walked into my school and watched as a breeze snuck in through the door as I opened it and waved a "Pioneers" banner around. I walked to my first period class, where I saw Amelia sitting on my desk.

"Hey, Pineapples!" That was her long running nickname for me, "How's life? You ready for the flight?"

"No. Of course not. I'm not ready for change. I want to stay home and hide in my closet."

"You can't let your anxiety control your life."

"Yes I can." Amelia fell silent. I did as well. A few short moments later our teacher, Mr. Price, walked into the class room.

We finished our finals early so he was letting us watch Disney movies on the projector.

The day droned on. Some movies here, finals there, sad freshman girls here, excited senior football players, with scholarships, there.

-

When I arrived home I was greeted by my mom's young complexion. Her shoulder-length brown hair was slightly curled and pulled into a half-up half-down. She gave me a tight hug and led me to the backyard where my best friends and boyfriend of four years, were hanging out waiting for me.

"Hey! There she is! You ready to go and face the world alone?" Grant, my boyfriend, chimed. I walked over to him kissed him and hugged his side as I answered.

"No," I giggled, "And I won't be alone. I'll have Amelia with me."

"This is true," Amelia replied.

"We will miss you Meg," my friend, Grace, whined. Then a symphony of sad "don't goes" and "please stays" rang through the air.

We all dinned on an early dinner of salad and hot dogs before Amelia and I left.

-

"I can't believe our flight was delayed! It's sunny outside and there isn't a cloud in the sky, how could this happen?"

"There is supposedly a storm settling over Indiana, and they don't want to risk it," i repeated for the billionth time trying to calm down Amelia.

Our flight was rescheduled from 8:00 pm to 12:30 am and neither of us felt like weighting for an extra four and a half hours to board our plane.

-

We busied ourselves with "I-spy", crossword puzzles, and people watching until it was time to get on the plane. Then we passed out sharing headphones and listening to some of twenty one pilots old music.

-

We were jolted awake when the plane hit the ground at the Columbus Airport. I looked at my phone to see that we had arrived at 8am, which in the long run saved us from the hassle of trying to find a place to stay the rest of the night due to our original flight. We groggily walked around the airport gathered our bags, walked out, and called for a taxi. We decided to stop at a Starbucks to get some coffee, change, and brush our teeth. I don't think the barista's were too happy with that, but we lived to tell the tale. After coffee we called another cab and ended up arriving at the Ohio State by 10.

"You ready?" Amelia asked, the enthusiasm was rich in her voice and I could tell she couldn't wait to step on campus.

"Ready as I'll ever be," I replied, then she grabbed my hand and dragged me through the massive front doors.

We headed straight for the administrative office, where they gave us each different room keys, and a map of the campus.

Unfortunately, our dorms were nowhere near each other, but we managed to hit hers on the way to mine so we could help each other unload our stuff.

When I unlocked my dorm door, I noticed that my roommate had already decorated her side of the small living space. She had a white comforter over her small, raised twin bed. She also had a white modern looking lamp on her desk along with pictures of (I'm assuming) her boyfriend and friends tacked to the walls above her bed.

"Hello?" A soft voice called from the left of the entry. "Is that Megan?" A girl with dusty blond hair and big blue-green eyes walked out of the bathroom.

"Yeah, I'm she," I said, sticking out a hand for her to shake. "I'm assuming you must be Makenna?" I asked while I stood my suit case up in the doorway.

She grabbed my hand and gave a surprisingly firm handshake, then said, "Yes I am. I hope you don't mind I figured we wouldn't rearrange the room and just went ahead and decorated my side."

"It's fine. It looks nice. I have a lot less decorating to offer, so it's all good," I replied smiling. I grabbed the handle of my suitcase and wheeled it into the dorm. I unzipped it to reveal neatly packed clothes. Then Amelia came in dragging behind another suit case that had my bed sheets, pillow, and the few decorations I did own.

"Oh, my bad, this is Amelia," I said gesturing towards her, "She is just going to help me unpack if that's okay."

"Of course! It's perfectly fine," Makenna replied. She was thin, tall, and was wearing a lose tank top and a pair of flow-y patterned shorts.

-

After we unpacked and took a quick tour of the campus Amelia and I decided to go out for a walk around the city and get some lunch. It wasn't until about 3:00pm that we finally decided on eating at a local café.

"Are you okay?" Amelia asked me. She could tell I was nervous and already homesick. She knew me like the back of her hand, inside and out.

"I'm fine," I replied, my speech was slightly slurred due to the fact that I was chewing on the plastic straw of my glass. Amelia did a little shrug and started to pick at her salad.

"I heard that twenty one pilots were coming to town. We could go and see them. I think it would be fun!" Amelia exclaimed, she sat up and looked me in the eye.

"Aren't we, technically, the ones in town to see them?" I said quite slyly.

"Oh shush up," she flung a tomato at me and laughed.

-

We circled back around to the campus and scheduled the rest of our week, trying to use our last week of our short summer to sight-see and explore.