THE RAFFLE
“I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!” said a stumbling girl, her crimson hair swaying in the wind as she made her way through the college gates. She was dressed in a loose brown dress with a red handbag hanging loosely from her shoulder as she ran through the college compound.
“Aurora!” shouted a young man with golden-brown hair and eyes. He held a black umbrella in his hands as he squinted to make sure he had called the right person.
Aurora stopped in her tracks, her face twisting with guilt.
“Oh, hi, Mr. Orez,” she said, turning with a wide smile on her face. “Weren’t you supposed to be in the orientation meeting?”
“Well, I was,” said Mr. Orez as he moved closer to her, “until I found out that the freshman I had given a recommendation to wasn’t in the hall.”
“I’m terribly sorry, Mr. Orez,” said Aurora in a quiet voice. “I just stayed a little later than usual.”
“Just get to the hall, Miss Aurora,” sighed Mr. Orez as Aurora began to walk away. “But please, don’t make me regret this.”
Aurora paused for a moment before speeding up toward the hall, where she could hear the countless voices of both students and instructors.
‘I certainly blew it with my first impression, but it’s time to try again,’ thought Aurora as she suddenly found herself hesitating to open the doors. ‘Just gotta get in without anyone noticing.’
“What are you doing?” said a random voice that made Aurora jump and squeal.
She turned to see a stunning young man with jet-black hair and eyes that stared at her with a curious expression.
“Well, I...” She froze. Her mouth was open, but no words could come out. And those eyes—those cold eyes—they really left her feeling weak in the knees. “I should get to orientation.”
She opened the heavy door without thinking and rushed inside, slamming it shut behind her. She leaned against it, clutching her chest and breathing a sigh of relief before opening her eyes to the crowd that was now staring at her with mixed expressions.
‘Yup. I blew it again.’
That was not the best first day she had ever had, but at least orientation was over now. She walked out through the heavy wooden doors of the hall, the midday sun meeting her soft skin.
“Hey there,” said a girl with blonde hair dyed pink and blue at the tips. She had brown eyes and looked at Aurora with a cheery expression. “Quite an entrance you made back there.”
“Don’t patronize me,” mumbled Aurora as she attempted to leave.
“Is that how you speak to your upperclassman?”
Aurora froze. “What?” she asked in a shaky voice. “You’re an upperclassman?”
“Yeah. Janey Rindoll,” said the girl, offering her hand with a cheerful smile. “Sophomore in the Engineering department.”
“My name is Aurora,” she said as she hesitantly took Janey’s hand. “A freshman in the Biomedical class.”
“Ohhh, with that course, you must be a smart one!”
“Well, you could say that, since I got in on a scholarship.”
‘Wait, am I really bragging to a sophomore?’
She turned with a bit of hesitation to stare at Janey, who raised a brow before breaking out into laughter.
“You really are something. Come walk with me.”
Janey sped forward, leaving Aurora behind. After giving it a second thought, Aurora rushed forward to catch up with her upperclassman. Who knows—maybe she didn’t blow it this time.
“So tell me, what was up with that entrance you made back there?” asked Janey cheekily.
“I’d rather not say,” answered Aurora as she hid her face behind her handbag. “But if I may ask, what is a sophomore doing at freshman orientation?”
“Oh, that’s because every year, the sophomores get to volunteer to help out with things,” she calmly stated. “And besides, I had nothing better to do.”
“So... was he a sophomore?” whispered Aurora.
“What was that?”
‘She heard that!’ panicked Aurora. “It’s nothing!”
“Oh, really now... Now that I think about it, Eliot was at the door,” added Janey. “Did he have anything to do with that entrance?”
Her face flushed. ‘Oh no, I can’t stop blushing!’
She hid her face further behind her bag. “He snuck up on me, that’s all.”
“Don’t feel bad,” teased Janey. “He has that effect on people. You should have seen the other girls when he was guiding them into the building—they couldn’t stop staring!” Janey giggled.
‘So I’m not the only one, then.’
“Thinking about him?”
Aurora pulled her face back from behind her bag, turning a bit red. “No, I wasn’t!”
“Your face speaks volumes against that answer,” she countered with a smirk. “Besides, you might get a chance to speak to him again.”
“Stop teasing me—” She paused. “Wait... what?”
“Yeah. Wanna know how?” Janey nodded with a rather confident smirk that left Aurora feeling like she was being set up.
“Yes, please.”
‘Why am I saying this?’ thought Aurora, who could hardly pull her gaze away from the floor.
“There’s a raffle.”
“A what...?”
“A raffle. It’s a tradition among the students,” spoke Janey in a soft-spoken tone. “Every year at this school, the sophomores hold a raffle where the freshman girls and boys pick a random name from a hat. Whichever sophomore’s name you draw then takes you under their wing and helps you adapt to the school.”
‘But that leaves me with a one-in-a-thousand chance of getting him.’
“The boys choose girls, and the girls choose boys,” whispered Janey into Aurora’s ear.
“It still doesn’t help my chances.”
“So you ARE interested?” Her eyes widened, much to Janey’s delight. “Well, does the fact that I’m the one managing the raffle this year make your chances look a little better?”
Aurora felt guilty about how much her heart actually swelled from learning that fact.
‘You just met him once, goddammit!’
“Anyway, I have to get to class, but I’ll meet you tonight when we do the raffle.”
The cheerful sophomore walked away. Even though Aurora didn’t know how to feel about the whole situation, she couldn’t help getting excited about tonight.
Night fell over the campus, yet the girls’ hostel was as lively as ever. All the young women were gathered in the common room in their nightgowns, and among them was a more-than-nervous Aurora.
She wore a scarlet nightgown as she stood in the corner. She could hear multiple girls speaking about the raffle, but one name came up more than most:
“Eliot.”
She lowered her head toward her shoulder. Even with Janey helping her, did she really stand a chance of speaking to that guy again?
‘And besides, I’m just curious about what everyone sees in him. It’s not like I actually want to end up with him.’
The entire room fell silent when Janey and a few other girls walked to the front of the common room. She cleared her throat, and in an instant, all attention was on her.
She wore a purple nightgown and held a brown hat with slips of white paper sticking out of it. She gave the hat a little shake, that familiar cheeky expression on her face.
“Okay, ladies! I know you’ve all been waiting for this the entire day, but I’m gonna need you all to calm down and listen to the rules. First, no one gets pissed at who you get. This isn’t matchmaking—it’s just helping the freshman class with a little... guidance,” said Janey in a rather suspicious voice that left the entire group of girls giggling. “Second, no swapping names, and I choose who goes first!”
Aurora’s eyes widened as she locked eyes with Janey, who pretended to peruse the crowd before her finger settled right on her.
“You, in the corner—you’ll go first!”
Every girl let her grievances be known as Aurora made her way forward.
“Noooo, I have the hat, I make the rules!” Janey argued back.
Janey’s attention turned to Aurora, who stared with worried eyes, only to see Janey’s gaze directing her toward a paper with a green mark on it.
Aurora reached in for it, causing Janey’s smile to widen. She drew the paper out of the hat and stepped back as Janey called out behind her, “Okay, next! But don’t push each other—remember, you’re ladies... ladeiiies!”
She began to unfold the paper. It was as if she didn’t already know what name she would find, yet at the same time, she worried: what if Janey had just gotten her hopes up for nothing?
Slowly, she opened it.
“Eliot Alexander Minstrong,” was the name that escaped her lips as she read the piece of paper.
All the girls nearby turned their eyes toward her, making her shrink back.
“Wait, you got Eliot? No, I wanted Eliot!”
“Now there’s no point to this whole thing!”
All the girls’ complaints seemed to fly over Aurora’s head as she slipped away, trying to hide her smile from a peeking Janey.
‘I got him, I actually got him!’ she squealed quietly as she entered her room, only to freeze when she found a girl with reddish-brown hair and green eyes reading a textbook.
“Oh, hi, Larra. Hope I’m not disturbing your reading.”
“Not at all.” Larra shook her head. Like Aurora, Larra had been brought in on a scholarship and was studying medicine; unlike Aurora, she preferred staying in to read her books over participating in the raffle.
“I assume you got the one you wanted?”
Aurora nodded.
“Good for you,” answered Larra.
“How about you?”
“Such things don’t interest me in the slightest.”
The two girls smiled and giggled before Aurora stepped forward and collapsed onto her bed, staring at the slip of paper. Tomorrow, the entire day would be theirs.
‘After all... I’m only curious.’
