Chapter 1
Atlas cranked off his Nissan Altima once he had parked in the parking lot right outside of his dorm hall. He pulled his keys out of the ignition and pushed open the driver-side door. He slammed it shut once he had exited, and gazed around at Charadin Community College’s campus. They were one of the few community college campuses in Virginia to offer on-campus housing. The dorms were newly built, unlike most of the rest of the school. The other buildings were under a heavy amount of renovation. He hadn’t imagined going to community college after graduating, but here he was. He guessed it was better than nothing.
“Atlas?”
He turned his head at the sound of his name. “Luke!” His friend Luke hurried over to him, trapping him in a tight hug.
“Relax, it’s only been three months,” Luke joked. Atlas chuckled as he released his friend. “So, you need help carrying your stuff up?”
“It would be nice. It’s not much really.”
“Cool, let me help you.”
Atlas unlocked the trunk of his car and popped it open. They both grabbed a couple of the bags, and began trudging toward the dorm building.
“So, how’d your aunt feel about you choosing Charadin?” Luke asked as they boarded the elevator to the second floor.
“Well, not much choice to be honest. Where were we supposed to get the money from for a four-year?”
“I feel you on that one,” Luke agreed.
“Yeah, sucks to be broke.” They exited the elevator and walked down the narrow hall of their dorm to their room. Luke pulled his key from his sweatshirt pocket and unlocked the door. He pushed it open, letting Atlas follow him in. “This is kinda nice actually,” Atlas said scoping the room.
“Well, it’s brand new, you know. It’s just a tad bit tiny, and we have community bathrooms so,” Luke shrugged.
“That’s not too bad, could be worse,” Atlas said, tossing his bags onto his bed.
“Yeah, might be better if it were coed at least.”
“Relax, it’s too early to be this horny already, bro.” Atlas began opening up his bags, to put away his belongings. He pulled his laptop and earbuds out, placing them on the desk next to his bed. Then he removed a couple of framed photos from his bag of him and his aunt and placed them on the desk as well.
“Facts, are you ready for orientation tomorrow though? Set your alarm for seven at the latest, don’t wanna be late.” Luke fell onto his bed, putting his arm behind his head to use as a pillow.
“Yeah,” Atlas sighed, “It’ll be nice to see everyone again finally.”
“Especially Ivy, right?”
“Shut up, dude. That was high school. I’m over that now. I mean, it’s college, it’s better to brace for new experiences.”
Luke shrugged, “I feel like you guys had a pretty good thing going, to be honest.”
“Well, it was premature. I’m gonna be open to other things right now though.”
“Can’t be mad at that, you guys are still young so...”
Atlas sighed again as he finished unpacking his belongings. He would definitely see Ivy at orientation tomorrow. He felt like he was ready for it. He assumed he was at least. It’s fine, everything would be fine.
His alarm went off at seven o’clock sharp. Luke had already sprung out of bed to get ready, leaving Atlas in the room on his own. Atlas slowly sat up in his bed, scratching his scalp out of habit. He rubbed his eyes with his palms, trying to clear out any sleep. He sighed heavily, and finally threw his covers away from his body so that he could get ready for their orientation.
“Man, I seriously hate that these orientations last for the entire day,” Luke groaned.
Atlas chuckled as he sat next to him in the auditorium.
“Relax, it shouldn’t take long at all,” a voice startled them from behind.
A brown-skinned, baby-faced girl was sitting behind them.
“Ivy,” Luke said adoringly.
“And me,” Jade added, sitting next to her.
“Why are you guys sitting behind us?” Atlas asked.
“We’ll walk around and sit next to you guys,” Ivy suggested. They both stood and walked to the end of their row of chairs. They squeezed through students until they reached Atlas and Luke.
“Are you guys living on campus too?” Luke asked.
“Yep, but we’re not together. I have a new girl that’s my roommate,” Jade answered.
“New girl?” Atlas asked.
“Yeah, she might be around here somewhere, I think.”
“What about you Ivy?” Atlas asked, shifting his gaze to her.
“Oh, my roommate is cool,” Ivy smiled. “She’s pretty quiet though.”
“Well, I’m not sure how I like my roommate to be honest,” Luke joked. Atlas playfully slapped his arm in response. Atlas’ eyes began to wonder about the auditorium as his friends talked around him. His eyes froze on a red-headed girl about two rows down from theirs. He was right. It was best to consider other options in college. This girl was honestly quite stunning. Her auburn hair was cut into a blunt bob, stopping at her shoulders. Her lips were full and glossy with red lip gloss. She had dark brown freckles sprayed across her nose. Her eyes landed directly on him for a moment, perhaps a moment too long. He was the first to look away. He sat back in his seat preparing to close his eyes out of boredom. He found himself picturing the girl’s face. She was, in fact, very pretty. The way that she had looked at him as well...He opened his eyes once he heard someone fumbling with the mic on stage.
“Good Morning, students and faculty,” the speaker greeted, “We’re going to go ahead and begin our orientation for today. We will review some policies and expectations at the school. We’ll also talk about all of our buildings and what you can find at each one. At the end of this part of our orientation, we will go ahead and take a tour of the campus, and we want you all to feel free to ask us any questions you would like throughout the orientation.”
After about two hours in the auditorium, they were finally released to go on tours around the school. The directors separated them into about ten groups, and they were instructed to stay with their tour guide for the entirety of the tour.
“Feels good to finally stretch our legs,” Jade remarked. “So, Atlas, you’re going into their nursing program right?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty excited actually,” he grinned.
“Yeah, they don’t really earn too much money though.”
“Lies,” Luke opposed. “Nurses make a pretty decent paycheck depending on where they work, unlike teachers,” he turned his eyes toward Ivy, and a smirk slid across his face.
“Well, I’m only starting here, for my gen studies so that the cost doesn’t get too high. Also, teaching is the same. It depends on where you work. Virginia is actually a pretty decent place to be a teacher,” she shrugged.
“Feel like Jade’s gonna be racking in the biggest paycheck. You can’t really argue with finance,” Atlas stated.
“That’s just so many...numbers,” Luke said with a grimace.
“It’s also, so much money,” Jade smiled.
“Well, notice how everyone else decided to go into human services as a job. Shows how selfless we are, what’s your excuse?”
“Ha, ha, ha,” Jade responded sarcastically.
They all crossed the courtyard, heading towards the building that would hold all of their general studies classes. Jade and Luke walked ahead, leaving Ivy and Atlas to walk behind them. An awkward silence passed between them once their eyes finally met. A stark contrast to Luke and Jade who were chopping it up in front of them. “So...” Ivy said finally, “how was your summer?”
“Pretty good, what about you?”
“Relaxing, didn’t do much honestly.” Another awkward silence. “You know...just to address the elephant in the room,” she paused, “We should forget everything that happened before summer break. I mean, it was high school and we were both immature and young. This should be a new start for us, you know?”
He turned to face her. Her sepia-colored eyes looked back up at him, they were just as sweet as they always were whenever she looked at him. He felt a knot forming in his stomach. He looked down at his shoes, “Of course, I completely understand. I...was gonna suggest the same thing actually.”
She smiled, making her face look even younger than it already did. “You know,” she started looking forward again, “I saw you kind of had your eye on one of the girls sitting in front of us.”
He chuckled, “You don’t have to...”
“Oh come on...I think you should go for it,” she nudged his elbow with her own.
“...Maybe, I don’t even know if she’s into me like that.”
“Atlas,” she said with a look of disbelief, “either you weren’t paying attention, or you’re blind. I definitely saw the way she looked at you. It was too obvious, to be honest.”
He chuckled again, shoving his hands into his pocket. “I don’t know, we’ll see I guess.”
Ivy rolled her eyes in response, “Men.”
“Catch up guys!” Jade turned to call to them. They hurried forward to catch up with the group.
“Hey!” An unfamiliar voice called to them. They all stopped and turned to see who the voice belonged to. Atlas’ heart began to race as the red-headed girl made her way to their group. She stopped in front of them.
“What’s up?” Jade said first.
“Well, my name is Olivia. I’m a senior here. It’s tradition to have a house party on campus at the beginning of the semester every year, and I came over to ask if you guys wanted to join,” the girl responded. Her eyes shifted and locked directly with Atlas’s. He looked back for a moment and then turned his gaze towards the ground.
“When is it?” Ivy asked excitedly.
“Tonight,” Olivia smiled.
“I think we’d be down,” Jade responded, looking around for any protest. There was none.
“Awesome, I’ll see you guys there,” she turned on her heel and walked back to her group of friends.
Jade turned to face her friends with a broad smile, “Guess we’re going to a party tonight guys!”
