The building was twenty five stories tall, in the shape of an octagon, with each floor divided into four 'sides', lettered A, B, C, and D. Built in the sixties or something like that, it had housed students here at the states flagship university ever since, and was now used as a freshman dorm, a sort of incubator for all the things that made college great, and allowed for all the great stories later in life starting with, "remember when we lived in the tower of terror..."
The actual name was Snodde Tower, named after one of the schools more serious benefactors, and he had to admit that his parents had shared their first kiss in the lobby, a story his two little sisters never grew tired of hearing. But here recently, he had, not that he would ever say that.
Instead, he looked around his room one more time, then faced his parents, who were standing in the door, beaming. They had bathrooms at home that were bigger then the room he would be sharing with a guy named Dave for the next year. He and his family had come, done the introduction and move in, and were now at dinner, which his own family had already knocked out. He knew his parents wanted to get on the road back to home, and he knew it was time to let go. But damn it, this was apparently the opening stage of being homesick.
"Thanks for everything." It was all he could think of saying, and they both smiled at him. The sisters hugged first, followed by mom, and then dad, somewhat reluctantly. His father was not a big hugger. But he did reach into his pocket, and handed his son a wad of green, shrugging his shoulders.
"College can get expensive. But spend it wisely, you never know how long it will be before your mother breaks down and sends you more money." All his life his father had threatened that when he left his house, he wasn't getting shit. So much for that. They were gone within minutes.
Chris took a second to look around his room, then set to the task of putting away the rest of his clothes. He was freshman in college now, and he had serious tasks ahead, he told himself. For starters, he had to make new friends. Well, not really, he could name about twenty people from his high school two hours away now in attendance here, three even in this building, but that would defeat the purpose of the whole college experience he told himself.
So new people. Next, and probably a bit more important, he had never actually been to campus before, so he had to explore it and figure out where things were before class started in two days. And then finally, and in the near future most importantly, he had to get his ID card activated so he could eat in the as of yet undiscovered cafeterias sprinkled across campus. But he had a map so...
"Hi! How ya doin?"
His very well structured though process (he would here shortly begin studying to be an engineer, chemical no less), was interrupted by the sudden introduction of a rather perky voice into his life. Poking his head past the open closet door, he came face to face with a girl that had wandered into his room.
She was a bit shorter then him, and he judged her around 5'5" or so, at about one hundred and thirty pounds, plus or minus a bit. Dressed in denim shorts, white sneakers, and a white tube top, her blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail. But it was her big green eyes, dominating a face otherwise inhabited by a small nose, and pouty lips that really drew his attention.
"Hi..."
"I'm Megan. Just move in?" Her eyes were roaming the room, surveying the variety of boxes and bags. She had moved in only a couple of hours earlier, but her family had flown in, so their return flight had taken them from her already. No problem, home sickness was as foreign to her as the far side of the moon, and she could count on one hand with no fingers the amount of people she had encountered in life she did not like.
"I'm Chris, and yeah, can you tell?" They both smiled, and he pushed some stuff of his chair, offering it to her. She slid into it more then sat, leaning against the wall, and pulling her legs close.
The verbal dance that followed was the standard college fare, home town, general idea of major to come in the near future, reason for attending here, and other things that college freshman share as they prepare for the uncertain future. Finally she told him what room she was in, and bound of in search of more fun people, telling him to stop by later.
Well, later turned into late. First Dave came back, and the two sat down to get acquainted. Matched up by the university based on their answers to the ten page survey that got sent out to all incoming freshman, they determined easily what they had in common (which was a lot), and that they would probably have few problems.
Then they had a B Side meeting, where their Resident Advisor, a junior by the name of Kent, introduce himself and lined out the basic rules of the road for living in the building, passed out some papers they had to fill out, and answered some questions before leading them downstairs. The basement of the building was a cavernous multi purpose room, and right now it held well over eight hundred freshmen, and the roar was tremendous.
An overweight black man stood on the stage at the front of the room, and led them through a series of group building exercises before introducing himself as Walt, the building director. More rules followed, then some more group building shit, and finally they were dismissed to begin college. Everybody was streaming out towards the elevators, and apparently only those that lived on the first two or three floors were willing to walk.
Chris sighed, realizing that he lived on 17, which did not bode well for when they had the promised fire drills.
"Well hello there again!" Suddenly Megan was at his side, grasping his arm and surging him forward with the wave of people she was riding. "Have fun in there?"
"Loads." He smiled at her again, wondering where she got all her energy. She quickly introduced him to several other people he had meet, and despite his best intentions he knew fully well that he would never remember all their names. He was terrible with names, and surprised that he remembered hers.
"So what ya doing tonight?" She was smiling again, and he could not help but smile back. Well, maybe it was her still holding his arm that did that.
"No plans, really. Why, you got an idea?"
"My roommate Katie and I are throwing a welcome party on our floor, you should come by. Bring your roommate. We live on an all girl floor, it'll be fun!" She winked at him, several times, and they both laughed out loud.
He did go to the party, and he did have a good time. It seemed like half the building was crammed into the big 15th floor D side lounge, and finally a swarm of RA's arrived to break things up. Running two flights of stairs to hide in your room seemed somewhat juvenile, but it was his first college adventure, and when Dave asked him latter what was up between him and Megan, he only smiled.
