Note: The characters depicted in this story are not real people and any similarity to real peoples' names is coincidental.
*
It was springtime in Portland, Oregon. Our senior college class was leaving high college for a two week vacation, of sorts, in Florida. The professors kept telling us that we were the luckiest senior class in the history of the entire college, because our college had received an award or grant of some kind from a wealthy philanthropist who wanted to do something for youth across the country.
Anyway, all that I knew was that it meant the entire senior class got to spend two weeks in Florida – staying in a hotel, sightseeing, and attending seminars hosted by important people who I didn't know.
I was very much looking forward to the entire experience. It would be kind of like how our business trips had been back in twelfth grade – only longer, and much cooler. It was a chance to escape regular classes and do something different. Everyone had been talking about it for weeks.
So the day finally arrived when we were to leave Portland and fly by plane to Florida. We were going to stay in a hotel in Orlando, but we were told there wasn't going to be much time to spend in Disney World, since there were seminars and other activities planned out for us.
I drove to college on the Monday of our departure with my baggage and belongings. I boarded a charter bus along with many of my fellow college seniors – the A-G bus. Unfortunately, the college had arranged us alphabetically in buses, so many of my friends weren't in the same bus as I was.
I sat next to Jordan Brooks, who was practically the only friend I had who was on the same bus. We didn't talk much though, as he was listening to music on his Walkman. I decided to do the same, because there wasn't going to be much to do until we actually got to Florida. Pretty much the only thing we talked about was lamenting the fact that we couldn't bring cellphones along on the trip. The college had set down strict guidelines for what we could and couldn't bring.
It didn't take long to reach Portland International Airport and go through security. Only about a fourth of the college faculty had come with us, and they were split between the different buses – about four professors to a single group. There were five buses.
After we left the buses, we were split into groups of about ten or so – ten students to a professor. Fortunately, Jordan was still in this second group, so I had somebody to talk to as we went through security and stopped to get snacks and pizza at the airport's many kiosks.
We boarded our plane for Orlando and took off shortly thereafter. It was a nice day, so there weren't any delays, which was nice. Even in the spring, Portland can be a bit cold, and everyone was talking about the warmer weather we were heading for.
It was much later in the day when we reached Orlando, because of the time shift, and we stuck in our groups of ten students and headed for the hotel. We first boarded vans to get to the hotel and then were dropped off only a couple blocks away.
"Do we get to pick our own rooms?" I asked Ms. Anderson, who was our assigned professor. Ms. Anderson was widely considered to be one of the hottest professors in college, and as much as I admired her looks, I really wasn't interested in the faculty that much.
"No, your roommates have already been picked out for you," she said.
"What's up with that?" Jordan complained. He was walking next to me, dragging his luggage along.
"The rooms were picked out by a computer," Ms. Anderson answered, with a smile. "Gives you a chance to maybe meet someone you haven't met before."
Great. Well, I wasn't really interested in meeting new people. It was ridiculous that they wouldn't let us pick our own rooms. Still, there was nothing we could do about it.
Our group headed into the hotel lobby and received directions from one of the hotel staff members. We went into a large adjoining ballroom and set our luggage and belongings down in one of the corners. Then we waited while Ms. Anderson went to get our hotel room keys.
She came back about twenty minutes later and handed them out. "You can all go up to your rooms," she said. "That's what the dean said."
So I said goodbye to Jordan and headed for the elevators. My room was on the tenth floor of the hotel. I took the elevator up to Floor 10 and got out. The elevator lobby was cleanly lit and the carpet looked expensive.
In an alcove, there was an ice machine and a Coca-Cola dispenser. Opposite from the alcove was a larger nook with a couple of small tables and view outside the window. There was a stack of USA Today newspapers on one of the tables.
I walked down the hall at stopped at Room 1012. I pulled out my card key and unlocked the door to the room. Opening the door, I found myself in a fairly nice hotel room. There was a king sized bed against the main wall, which I dumped my belongings onto.
There was a closet right by the door, and oppose the closet was a nice bathroom with a mini-jacuzzi. It appeared to have room for at least two people.
There was a large desk at the wall perpendicular to the wall the bed was against, and an office chair. A coffeemaker sat on the desk, as did a welcome pamphlet for the hotel and a telephone. In the corner, there was a lounge chair with an ottoman, facing a cabinet against the opposite wall, which, as I soon discovered, had a television inside of it.
I began unpacking. After about ten minutes, I heard a noise at the door. I got up from what I was doing and went to open it when it suddenly opened by itself.
I was expecting some guy whom I didn't know or like to walk in...but instead, Katherine Phillips walked in, tugging her luggage. Katherine was what I considered to be one of the hottest girls in the entire college. She wasn't a cheerleader, but she could have easily been one. She was a medium sized, sweet brunette who was generally nice to everybody she came across.
She looked up, and suddenly stopped, dropping the handle of her suitcase. Her jaw dropped as she saw me, and I'm sure mine did simultaneously.
"What the hell are you doing in here?" she asked accusingly.
"Um...this is my room. At least, this is the room they gave me the key for," I replied.
"There must be some mistake," she replied flatly. "Guys and girls don't sleep together in the same room!"
"Your guess is as good as mine," I returned. "Maybe we should go find a professor and get it cleared up."
Katherine was agreeable to doing this, so we went out in the hall to find the nearest professor. We found one, Professor Johnson, very quickly, because there were a huge crowd of kids around him. We approached the crowd and listened in to what Johnson was saying.
"Look, I don't have anything to do with this. That's the way the rooms were set up. The people who are putting this on for you thought that you were mature enough to handle it. They wanted to give you a new experience – pull you out of your comfort zone. You don't have to sleep in the same beds. For those of you with rooms that don't have separate twin beds, the hotel has put rollaways in the closets."
It quickly became apparent that everybody else was rooming with somebody of the opposite gender. There was no mistake. It was completely intentional. The moment Johnson stopped talking, some of the kids started shouting again, but it was no use.
"Will you guys stop complaining?" Mr. Johnson asked, irritably. "Can't you appreciate what a tremendous opportunity you've been given? This isn't going to be a problem unless you make it one. So please go back to your rooms and unpack. Get to you know your roommate. You'll be spending the next two weeks with him or her."
Mr. Johnson swept down the hall to his own room, leaving the crowd of students behind. Some had apparently been just following along and didn't seem to mind the fact that they were rooming with somebody of the opposite gender.
