1. Freshman Funk
2112 Words
The twins had stayed up much later than they should have the previous night. The next several days were slated for various freshmen orientations and they were both silent as they got up the next morning. Both were groggy and a little bit hungover as Erik had absconded from his home in Sacramento with a few bottles of his father's best whiskey.
Sipping on black coffee from the cafeteria, both boys picked at their food.
"Not even the first day of class and you two look like you've been partying the whole weekend," Erik's voice came out loud and clear as both the twins clutched their heads at his deep timbre.
"Shut the f**k up, dude," Jay pleaded.
"Yeah- this is all your fault," Alex decreed.
"I never forced you to drink the whiskey," Erik pointed out.
"You didn't even offer a mixer," Jay scolded him. "I was thirsty and didn't exactly get to the grocery store yesterday."
"Whiny p*****s, the both of you," Erik grumbled as he started to shovel eggs and bacon into his mouth.
They were finally able to eat the remainder of their breakfast, though it lay heavy and unsettled in their stomachs. They saw that their first orientation was for the business school. Great- it was something the both of them were majoring in so they wouldn't be alone at least for the first of their orientation meetings.
An extremely dull man that resembled Ben Stein a little both in voice and demeanor was head of the business department. He bored the twins to tears as they sat in the back of the lecture hall trying to keep their eyes peeled and failing miserably.
Wiping the drool from his mouth, Jay patted his brother on the shoulder before they went their separate ways. He had to head to the English department to attend the orientation there. He had opted on taking a creative writing course as one of his electives. He had always dabbled a bit in writing as a teen and once thought he would be the next Truman Capote until he realized he was only a mediocre writer. Still, it was something he enjoyed and with all the other coursework, he wanted to have at least one class he truly looked forward to going to.
Alex had a break and decided to go sit beneath a tree on the quad and take a short nap. He would have walked back to his apartment a few blocks away if he hadn't felt so utterly drained of energy.
Stuffing his backpack beneath his head, Alex laid back under the shade of the tree and closed his eyes. Various conversations wafted in the air around him and he let them serve as a lullaby instead of the disruption they would normally be. He had a couple of hours before his next orientation and that was plenty of time to sleep away some of the dull throbbing in his head.
He had been sleeping peacefully looking like a beach bum for about ninety minutes before he felt a jolting pain in his left foot. It startled him almost as much as the cry he heard afterwards and the slight oomph of a body falling across his legs.
"Oh, my gosh-" a sweet voice exclaimed. "I didn't see you there. I hope I didn't hurt your foot."
Alex blinked several time to clear his vision and saw a slight form in a white sundress sprawled on the ground and across his legs. The sundress had hiked up to about her mid thigh, though it looked that the material was long and flowy when the person wearing them was upright.
"No worries," he stated a little taken aback at the situation. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she told him. "Just embarrassed. It isn't every day you fall literally at a boy's feet."
Alex laughed and stood up from his position, dislodging her legs from his before stepping over towards the girl and offering her a helping hand. She took it and became upright, immediately brushing some leaves and dirt off the light colored material.
Alex watched as she tried to fix her disheveled appearance. She was pretty and quite young so it was more than likely she was a student like he. If she wasn't, she was sure to be the sexiest professor ever. She had wavy light brown hair and a heart shaped face. She was not particularly slender but had a nice shape to her anyways. Hers was more of an hourglass figure with wide thighs and hips and a generous bust. He hadn't seen her eyes yet but he was sure they were dazzling and he suddenly felt himself wonder what she would look like in his bed naked.
At that sudden errant thought, she looked up at him and he found he had been right. Her eyes were a startling green color and her lips were full and painted a light glossy pink. Besides the pink of her lips, she wore a little bit of mascara and eyeliner, but it gave her a youthful look instead of making her seem older than her age as most makeup did on women. Her cheeks were pink but Alex was fairly certain that that was due to her embarrassment at falling more than any makeup she wore. She had creamy light skin without a hint of foundation and her scent was a light flowery one, like jasmine or freesia.
He blinked back at her and she smiled shyly.
"I'm Alex," he stated sticking his hand out for her to shake. Looking down at his hand, she noticed the watch and quickly glanced at the time on her cell phone before swearing.
"s**t- I'm going to be late!" she said with a horrified yet conciliatory look on her face. "I've got to go! It was nice meeting you, Alex. Bye!"
She shuffled off at a hurried pace, trying to keep hold of the too- large hobo bag in bright colors she had been carrying. It had become dislodged from its place on her shoulder when she fell. Alex looked down on the ground next to his feet to see a small notebook with a matching elastic band to keep the book from opening. It hadn't been there when he had fallen asleep and he was almost positive it belonged to the nameless girl in white. The book itself almost looked like a diary and Alex hesitated to open it.
He went to call out for the girl and realized too late that he didn't even know her name. It was no matter as she was already too far away for her to hear even if he had a bullhorn on hand.
Looking down at the notebook he saw it said 'Aloha' on it and he wondered if she was from Hawaii or simply liked the color scheme.
He hesitantly opened the little book and looked inside to see if he could get a name or at least an address so that it could be returned.
Inside it gave him all the information he needed.
Piper Minkov
Fromm Hall
2497 Golden Gate Ave. Room 207
San Francisco, CA 94118
Absently, Alex closed the book and replaced the elastic strap over it before placing it inside the empty front pouch of his Jansport backpack. If he didn't see her within a week, at least he would know where he could drop the book off at.
And know where that dangerous creature lived.
******
Jay could barely keep his eyes open as he sat in the English orientation. Most of the people here were English Lit. majors and he was only present because he had decided to do a creative writing course as his elective.
For the most part, there was an inordinate amount of- for lack of a better word- nerds. Future librarians or people who might live well into their 50's with 8 cats and a pasta maker as companions. These were the same people that never went to the book clubs that were popular nowadays because they didn't want to be forced to think about the book too much, It was their escape and their solace and Jay thought that this probably for the best. It was an uncharitable thought, but he never really had time to mince words.
The woman who was the head of the English department was a stout older woman in a tweed jacket and frizzy white hair that sat around her head in a nebulous halo. She looked like a modern day American version of Miss Marple and the idea of this little lady solving crimes in her twilight years made Jay smile. If only people were as interesting as he could think them up to be.
There was a disproportionate number of females in the room. Most of the males that were there were scrawny little men, barely over five foot eight and gangly looking. Many had spectacles sliding down their noses.
Jay stopped listening to the lecturer and decided to scope out the crowd from his seat near the back of the room. For the most part, he was unimpressed. That was until he saw a blur of brown and white sitting near the front right of the room, her profile a novel in itself.
She was pretty, even beautiful. Soft brown waves fell tousled over light skinned shoulders. She was wearing a light sundress, either white or light blue- it was hard to tell under the fluorescents housed in the rafters of the cavernous hall. Her lips were light pink and pouty, though that could have been due to the look of concentration on her face.
Jay almost kicked himself for sitting so far away from the exit doors on the right side of the hall. He wanted to get closer to her and all the seats nearby her were full of other students as well as several other English teachers and aides.
Jay was disrupted from his gaze when the rest of the group sitting all started to get up and file out the door. The orientation had completed while he had sat staring at the girl. He picked up the bag he had set under his feet and stood to try to wrestle his way through the crowd to get to her.
By the time he had reached the door, the hallway was swamped and he couldn't tell which way she had gone.
He settled on leaving the building since his orientations were done for the day. He was coming around a bend of the open quad when a familiar form standing under a tree captured his attention.
"Alex!" he called out and got no initial response. He seemed to be gazing off into the distance to another building where a large swath of students were heading to. From studying the SFSU literature, he knew it was the building that encompassed the majority of the arts and science classes.
"Hey, ALEX!" he roared at his twin and Alex finally turned around with a puzzled glance at him.
Walking up to his twin, Jay scoffed.
"Spacing out already?" he asked. "There's plenty of time to do that in class. It's too nice out here to have your mind wandering off like that."
Alex didn't answer him and Jay looked closer to see he was indeed very preoccupied.
"What's wrong?" he asked his brother.
"Hmm? No one- er, nothing that is." Alex replied.
"When is your next orientation?"
"Oh s**t- f**k me!" he cried looking at his watch. "It already started."
"Well, it's not like it's a class," Jay told him. "No one's taking attendance or anything."
"True- it's only for my arts class," Alex replied, shrugging off the fact that he would miss it but thankful that art wasn't his major.
"Art- you're such a girl," Jay joked.
"Okay, Walt Whitman. How was the English majors?" Alex asked him with a bite.
"Boring as hell hell," he replied. "No hot chicks at all- well, except for one."
"What would you expect? It's English not modeling class. At least with an art class I may get to paint nude bodies."
"Probably a dude's. Hey- let's get something to eat in the caf. I'm f*****g starving." Jay shook his head as he started towards the cafeteria.
"Alright- I could do with another coffee at any rate," his brother told him.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Jay asked. "You're acting f*****g weird. Weirder than usual that is."
"I'm fine, Mom," Alex replied. "Let's get going before you I knock out flat on your ass for whining about food."
"f**k off, bro."
"Love you too, turd."
- Writer
