Breaking Away

Chapter 2

2

Two hours later, Molly and I had unloaded all of my things, dropping all the boxes and bags on the floor.

“I’m not going to organize this mess right now,” I said, sitting on my bare mattress.

“Don’t sit there!” Molly shrieked.

I jumped to my feet. “Why?”

“You don’t know where this mattress has been, what people might have done on it, with it.” She wrinkled her nose in disgust. “If you sleep on it, make sure to put several sheets, but if I were you, I would buy a new mattress ASAP.”

I nodded, making a mental note to browse the internet later for a local mattress store. The perks of never having lived in a dorm before. It seemed I had a lot of things to learn.

“Come on.” She picked up my purse from the chair. “Let’s take a break.”

“Where are we going?”

She smiled. “I’m going to show you around. There’s much to see.”

She wasn’t kidding. Molly and I walked around campus, stopping by the buildings where our classes would be; by the gym, which, according to Molly, was a great place to meet hot guys; by the main square, where lots of events happened; by the bookstore, where we browsed for the books we needed to buy; and by a coffee place three blocks from our dorm.

Molly bought a white mocha latte, and I got a cappuccino before we sat at a table by the window.

So far, I had found out Molly would turn twenty-one in two months, this was her junior year too, and she was double majoring in business and French. During high school, she had been head cheerleader and valedictorian and dated the quarterback for almost two years, but they broke up right after prom. Here in college, she was taking it slow. She had a few dates, but nothing too serious.

“Life is a party and I want to enjoy my last two years here,” she said.

In turn, I told her where I was from, my age, that my two years in vet school had gone down the drain, though I was able to transfer a lot of core curriculum classes, putting me in my third year of pre-vet here. I also told her pre-vet was something that didn’t exist in Brazil, which bothered me to no end when I first found out. I almost gave up vet school because I didn’t want to lose a few years. However, I had come to terms with that and I was embracing the American lifestyle.

“So tell me,” Molly started. “Is it too different from Brazil so far?”

“You mean, being in college?” I asked, and she nodded. “A little. First, universities in Brazil don’t have dorms. You can’t live on campus.”

“Are you serious? Then what do people do?”

“Live with your parents, or if you’re from out of town, rent an apartment.”

She blew on her steaming mug. “Interesting. What else?”

“Brazilian colleges don’t have a Greek system.”

“No way! But that’s so fun. I’m in a sorority—” She pointed to her polo shirt. The letters embroidered on it spelled ATN. “—and I love it! My parents belonged to Greek houses, and they loved it too. They met during a mixer. Oh, and they met their best friends there too.”

“It sounds like fun.”

“It is! You know, tomorrow night is rush night. I’ll be at the house helping out, but you should come. You should rush!”

“Um, I thought only freshmen were supposed to do that.”

She chuckled. “No. We accept girls from any year. You should do it.”

“I’m not sure.”

That was when those guys, Jeff and Garrett and the one lounging on a chaise in the middle of the front lawn, strolled past the coffee place, outside the window.

They tossed the football around, chatting. Jeff saw me and nudged the other two. Without slowing their steps, the other two turned their attention to me. Jeff waved, the nameless guy gave me a big, bright smile and winked, and Garrett showed me the same lopsided grin from before.

I stared at my coffee.

“Do you know them?” Molly asked.

“Not really. They hit my car with that damn football when I was arriving on campus. But other than that, I have no idea who they are.”

“The shortest one is Jeff Smith, the tallest one is Garrett Blackwell, and the blond one is Jonah Hudson. They’re—”

“Wait. Hudson? As in Colton and Linda Hudson?”

“Yes, those were his grandparents. They donated a lot of money to the university back when.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. He’s loaded, and he’s the president of the Beta Alpha Tau fraternity, or The Bat for short. It’s the best fraternity on campus.”

Well, there were about six fraternities on campus. To me, that was a lot.

“So far, they seem full of themselves,” I said.

Molly laughed. “Like most college boys.” She pointed to where they disappeared. “But you saw how cute they are, right? Like, super cute.”

I shrugged, but the truth was, I noticed. I mean, I wasn’t a saint. I liked guys, and being in college meant getting to know lots of them.

I noticed Jeff, the shortest one, but still taller than my 5’7”, had an olive complexion and chocolate eyes, with short, dark hair. Jonah was taller than Jeff was, and had fair skin, blond hair cut in layers, and blue eyes. Garrett, the tallest of the trio, had tanned skin, messy brown hair, hazel eyes, and a five o’clock shadow covering his jaw and chin. And the three of them looked like they worked out.

“Yeah, they’re cute,” I admitted.

“If you rush my sorority, Alpha Tau Nu, you’ll be seeing more guys like them.” She leaned over the table, and for a second, I thought she would leap over it, clutch my shoulders, and shake me until I agreed. “Please. Come over, even if you’re not interested. If someone bids on you later, you can always pass.”

“I don’t know.”

“Hey, didn’t you say you wanted the full American experience? It doesn’t get much more American than rushing sororities.”

She had a point.

Since the idea of going to college here in the U.S. bloomed in my mind, I promised myself I would experiment with new things and try the American way of life. Rushing and pledging sororities were part of it. Still, I wasn’t sure it was something I wanted.

“You get a maybe,” I said. Then I clamped my hands over my ears before Molly’s squeal made me deaf.

I ended up not going to rush night. Instead, I went out to buy a mattress, which was almost impossible to carry inside the building by myself. Graças a Deus for the girl who was ascending the stairs to go to a party, and took pity on me and helped me out. After throwing the other mattress under the bed—I would deal with it later—and putting my new one in place, I organized my stuff around the room.

When she came back from the house, Molly seemed upset about me not showing up. I tried explaining to her that I didn’t think it was for me, but I liked the fact that she was into her sorority. She shrugged and didn’t look at me again until the next morning.

“Hello, sunshine!” she said, sitting up on her bed at 8 a.m. sharp.

At least she was in a better mood than last night.

“Bom dia,” I mumbled before pulling the covers over my head. Two seconds later, Molly yanked the covers away from me. “What the hell?”

“Come on.” Molly grinned. “We’ve got a big day today.”

Other than getting our student IDs in the afternoon and buying our books, I had no idea what she was talking about.

I hugged my pillow and turned my back to her. “My bed feels so good right now.”

“Come on, Bia!” She pulled my pillow away.

“Hey!”

She chuckled. “You have orientation all morning—”

“That’s optional.”

“—and we have to get our IDs and buy our books. Oh, and I’m going to introduce you to my friends. You’re gonna love them.”

After about fifteen minutes of her chipper self, I couldn’t take it anymore. I gave up and got out of bed. She hovered so close to me, I thought she would follow me into the bathroom. I would shove her off if she did. Graças a Deus, she didn’t and I was able to take a shower and brush my teeth in peace. After much thought, I decided to go with my usual ensemble. No need to try to impress anyone, or be someone I wasn’t.

Molly looked me up and down when I exited the bathroom. “You do take your cowgirl style seriously, don’t you?”

I glanced down. Jeans, a white tank top, thick black suede belt, and my favorite black and white Lucchese boots. If only she knew I almost reached for my black hat, but decided it would be too much. For now.

I shrugged. “Anything wrong with it?”

“No, it’s not that.” She smiled. “I’m just not used to it.”

I looked at her clothes. A not too short jean skirt, a pink blouse with slight cleavage, and high-heeled sandals, and too many rings and bracelets and necklaces. Yeah, not my style.

Molly walked with me to orientation, and I was surprised when she stayed with me for the entire thing. I asked her a couple of times why the hell she wanted to sit through it if it was optional, and she wasn’t new to the university.

“Just because,” was her answer each time.

The girl probably didn’t have anything better to do, or she wanted a favor later, in which case I should be careful with what else she did for me just because.

After the boring introduction and brief tour of the main sites of the campus, Molly took me to a Panera Bread just off-campus.

“Bia, meet Audrey and Sarah.” Molly introduced me to two blond chicks who had on too much makeup for my taste. But then again, most American women—or little girls for that matter—wore too much makeup for my taste. She took a chair across the table from Audrey and Sarah. “This is the girl I told you about last night.” She gestured to the chair beside hers. “Audrey is the president of my sorority, and Sarah is the rush chair.”

I sat and stared at Molly. “Are you setting me up?”

She averted her eyes. “Not exactly.”

“She just wanted us to meet you,” Audrey said. Her blond hair fell in perfect waves down her back, and I wondered how many hours she spent in front of the mirror to get that effect each morning.

“We’re her friends and you’re her roommate,” Sarah said. She flipped her straight-as-a-board blond hair—this one also spent at least an hour flat ironing her hair every day—and looked me up and down. With her fancy skirt and pumps, I bet my jeans and boots didn’t really please her. “She says we’ll get along famously.”

I was starting to doubt that, but hey, I was the foreigner here and I didn’t mind diversity as long as everyone respected each other.

“I’m sure we will,” I said. Seeing as Audrey and Sarah were already waiting for their food, I stood. “Hey, Molly, why don’t we go order something?”

“Yeah, sure.” Molly stood and followed me to the cashier.

I ordered a panini and soda, and Molly got a salad and iced tea. When we returned to the table with our plates, Audrey and Sarah were almost through theirs. Not surprisingly, they were eating salad.

“What brings you to the United States, Bia?” Audrey asked as soon as I sat on my chair.

I had rehearsed this answer several times, because this was another one people always asked me. “My family. My brothers are polo players, and they have a contract with an American club.” I just hoped they didn’t want more about it.

“Oh.” Sarah looked me up and down again. “But Brazilian girls aren’t exactly cowgirls, are they?”

I didn’t get that question often. “Like here, there are many kinds of girls in Brazil. There are a lot of farms and ranches in the state I was born, and lots of girls become sort of a cowgirl, called prenda.”

Audrey pushed her empty plate aside. “Interesting.”

“How about English?” Sarah asked. “I thought Brazilians spoke Spanish.”

I gritted my teeth and counted to twenty. I knew it wasn’t anyone’s obligation to know which language we spoke in Brazil, but Brazil had a huge rivalry with Argentina, and assuming we spoke Spanish was like saying we were Argentines. Or worse, that Buenos Aires was the capital of Brazil.

“Actually, we speak Portuguese,” I answered after calming down. “English is taught in schools, but that’s only the basics. There are private language schools in Brazil, and because of my brothers’ international career, my father thought it would be a good idea to learn English from a young age.”

“That’s good, I guess,” Audrey said, sounding uninterested.

We talked some more about college in Brazil and here, and how they were different. The same conversation I had had with Molly the day before.

“See,” Molly said. “She would be a great addition to the house.”

I was about to open my mouth and tell them I had zero interest in joining the sorority when Audrey said, “We have time to change your mind. Meanwhile, you can help us plan our stand for the Welcome Carnival on Saturday. Got any ideas?”

Banners for the Welcome Carnival were everywhere. Apparently, it was a huge evening event in the main courtyard, which happened every semester on the first Saturday after classes started.

Sarah leaned over the table and smiled. “I bet our carnival isn’t like your country’s Carnival, but I bet you’ll love it anyway.”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. One, it was Carnaval, not Carnival, and two, I also bet it was different, but I wasn’t a big fan of it in Brazil. Maybe I would like this one better.

I forced a big smile. “I can’t wait.”

We were getting ready to leave when a girl with red curls stopped by our table. “Hello, girls,” she said, her tone a little sarcastic.

“Hello, Gina,” Audrey said, her expression closing.

Gina turned a bright smile to me. “Hi, there. You must be Bia, the Brazilian girl.” I gaped at her. How did she know that? “I’m Gina, president of the ZTZ. I know you missed rush night, but I want to invite you to the house tonight, so you can meet the girls and me.”

“That’s illegal,” Sarah said. She turned to me. “It’s against the rules to rush after the rush night, or to bid on someone before bidding night.”

“Oh,” was all I said.

Gina didn’t lose her composure though. “Girls, let’s be honest here. I know you bent the rules a few times, and you know I did too. Besides, I know you’re going to bid on Bia, so I’m here throwing my hat in the ring too.”

Audrey glared at her. “Take your freaking hat somewhere else.”

Unaffected, Gina smiled at me again. “Don’t worry about them, Bia. Just don’t forget you have other options. And I promise, our bid will be good.” She winked before leaving.

Sarah tilted her head to me. “Bia, if you plan on joining a sorority, you should know there’s no house better than ours.”

“True,” Audrey said. “And whatever her bid is, we’ll make it better.”

I almost told them that I wouldn’t join any sorority, no matter what bid I got, but maybe they would launch in an argument and try to convince me about why I should join if I did, and I wasn’t in the mood for that. Better to stay quiet.

I just nodded. “Okay.”

After leaving Panera, I actually had a good time with Molly, Audrey, and Sarah. We walked around campus, got our student IDs done, bought books for our classes, then stopped by a froyo stand between the science and the English buildings. They told me all about sororities and fraternities. I also found out most girls were allowed to live in the house, but Molly had a scholarship that involved boarding, which meant she had to live in the dorms.

The trio knew everyone around. We would take a step, and they would say hi to someone and call that person by his or her name. If I had to guess, they must have greeted at least three hundred students in the short time we spent together, and they actually knew all of their names. That alone would be a miracle for me.

Some people stopped and started conversations with them. Very polite and cordial, the girls introduced me with flare. Apparently, being Brazilian was an exciting thing, because everyone turned to me saying, “Really? That’s so great!” or things of the like. Shame I forgot the name of four of every five students they introduced me to in less than three seconds.

They had been nice to me and, even though we didn’t share the same tastes, that didn’t mean we couldn’t get along well.