The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [178]
Within twenty seconds a pleasant-looking Asian girl with stylish glasses exited the building and looked around. Eli didn’t give himself a chance to chicken out. Treat this like the first days of Spanish camp, he thought. Just be myself.
“Hi, are you in the business program too?” he inquired.
“Yeah!” she said.
Eli inwardly cheered. She’s friendly! “Cool, do you know where you’re going?” Eli asked as they walked down the stairs. “Because I have no idea.”
“I’m not sure either.”
“Well at least I feel better knowing I won’t get lost on my own,” he said. “I’m Eli.” He held out his hand. She shook it.
“I’m Lindsey.”
For the rest of the morning, Eli and Lindsey made comfortable small talk before splitting up for the afternoon elective sessions.
Just before dinner, WCU held a mandatory assembly for all incoming business freshmen. When Eli arrived at the lecture hall, hundreds of students were already seated. As he meandered up the stairs, he realized he was pleased to have chosen a university with so many students. In high school, he felt out of place whenever he looked for a seat. Here, it didn’t matter if he looked a little lost. No one was judging him. Already he could see that the campus could be as small or as large as he wanted it to be. There would be plenty of potential friends from whom to choose.
Suddenly Eli saw someone waving at him from the front of the auditorium. Lindsey grinned and gestured to a seat she had saved for him. They spent much of the rest of orientation together and resolved to stay in touch over the summer.
Already Eli felt more comfortable about his prospective social life than he ever had in high school. “College will be full of Lindseys: genuinely nice people that I can become friends with,” Eli said when he returned home from orientation. “I’m still scared about making friends and all that, but I just have to trust that everything will work out. Generally, I’m leaning more toward the excited than the nervous side now. ‘Normality’ is more defined in high school because it’s smaller, but it’s all relative in college. In time, I know I can find my own little niche.”
JOY, CALIFORNIA | THE NEW GIRL
At lunchtime, Joy spotted Anisha and Latrice walking toward her. Except for lunches with Joy, Latrice and Anisha didn’t hang out; an Indian AP kid and a black cheerleader were an unheard-of combination at Citygrove. Typically, Joy divided her free time in school among her friends. But today, these two were talking as if they’d known each other for years.
The girls found a sunny patch of grass outside the biology classroom and caught up on each other’s day. After a while, Cleo knelt on the grass beside them. “We have the weirdest combination of people here: crazy Jamaican chick, Indian AP kid, cheerleader . . .” Joy said.
“And cool, white artsy chick with funky clothes!” Cleo chimed in.
“Wow,” said Anisha, looking around at the group. “We’re like the only people that do this! It’s a cool combination.”
“That’s because we set our own trend,” Latrice said. “ ’Cause normally, the cheerleaders don’t talk to the AP kids, the white girl doesn’t talk to the black girl. People are left out! We move toward change.”
Joy adopted a squeaky little-girl voice. “And it’s all because of me!”
“Right, Joy!” Anisha said. “We love you!”
“I love you too!”
When Joy and Latrice walked away, Latrice turned to her and said, “I can tell you anything. I can trust you, and you’ll never give up on me, and you don’t judge me, and you’re always honest with me. You’re my best friend. Give me a hug, boo.” Latrice embraced her.
The next morning was the first day of swimming in PE. In the middle of her first lap, Joy began to sink. She was a terrible swimmer; somehow, even in Jamaica, she had never learned how. She further submerged. Panicked, she flapped her limbs. She struggled to keep her head above the water.
Suddenly, she heard a shout. “Go, Joy! You can do it!” Joy