TIFFIN

4

The song for this chapter is New Rules by Dua Lipa. I don't know why. It just popped in my head (:
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After I had fixed Josephine's hair into a tight bun, I focused on my own, finally deciding to wear a fluffy cotton sweater and baggy bell-bottoms.

After a few minutes of debate over the subject, I allowed her to apply makeup to my clean face. I was glad she was an expert putting it on, though I warned her on making it look too trashy. 

As we made our way down to the quad, we talked about what we could expect in our classes after the weekend and discussed how early to set our alarms for each period. We laughed about how seriously we took everything. I had never had siblings or friends in which I had shared these quirks and I assumed she hadn't either.

Despite all this, however, we knew it was the best decision. No one was going to prepare us for the struggles of our cubicle jobs so we had to do it ourselves. 

My heart dropped in my stomach as we made it to the small bonfire set near the front gates. It was too dark to see much of anything, except the bright stars in the sky, and the fire didn't provide much light. I was able to see the fire encased in an iron grate. 

The enormous crowd gathered around the bonfire were in busy discussion, bumping plastic red cups against each other. As I observed the scene further, I saw that there were students smoking from Jewels and Vapes, without an adult in sight. I frowned. I thought this was an orientation. 

Before I could make sense of all this, someone very familiar jumped into my line of vision. She was very tall in her heels, dressed in a short dress that barely reached her thighs, her plum-colored hair arranged in a mess atop her head. It was the girl who would have been my roommate- dressed differently, but distastefully. 

"Well, look who showed up!" She squealed excitedly. "Ex-roomie!"

I wrapped my arms around myself, uncomfortable with this public display.
 
"Aren't you a bit underdressed?" She went on, drawing attention to us. 

I huffed as I took in her appearance. There were a lot of things I knew I could have said about her choice of fashion, but I didn't want to make  more of a mockery of the situation. I just nodded. 

Without warning, she grabbed hold of mine and Josephine's arms. "Come on, let's head over to a spot where we can warm up!"

In unison, I and Josephine had horrified looks on our faces. This wasn't our scene. We needed to leave. 

"Hey," I began, deep in my heart wanting to call her Lolita, "Annie... I thought this was an orientation?"

Josephine looked down at her feet, looking guilty. "That's what I got from the brochure..."

"There aren't any adults around and there's alcohol and smoking." I went on.

Lolita surprised me by laughing. "It is, but Whitney Hall isn't far from here. The partiers came to hang."

I went silent. I was speechless. I didn't know what to say. This was the most unorthodox and chaotic way of running things. Maybe attending this college was for the worst. 

Out of nowhere, Loli- Annie, materialized a red cup. "Here. Drink this. It will cool you down."

My eyes widened. I shook my head, pushing it away.

Once again, Annie laughed carelessly.

"It's fine, I promise. They're all smoking, but this is fruit punch. We're not dumb enough to trash campus."

I stared at the cup, knowing what I should do. My parents, especially my father, would tell me to throw the cup and leave straight away. But I didn't. I grabbed the cup, recognizing the red dye. Suddenly a thought popped into my mind.

"How's the sorority?" I asked, wanting to pry into this girl's life. 

Her face broke into a wide grin. "It's awesome! Way better than I could have imagined. We're like a family. All the girls have my back."

I squinted my eyes, trying to acknowledge this. I somehow doubted that.

"Who gave an invitation to Mr. Rogers spawn?" 

I twirled around wanting to find whoever said this. I knew it was meant to be rude. Soon enough I was able to find the culprit staring right at me. It was a young boy- who didn't look much older than me- looking arrogant. He was tall and lean with a mass of perfectly styled brown hair. What made things worse were the tattoos lining his muscled arms. He looked like nothing but trouble.

"Excuse me?" I demanded, not wanting to show weakness. People like him loved to see that. 

"Look at you," The boy snorted, "You're dressed in his clothes."

I decided to ignore this. "I don't need an invitation. This is a public event for the college. I don't know why you're being such a jerk!"

He ignored what I said, turning back towards a girl that was snuggling into his chest, looking like the perfect girl for him: slutty and loose.

"Well, maybe Chico State needs to be more careful about who they let in. You're clearly in the wrong place."

I quickly turned around and began running as I felt a tear rush down my cheek.

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