Alice and Kate Go To College

Alice

“Now what are we supposed to do?” Kate asked. We were sitting on our new dorm rooms beds, fully unpacked. The shrieks of kids playing a game of capture the flag on the quad pierced the air.
“I guess meet some new people.” I proposed halfheartedly.
“Please, that’s why I went to the same college as you. To not meet new people.” I rolled my eyes. Yes, we decided to go to the same school, but frankly the amount of colleges that would let lackluster students such as ourselves in was narrow enough that it barely mattered. We got into most of the same schools, and felt apathetic enough we tried to “rock paper scissors” a selection. We chose the University of Massachusetts because it was cheap, big enough to lose ourselves in, and the dining hall was ok compared to the others we tested.
“Let’s at least meet our neighbors.” I coaxed Kate up off her bed, pulling her hands and dragging her to the door. We walked next door, where the door was propped open and some mainstream hip hop was bumping.
“Oh jesus.” Kate did not look pleased.
“Kate, shut up.”
“Hey girls!” An extremely peppy and small Asian girl greeted us. She was standing on her bed, hanging a poster. “I’m Melanie!”
“I’m Alice, this is Kate.”
“Nice! Where are you from?”
“Uhm, West Harlow, Massachusetts.”
“Nice! Come on in and chat.” Kate looked at me, seething. She hated peppy people, naturally.
“Actually, we’re….going to explore campus.” I ad libbed. I really didn’t want to be subjected to Young G Moneyz or whatever was playing. I also hated “get to know you” questions, but I figured those were unavoidable until everyone learned to leave us alone.
“Ok.” Melanie looked disappointed. “But stop by whenever!”
As we went back into our room, closing the door, Kate shook her head slowly.
“We are not cut out for college life, Alice.” “I know. Let’s do something to take the edge off.”
“Oh great, now we’re going to get written up before classes even start.” Kate flopped onto her bed. I considered her remark briefly.
“Better than sitting in Melanie’s room, hanging Angelina Jolie posters for her.”
“Touché.”
I packed a bowl, as Kate opened the window, struggling with the screen. We had a window seat, which was nice. It added slight hominess to our otherwise prison-issued cinderblock walls. We sat like bookends, our feet crossing the middle. We passed the bowl back and forth, blowing smoke out the window carefully.
“What’s your major going to be?” Kate asked out of the blue.
“Fucking…No idea.”
“Me either.”
“We’re off to a great start.”
“Want to get dinner?”
“Alice, it’s 5 o’clock. That’s a little geriatric even for us.”
“What else are we going to do?”
“Point taken. Let’s go get that blue light special.”
We grabbed our new skateboards and headed down the dorm stairs. We bought new decks for school, because our dorm was far away from some things on campus, like the dining hall and gym. We might never use the gym, but the dining hall was a necessity, naturally. I pushed off on the walkway, weaving adeptly through clumps of lost freshman carrying maps. My new cherry red hair whipped into my face, strands sticking from the autumn breeze. Kate and I had dyed it with “Fire Engine Red” hair dye in my bathtub, which looked like that scene from “Psycho”. We bleached a few strands of Kate’s tangled tresses, which had turned into almost-dreads. I called them, affectionately, shit-locks. We both felt like we had needed change after she came out and I lost my virginity. We were new people, new versions of ourselves, the College Kate and Alice. I kick-flipped over a curb, coming to a stop on the patio in front of the dining hall.
“Show off.” Kate grumbled, as she hit her shin with her botched attempt. A few people looked at us oddly, since girls on skateboards are typically unusual, I guess. Plus my lanky, nearly six foot frame attracted stares most places. And Kate, of course, just looked strange. Her wild locks topping a face with a few new piercings in her facial region terrified most parents, and I guessed some sheltered incoming freshman shared that sentiment. And how we dressed didn’t help. My tight jeans and combat boots and her Chuck Taylors and Bad Brains shirt made us look like hooligans, as my mother said. But we needed to make a statement, on this first day of our next four years. We wanted to attract the right kind of people, not the Melanies of the campus. We wanted to find our fellow freaks who liked weird shit like we did.
Kate pushed opened the double doors as I trailed behind her. We fell into line, looking around at the enormous dining hall. As we inched closer to the buffet, I grabbed Kate’s shoulders and shook her slightly.
“Our fist college meal!” I ignored the boy snickering behind me.
“What a Kodak moment. Take my picture by the juice machine.”
“I’m trying to be enthusiastic.”
“Well, you’re starting to remind me of Dolly.” Dolly was her golden retriever.
“Ass.” We both picked up some mac and cheese, tucking our decks under our arms awkwardly as we balanced our trays. We stopped and faced the dining hall, Kate’s mouth opened slightly.
“Where should we….” I trailed off.
“We should find someone to sit with.” I turned to her, surprised.
“That’s surprisingly friendly coming from you.”
“I’m getting sick of you already.” She chuckled.
“Ok, who?” we scanned the room, as people pushed by us, giving us looks. I saw a bunch of nervous freshman interspersed with self-confident groups I assumed were upperclassmen. My eyes caught on a group of the coolest looking people I had ever seen. They didn’t make them like that in West Harlow. The group was centered on a pretty girl with heavy blonde bangs and even heavier black eye makeup. To her left was a boy with a short Mohawk and a leather jacket. Sitting across from them was a girl with long, jet-black hair and almond eyes. She was gesticulating elegantly as she talked, her hands moving easily.
“Dude, we need those friends.” I pointed with a nod of my chin.
“Yeah we do.”
“Want to…?” I stopped myself. Talking to people was not our forte. We usually just kept to ourselves, but I reminded myself that I was now College Alice, who probably did this sort of thing all the time.
“Let’s go and try this “meet new people” business.” Kate sighed.
We edged through the crowded room, banging into people’s chairs and apologizing. We stopped in front of their table and I cleared my throat.
“Can we sit here?” I felt my face flush, which I new was not an attractive look for my freckles.
“Sure, grab a seat.” The blonde girl smiled. As we sat down she continued.
“I’m Blanche, this is Marcus and Ellen.” They both waved.
“I’m Kate, and this is Alice.” Kate pointed at me, as if there was another person who could possibly be Alice in the vicinity.
“You guys freshman?” Marcus asked in a deep, gravely voice. I immediately thought he was cute, and immediately chastised myself for being such a boy crazy little girl.
“Yep.” He watched Kate stuff her face with admiration, and I smiled.
“What’re your majors?” The girl named Ellen had a high voice, babyish and breathy and pouty lips.
“Well, you see,” I started, “We have no fucking clue.” She laughed.
“Me either and I’m a sophomore. So don’t worry.”
“It’s not that we don’t have any interests, we just lack any sort of ambition.” Kate explained further. They all burst out laughing.
“I’m an English literature major, and Marcus does studio art. We’re all kind of art fags, in our own way.” Blanche smiled.
“I’m thinking psychology, so I can diagnose myself.” I offered.
“And I’m thinking…. Where’s dessert?” Kate looked around. I hit my forehead in mock desperation.
“Who are you two, Laurel and Hardy?” Marcus looked bewildered.
“We just spend too much time together. We’ve been practicing our routine for fifteen years.” Kate said in pretend seriousness.
“And you came to the same college? Wow, impressive.”
“I’m not half as funny without her.” I shrugged.
“You guys should come over after dinner to Ellen and my room; we’re having some friends over. And we just found the best freshman to introduce, I think.” She looked at the other two for their agreement. Marcus nodded emphatically, watching Kate intently. I wanted to tell him he was barking up the wrong tree, as it were, but I thought that a little forward. Kate was still shy about telling people she was gay.
“Where’s your dorm?” Kate pulled out a pen to write the name on her arm.
“In the quad, it’s easy to find. Just take my number and call me when you want to come over.” Kate copied it down on her forarm.
“Kate, the idea is to be able to read this.” I chided.
“Fuck offfff…” she drawled.
“You two might be crazy.” Marcus still seemed charmed by us.
“You know, we hear that a lot.” I looked at Kate, “Don’t we?”
“My therapist tells me that every week.” She picked up her deck, and stood to leave.
“Ok, come by around eight.” Ellen gave us the full effect of her smile, and I could tell Kate was crushing on her by the way she looked at Ellen’s generous mouth.
“You even skateboard?” Blanche’s eyes sparkled, “We so got the best freshman.”
“So see you later?” I looked from face to face, still surprised by how easy that was.
“Definitely.”
After a slightly more dangerous nighttime skate home, I sat on my bed, panting from the exertion.
“Did we just make cool friends?” I flopped backwards onto my pillows.
Kate was laying facedown on her black bedspread, and picked her head up.
“You act like we’re lepers.”
“Aren’t we?”
“Not literally.” She rolled onto her back.
“I meant figuratively.”
“Well, maybe we just found a leper colony.”
“Good point. What are you wearing?” I sat up suddenly.
“I can’t wear this?”
“No, my little brother’s sweatshirt is not appropriate.”
“They liked us; we don’t need to dress up.”
“What about their cool friends?”
“Oh, right. Fine, I’ll put on a normal shirt and some makeup.”
“Thank you.” I was satisfied.
I wore a flannel shirt I stole from Aaron, my high school boyfriend and v-card taker, back when we were still dating. He was at school on the west coast, so thus, we were not dating. It was big enough that I paired it with just a pair of tights and some short denim cut offs. Kate was wearing a pair of men’s work pants and a men’s undershirt.
“We look like lumberjacks.” She noted.
“It’ll be our thing?” I suggested.
“We look like Kurt Cobain does lumberjack.” She maintained.
“Grunge is cool, Kate, stop making me feel like a freak.”
“Freak on a leash, more like it.”
“That’s a Goth song.” I rolled my eyes.
“It’s the right era, I get points.” She maintained
We left then, talking about the relative weirdness of Marilyn Manson over the years. I smoked a cigarette as we walked over to the dorm, feeling anxious. I wished I had a drink in me to settle my nerves. My pot buzz had worn off and I was startlingly sober. I felt like I was on a first date, except with a whole bunch of people instead of just one. We walked up to the dorm, and saw a cloud of smoke framing Blanche and some of her friends. She was holding a cigarette like a garnish, topping her crazy outfit. Patterned tights with a tiny retro dress over them, with her blonde hair flowing wild down over her shoulders. Her friends were, oddly, dressed kind of like Kate and I, in an array of flannel shirts and tight pants.
“Guess the nineties are back,” Kate noted.
“Looks like it. Smells like Teen Spirit around here.”
“No more jokes like that; we actually want them to like us.”I took a deep breathe, and walked towards the group, nerves of anticipation fizzing in my stomach.