Chapter 1

 

Finally, building number thirteen. This is where I need to be. It took me at least thirty minutes to find the building where I was going to be living. I must have gone to at least four different buildings before I found the right one. Anyone could have easily made the same mistake that I made. That’s because all of the buildings looked alike. The only differences were the numbers on the very top of the buildings. If only I had come to my orientation, I wouldn’t have been walking for thirty minutes in this heat looking for building thirteen.

 

I walked up the stairs to the entrance door. When I entered, I saw girls everywhere. Some of them were sitting in the student lounge area, some standing next to the vending machines, some walking up the stairs, some standing by the coffee shop, and there were at least twenty girls standing in the student service line. They must have been having last-minute problems. 

 

I started walking towards the elevator when I noticed the line was longer than the line at the student service desk. There were people standing from the elevator all the way down to the exit door. They could have been where they needed to be if they had just taken the stairs. I wasn’t going to wait in that long line for the elevator to take me to the third floor. I decided to take the stairs. A little exercise wouldn’t hurt.

 

As I walked up the stairs, I saw several girls standing in front of the rooms on the second floor. They were all dressed in black with ear piercings all over their faces. They had colorful tattoos from their shoulders to their fingers. They looked like they were having the time of their lives with their loud laughing and talking. They all must have already known each other. They must have been friends.

 

I continued walking up the stairs until I reached the third floor. I knew what floor my room was on but I couldn’t remember the room number. I took my acceptance letter out of my purse and unfolded it to check the room number. What the what? Room number 313. Out of all of the rooms, why did I have to end up in this one? What was going on?  All of the buildings looked alike and now the numbers were alike, 13.  Building 13, room 313.  Ok, Samantha, get it together! It’s just a number. I started walking down the hall in the direction of my room. There were girls all over the place. All you could hear on the floors were laughing and talking. Maybe that was a good thing. Because we all know that girls don’t get along if they live together long. 

 

I heard one girl say that she was so happy to be out of her parents’ house. They couldn’t tell her what to do any longer. She said she could come and go as she pleased. Another one said she was going out that night to have herself a good time. I kept walking in the direction of my room. I hoped they all knew that there was a curfew for the building. If they got into trouble by coming in late, they could get kicked out of the dorm with nowhere to go but back home to their parents.

 

Finally, I made it to the door to my room. I hadn’t realized how far I walked from the stairs until just now. There, placed In the middle of the door, was “313” in big black numbers. I guessed they really wanted to make sure I didn’t miss these numbers. I didn’t pay attention to any of the other doors to see how big or small the numbers were. I was too tired to walk a few steps to the room next to me to see what the numbers on the door looked like. That was the least of my worries. I was quite sure all the numbers were the same size. I got my key out of my purse and unlocked the door. Just turn the knob and go in, I told myself. 

 

I had never seen anything like this. The entire right side of the room was decorated all in pink. The bed frame was pink, the comforter, the pillows, rugs, laptop, desk, curtains, picture frames on the wall, the lamp, lamp shade, light bulb, and the chair were all pink. I thought the number thirteen was scary. But looking at all of this pink was even creepier. I was starting to dislike pink. Either my roommate’s favorite color was pink or she was downright obsessed with pink.  Well, at least I knew one thing about her: she liked pink. I decided to pass on my nap. Her side of the room was finished. I couldn’t go to sleep yet. I needed to unpack and get myself settled in.

 

As I was unpacking my boxes and suitcases, I noticed another door in the room besides the entry door and the two closets. I walked over to the door and opened it. Unbelievable: it was a full bathroom. Out of all the college campuses and dorms I visited, there was not one room that had a bathroom. When my parents and I came here for the first time, I didn’t remember the model room having a bathroom.  Maybe it had one and I just didn’t remember. The problem was not the full-size bathroom; it was the color. It was also pink. Everything in here was pink. The shower curtain, rugs, towels, toothbrush holder, and soap were pink. Even the freaking toilet, sink and the wall were pink. This was insane.  What twenty-year-old would decorate everything pink? I was about ready to pull all of my hair out of my head. This was too freaking insane.....