by Minot, Diana
Whitney settled into a seat a little more than halfway back from the stage, and was just beginning to flip through the papers in her purple folder when an energetic voice next to her startled her.
“Hi! Do you mind if I sit here?”
Whitney turned to look at the slender girl the voice belonged to. The girl’s dark brown hair was pulled back into a messy bun, and her sleeveless turquoise dress looked magnificent next to her olive skin. A chunky necklace of coral stones and matching coral earrings completed the ensemble. Her makeup was flawless. Fresh and bright were the words that came to Whitney’s mind.
“I’m Elise. Elise Young. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you!” Elise extended her hand and Whitney shook it, surprised that such a slim hand produced such a firm grasp.
“No, no worries! Please, sit down. I’m Whitney. Nice to meet you. I love your dress.”
“Thanks!” Elise’s green eyes brightened. “It’s vintage Oscar de la Renta! One of my favorites.” She lowered her voice and said, “I tried on a bazillion things before figuring out what to wear today.”
“Me too!” Whitney said, and could not resist a quick giggle. Elise’s energy was contagious, and Whitney was in awe of the fact that she was sitting next to someone wearing a vintage Oscar de la Renta piece. It made her feel a little bit like she had just stepped into an episode of Sex and the City.
“Where are you from?” Elise asked.
“Dallas. I just moved here last week.”
“Dallas! I’ve never been.” Elise’s eyes widened. “Do you know any real-life cowboys?”
“No…most of the cowboy types are pretty full of themselves. I try to stay away.”
“Oh.” Elise looked disappointed, but was over it in a moment. “I’m from Connecticut, but I’ve spent the last two years in Boston. I went to undergrad at Brown and wanted to stay in the general area, so I worked for this startup company in their marketing department. The startup really took off…”
Elise continued describing what sounded like a glamorous job full of very hot men, lots of partying, and little actual work. Elise would have been content to continue working there forever, but her parents insisted she get a graduate degree and offered to pay for it, so here she was. She had enjoyed working with the lawyers the startup had hired, and thought she would be good at legal work. Maybe. She shrugged and laughed, like spending three years and $150,000 of tuition on something she was “maybe” interested in was no big deal.
“So, anyways, enough about me, what did you do before law school?”
Whitney felt her face heating up and turning pink. Elise seemed nice enough, but once she learned that Whitney did not have a trendy job on her résumé, or vintage anything in her closet, this minutes old friendship was probably going to stall out.
“Well, I mean, I went to a state school. UT. University of Texas. And my parents have no money so I had a ton of student loan debt when I graduated. So I had to find a job quickly, and you know when you are under time pressure you kind of settle for whatever. So I took a job in a call center, as a customer service agent, but I didn’t have to answer the phones for very long, thank goodness, because I got promoted to management. But it was still pretty boring and going nowhere so I decided to come to law school. I want to work for a firm and not have to work in a call center anymore.”
Whitney winced and forced herself to stop rambling. She had pretty much done her trademark confess-everything-you-feel-uncomfortable-about-at-once move. Only this wasn’t confessing to a stranger that she spent too much on a latte. This was confessing to a classmate at Northwestern Law that she, Whitney Morris, was a nobody. Elise’s green eyes widened again as she took it all in, and Whitney was sure she was going to get up and go find someone else to sit with.
“Cool,” Elise said. “I’ll probably work for a firm, too. At least for a little while. My parents want me to get a respectable job.” Elise rolled her eyes, then laughed. Whitney let out the breath she had been holding. Either Elise was being nice, or she really did not care one way or the other what Whitney had done before law school. Whitney hoped it was the latter option.
“Is this seat taken?” A tall girl wearing white capris and an orange peasant top asked, then plopped down next to Elise before even receiving an answer. Apparently, this girl had focused on the casual part of the business casual dress code. She was even wearing sandals. Okay, so they were beautiful orange leather sandals, but still. Her dirty blonde hair was smoothed back into a ponytail, and the only makeup she appeared to be wearing was some mascara accenting her bright blue eyes. Her face was a little on the plain side, but she wasn’t bad looking, and Whitney admired her ability to pull off the no makeup look.
“Jamie Hughes,” she said, and extended her hand to Elise.
“Elise Young. And this is Whitney. Whitney…?” Elise looked quizzically at Whitney.
“Whitney Morris,” Whitney said, and shook Jamie’s hand. Apparently you were supposed to give your full name when introducing yourself here.
“Right,” Elise said. “Whitney’s from Texas, but she doesn’t know any cowboys.” Elise made a pouty face and Jamie laughed.
“I’ve been to Texas a few times, for work. Mostly Houston. It’s not too bad of a state, just so damn hot.”
“What kind of work were you doing?”
“I was part of a project to fund educational grants for victims of Hurricane Katrina. It’s why I decided to go to law school. So many of the families applying for grants needed legal assistance with so many things.” Jamie’s blue eyes darkened. “It’s not fair how much money you need in this country just to get things taken care of properly.”
“Uh-oh, have I met the first bleeding heart liberal of my law school career?” Elise laughed and playfully punched Jamie, who rolled her eyes but did not seem genuinely annoyed.
“Let me guess, you’re gunning for a big firm job?”
“Guilty as charged, your Honor,” said Elise, then winked at Whitney and poked her in the ribs. Whitney winced, more because she was dreading being asked about her background again than because the poke actually hurt. Before anyone could ask her any more questions, however, their conversation was cut short as the law school’s Dean took the stage.
The Dean looked shorter in person than he appeared in Northwestern’s glossy brochures, but when he spoke, his booming voice made him seem taller.
“Ladies and Gentleman, future colleagues, future movers and shakers of your generation: welcome to the beginning of your life in the law. Most of you have already achieved great success in your careers before law school. You have proven yourselves across many different professions and in many different countries. You have already begun making your mark on this world. Let me assure you, however, that the best is yet to come. Over the next three years, you will learn from some of the brightest, most accomplished minds in the legal world today. You will sit in classrooms with professors who have walked the halls of Congress, and who have helped draft constitutions in other countries. You will learn from men and women who have saved their corporate clients millions, and from men and women who have saved their death row clients’ lives.”
Whitney felt simultaneously annoyed and awestruck. The speech felt overhyped, but she still felt her heart swell with pride at the thought that she was joining the ranks of such an accomplished group of people. She felt a burst of confidence and excitement as the Dean continued listing the impressive accomplishments of Northwestern Law’s alumni. Her future classmates looked mostly bored by the lofty speech, although here and there a particularly eager-looking individual would be nodding furiously, eating up the Dean’s words.
“Although you have all been brought here by different dreams and goals, at the end of these three years you will share one common achievement: a Juris Doctorate degree from this prestigious institution. Welcome to the start of something great.”
Whitney joined in as the applause started, then looked over as she heard a cynical snort from Elise’s se
at.
“Something great, my ass,” Elise said. “Let the gunner games begin.”
Chapter Three
The rest of the day passed in a blur of informational meetings and introductions. With every meeting, Whitney felt more and more out of place. She seemed to be the only one who had not graduated from an Ivy League university and then landed an impressive job that either paid loads of money or contributed to the betterment of humanity on a large scale. She even met someone who had saved African orphans. Literally. Lincoln Reed was his name. Lincoln Reed who saved African orphans. His dad had connections in a South African orphanage, and had convinced the head of the orphanage to create an internship for his son.
At just past 5:30 p.m., Whitney found herself back in the atrium, which had been transformed to hold a cocktail reception. She entered the sea of people, unsure of which conversation she should try to break into, until she spotted Elise. Elise caught Whitney’s eye and waved her over. Lincoln was standing next to Elise, along with another male student Whitney had not met yet. Lincoln was not bad looking, with blonde hair, green eyes, and a tan that made him look as though he had flown in straight from Los Angeles. His friend, however, was exactly the kind of drop-dead gorgeous that Whitney could not resist swooning over. His deep brown hair was tousled into an almost orderly mess, and he had smoky blue eyes to complete the blue-eyes-brown-hair combination that Whitney loved. He was tall—a couple inches taller than Lincoln, who was not exactly short himself. Both of the men had on khaki slacks and navy polo shirts, like they had intentionally coordinated their outfits.
“Whitney! Where have you been? Was this not the longest day ever?” Elise was holding a glass of red wine in one hand and a glass of white wine in the other. “So many unnecessary meetings! Anyways, this is Lincoln Reed, and this is Ben Parks.”
Lincoln gave Whitney a friendly nod of recognition, and Ben stretched out his hand to shake Whitney’s.
“Hi,” she said, feeling butterflies in her stomach the second Ben’s hand touched hers. “I’m Whitney. Morris. Whitney Morris,” Whitney said, almost forgetting to add her last name. She hoped she did not sound as flustered as she felt. She had promised herself she would not spend her time in law school chasing men, but it was okay to look, right? Ben smiled at her and the butterflies fluttered faster. Who was she kidding? If she was going to be seeing that smile every day, any plans of trying to remain single were out the window. Back in Texas, Rachel would always roll her eyes when Whitney announced she was taking a break from dating. Rachel would claim Whitney only decided to take a break when there were no interesting options around. Whitney hated to admit it, but Rachel was right. And Ben was definitely an interesting option.
“Where are you from?” Ben asked. Whitney was starting to dread this question because it was part of the three standard questions everyone had asked today when meeting someone: Where are you from? What did you do before law school? What kind of law do you want to practice? The last thing Whitney wanted to do right now was confess to Ben that her life before law school had been decidedly ordinary.
“Um, Texas, what about you?” Whitney asked. Maybe if she got him talking about himself first she could avoid the questions for a while.
“San Francisco,” Ben said, “I grew up there and then went to undergrad at—”
“Guys! The line for drinks is so long!” Jamie squeezed into their circle, carrying two bottles of beer, one of which she handed to Ben. “Elise, are you double-fisting two different kinds of wine?”
“I wasn’t sure which one I wanted, and, you said it yourself—the line is long. I didn’t want to have to stand in it again. Here,” she said, handing one of the glasses to Whitney, “Do you like red wine? Take this one. I think it’s a Cabernet.”
Whitney, a fan of all types of wine, took the glass gratefully. She desperately wanted a drink to loosen up, but did not want to leave for fear Ben would have moved on by the time she returned. She wanted to hear more of his background, but was not sure how to steer the conversation back without risking being asked more questions herself. Whitney suddenly felt self-conscious about her outfit. Next to Elise’s turquoise dress and Jamie’s vibrant orange top, she felt boring and plain in her black dress. She took a gulp of her wine, even though it was a bit of a sin to gulp wine instead of sip it.
“Hey, at least it’s free alcohol, even if you have to wait for it,” said Ben.
“It’s not worth it. I’d rather just pay for drinks and not have to wait forever. Besides it’s about five hundred degrees in here. I’m melting,” Elise said, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.
“Of course you feel that way!” Jamie said. “Your parents are sweet-talking you into getting a law degree by paying for everything!”
“Oh please, like your parents are not subsidizing anything for you!” Elise said.
“Hey, I’m taking out loans for all of my tuition. They are only paying for my living expenses.” Jamie had a hand on her hip, feigning indignation.
Whitney took another gulp of wine. Evidently, money was not a taboo topic here. Elise seemed almost proud that her law school efforts were being bankrolled by her family. Whitney could not imagine being twenty-six years old and having her parents pay for everything. Then again, she could not imagine being any age and having her parents pay for everything. Things had just never been that way. She glanced at Ben, who appeared amused by the conversation.
“If you guys want to move this party to a real bar, I’m down,” Lincoln said. “I’ve had enough of this building for today, anyways. I know it’s a bit of a trek, but I heard a bunch of people are meeting up for drinks at some bar in Lakeview that has great Friday night drink specials. Kind of an unofficial party to end orientation.”
Elise’s face brightened and she looked imploringly at Jamie and Whitney.
“Oooh let’s do that! Please! It will be fun. We can go change and then split a cab. I’m ready for a change of scenery, too!”
“Sure,” Jamie said. Ben shrugged and nodded.
“Um, sure, but I actually live in Lakeview, so I’ll just meet you guys there.”
The group all turned and looked at Whitney like she had suddenly grown an extra head.
“You live in Lakeview? But, you’re going to have to commute. That’s not a good idea for the first year of law school,” Elise said.
“Well, I mean, it’s just nicer to live in an actual neighborhood,” Whitney said. “And I’ve heard everyone moves out there after the first year of law school, anyways, so I might as well get a jump on it. No sense in moving twice.” She shrugged like she thought they were the weird ones for not moving to Lakeview. She was not going to start explaining the great deal she got on rent compared to the condo building down the street from school. She also was not going to explain that she would rather stay and drink the free alcohol because it was free. Since law school was too time-intensive to allow for a job on the side, she was going to be living on a very tight student loan budget. Tight budgets were nothing new to Whitney, but she was starting to see that explaining this to Elise and Jamie might be difficult.
“Wow, well, if you ever need a place to crash close by you’re welcome to my couch anytime,” Elise said. “We’ll see you there, then? Should we say 8 o’clock?”
The group agreed to the time, and then dispersed after exchanging phone numbers and the address of the bar, which happened to be only two blocks from Whitney’s apartment. Whitney started walking back to the bus stop, already thinking about what she could wear, and how to get out of having to answer more questions about her life before law school.
* * *
Whitney entered the dark, noisy bar with her cell phone in hand, just in case she had trouble finding Elise or Jamie and needed to text them. She had changed into a yellow sundress with delicate spaghetti straps and a fitted bodice. The flouncy skirt ended just above her knees, and she paired it with a pair of nude-colored strappy platform sandals. She had purchased the ensemble for Rachel’s b
irthday party last June, and it was one of her favorite outfits. She left her hair straight and freshened up her makeup. Back in Texas, she would have felt confident that she would be the best-dressed girl in the room. But the rules here were different, and she was sure Elise would have pulled some other vintage designer piece from her cavernous closet.
Whitney spotted Elise and Jamie by the far end of the bar. Elise had changed into a black miniskirt and sleeveless fuchsia top, paired with black peep toe flats. It was just the right amount of sexy without spilling over into trashy. Jamie had not bothered to change, although her ponytail was gone and her hair was hanging loosely around her shoulders. The two girls were sitting on barstools, cocktails in hand, laughing and talking with Lincoln.
“Hey, guys. Ben’s not here yet?” Whitney asked, trying to keep her voice light.
Elise’s face lit up at the sight of Whitney, and she ignored the Ben question completely. “Hey! Here take my barstool, I’m sick of sitting anyways. What do you want to drink? They do have some beer specials, but these cocktails are amazing!” Elise scooted off her barstool while Jamie and Lincoln smiled in greeting. Whitney smiled at them, and then scanned the specials list. Almost everything was at least seven dollars, with a few five dollar options thrown in. Whitney felt like drinking, but could already see her well planned budget derailing after a few rounds here. She decided to just go for the cheapest option on the specials list and flagged down the bartender.
“Can I get a Miller Lite on draft, please?” Whitney saw Jamie making a face at her out of the corner of her eye, but chose to ignore it. She was not a fan of watery beer, but each of these babies would only set her back three dollars.
