by Mitch Goth
"Damn."
"See," Brad spoke triumphantly, "you are interested in her."
"I never refuted that, I just don't want to deal with it and embarrass myself."
"Embarrassment should never stop you," JP explained. "You need to find the center of your mind, block out all the voices telling you to turn back and quit while you're behind. Shut it all out, and just take control of yourself."
"So, basically, grow a pair," Brad surmised comically.
"Whatever," Evan sighed, sipping at his tea.
8
Walking through the campus, Wes was overwhelmed. When he was at the podium, all these faces seemed so very far away. Now they were up close and personal, waving and giving him smiles as they introduced themselves. From upstairs they all seemed out of the ordinary, eccentric kids. Now, down here with them, he knew that's what they were.
As he looked at all these kids, Wes was more worried than ever. They didn't seem like the dedicated, hardworking type. Many of them were still sitting idly in the grass, or playing games in small circles around the lawn. He wanted to tell them to start being productive, but there was something keeping him from doing that, the whole reason he was still down here greeting kids: Amanda.
Amanda was at his side this entire time, observing him, judging his performance. She'd been in Yellow Springs her whole life, she knew the town and all the people in it. Now, she figured it was her job to get him as connected to the town and it's people as possible. And this was the first, albeit small, step.
Once he'd greeted what he saw to be a respectable amount of students, Wes leaned over to Amanda and quietly spoke, "This is ridiculous."
"This is necessary," she responded. "You've gotta get to know these people. Did you honestly expect to run this college without meeting them?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I did."
"Well you can shelve that idea, because I'm going to make sure you meet every single student on this campus. Then we'll move onto the town."
"You are aware I have to work and sleep at some point, right?"
"It's a process, you can't just have it happen magically overnight."
Before the conversation could continue, another student approached the two of them. He was someone Wes had greeted earlier, so he had no clue what else this student wanted from him, and at this point he was afraid to know.
"Excuse me," the student began, "do you know where the gym is?"
"Gym?" Wes scoffed. "It's all around you."
"What?" the student looked around at the lawn, confused and let down.
"The gym is a project that the school will be working on soon," Amanda interjected swiftly. "In the mean time, we will be without a formal gym space. But the school is working as fast as it can."
With that, the student walked away. He was still confused, but he had a better answer to his question.
"Gym," Wes laughed.
"See," Amanda glared at him, annoyed. "This is why you need to get out and talk to people. You need to learn how to interact with the average person, Wes. I'm not surprised you didn't win your Governor race."
"It was a close battle," Wes defended. "And what was I supposed to say? We don't have a working gym. We have a building that's supposed to be a gym, but it has more mold than year-old cheese."
"Are you sure opening up this year was a good plan? We could have waited another year."
"The town wouldn't have waited, the benefactors wouldn't have waited. It had to happen now."
"Well we're still missing a lot of things, Wes. I'm actually shocked we managed to get the library done in time. We're already full up on dorm space, we have no gym, no union, our science department consists of a single room in the otherwise useless science building. There's a lot of work that needs to be done, are we sure the student's are going to accept that?"
"You're the person who's so connected to them, you tell me. They've already accepted the elevator in their building."
"Accepted is a strong word. Besides, what about the electricity issues? These buildings are running on breakers almost as old as electricity itself. And the water system? How on earth did you get that cleared by inspection?"
"Everyone understands that the reconstruction of this place is a process, Amanda. And they're all willing to do their part to give us breathing room until we figure it all out."
"What if something happens before this stuff gets fixed?"
"Oh, please," Wes laughed. "Nothing is going to happen. You let me worry about everything, and in no time this place will be better than it ever was before."
"Knock on wood," Amanda muttered to herself. But there was no wood to be found.
9
After finishing their drinks at the cafe, Evan, Brad, and JP headed back to the school to find that their cafeteria was finally opened. There wasn't anyone else in the area, but they all sat down anyway. Their conversation carried through the large, empty room, but not even that drew anyone else into the area. It appeared that many of the students were still out on the main lawn relaxing and socializing.
"Why aren't we outside with them?" Brad wondered, noticing the high number of students still outdoors.
"Because apparently we're the weird people who hang out in empty cafeterias," JP replied.
"Are we?" Evan asked.
"Well, we're currently sitting in an empty cafeteria," Brad observed obviously, "so yeah, I'd say that description is pretty spot on," he stood up from his seat, "I'm going to get my coat, then we're all going outside to socialize."
"I thought weird people didn't socialize," Evan figured. "I thought they hung out in empty cafeterias."
"We're not weird people," Brad insisted, heading for the exit.
"We might be."
"Hell no we're not!" Brad called back just as he exited the cafeteria.
"Excited to meet people?" JP inquired, already knowing the answer.
"No," Evan groaned. "I'm not good at it, why would I be happy to do something I'm not good at?"
"Meaningful practice."
"I don't know. I hoped if I came to such a small school I could avoid socializing as much as possible. There's only sixty students after all."
"I'd think it'd be the opposite. With so little students, everyone would connect with everyone in one way or another. Everyone would be friends with everyone. That's why I came here. Only at a school this size could you manage to make that many good friends so quickly. And you know what they say, you can never have enough."
"I don't think that's true," Evan retorted. "There might be such thing as too many friends."
"Impossible," JP stuck to his guns, "friends make the best connections for everything. The more connections you have, the easier you live. And, the best part is, as you begin living easier, so does everyone you have befriended. Friendship can be both selfish and selfless. It's the only situation in life where everyone wins."
"If you say so," Evan sighed, not sold.
"You didn't believe you could get through life without social skills, did you?"
"I sort of hoped so."
"Well, throw that idea away. At a place like this, whether you think so or not, socialization is necessary to survival. But, when it comes, it won't be forced. At least, not in the long run. It'll come naturally, like everything good in life should."
"I hope you're right, JP."
"Do you?"
Evan thought about this. Did he really hope JP was right? After a moment of thought, he came to an unforeseen result. He did. He truly did hope that JP was right. Evan hoped that he could be naturally social one day, gather a group of friends and enjoy their company even more than he enjoyed being alone.
"Yeah," he nodded, a surprised look on his face, "I guess I do hope so."
"What are y'all hoping for?" Brad's voice returned.
Evan turned to see his blonde neighbor returning quickly, no coat, with a wide, colorful smile on his face.
"Why the hell are you so happy?" Evan wondered.
"Are you familiar with immers
ion therapy?" Brad replied.
"Yeah, why?"
"Because Antioch is immersion therapy-ing your ass," Brad laughed.
"What are you talking about?" Evan was highly puzzled.
"You ought to go upstairs and meet your roommate," Brad explained, "they're in your room right now."
Without another word, Evan was out of his seat and heading for the stairs. Brad watched him walk, grin not waning even slightly. He looked like a child on Christmas morning.
"That smile can't mean good things," JP figured.
"It never does," Brad chuckled, "come on, you're gonna wanna see this."
10
Arriving upstairs, Evan wasn't sure what to think. Who could his roommate be? Why was Brad smiling so much when he came back downstairs? It must've been very, very bad. And so Evan kept up his quick pace, the anticipation killing him.
As he got further down his hallway, Evan could see his door was open. Brad was right, his roommate was there, probably waiting to meet him. The anticipation continued to build up, nearly reaching it's boiling point.
Turning swiftly into his room, Evan's eyes caught onto his roommate instantly. All his anticipation tumbled down in a flash. Through the rubble and ash of his anticipation rose a towering anxiety. Now he knew why Brad was smiling so much. If he were in Brad's shoes, he probably would've cracked a smile or two too. But, unfortunately, he wasn't in that situation, he was in this one. This far worse, far more nerve-racking situation.
"Hi, you're Evan, right?" his roommate approached and extended a hand. "I'm Emily. I guess we're roommates."
"I guess so," Evan shook her hand, trying to hide his crippling nervousness. "Can I ask a question?"
"How'd we end up roommates?" Emily guessed
