Chapter 3: First Day In The Dorm

When I finally did open my eyes, there was light outside, and a glance at my watch told me it was pushing nine o’clock. I stretched and got up and dressed. Larry was face down on his bed, snoring softly, so I closed the door quietly and headed off to the dining hall. As I browsed the serving line it didn’t look too bad, and at least the food appeared to be fresh, so scrambled eggs, toast and a couple of breakfast sausages, and coffee.

Okay, I’ve had worse. We’ll see how they do with the other meals, but this wasn’t bad. I looked around as I ate. It was more sparsely attended than I would have guessed, but perhaps the majority of folks were still sleeping off last night’s party. I left my tray at the dish-washing station and wandered outside.

It still had the feel of summer in the air, but the weather changes quickly in New England. I had nothing scheduled till after lunch, so I wandered the campus trying to get a sense of the layout. I found the library and the science building and the bookstore. I wouldn’t even know what classes I was taking till later, but first semester was usually almost all required courses.

I’d tested out of a bunch of normal first year classes while still in high school, either by AP classes or self-study, things like calculus, French, Spanish, even ordinary differential equations and statistics, so your guess was as good as mine as to what I’d be assigned.

I’d been avoiding the unpacking task that awaited me in the dorm, but thought I ought to take care of it, so I headed back. I found Larry buttoning his shirt and yawning. “Aren’t you the early bird,” he said.

“Well, not that early. It was almost nine when I got up. I went and had breakfast.”

“That’s my plan. Did you leave a trail of breadcrumbs for me to follow?”

“Use the map. Here.” I pulled the photocopied map out of my pocket.

“Okay, thanks. Later.”

I stared at the cardboard boxes stacked by the wall, then shrugged and started at the top. Within an hour I had it sorted, clothes in the dresser and closet, books on the desk shelves, PC on the desk, and Karen’s picture watching me from the top of the shelf. I picked up a book and lay on the bed reading till Larry returned.

“I feel better now, after food. Are you studying already? You’re setting the bar pretty high, Carter, I’m beginning to get a complex.”

“It’s not a textbook, just something I was interested in.”

“Abnormal Psychology” he read aloud. “Should I be worrying about you?”

“Just an interest of mine. I like to know what drives people, why some people are good and others not so much. I might want to major in psychology.”

“Okay, like Hannibal Lecter, got it. Not worried at all. Not a bit.”

His eyes fell on my desk and Karen’s picture. “Whoa. Who’s that? Don’t tell me that’s your sister?”

“No. My girlfriend, Karen. She’s at -------, in California, first-year. I probably won’t see her till Christmas.”

“You are one lucky son of a bitch. She’s beautiful.”

“Yes, I am lucky. And she’s way smart, too. She got a full scholarship.”

He was about to say something when there was a knock on the door. He opened it and said, “Ames, you made it!”

“Yes, Master Lawrence. Not a very long drive. Where shall I put these?”

Larry motioned in the direction of his bed, and Ames deposited several cartons on the floor.

“Thank you, Ames. Ames, this is my roommate, Tom Carter.”

We shook hands and he said he was pleased to meet me. I asked if I could give him a hand with the boxes and he looked horrified. “Thank you, sir, but I have it well in hand. Excuse me.”

Larry was repressing a smile as Ames left. “I’m afraid you’ve shocked him, Tom. Those kinds of tasks are not to be done by people like us. It’s the way he was trained.”

“It’s not really my way, Larry. We’re supposed to help, to even the load.”

“I agree with you, but I can’t convince him otherwise. He won’t let you help. Even when I was like four and I wanted to show that I was grown up and could carry something like a grown-up, he wouldn’t allow it.”

“And did he really address you as ‘Master Lawrence’?”

“Please. Do not mention that to anyone. It’s a habit he got into when I was young. Larry, or even Lawrence was too familiar a form of address. He couldn’t call me ‘Mr. Krugman’ because that was how he spoke to my father. So it was ‘Master Lawrence’. I hate the name Lawrence. He won’t call me anything else.”

It took several trips, but Ames appeared to be very fit, bringing a number of stacked boxes each time, and in short order it was done.

“Thank you, Ames, I really appreciate it. Have a safe trip back.”

Ames nodded and I half-expected him to tug his forelock in parting.

Larry sat on the bed, surrounded by his packed belongings, looking a bit depressed. He was quiet for a couple of minutes. Finally, he looked up and said, “So that was my life, growing up. People to take care of you, people to do things for you, people to drive you where you wanted to go, to make decisions for you. I looked around me from about age six on and saw that no one else lived like this. None of my friends, even the ones who were well-off.

“When I got admitted here, I had a shouting match with my parents who wanted to buy me a condo near the school so I wouldn’t be exposed to too many outside influences. I wanted to experience what other guys went through when they went off to college, living in a dorm. He didn’t say so, but I later found out my father even tried to arrange my roommate for me when he saw he couldn’t win the condo battle. The school shot him down.”

“Good for you for standing up for yourself.”

“Yeah, good for me. Hey, isn’t there an orientation meeting or something today?”

“Umm, one o’clock, I think. Yeah, at one. How about getting some lunch first?”

“Works for me. Let’s go.”

So off we went to the food factory. He got a burger and fries, I got a sandwich and some potato salad, and surprise! they weren’t half bad. Towards one we dumped our trays and headed off to a gymnasium filled with folding chairs. We found seats and waited for the festivities to start. While we waited I looked around at the other inmates. Most of them were looking a bit nervous, first time away from home, wondering what was going to happen in the next few years. Then I realized that I felt that way, too.

For the first time I got a closer look at some of the girls I’d be spending time with. Pretty much a bell curve on the attractiveness scale. Most average looking, a smaller number of really hot looking women. They were tall and short, thin, some a bit overweight, a couple who looked like they were fighting anorexia. Same for the guys, for that matter. Just because this was “Ivy league” didn’t mean we all looked like we were pulled from a J. Crew catalog cover.

Someone walked up to the dais on the stage and tapped the microphone, which squealed in protest. He moved back a bit and introduced himself as the Dean of Students and welcomed the Class of 199-, and told us how excited he was to meet us. Around us, several people yawned. He gave some details about when classes started, how we’d go about getting our class schedules, and so on.

There were some cautionary statements about drugs and alcohol in school facilities and the penalties that would result if we were caught, some stern remarks about the Honor Code, and finally what to do if the pressure got to us and the assistance that was available to help.

Finally, he gave specific instructions about where to get our schedules, and encouraging us to investigate many of the clubs and activities that were available. There were desks manned upstairs where we could inquire about or sign up for those. And with that, he dismissed us and chaos broke out as everyone moved off to the schedule desks set up around the perimeter of the gym.