Chapter 03

Starting College Life

At Lyn’s request Nancy drives the pick-up to the college and she takes it around to his rented lock-up garage behind the dorm. There’s more than enough open parking for the students and visitors near the dorms but only a few lock-up ones, so the college charges a high rental fee for them. Lyn can afford it so he rented one while at Housing earlier.

They get out of the car and Lyn grabs two bags of clothes to do him for the next few days. Just like most of his gear they’re baggy sweats and similar clothes. They lock the car and the garage before heading around to the front of the building.

On entering the foyer they check their mail, and Lyn is surprised to find a couple of items of mail. One is from the dorm social committee to welcome Lyn to the dormitory while giving him a good spiel about how important it is to belong to the building social club, and one is from the College Administration to inform Lyn of his acceptance to the college and it gives the websites for the college policies and behaviour rules.

When they reach their room Nancy is telling their roomies about Dave’s cancer and expected death while Lyn puts his gear away.

After unpacking Lyn locks the room’s hallway door then he tells Nancy to model all of her clothes for him. He has her change with the bedroom door open so he and the other girls can look at her clothes to comment on them in regards to the fit, colour matching, and suitability.

Based on the comments by Joan and Margaret, plus his own views, Lyn has Nancy put over half her clothes aside for disposal. Outfits for the next two days are put back into the cupboard with some packed into bags and boxes so he can put them in the pick-up. Half an hour later that gear is in the pick-up and he’s sitting on his bed enjoying the show while Nancy tries on all of her underwear for fit, this time the bedroom door is shut. Two thirds of her underwear is also rejected.

When he strips, watched by a nude Nancy, Lyn says, “You said you had no classes tomorrow morning, so after breakfast we’ll go shopping for nicer clothes I like. Do you have anyone you want to give your old clothes to or will you sell them somehow?”

Nancy grins at him when she says, “On our way out we’ll take them to the social club secretary. She has a set up where we can put clothes for sale at set prices. She’ll collect the money and pass it to you after taking a five percent charge for the social club for managing the service. I think all of the underwear can go at five dollars and the rest at ten dollars each. Since most people put stuff there at twenty-five to fifty dollars per item mine should sell very fast, despite being lower quality than most of it.”

“Good, grab a robe and let’s go have a shower,” is Lyn’s reply while he puts a robe on before picking up his shower pack with shampoo and soap in it, plus a large towel hanging over it.

Nancy grabs her robe and puts it on before grabbing a towel then following Lyn out the door. When they walk through the main room she says, “Girls, the gear on the left bed is going for five bucks and ten bucks for what’s on the right bed. If there’s anything you want put it on the chest of drawers and I’ll see you about it after we have our shower.”

Joan looks up, grins, and says, “Our shower. Damn, I didn’t think of trying that one so soon, and I should have.”

Lyn grins and says, “Maybe tomorrow night, as long as you don’t mind getting a lot more than soap in the process.”

All the girls grin at their teasing, and Margaret says, “Nancy, let us know if he can deliver on that promise in a worthwhile way.”

Preparing for Bed

The smiling pair cross the hall to enter the ablutions area. Lyn hasn’t been here so he looks around. To the right are eight wide toilet cubicles with a long bench of sinks and mirrors opposite them. The door swings to the right and is clipped open against the side of the sink bench with a wide walkway between the sinks and toilets. To the left is a walkway by the wall with six shower units and attached changing areas off it.

Nancy leads the way to the first open shower unit and enters it. Lyn follows while a few girls in the walkways make crude comments about the benefits of joint showers. Each shower unit is forty-four inches wide and consists of a thirty-six inch deep change area with a six inch seat and sets of hooks for clothes on one side before a five foot deep wash area. The shower head is a large curved rectangular hand held unit in a clip in the middle of the long side, thus giving lots of room for people to stand in front of it. The walls between the showers go to the ceiling, but the wall for the change area is head height only. Each unit has a window and vent in the back wall, and a door to the walkway area. Before Lyn can ask her Nancy says, “Originally the showers were a bunch of shower heads in a large open area. During a recent renovation they made them individual showers big enough for a large person. I think the designer of these units always intended them to be shared showers.”

They hang their robes and towels on the hooks before entering the wash area and turning the water on. In a moment it’s at the right heat and Lyn is washing Nancy’s back. They take turns washing each other all over with the soap before rinsing off. Due to the emotional events of the day all they do is some cuddling and kissing while they wash, then they dry each other. Fifteen minutes later they’re back in their room getting ready to go to sleep.

In their room they both hang up their robes and towels. Lyn puts on some jockey briefs while Nancy puts on panties. Knowing Lyn is still a bit upset about his grandfather Nancy waits until he gets into his bed before sliding in behind him to snuggle up to his back to cuddle him. Both are soon asleep despite the early, for college life, time of 9:00 p.m.

Tuesday

Lyn is feeling a lot better when he wakes up in the morning at just after six o’clock. He rolls over to fondle Nancy’s breast, which soon wakes her. She smiles on seeing him smiling. Both are soon up and they get ready to go to the main cafeteria for breakfast, it’s just a short walk away.

They have a short talk about what to eat while looking at what’s set out for the meal before splitting up so Lyn can get the drinks while Nancy lines up for two orders of pancakes and scrambled eggs. Lyn pays cash while Nancy uses her college meal card which has a lot of credit still on it. They sit down to eat and enjoy the large breakfast together.

By seven they’ve eaten, had a shower, and are getting dressed to go to the mall. There’s a small delay while Nancy stuffs the clothes for sale into shopping bags and writes an item value on each bag. Naturally Lyn gets to carry six of the eight bags when they head out, stopping only to drop the bags at room 207 while telling Janice about the clothes and prices as she’ll organise to sell them, and later she’ll give Nancy the money.

Lyn rings his grandfather to talk about what to do for Christmas while Nancy talks to Janice. After a few minutes it’s agreed Lyn will eat the Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas lunch at Stockbridge while the other meals will be at the college with Nancy and the other students staying over Christmas so as to help him to meet more of the students.

They’ve plenty of time so they walk to the mall where Lyn wishes to shop because it’s not far. They arrive just as the shop he wants to visit is opening it’s doors. Nancy can hardly believe her eyes when he walks her into one of the few clothing shops she never dreamed of shopping at. Many staff ignore them because neither is dressed to the standard of their usual customers, but one walks over and asks, “May I help you?”

Lyn looks at her name tag and replies, “Yes, Bethany, you may. We need to buy Nancy several sets of day to day outfits plus some dressier outfits, everything from the skin out. Can we use one of the rooms?”

She smiles, “Certainly! Come this way,” and she leads them to one of the four private showing rooms they have.

Within minutes Nancy is looking a little embarrassed when she stands there nude while Bethany takes all of her measurements. The next two hours are very hectic while different sets of underwear and outfits are brought for Nancy to try on. About ten thirty they have ten outfits from the skin out for her to wear around campus, three nice going-out sets, and one lovely formal outfit. Bethany has a big smile when she leads them to the cash register, because she gets a commission from the sale.

The other staff are stunned when Lyn pays eight thousand dollars as an electronic direct debit from his bank account. The system approves the payment and Bethany starts to pack the clothes for them. While that’s being done Nancy asks, “Bethany, why did you approach us when the others felt we shouldn’t be shopping here?”

She replies, “Nancy, I know you both look too down market for this store, but I’ve seen Lyn before. I know anyone associated with Colonel Richards won’t be coming in here to waste my time. Now I’m very glad I served you, because my commission on this will be a nice bonus right now. I hope you come back to shop at Victoria’s Secret often.”

Lyn grins, “We will! And we’ll ask for you when we do.”

They leave the store with a dozen shopping bags of new clothes. A taxi back to the dorm is the next order of business, and the clothes are soon locked away in the pick-up in the garage, for now.

A trip back to their room to get the books for Nancy’s afternoon classes, then off to the cafeteria for an early lunch. Which is followed by a walk to the lecture theatre.

Lyn sits through the first half of the lecture because this lecturer is one of the staff he can have for classes next semester or in the summer one. Because many classes have two or three possible professors he’s sitting in on as many of the lectures by the listed professors as he can, as this will help him choose who he should sign up with. He stops in to listen to two other lectures for fifteen minutes each, just to see what those professors are like to listen to.

He leaves there in time to make his two o’clock meeting with Dr Grey for this week’s official counselling session.

When they wrap up the counselling session Lyn asks, “Who will I have to speak with to get approval for a major tailgate type party in the area around the dorms?”

Doreen replies, “How big and when? What is it you want to do?”

“From the talk I’ve overheard around the dorm there’s going to be a few hundred students living in the dorms over the Christmas break. I was thinking of having a big party style breakfast on Christmas Day to help people deal with the situation. I figure a barbecue style thing with biscuit, breakfast sausage, gravy, pancakes, soft drinks, and such. Have everyone in the dorms gather at it to have a fun time for an hour or two. I’ll pay for it, and I’ll get to meet a lot of people. I just don’t know who to get approval from or who to see about the food and cooking gear.”

“Sounds like a very good idea. Let me make a few calls and I’ll get back to you about it. OK?” Lyn nods his agreement, and he leaves the office to go on about his other tasks for today.

Accounting Actions

Lyn takes his time to walk to his accountant’s office, which is just off the campus. He has almost an hour to get there so he’s a bit early when he arrives at the office, but he’s shown in to see Jason King right away.

While showing Lyn to a chair Jason says, “The draft contract you sent me is good. Have you got the final for signature? And who will do the annual audits?”

A grinning Lyn replies, “Yes. I’ve got the final contract. You do all of the day to day accounting, investing, and financial management. You are personally responsible for the quality of the work, the monthly reports, the annual reports, and the tax returns. So be sure your assisting staff do their job well, because I’ve hired the auditor from hell to keep an eye on you! Another local accountant mother knew.”

“Auditor from hell!!” Jason thinks for a moment, then his face goes white when he reads the papers Lyn gives him, “Oh no! You didn’t, did you?” He sighs on reading the auditor’s name, then he signs the contract.

“I sure did. Your ex-sister in law is my auditor! I figure you’ll not make any mistakes or take unneeded risks with her doing the job. I’d convinced mother to hire her when we first started getting this done.”

“I believe that’s what you Aussies call ‘a bastard act.’ But I can see why you’ve done it, and I’ll handle it. Now you know I’ll always be on top of your account, which I was going to do, anyway. Heck, with what it looks like you’ll be paying in fees I’d have ensured that!”

Lyn frowns and asks, “What do you mean about the fees?”

“Ah, don’t you know? Your mother’s account was going to be one of my top twenty, but yours is now my second largest and looking to be the biggest soon!” Lyn frowns again. “Look, your mother transferred in a little over a million to start with, you knew that!” Lyn nods yes. “Since then I’ve received moneys from your lawyer in Sydney: life and worker compensation insurances, owing leave and entitlements to do with your father, plus the house and contents sale for just over eight million. A lawyer in Tampa, Florida, has sent three hundred and fifteen thousand dollars with a note about a wrongful death lawsuit still in the works. The life insurance on your mother added another three million. Even with what you’ve spent you have just on ten million with us, plus the daily interest on such big investments. It all adds up. Those figures are after an allowance for taxes as needed which I’ve set aside in another account.”

A surprised Lyn is upset about the references to his parents’ deaths, but he’s more shocked by the figures involved. “Jase, I’ll leave all that to you since you understand it a lot better than I do. Just make sure I have a couple of hundred thousand in the working account and quick access to about a million if needed. How much should we look at setting aside each year for donations etcetera to counter tax liabilities? I ask, since I’m thinking of talking to the college about some full support scholarships for hard workers instead of brilliant ones. Pay for fees, housing, books, and some money for general living. I’m also trying to organise an event for the students staying in the dorms for Christmas.”

“Good, we can do with a few special single event items this year. I’ll do some sums, talk to the college people, and get back to you.”

A smiling Lyn leaves there to walk another two blocks to finalise the contract with his auditor. Mrs June Parsons has a huge smile when she signs the contract. June and her sister’s ex-husband never did get on, and she loves the idea of watching over him to check his work.

Breakfast Talk

Lyn is back on campus and thinking about what to do next when he gets a call from Doreen to go to the Office of the College President. He heads there, to find Doreen in a meeting with Mrs Heinman and two other women he doesn’t know. One is introduced as the President of the college and the other is in charge of all the college cafeteria cooks.

They discuss his idea about the Christmas morning party. They talk about the party and its many aspects for quite some time before the President sums it up, “Right! Missus Heinman will do the advertising and collecting the number of attendees: they’ll be the students on or off the campus and without family on Christmas morning, the staff at work on the day, and their families. Missus Dales will organise cooks, food, drinks, and cooking gear, and Lyn will foot the bill for it all.”

Lyn says, “Missus Dales, I’m willing to pay more to have extra staff on hand so it’s not a hard task for them on the day. I want the staff to be able to enjoy themselves too. Also, may I suggest you offer the work to the casual staff and full-time staff who have money issues first.”

She replies, “I like the idea of being able to have more staff than the few the college budget allows me. I’ll also try to see those who need the money the most get the work, if they want it.”

Lyn smiles and says, “I think we should get the college media people to talk to the local radio stations to see if one wants to provide us with music from an outside broadcast unit on the day. That way they get a great human interest event to report on and we get free music.”

They all stand and are starting to leave when Lyn adds, “There’s another matter I’d like to raise with you, if I may, Ma’am,” while looking at the College President, Mrs Mason, “and I think Missus Heinman should know about it. I suggest she gets her staff started on the party first then come back in. Doctor Grey, will you please remain as well?”

Mary Heinman nods to him and says, “I’ll make a couple of quick calls and I’ll be right back in.”

The remaining three sit down and Lyn says, “I’ve just come from my accountant where I had some very surprising news. He’s asked me to see about organising some regular charitable donations as tax write-offs,” this gets stunned looks from Doreen and the President, “and he asked if I can organise some large one time donations for this financial year. Some of the compensation payments I’ve got coming may have large tax hits. He wants to reduce taxes for this year and to do something for the long term. I’m thinking some full support scholarships for hard workers from poor families who don’t qualify for the bright thinker scholarships will be a good idea for the long term stuff.” He pulls out some of the business cards he got from Jason and hands them out. Mary walks back in while he adds, “For the short term donations I was thinking there may be some college work or something where money can be put to that’ll qualify as a charitable donation for a tax write-off. One thought was to fund some more of the on-campus housing work, if it’s possible.”

A stunned Doreen asks, “Lyn, how can you afford this? Helen wasn’t that rich? Neither was Allyn!” This gets her glances from both the College President and Mary Heinman.

“As I said, compensation and their life insurances etcetera. Jason will do all of the sums and make the decisions on what can be afforded. He has the money for the tax payments set aside in another account so we’ll both know what is available for investment and spending. I gave you his cards so you can talk to him about the amounts.” He turns to Mary, “I asked for you to be involved because I’m sure Jason will organise a few scholarships and it’ll make sense to have your people involved from the start so they can get on-campus housing assured. Maybe even set aside some rooms for them to start with. I’ll leave the details for you to sort out with Jason, thank you.” Lyn stands and he leaves so they can talk about what they need to do, and then call Jason to talk some more. He also thinks the President will have a few questions for Aunt Doreen now.

A few minutes later Lyn is sitting in on the end of Nancy’s last class for today, and after it they go back to the dorm together.

Fifteen minutes later they’re walking into the dorm and Lyn has to smile at what Betty is doing. On the wall beside the stairs is a very big noticeboard for the college and dorm events. In the middle of the board is a large colourful notice that reads:

Bonza Breakfast

On Christmas Day all of the students who are staying in Atlanta and away from their family are invited to join together for a special fun breakfast in the main parking area beside the Leslie Building starting at 7 a.m. Staff working on the day are also invited and are asked to bring their families along. Food, drink, and music will be provided.

The menu includes: sausages, biscuits and gravy, hash browns, scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, sliced bread, fruit juices, soda pop, coffee, tea, and many other breakfast foods.

Come along and have a fun breakfast together.

No alcohol is to be taken to the breakfast.

On-campus students to let their Residence Coordinator know if they’ll be attending, off-campus students and staff are to contact the Housing Department staff with numbers so we can cater well. The event is being paid for by an Australian Student who will be staying here over Christmas, so please don’t pad the numbers.

Dorm students: please mark beside your name on the lists below.

Hanging from the wall under the notice board are three clipboards marked with the floor numbers, and they’ve sheets with a list of all the rooms and residents on them. Some students are already busy marking the lists while Betty is still pinning up the seventeen inch high notice.

Like many of the others Nancy checks her mail and then she enters the small crowd to mark her name, she also mark Lyn’s name because she knows he’ll be in the dorm for the meal. It’s only when they start up the stairs she starts to wonder if it’s Lyn who’s paying for the party, because she’s one of the few who know he’s an Australian by birth. Since he’s not been assigned to the housing set aside for the International students they think he’s a US citizen when he has dual citizenship and is actually both.

Up in their room Nancy and Lyn go over the notes she made today. Then Lyn reads a novel while Nancy studies today’s work, and she’ll do more studies for tomorrow after dinner.

Dinner is in the nearby cafeteria on Nancy’s meal card again.

Lyn asks, “Nancy, why does your meal card have such a high credit on it still when it’s this late in the semester?”

She smiles, “I don’t eat a lot at a meal and I often ate off campus. When I started I had to pay the minimum meal card charge, so I’ve still got a lot to use up. What I don’t use will be available next year, anyway. But we may as well use it while we can. Also, I can use the card to buy things at the college store.” Lyn nods to show he understands, and they finish the meal.

The evening is another simple shared shower, studies for Nancy, a novel for Lyn, and another early night because they both have a lot to do in the morning. Nancy has a full day of classes and Lyn has the furniture and other gear arriving. Again they sleep cuddled up but no strenuous physical activity between them yet, just a simple sharing of loving comfort and body warmth.

Wednesday

This time it’s Nancy’s turn to wake Lyn after her alarm wakes her at seven o’clock. He likes her way of kissing his neck to wake him. They’re quick to shower, dress, and eat breakfast at the cafeteria like yesterday, then Lyn goes back to the dorm while Nancy heads off to classes.

It’s only eight thirty but Lyn’s work team people are already waiting for him, so they must be eager for the money. He signs them in and leads the way to his room after letting Betty know they’re here to move the old furniture. She tells him she’ll be up in a few minutes.