Chapter 54: College

Warren and Sophia drove Warren's van to Wisconsin, packed with all their stuff. They had a great time, driving halfway across the country, seeing the sights. They got to school at the beginning of the last week in August, as they had a week of Freshman orientation before school actually started.

They lived in a high-rise dorm, which had sixteen floors in the high-rise part, with the dining hall on the first floor and the lobby on the second. There were two wings attached to the high-rise, with five floors each. The wings were, respectively, all male or all female. The tower alternated male and female by floors. Sophia was on the 9th floor of the tower, Warren on the second floor of the male wing.

Sophia met her roommate, Elise Davenport, a pre-med from a suburb of Milwaukee. Warren's roommate was Tim Delfino, a business major from Philadelphia. He also met Paul Hurlihy, a fellow pre-med from Cleveland, who lived across the hall. Known by the nickname Papa Bear, due to his large size and his boisterous personality, he and Warren became fast friends.

Warren and Sophia got through orientation, meeting new people and enjoying themselves. They even managed to get one of their rooms alone for a couple of hours a few times, so they could make love. They went over one of the University's ice rinks, took some of the money they had saved from their skating, and reserved a couple of blocks of time, two hours Sunday mornings and two hours Wednesday nights, for the whole year. The Sinatra free dance and their Original dance, which this year was a march, had been well worked out over the summer, but they needed to skate this fall. The people that ran the rink were thrilled to have the National silver medallists working out there, and gave them a good rate.

Sophia was sitting with her floormates at dinner, a couple of days before classes were due to start. Most of the girls at the table were checking out the guys. Sophia just smiled and didn't say anything.

Courtney Bjornsen, one of the girls on Sophia's floor, noticed. "Whattsamatter, Sophia, don't like guys? I haven't seen you check out any of these specimens."

"No," Sophia said with a smile, "I love guys. But there's one guy I love more than any others, so I don't have to look."

"Oh, no, you're not one of those that's going to be loyal to Mister Wonderful back home, are you?" Courtney said snidely. "Mine thought I was going to. Yeah, riiiiiggggghhhhtttt. Like I wanna spend my college years pining for a guy at Penn State."

"No, actually, mine is here."

"What?" Courtney asked.

"He's here. Lives on the second floor. We came here together."

"WHAT?" Courtney was incredulous. "You went to the same college as your high school sweetheart? Why would you want to do that?"

"Because we wanted to be together," Sophia said.

"That's stupid," Jane, another girl from the floor, added. "College is a time for discovery. You're supposed to explore yourself. Not get stuck with the same old thing."

"She's right," said Courtney.

"Courtney, how long did you go out with that guy that went to Penn St.?" Sophia asked.

"Started the first of this year. What's that, about eight months?"

"I went out with mine for a year," Jane added.

"Well, maybe it was easier for you guys, then." Sophia pointed out. "I've been going out with Warren for three and a half years."

"WHAT?" Courtney sputtered. "Since freshman year in high school?" Sophia nodded. "All the more reason you should have cut him loose. You are trapped, girl."

"Well, I don't think of it that way," Sophia said. "Plus, we have a little... oh, creative and business venture that we're partners in."

"Waitaminnit!" Melanie, one of the other girls, said. "I know who you are! You're Sophia Daniels!"

"Of course she is, dummy, she already told us her name," Courtney said.

"No, no," said Melanie, "she's the Sophia Daniels. Of Daniels and Kelleher."

"What, are you famous or something?" Courtney asked skeptically.

"If you are a figure skating fan, you'd know who I am, let's put it that way."