Chapter 4

The second half of the class was dedicated to getting to know one another. After sharing a bit about himself, Professor Salinger went down his class roster and asked each person to tell the class about themselves. Suggested topics included writing genre preferences, major, hobbies, etc.

Mandy was the first to speak. "My name's Mandy Thoms, and I'm a Psychology major who wants to explore how creative writing and journaling can help people cope with various difficulties."

Beauty, brains, AND a heart. Two out of three ain't bad, Allison thought with a grin, comparing herself with her classmate. She'd surely have to cut Mandy some slack now; she couldn't be as shallow as Allison thought she was. Not with those kinds of motives for taking the class...

Her partner in crime so-to-speak, Erica, was next. She crossed her legs gracefully, making the already short skirt ride up even farther on her creamy thighs. Erica smiled brilliantly, batting her thick eyelashes all the while. "Hi, I'm Erica Schultz. I love reading romance novels, so I thought I'd give writing one a try." She giggled with a bubble-headed sweetness that nearly made Allison lose her dinner. Allison rolled her eyes at no one in particular as she rehearsed her little speech in her head. At least now she knew a little more about the girls she'd be riding to class with next week.

Finally, it was Allison's turn. She cleared her throat nervously before starting to speak. "I'm Allison Delaney, an English major. Let's see..."she paused, her voice trailing off. "I'm a freshman who decided to get right to work on my goal of becoming a novelist one day."

The class stared at her, as if asking how a freshman could have gotten in to such an oversubscribed class. Everyone on campus, or at least every female, wanted to have a class with the legendary sex god, Colin Salinger.

"I tested out of Freshman Comp," she explained, "so my academic advisor helped me submit a writing sample for this class." Allison was beginning to feel a bit defensive about her place in the course since the rest appeared to be older students who had had great difficulty getting in to the class. But she earned her spot fair and square, and now the rest of the class knew it, too.

Once the introductions were finished, they completed one final writing exercise for the evening. Each student was to develop a central character for a story. They had to map out physical attributes, personality traits, mannerisms, beliefs, interests, and so on. It was quite a challenge, but Allison could see where having all that figured out could make a more believable character when it came time to put together a story. Without even realizing it, Allison created a character that resembled her roommate, Kaija, the free spirit. She'd be a fun character to write about, she thought wistfully.

Everyone worked independently for a good fifteen minutes while the professor made his rounds answering questions and commenting on the various character profiles. After making additions to numerous sections of her profile, Allison finally leaned back in her seat, satisfied.

As Professor Salinger walked by, he glanced down at the page and smiled his approval. Allison's heart fluttered at the sight of his smile, and for some odd reason, all she could think about was getting back to her dorm room and digging into that juicy romance novel she bought earlier that day at the campus book store. She hoped Kaija was out as usual so she wouldn't get caught in an embarrassing situation. While it certainly wouldn't faze her liberal roommate, Allison wasn't quite ready to be spotted reading such stuff.

"Looking good, guys," Professor Salinger's voice yanked Allison and her classmates back to the real world. He clasped his hands and prepared to wind things down for the evening. "What I'd like to do before next week's class is meet with each of you one-on-one to discuss a direction for your first story based on the character you outlined tonight." He reached down to the table in front of him and picked up a clipboard. "I've got a sign-up sheet right here," Professor Salinger said. "Before you leave, I want each of you to set up a meeting time that works with your class schedule. In the meantime, have a great week! We'll see you next week same time at my place." He tossed the clipboard back onto the table and sat down in the overstuffed chair thumbing through a manila folder of papers.

Allison waited for the crowd around the sign-up sheet to thin out since she knew her schedule would be more flexible than most. One of the few benefits of cramming all of one's classes into a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule, she thought with a grin. Given the day's events, it was easy to see how intense Wednesdays would be, especially with the evening creative writing class. But Allison relished the thought of having Tuesdays and Thursdays to herself. She loved being able to write in huge blocks of time. It helped her get into the zone, she justified.

Mandy and Erica were the last of the remaining students to sign up for an appointment. Allison smiled to herself as Erica gave the professor a nice view of her cleavage as she bent over the table to fill out the form.

As the pair turned around to leave, they startled at the sight of Allison. Apparently they thought they were all alone with the hunky professor. Mandy recovered from the awkward situation admirably. "Hey, Allison, wanna go to the Student Union with us to get some ice cream?"

While she desperately wanted to get back to her room so she could dig in to that romance novel, Allison thought buying the girls ice cream might be a nice thank you gesture for their offer to drive her to class. "That sounds great," Allison smiled. "Just give me a sec to sign up for a time," she said, nodding toward the clipboard, "and we'll be off."

Moments later, the trio entered the brightly-lit Creamery. The smell of fresh waffle cones drifted through the air as they made their way to the counter to place an order. Their decision wasn't as easy as they anticipated. Row after row of colorful ice cream tubs lined the windowed freezers. Maple walnut... crazy vanilla... brownie sundae... lemon freeze... The choices literally made Allison's mouth water.

"I'm buying," Allison said, stalling for more time to make her decision.

Mandy quirked an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because you offered to drive me to class," Allison responded matter-of-factly. "I know it's not much, but I needed to do something to say thank you."

The girls smiled. "That's really sweet of you," Mandy returned. Erica, however, seemed unaffected by the gesture.

Allison finally decided to treat herself to something decadent-two scoops of cookies and cream ice cream with crushed Reese's Peanut Butter Cups on top. Mandy chose a small hot fudge sundae, while Erica predictably ordered a fruity Italian ice. The threesome took their frozen treats to a booth across the room. Alison slid in on one side, while Mandy and Erica sat next to one another across the table from her.

She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but Allison couldn't shake an odd feeling she had about the way Mandy and Erica interacted. They looked at each other attentively when the other spoke; and they looked awfully cozy sitting close together in their booth. It wasn't like they were large women trying to cram themselves in to a small space. Quite the opposite, actually. They were two thin women on a bench made for three to four adults who obviously wanted to sit close together.

Whatever. Allison wasn't asking any questions. It was their life, and their business. Not hers.

Trying desperately to fit in and get the conversation rolling, Allison remarked with a mouth full of ice cream, "What do you guys think of Professor Salinger? He's pretty hot, isn't he?" She raised her eyebrows and added her best bad girl smile for effect. Allison was certain guy talk was the way to get things moving.

Mandy and Erica giggled as they sucked dribbles of ice cream and Italian ice off of their spoons. "He's not bad if you like that sort of thing," Erica responded, gazing into Mandy's eyes with a smile.

Allison shifted in her seat uneasily. Okay, perhaps another topic would be better, she assumed as she stirred the peanut butter cup bits further into the ice cream. "Are you freshmen, too?"

Another giggle. Mandy smiled and patted Erica's hand. "Nah, we've been around for awhile. We just can't seem to decide what we want to be when we grow up." She shrugged and smiled into Erica's eyes. In the meantime, Allison was getting seriously weirded out. She couldn't quite figure out what was going on with those two, nor was she even sure she wanted to. But the fact remained that Mandy and Erica were nothing but kind to her, so...

"What's your first story going to be about?" Mandy asked, wiping a dab of hot fudge off her chin with a napkin.

"Not sure," Allison confided, breathing a sigh of relief at the safe subject. She shrugged. "Since the character I outlined in class is the polar opposite of me, at least I should have some fun with it!" They all laughed. "How about you guys?"

For the following half hour, they sat in the booth brainstorming about what to do with their imaginary characters. Conversation was light and easy; so much so that Allison eventually stopped noticing Mandy and Erica's flirtatious bantering.

Allison wasn't surprised in the least to find their dorm room empty when she returned that night. In fact, she appreciated it since it would give her a chance to pour through that romance novel she picked up earlier. Hard to believe, she was a college student and had yet to read her first romance novel! Allison blushed at the thought. But what was even more embarrassing was that she felt she needed to hide the fact she was reading such a book...