Page 3 of Hailey Goes to College

“I don’t know. I didn’t ask.” She rolls her eyes. “But he also never mentioned dating anyone!”

She barks out a laugh. “Oh Hailey, you’re so cute. Look at you blush. He must be good looking.”

I wave her off and stay quiet. She turns on her Spotify shuffle and we finish unpacking her things. Once we have everything settled, we decide to explore the campus together. I want to show her the café where I’d met with Ryan and the spots I’d discovered during my brief exploration the day before.

As we walk across the campus, Kelsey and I are in awe of the fall weather here in Chicago. Growing up in Phoenix it’s hot. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a dry climate with little humidity but it’s hard to enjoy the sunshine and be outside walking around when it’s a hundred and ten degrees. Right now, if we were home we’d be out in the pool, but here there’s a crispness to the air as we can walk around and enjoy the scenery. It’s a nice change of pace.

We keep walking without any real destination before we stumble upon the student club fair I had read about on the flyer yesterday. Booths line the quad, each one showcasing a different club or organization. The air is filled with the sounds of students chatting, music playing, and the occasional cheer from a particularly enthusiastic club member. It reminds me of something I’ve seen in movies it’s so picturesque.

“Look at all this!” Kelsey says, her eyes wide with excitement. “There’s so much to do!”

“I see that.” I loop my arm through hers. “Let’s see if there’s anything worth joining.”

We wander through the fair, stopping when something catches our eye. There are clubs for everything—from hiking and photography to debate and cooking. Kelsey eagerly signs up for the yoga club, while I put my name down for the creative writing group. While my major is still undecided, I love everything to do with literature, whether it’s reading or writing.

As we make our way to the end of the row, we come across a booth for a business club called Blue Chips. Standing behind the table, handing out flyers, is none other than Ryan. We catch each other’s eye and I instinctively get a huge grin on my face when he starts waving me over. “Hey, Hailey!” he calls out.

“Hey, Ryan!” I reply, walking over with Kelsey. “This is my best friend, Kelsey. Kelsey, this is Ryan. We met yesterday.” For a second, I worry about what Kelsey might say, but thankfully she just smiles and gives him a little wave.

“Nice to meet you, Kelsey,” Ryan says.

“You too,” Kelsey replies. “Hailey told me she bumped into you—literally.”

Ryan laughs. “Yeah, it was quite the introduction.”

“I’m sure. So—a business club! How exciting!” I give her a look, knowing she has zero interest in this club. She’s pre-law.

“Oh yeah!” He seems to remember himself and jumps into his spiel. “We have speakers, networking events, parties that we call educational…are you a business major?”

“Nope!” Kelsey says, looping her arm through mine. “But this sounds interesting. Doesn’t it sound interesting, Hailey?”

“Umm…not really,” I mumble, earning myself a jab in the ribs from Kelsey.

Ryan looks between the two of us. “Well here,” he holds out a flyer on bright blue paper, “in case you change your mind.”

“Thanks so much,” Kelsey says, shoving the paper into my chest.

I give him a wave goodbye and Kelsey does the same. Once we are out of earshot, Kelsey nudges me playfully in the shoulder. “He’s extremely good looking,” she whispers. “You were totally holding out on me. Plus he seems really nice.”

I knew she would think he’s good looking but it wasn’t like I was keeping him all to myself. I barely know the guy. But I do agree, he is really good looking. “Yeah, he is,” I agree, feeling a warmth spread through me. “I’m glad we met.”

Kelsey starts to sing song: “Someone’s blushing.”

Now it’s my turn to make my eyes go wide and give her a look. “Ok, fine. He’s hot. Channing Tatum hot. Captain America hot.”

“Yeeeeees!” Kelsey exclaims. A few people turn to look over at us as we walk and if this wasn’t the three thousandth time she’s done things like this in public I’d be embarrassed but I’m not. I laugh along with her. We stay out of our dorm room for a few more hours exploring and by the time we get back to the dorm I’m wiped out.

Kelsey and I sit and start planning our schedules. Kelsey sprawls out on her bed, flipping through the flyers we had collected.

“This is going to be so much fun,” she says. “I’m glad we’re here together.”

“Me too,” I agree. “It’s going to be a great year.” The exhaustion of the day starts to overtake me and it’s all I can do to watch a show on my iPad before passing out. I’m even too tired to worry about my first day of class tomorrow.

It’s my first day of classes as a college student. I wake up early, feeling a mix of excitement and nerves. I take an embarrassing amount of time getting ready, trying not to look like I’m trying so hard since I heard people can tell when you’re a freshman and look like your mom bought you a first-day of-school outfit. Kelsey doesn’t have this dilemma as she’s gone full 2016 with her makeup despite wearing jeans and an old Justin Beiber t-shirt she claims will be a great conversation starter. I immediately regret my Reformation dress.

Kelsey and I have our schedules mapped out and decide to grab breakfast together before heading to our respective classes. We share our math class but this morning, I’ve got a History course and then an American Lit course while she’s in Introduction to Political Science and a communications class putting us on opposite ends of campus.

After we quickly get through the line at breakfast and barely have enough time to eat we go our separate ways with promises to text each other any updates before we meet up later for lunch. As I make my way to Willis Hall for my first class, I can’t help but feel a bit overwhelmed. Once I find the room I note that it’s packed with students, so I quickly find an empty seat. One of the great things I loved about this campus when I toured it is that most of the classes offered stadium seating so everyone has a great view of the professor and the material being presented.

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