Chapters of this story will be released weekly and only available via the Blue Stocking! Chronicling the life of an average PC student and the ups and downs she faces, I hope you will all find this story to be reflective of life at PC.

-Sarah Albright

Chapter One

No, she thought as he slammed down her beeping phone. Most of her mornings started with not wanting to get up. What a way to start a Tuesday. Her blankets and pillow wrapped her tightly in a bundle of comfort that insisted she not get up. She heard her roommate get out of the shower; it was her turn for the bathroom. She closed her eyes begging her eyelids to return to the movie screen of a made-up world.

“Get up!” Jenna yelled through the closed door. “Better hurry or the bathroom nazi will beat you to it!” She warned.

“Very funny, Jenna!” retorted Steph from the other side of the bathroom. Sharing one shower between four girls was a pain. I should’ve lived in Smyth, she thought. Lately she didn’t get to shower in the mornings because she kept oversleeping.

She sighed and moved her arms, legs, pushed her face deep into the pillow one last time, and headed for the bathroom.

“Don’t make me late Michelle!”

“Shut up Steph,” she yelled, somewhat jokingly, as she grabbed a towel from her laundry basket, “I’m going, I’m going.” Our neighbors must hate us, she thought as she turned on the squeaky faucet.

Five minutes into her shower she heard a knock at the door. She yelled through waves of shampoo on her face, “I’m not done yet Steph!” Surprisingly, Jenna answered. “Hey, um… Don’t come out for a minute…”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” she yelled through the water. She went back to singing Frozen.

After a while she came out of the steamy bathroom all wrapped up in her pink towel. She flipped her hair into a big wet bun and saw Jenna at her desk. “Wow, that shower felt great. Too bad I can’t just crawl back into bed though.” Jenna didn’t say anything.

“Oh, did I take too long? I thought you were done in the bathroom.” Jenna turned and showed that she had been crying.

“Oh God, what happened?” Michelle stood for a long time dripping a puddle onto the tile while she waited for Jenna to answer. Finally she started, “Chris just came to the room…” Michelle wanted to interject, crack a joke about missing her favorite roommate’s favorite boyfriend, but she didn’t. “His roommate is in a lot of trouble from last weekend.”

“Why?” asked Michelle. She had heard about the crazy party but hadn’t talked to Jenna about it. She wasn’t there so it didn’t affect her life in any way.

“Apparently there was a high school student there, and he got really drunk and ended up at the ER. He’s fine, but there were pictures on facebook, and now everyone who was there is in really big trouble.”

Michelle paused for a minute. She spoke carefully, “But you don’t like his roommate anyway. Why are you so upset?” Jenna started to tear up again.

“Because he had Chris make the Facebook event for the party. So as soon as they find that out he could get suspended, or even expelled. Even if they don’t care about that he has to pay a big fine because there were minors drinking in his room.”

“Can’t his jerk of a roommate take a lot of the blame?”
“He won’t. That’s why Chris stopped by. He said he had to leave his room because he was so mad. Trey is trying to get all of the blame on Chris because Chris can afford it.” She started to cry a little more. Michelle was still a little confused. Why was this so important? She started to get ready for her day and realized that it was February 13th. Even if things somehow worked out for Chris, he would still be in a bad mood for Valentine’s Day, and he definitely wouldn’t want to take Jenna somewhere expensive if he had a fine to pay. When Jenna left for her 9:00 class a little late she didn’t even say bye to Michelle.

She walked past Jenna’s desk and saw a trail of hearts doodled across her notes from yesterday. Jenna didn’t know that this was going to be a really special weekend for her even if Chris was in a bad mood. The secret was killing Michelle, even though she was only a few days away from being able to spill. Michelle’s phone buzzed. It was a text from Chris: “Did she buy it? :)”