Chapter Two
T he next morning, I wake up early, excitement from the previous day still buzzing in my veins. Kelsey arrives today, and I can’t wait to show her everything I have already discovered. I check my phone and see a slew of text messages from her updating me on the progress of her getting into town. While I flew here, Kelsey chose to drive and bring her car. She wanted an adventure even before getting here but long car rides make me sick so hard pass. When I get to her last text I see she’s only about thirty minutes away. I jump out of bed and quickly get ready then head downstairs to wait for her.
As I stand outside Hamilton Hall, I spot her familiar car pulling up. Kelsey’s face lights up when she sees me, and she jumps out of the car, rushing over to give me a big hug. “Hailey!” she exclaims, squeezing me tightly. “I missed you so much!”
“I missed you too, Kels!” I reply, hugging her back just as tightly. “Welcome to Chicago!”
We spend the next hour hauling her luggage up to our dorm room and catching up on all the things we hadn’t been able to cover over the phone. Kelsey is just as enthusiastic as I am about this new adventure, and her excitement is contagious.
“I want to hear all about the drive out! I can’t believe you did it all by yourself.”
“Well you know I’m an independent woman and all that. Plus being trapped with my mom for that long would drive me crazy. Did you know all the other states have so many trees? What a concept! Anyway, how about you? Did you go out last night?”
I blow a raspberry. “Yeah, right. The only time I left the room was to eat. Actually,” I mock whisper, “I literally bumped into a guy in the hall, then again at the café and ended up hanging out with him.”
“Oh, that sounds fun. Is he single?”
“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.