THE FOLLOWING DAY WAS Friday, and Jacob had yet to decide if he was going to attend his classes that morning or wait until Monday, when he would be more prepared. However, after the long days of traveling, strange sleep schedules, and forgetting to take his sleeping pills before bed the night before, he awoke early, so he figured he might as well make an appearance. He hadn’t had a chance to get his books yet, or even a notebook and pen, but he figured showing up and listening to the lectures would be better than skipping it altogether.
He didn’t have spare clothes, so he simply rolled out of bed, zipped up his sweatshirt, slipped on his shoes, and headed to the cafeteria for breakfast. With excitement, upon surveying the array of food available to him, he realized this would be his first real meal since Bellevue. The plastic trays and long lines were reminiscent of the hospital, but thankfully, the food was not. From waffles to eggs and bacon and a well-stocked cereal bar, he was amazed by the wide variety of options. He hadn’t realized how much he had grown accustomed to the simplicity of hospital-living. Whether it be his schedule, free time activities, or food, everything was decided for him. He had assumed the freedom of getting to make his own choices would be a relief, but at that moment, the simple decision was overwhelming.
After the long trip, he was too malnourished for cereal, and the sweet, richness of waffles and pancakes didn’t appeal to his nervous stomach, so he stuck with scrambled eggs and bacon, with a plastic cup of orange juice on the side.
Claiming a chair at an empty table in the corner of the large, open room, he made quick work of his meal, ignoring the side glances from some of the students nearby. He sighed at the idea of being the weird, new guy in town again, but he reminded himself that it was better than the alternative of sticking around in New York. Dodging stares from people who saw him as the strange, mysterious new student was far preferable to sidestepping the stares of people who might actually recognize him. He was hungrier than he thought, so he went back for seconds, snagging an apple for later before heading out the door.
He gave himself ample time to locate his first classroom, but the map of the campus that his academic advisor had given him the night before was detailed enough to make finding his class a simple task. He was a few minutes early, but the room was already mostly full. There were only a few empty seats to choose from, so he reached for the one closest to him.
“Is this seat taken?” he asked the girl with sleek, raven black hair sitting beside the empty chair.
She turned from her conversation with the dark-skinned woman beside her, staring blankly at him for a longer-than-necessary moment. “Oh! Yeah, sure,” she finally responded, shaking her head clear.
He was confused by her phrasing, but she scooted to the side a bit to make room, so he took that as an invitation.
“Thanks,” he said, sitting down and setting his campus map on the table in front of him.
The second girl pointed at the map. “Are you new?” she asked him.
He looked at the map, regretting leaving it out in the open. “Uh, yeah, I am,” he answered, folding up the map and shoving it into his pocket.
“Us, too!” she responded brightly, relieving some of the awkwardness Jacob felt. “I’m Angela, and this is Callie,” she said, gesturing to the girl between them, who responded with a timid wave.
“Jacob,” he replied.
“Nice to meet you, Jacob,” Angela greeted with a smile, her bright grin contrasting her dark skin-tone.
Jacob returned her contagious grin, glancing back at the girl between them, so as not to leave her out of the conversation. She smiled back as she turned her eyes back to her textbook, pushing her thick rimmed glasses up as they slid down her nose.
The professor arrived then, and class began. Jacob was only a week late to the semester, but with great dread he quickly realized how far behind he was in the material. The stout, white-haired man was talking rapidly, scrawling a messy outline of a rat’s respiratory system on the white board that nobody seemed to be rushing to copy in their notebooks. His classmates seemed entirely unsurprised by the things the professor was saying, and Jacob guessed most of this was recap from a previous lecture. After glancing around in a panic at being the only one in the room who was completely lost, the girl beside him – Callie, he recalled – quietly slid a piece of paper and a pencil in front of him. She peeked at him from the side of her gaze, and he gave her a grateful smile, accepting the gift and copying the information on the board to the best of his ability.
Jacob let out a sigh at the end of the class, leaning back in his chair as the other students around him gathered their belongings to head to their next class.
“See ya at lunch,” Angela said to her friend, adding to Jacob, “It was nice to meet you.”
“Yeah,” Jacob nodded, unable to manage much else as his brain recovered from the overload of new information.
Callie chuckled softly and gave him a sympathetic grimace. “It’s tough to start late,” she offered. “You can borrow my notes from the rest of the week, if you want.”
“Really?” Jacob asked, hopeful. “That would be great.”
“Sure,” she smiled, opening her binder and pulling out a small stack of pages from the previous week of lecture notes.
“Thank you,” Jacob accepted the papers of neat, meticulous handwriting. “I’ll bring them back next class.”
“No problem,” she said as they both stepped out of the modular classroom and onto the rickety wheelchair ramp that led to the sidewalk. “So, where are you headed next?”
“Uh,” he paused, pulling the map out of his pocket, on which he had jotted down his class schedule. “Intro to Psych, with Doctor Bell,” he replied.
“Oh, really? That’s my next class, too,” she chimed.
“Well, then, I guess I don’t need this,” he folded the map in half and returned it to his pocket.
She smiled and tucked her long hair behind her ear. “So… where are you from?” she inquired as they walked.
“New York City. You?”
“Seriously? New York?” she repeated, her interest peaked. “Why would you wanna come here?” she grimaced.
He laughed. “Eh, I don’t know,” he shrugged evasively, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “Just seemed like a good option.”
A flash of golden blonde hair swept through his mind before he had a chance to catch it. He thought back to the big, white house, not far from the campus he walked on now, and tried to ignore the reality of why he had chosen Ohio to start his new life. It was the only other place in the world that felt like home to him, although he couldn’t bring himself to think about why that was.
“Well, I’m from here. Born and raised,” Callie replied. “Angela and I grew up together, and we always dreamed of being roommates someday,” she mused, gazing wistfully around at the campus.
Jacob followed her gaze and wondered what it would be like to have dreams like that. To be young again, and normal, and to have a best friend with whom to plan and aspire. He wondered where he would have gone to college, if his life had turned out differently. Probably some community college near home, to be close to Maggie. Although, if he could swing a scholarship, which wouldn’t have been tough with his grades, he could see himself taking a shot at Columbia. He likely wouldn’t have gotten in – not in this life, at least – but if things were different, he could imagine that being a dream of his.