I.
College hadn’t turned out the way Sabrina had planned. In high school, she dreamed about college, fantasizing about how much better it would be. She’d been shy, short, and heavy, but dreamed that university life would change her for the better.
She lost the weight by working hard over the latter part of her last year of high school and the summer before she arrived at her new university. She even was able to start a conversation with her new roommate, Delia, on move-in day at the university apartments. She’d hoped to live in the dorms, but her father preferred her to live off campus because his own college dorms always flooded.
All the same, her roommate was a freshman as well, and they had a pleasant two minute conversation about where Sabrina could put her dishes. Although she was still short and curvy, she felt herself turning over a new leaf. She would embrace her height, her body, and her personality.
That was, until she met the Bogart twins. Once they came into her life, her dreams of college grandeur were shattered. At the very least, they forced her to face a reality check.
She met Lucas Bogart first in her Algebra II/Pre-calculus class. She already wasn’t a fan of having to take such a class with her poor math skills, but that was GE classes for you. She decided to take a seat near the back next to a handsome young man with dark hair and a brooding brow.
“Is this seat open?” she asked.
He looked up and readjusted his glasses, “Is anyone sitting there?”
“No.”
“Then I guess it’s open, isn’t it?”
She gave a slight smile and sat. He leaned back in his desk and crossed his arms, not seeming to want to be conversed with any further. Thankfully, she had no interest conversing with him either. Yet, once the class was left alone to work on the lesson of the day, she was lost. There were too many x’s and y’s and numbers and math symbols… she had no idea.
“Um, do you understand this?” she turned to her brooding neighbor.
He turned to her, “Are you talking to me?”
“It seems like you know how to do the exercise, so I thought I’d ask…”
“It’s explained pretty well in the book,” he responded. “Or you can ask the teacher.”
“Okay, thanks.”
She opened her book and struggled through the rest of the assignment. At the end of class, Lucas informed her she probably should’ve “learned some math before taking a math class.” She rolled her eyes and packed up her things for her next class.
“What a jerk,” she thought as she walked to her next GE course, Freshman Health, which she also was quite excited for. Excited for it to be over anyway.
She again sat near the back. She figured if any awkward questions were asked (like in high school health), she could shrink down out of sight. It helped that the class was in a large lecture hall so she could disappear behind the other students’ heads.
“Is anyone sitting here?” a male voice asked.
She looked up into the face of the boy she sat next to before, though now he’d taken off his glasses and put on a hat. She wasn’t sure how to respond.
“Well, besides your ass, of course,” he smirked and sat a few seats away.
She rolled her eyes again. At the time, she thought he’d become more petty since the last time she’d seen him. But he was actually the other Bogart twin, David.
She decided not to ask him any questions, since he obviously was only going to condescend. At the end of class, she stood to gather her things and leave. Her nemesis allowed her to pass and followed her out of the lecture hall.
“Do you have to buy two plane tickets when you fly?” he asked from behind her. “That ass is really remarkable.”
“I’m not sure, my math is so bad I can’t tell the difference,” she responded.
“Typically they tell you,” he answered, not seeming to get her snappy retort.
Outside the lecture hall, she turned to him, “Look, you’ve been a jerk to me all day. I
Rebecca Hamilton, Conner Kressley