Maybe partying so hard the day before I have an early morning class is not the business.

My phone alarm going crazy waking me up at an ungodly hour that I set made me grab it and toss it aside. I needed five more minutes.

Five snoozes later, I forced myself up out of bed. The only thing that could kick me out of the morning blues was my favorite thing in the world. Starbucks.

Starbucks was a little magic in a cup. Mocha frappuccino, caramel macchiato, iced blonde
vanilla Latte, pink drink, green tea, literally there was not a drink there I did not like. I was a coffee girl, but sometimes tea would do.

This morning I needed something strong.

I showered, dressed fresh for the day in black leggings to cover my knarly new scar, and a long white shirt and a green vest over. Yes, I know I overdo the green, but listen, I have to coordinate, and my bag is green so I wear green.

I put on a little makeup, and I was good to go.

Leaving my two roomies, my new homies still sleeping in slumberland, I walked out of my room. Making my way to the elevator, who happened to walk out of their room? Mr. Perfect himself.

"Morning bird like me?" He gave me what I call, the perfection smirk. Like one of those hot guys in a young adult romance novel. Yes, that's it. "You know we catch the worm, right?"

"I am so far from a morning person. Somehow my schedule was screwed up and I have Sociology at eight a.m. I need a caffeine run so I can wake up and try and pretend to be awake. Normally I am not me till at least ten and one to two cups of coffee later."

"I think we have the same class, that's my class as well."

As humongous as Mizzou was, the irony that we shared a class and he was a sophomore was not lost on me. I call this fate. We were fated to be together, and that was that.

"Starbucks is a few blocks in the opposite direction of our class."

"I don't care! I need it. Do you understand what will happen if I don't get my drink? I might turn into a werewolf or something."

"Cute wolfie."

I blushed. I had to deal with him in a whole class now. I was doomed. I was not that cute, cool girl that knew how to flirt back. If I opened my mouth to say something back, I'm sure I would make a complete fool of myself. I needed to know how to be cool in these situations.

Now here I am in the elevator with my RA Hottie, Mr. Perfect, with nothing to say back to him. Awkward silence for sure. Should I whistle or something so it's not so freaking quiet?

No? Okay, well, just standing there. Good thing we were only on the fifth floor, the building had eight floors. Finally, the doors opened and he let me out first.

"Aye, you want me to walk with you?"

"Oh, no, you don't have to-"

"Come on, you're one of my residents, I have to take care of you, little freshman."

"I may be a freshman, but I know my way around this campus," I went on as we left the residence hall and headed down the street. Angel was a Mizzou Alum, as well as her bestie Jared. I spent summers working at Angel's store since I was sixteen and they would go on and on about how awesome the school was and how they had so much fun and partied.

Not that I wanted to come here for the party atmosphere, it was a top school. Also, diverse, though in the last few years there was a lot of racial tension. I was ready for that challenge.

"We better walk extremely fast. We have twenty minutes before class and it's a ten-minute walk either way."

"So, we're going to be late to class because of you?"

"Hey, I said you didn't have to come. Move it, Mr. RA!"

We walked briskly to get to Starbucks in eight minutes, but there was a line. Not super long as it could be, but enough where we needed to hustle.

I finally ordered my grande iced mocha frappuccino a double shot of espresso and an extra mocha shot. I grabbed it and we were out in about five minutes. So, yes, we were going to be late.

"Next class, we wake up ten minutes early, or at least leave ten minutes early," Mr. Perfect said as we made it to the class at eight o'five. "Your coffee addiction will have us on disciplinary action review."

I nearly choked on my drink as we found seats in the middle row of the smallish classroom. "They can do that?"

"They don't look at us brown folk and make it easy for us. Don't give them a reason to say you don't belong here."

What he was saying was interesting. Of course, I knew of the racial issues the school had. I heard stories of burning down Black fraternity houses, passing over Black students for top spots in leadership, racist Professors grading unfairly, and nonBlack students feeling some sort of entitlement.

Mizzou, the number one university in the state of Missouri, was a PWI, which is a predominately white institution, which means, the majority of the thirty thousand students were Caucasian. While diverse, with many Black, Asian, Hispanic, and students from various countries, it still was a PWI. On top of that, sitting right smack in the middle of Missouri, one of the reddest states there was not counting the old south, the city and surrounding area were one of the most racist.

Imagine this...just a few miles west of Columbia, Missouri is a village called Arrow Rock. The entire village is part of the National Historic Landmarks. The village was one-third slaves in 1860. Slaves built that town into what it is today. It includes Brown's Chapel Free Will Baptist Church built in 1869, which also served as the first school for African Americans, and Brown's Lodge built in 1881. Following emancipation, freed slaves moved into town and began purchasing their own social institutions such as the Lodge

Angel took me on a tour there when we were visiting Mizzou before I committed. The Lodge is now a museum with artifacts from way back when the freed Masons would meet upstairs. The bottom floor was used as a restaurant. Interesting stuff, and I was not much into history, but Black history always perked my interest.

And then there is Jefferson City, the State Capitol. As well as housing the governor of our great state, it held Lincoln University, one of Missouri's HBCUs...Historically Black Colleges and Universities. At the close of the Civil War, African American soldiers and officers wanted to establish their own educational institution and got refused to build in St. Louis. They were approved to build in Jefferson City as Lincoln Institute in 1866.

Like most HBCUs, it was underfunded and undervalued. I guess I could have had a school like Lincoln University on my top list of colleges, but coming from a hundred percent Black public city high school, I needed diversity in my life.

But was I ready to get shunned just because of the color of my skin?

As the iced coffee made its way through my system, waking me and fueling me with much-needed adrenaline, I thought more about what Diallo stated about the few brown faces here standing out for good and not bad. Well, that's not exactly what he said, but you get my drift.

On the second day of class and I was not late once, but twice. (And that's just what I'm telling you about, I was late for my other two classes yesterday). Was that going to be my legacy? Always late, never on time. Although making an entrance was always my goal, maybe I needed a better way to make an entrance.

"If you're on time, you're late," rang in my ears in Angel's voice.

"Okay, step mummy!" I said out loud, in the middle of class while the professor lectured.

See, that's exactly not the impression I need to make. I looked around, pretending it was not me that made the faux pas, and sipped my coffee. I needed some more of this in my system, I was completely losing it.

Soon as the professor dismissed class, I stood to rush out.

"Hey wait up five-eleven."

He was talking to me? Of course, I lived in room five-eleven so that's me. Five-eleven. Just a room number to him. Great.

"Later tonight, want to join ABC with me?"

"ABC? Hmmm, I think I know all my ABCs."

He laughed at me, and I didn't quite get the joke.

"Association of Black Collegians. You should join. We talk about a lot of topics the Black students on campus deal with, as well as do some fun things. You should def check it out."

Another thing I should highly consider while enjoying college life. Find out which clubs and activities were for me. Get involved, show some leadership. I was here to learn and that included outside of classroom work as well.

"Sure, I will be there."

Okay, good start Ravyn Nicole Lawrence. Time to show them what you were all about.

But first, more coffee!

A/N: Rayvn is a little quirky, but this was an interesting chapter. I thought I would put a little history out there about my state. I have been to Arrow Rock on a Black History Month tour and it is indeed interesting to hear about these small places that had an impact on Black lives.

I attended a PWI. Lately, HBCUs have been in the headlines a lot about the treatment of their students. Choose your college/university wisely, and above all else, have fun!