WEDNESDAY

Seven the next morning seemed to arrive extra early. Stretching next to her bed, Kate threw on some clothes and quickly went through her morning ritual: hair, contacts, make up, perfume. Grabbing her folder, she grabbed her laptop off the desk and put it in the satchel carrying case. She headed down the stairs and down the sidewalk to the coffee shop a block or so down the street. She needed something in her stomach before her busy day finally got started. After a hot mocha cappuccino, and two crème filled chocolate donuts, Kate walked the few blocks to the college campus. Her tour was to start at nine, and it was already 8:30 by the time she arrived at the meeting spot listed on one of her information papers. 

Kate looked around taking in her surroundings. She was in the ‘commons’ area. There was a section with couches, recliners, end tables, and a large flat screen television. Behind that, there were a few tables and chairs for students to eat or study on. Sweeping her eyes over the tables, she saw soda and snack machines, and then half of a concrete wall that had pool tables on the other side, along with more chairs, tables, and a couple smaller flat screen TV’s mounted by the ceiling in a couple corners. Back by the couches, there were stairs that led to lockers and some of the teacher’s offices. An information office was in the middle, overlooking the commons area. 

Posters littered the walls. It seemed there were ‘sections’ of pictures dedicated to what the people in the picture represented: leaders and revolutionaries, such as Ben Franklin, Martin Luther King Jr., and Winston Churchill. Another area had artists and entertainers such as Da Vinci, Shakespeare, and Mark Twain. Lance Armstrong, Mother Theresa, Albert Einstein, Susan B. Anthony, and Rosa Parks also adorned the walls. Along the top of one area, were pictures of all the U.S. Presidents, all the way down to the current president, Barack O’Bama. 

Next to the entrance doors was a cork messaging board. Students and staff were sporadically seated around the commons. Kate wondered how many were also here for the tour that was about to start. They had four tours a day, that had started on Monday. Today was Wednesday, so there were six left. Only ten to fifteen people were in each tour group. Not all were necessarily set out to be doctors, but they were all in the medical field for one thing or another. 

Kate sat down on a nearby sofa and pulled out her laptop. There were still fifteen minutes before the tour was to start, so she pulled up Facebook and logged into her newly made account. The friends that she had ‘requested’ last night had accepted, and there were some requests pending for her to accept. Scanning the list, they were all friends from her old high school, plus two cousins. She quickly accepted them all. 

Hearing a strong male voice, Kate looked up. “Ladies and gentlemen that are here for the campus tour, please raise your hand.” Raising her hand and looking around Kate quickly counted eleven other people with their hands raised also. 

The man that had spoke was younger-aged, maybe in his thirties. He had short dark hair, small silver rimmed glasses, and was clean shaven. He had a clipboard in one arm with papers on it and a pen sticking halfway under the clasp holding the papers in place. He had on a navy short sleeved polo shirt and dark khaki pants and brown loafers. He had a very scholarly look to him. “Great. If you will all follow me just outside the doors here, we can get started. The tour should take about an hour or so.” Gathering her things, Kate followed in line with the students here for the tour and they congregated outside waiting for further directions. The man came through the door last, and glancing over everybody, he cleared his throat.

“Welcome to Chicago’s college of medicine, I hope everyone is well settled into their dorm rooms a few blocks from here, or wherever it is that you might be staying. My name is Jason Nichols, and I will be leading this tour, obviously. We will stop after each ‘section,’ if you will, to answer any questions that you might think of. So, with that, lets get started. You’ve already seen the commons area. A lot of students go there to relax, hang out, watch tv, et cetera, between classes. Above that, up the stairs, if you hadn’t already noticed, were a few teacher’s offices, and an information area, and lockers. On the side wall of the information office is a large campus map for your use, and smaller campus maps in the holder next to it. We try to keep them stocked, so feel free to grab one at your next opportunity.” Pulling out a pen from her purse, Kate made a note at the top of the tour’s information sheet in her folder to grab a map later. 

The tour covered everything on campus, from the library and computer labs, to the cafeteria and bathrooms. Kate listened intently as not to miss anything. When the tour was finished, they were next to a large water fountain of an Eagle that looked prepared to take flight, on top of the globe. It was a gold brassy color, and magnificently large. It was an hour and a half later, and Kate’s feet were starting to hurt inside her sneakers. “Ladies and gentlemen, it was a pleasure to meet all of you, and whatever your field of study, I sincerely hope you enjoy your time here at Chicago’s college of medicine. My office is in the library, as I previously mentioned, so please feel free to stop by with any questions or concerns. My door is always open. Have a great day.” Dismissing everyone, Kate decided she needed to take a few minutes off her feet and headed back towards the commons area to grab a cold soda. Her shoulder was starting to ache from toting around the laptop in its bag, and she couldn’t wait to set it down for a few minutes. “Um, hi. My name is Amanda Johnson. I was just in the same tour as you.” Glancing next to her, Kate saw a thin blonde haired girl. Her hair and make up were flawless, and her clothes looked expensive. She looked like she should be in fashion design or modeling school instead of a medical school, Kate thought. “Hi, I’m Kate Anderson.”

Now walking in step with Kate, the girl asked, “So, are you from Chicago?”

“No. I just got here yesterday. I’m from a small town in Wisconsin, actually.”

“Oh. I’m not from here either. I’m originally from Springfield, Illinois.” Amanda responded, adding, “So how is city life treating you so far? Good, I hope.” The girl smiled, and Kate nodded, smiling back. Gosh, she was friendly. When Kate had glanced at her earlier during the tour, she figured she was a stuck up snob, just from her appearance. Kate noted to herself to not judge people before she met and got to know them anymore. She felt terrible, and an awkward silence was beginning, so Kate spoke up. “I was just going over to the commons to grab a pop if you’d like to join me.”

“Sure,” the girl said happily, “that sounds great!” 

Over a snack of Pepsi and Cheetos, Kate learned that Amanda was striving to be a veterinary, as she had a love for any and all animals, and a burning desire to help the ones in need. She wanted to open up her own clinic one day, after learning the ropes under someone else first. She wasn’t originally from Springfield, but from Lexington, Kentucky. Her father was a lawyer and got a great job offer at a large firm in Springfield, so they had moved when Amanda was just four years old. She had vague memories of Kentucky, but considered Springfield “home.” She also had an older brother, Aaron, and he had followed in his father’s footsteps, and was now working under him. “You may have heard of my mother,” Amanda had said. “She writes romance novels. You know, the gushy over the top type.” 

“Oh, what’s her name? I don’t read those books, but my Aunt Charlene is a hopeless romantic to her core. She has just about every romance novel ever written, I bet.” Kate replied.

“Oh, well, her name is Sarah Johnson, but her pen name that she writes under is ‘Valerie Preston.’ She thought the name sounded romantic, I guess.” Amanda said, giggling a little. 

Smiling, Kate said, “Yeah, it does sound kind of like a romantic type of name.” The girls continued talking, and Kate was warming up to Amanda quickly. She found out that Amanda was also staying in the dorms, just a few doors down from Kate. After thirty minutes or more, the girls parted ways, as they both had things to get done. They exchanged cell phone numbers, and agreed to meet up later at a small diner for supper.

A couple hours later, Kate was stretched out across her bed relaxing. Lugging those books home was quite a task. Twenty books! TWENTY! Who on Earth seriously needs that many dang books?! Sighing, and raising up to a sitting position, Kate reached over and pulled her laptop out of the carrying case. Opening it up, she checked both emails, and then continued on to Facebook. ‘Geez, this site could get addicting quick!’ she thought. There were a few more friend requests, yet again people from her old town, and one non-Glendale name: Amanda Johnson. ‘Huh.’ Kate thought as she accepted all. She really was a friendly girl. Maybe she didn’t have any friends or anything here either, and was just lonely. Kate knew she was certainly getting lonely. Kate also had requests for games on the social network. “Farmville? Seriously?” she said aloud. Making a mental note to go back to the “app” later, Kate wondered how fun a game about plowing and planting crops and feeding farm animals could really be. People nowadays will do anything for a mild source of entertainment!

Realizing she only had thirty minutes left before she was supposed to meet Amanda at the small diner, Mel’s, she threw on fresh clothes and deodorant and ran a brush through her hair. Slipping on a pair of black flip flops, she headed down to meet her new friend.

“I was kind of wondering if you were gonna stand me up,” Amanda said, smiling as Kate slid into the booth across from her.

“Oh, never!” Kate replied, laughing. “I just got hung up on Facebook.”

“Yeah. I saw you had a page. I sent you a request to be ‘friends.’ You must be new to the site, though.” Amanda replied.

“Yeah, I saw it, and accepted it. Why do you say I must be new to it?”

“Because you don’t have a profile picture or anything.” 

“Oh, maybe I should add one, huh?” Kate said, laughing. In her exhaustion last night, and the business of today, she had completely forgotten to add a profile picture. 

A waitress appeared next to their booth, and the girls gave her their orders. She disappeared quickly to the back where the kitchen and cooks must’ve been. 

The diner was fairly busy for a weeknight. Mostly college students. “So, do you come here a lot?” Kate asked Amanda, trying to get the conversation going again.

“Yeah, well, I’ve been here a few times. It’s cheap and good,” she replied, smiling. Amanda was really easy to get along with, and Kate was liking her more each time they talked. Shortly, their food arrived. They ate hungrily, like neither one had eaten a decent meal in days. Conversation came in short spurts, between bites of food and drinks of soda to wash it all down. “Well, it’s getting kind of late. I guess we better pay and get going, huh?” Amanda said, glancing at the clock on her cell phone.

“Yeah, probably so.” They got up unanimously and walked together to the front counter and paid the cashier.

“Thanks, ladies!” was the cashier’s reply. It came out as trying to be cheerful, but had sore back and tired feet undertones. The woman was probably in her forties. Kate felt sorry for her, as the door whooshed close behind them. 

Out on the sidewalk, the night air was cool and refreshing. A slight August breeze lazily brushed across the girls’ faces and bare shoulders. They started walking back towards the dorms. 

“I hope I can get used to this busy college and city life quickly,” Kate started, “because this last day or so has gotten me completely worn out!” 

Laughing, Amanda agreed. “Yeah. The city isn’t really new to me, but this college is enormous! I’ll never find my way around on my own!” They walked on in silence for a few minutes. Then Amanda said, “Kate, I don’t mean to sound like a weirdo, but I’m glad we met today. I was beginning to think I wasn’t gonna make any friends here. I’ve been in the dorms for a week, and everyone seems like they’re too busy to even say ‘hi’ to someone.”

“It’s ok. I don’t think you’re a weirdo. I’m glad we met too.” Kate replied, smiling over at her friend. She wasn’t lying, either. Loneliness was one of the most heartbreaking feelings there was.