Storm, Meet Raine

Dress shopping?

HER.

Speed walking across campus, I swipe my damp, heavy hair from my face. My piece of crap hair tie popped when I was trying to pull it up into a bun, and let me tell you, curly hair and Florida sunshine do not mix. One word: frizz. I look like a blowdried poodle.

     It's been a weird week for me, and it's not because I'm walking from my class by myself today. That, I'm used to since my only friends here are the guys, and they're in none of my classes.

What's weird is I haven't seen Carson.

It's been four days since our last baseball game and it's like he's tumbled from the face of the Earth. After crossing the street, I stop on the sidewalk to tie my stupid laces for the third time today. I've been having to do a lot of walking lately, which makes me miss having that tournament for baseball. I was barely in school. Now, I'm just like everyone else, except I get my muscles ripped apart every afternoon.

I didn't hear the sound of wheels skating across the concrete because I was too busy grumbling to myself about how much I can't stand walking. However, as soon as I looked up, I saw the freaking train wreck heading toward me at full speed. "Get out of the way!" the stupid rollerblader yells at me from about fifteen feet.

Now, I don't know about you, but for me, there's those extra seconds where you simply cannot get from the crouched position of tying your shoe because your knees are getting old and creaky at the ripe age of twenty two. There was no way in hell I was going to get up and jump out of her way in time, so I just brace myself for the impact.

She crashes into me, and we both roll about the concrete, my hands slamming against the gravelly texture to avoid slapping my head against it. I then duck away from her skates because she seemed to have no control over her legs whatsoever at this moment. Idiot. "I'm so sorry!" She struggles to get up on the wheels, her legs wobbling and sliding while I narrow my eyes at her crazy form.

"Yeah sorry for crashing into me when you could've easily skated away from me." I watch her small ass as she throws it up into the air, hands on the ground as she tries to right herself. When she finally stood, she whipped around and grimaced.

"If you weren't tying your shoes in the middle of the sidewalk, this wouldn't have happened." It was then that I saw her face, and recognition lit up on hers as well.

"Carter?"

"Hey you're that kinky hoodie girl!"

     We both said our responses at the same time, and she put a hand over her heart, eyes bugging slightly.

     "Kinky?" She all but gasps, "Ma'am, bdsm is an art."

     "Sure," I shrug. "I thought you had some sense about yourself. What the hell didn't go off in your head to get you to go into the grass?" I couldn't fathom how you could see a person in front of you, and still decide to take them out...on skates.

"I don't know? Why couldn't you tie your shoe in the grass?" She throws her hands up in the air, eyes widening when she loses her balance momentarily, her body jerking back forward to right itself.

"Touché," I pull out my phone to check the time. "I gotta go," she opened her mouth to say something to me, but I just held up a finger to get my point across quickly. "I like you and all, but if you're on skates, stay the heck away from me."

All she does is giggle before skating off toward her next victim.

I continue on with my trek to our living quarters, sighing as I question why I applied to this school anyway. I can name a billion reasons why I shouldn't have. The number one reason being that we have to live on campus unless we have a valid excuse. Or maybe the fact that students pop up missing (most likely dead) and somehow the outside world doesn't get involved in it.