The First Year

It was the first day of classes. She sat down in her English class. The teacher stood up and introduced herself and then dove right into the first assignment. She was no normal teacher. "Class, the first assignment is going to be a speech whereby you introduce another member of the class to the rest of the class." The girl looked up.

"Oh great" she thought.

"I have your names on slips of paper and I'm going to draw two and the two that I draw will interview eachother." The girl rolled her eyes. "Grace Trevensa." The teacher called. It was her name. "And, Jack Scuvinsky" Grace turned and saw Jack.

"Why couldn't she have picked Jenny?" Grace thought. Grace got up and walked over to the table where Jack sat.

"Well I guess we already know each other's names." Jack said as he extended his hand. "How do you spell your last name though?" Grace very carefully spelled it out.
The teacher called out the rest of the names. Grace and Jack went down the list of questions and answered each one. Neither one of them had anywhere to go after that class. The next thing they knew it was ten minutes after the end of the class period and no one was there. Even the teacher had left.

"Well, so what dorm do you live in? Are you in one of the closer ones or are you all the way in Frimmels?" Jack asked.

"I'm in Frimmels." Grace replied.

"Oh, well then we're walking the same way. I'm in Trewen." The two of them walked out of the building and talked the whole way back to the dorms. They went their separate ways to work on other homework. They agreed to figure out when they would work some more on their interviews later.

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Grace got back to her dorm room and began working on her math homework. "Oh frustrating!" she thought. Grace was never very good at math. She couldn't wait to get her math credits out of the way. As she was working on the definitions of the key words from the reading portion of her text the answer to the one question she hadn't been able to give to Jack popped in her head. So she logged on to her e-mail account and typed in Jack's e-mail address. She quickly typed her message and pushed send. Then she went back to her math.
She finally finished at about 11:30. She checked her e-mail. Jack had replied.
"That's great Grace. I knew you have a role in your family. Humour is important. Have a good Tuesday. Talk to you soon. If you have any more changes or any questions just send an e-mail to any of the following addresses or call my dorm phone number.
Jack"
"Well, that's cool." Grace thought. She logged off and then crashed


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Friday came around finally. Classes were over for the day. Grace went back to her dorm and logged onto Instant Messenger. Her best friend from home was on.

"Hey Faith!" Grace typed and pressed send. She and Faith started up a conversation, but only about 10 minutes into it, Kyle showed up and knocked on Grace's already open door. Kyle sat down next to Grace.

"It's a beautiful day outside. We should take a walk." Kyle said.

"Well I just started a conversation with Faith." Grace said back.

"Well, tell her you're going to take a walk." Kyle said. "You know you want to."

Grace just looked at Kyle. "Ok." Grace quickly typed a message to Faith. "I'm taking a walk. It's a nice day. I'll talk to you later. God's blessings dear sister!"

Faith sent a message back to Grace saying "God's blessings" and then Grace signed off.

"So what's up?" Grace asked. She couldn't tell if Kyle needed to talk about something or was just looking for a casual conversation.

"Nothing much. Just thought it'd be fun to take a walk." Kyle answered.

"Ok." Grace answered. Then they started a conversation about how his sister would be visiting campus soon. The conversation rolled on as they talked about other things including the hum drum stuff like weather and classes. They ended up on the sidewalk and Grace found herself walking on the grass.

"Grace, Grace." Kyle said in a hurried voice.

"I'm on the sidewalk. I'm on the sidewalk." Grace said as she moved herself back to the sidewalk. She realized that she should be over this by now. She should be able to walk on a narrow sidewalk with Kyle, but it was going to take some time to get used to the idea.

"Lovely." Kyle said.

They finally ended up at the college cafeteria where Grace was supposed to meet Jade, her best friend here on campus, for supper.

After supper Grace went to work on the set for the upcoming play.

She spent Saturday and Sunday on the set as well. Her main job was sweeping sawdust, but she also carried things and helped with painting when there was painting to do. She enjoyed listening to the set designers stories and learning new things about set designing and building. Sunday night came all to quickly. She crashed just after midnight.

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Monday morning Grace woke up and threw her clothes on. She checked her e-mail. There was a new one from Jack.
"Grace,
You don't have to say yes to this idea, but I was thinking that we can make our introduction of each other to the class a duel presentation sort of thing. We could make it a news cast. We're co-anchors on a news program and the two major stories are us. One of us can tell the story of the other and then we do a weather forecast for both our hometowns. Then the whoever didn't already do the introducing can. We'll be switching back and forth so the focus won't be on one person to long. Let me know what you think. We have to put it together today if we decide to do that.
Jack"

Grace typed an e-mail back.
"Hey Jack,
Sounds like a good idea for me. I have been having a hard time working out ideas on how to not just read off the sheet. I've got time after 3. Have a good day.
Grace"

Grace went through her classes and got back to her dorm at about 3:10. Jack knocked on her door about 5 minutes later. He must of looked up her dorm room number on College Friends, a website somewhat similar to Myspace. (this is purely a fictional website) They worked on how they were going to work out their newscast and looked up the weather in their hometowns. They added some humour to the weather report. The whole time they were laughing and cracking jokes.

Grace's Instant Messenger beeped at her. Her friend Carol was online.

"Hey, I have that IM server too." Jack said.

"Oh, well then I'll add you if you don't mind." Grace looked at him.

"Go right ahead my e-mail address [e-mail]."

Grace typed it in and clicked add.

"Well, I've gotta get going. Chemistry homework calls. See you in class tonight." Jack said.

"See ya later Jack." Grace said as he walked out.

That night in class several people went up on there own and gave their introductions. Some gave poems and others pretended they were trying to get a scholarship panel to give a scholarship to the person. Jack and Grace got up to give their speech. The teacher laughed at the weather report and must've thought the "speech" was good because she gave them a 99. They both sat down very relieved that the speech was over and that they did well. The teacher announced that their next assignment was to write a magazine article about the person they had introduced to the class. She also made it clear that they had to send the paper to the online editing service and have two friends edit it as well. As soon was class was over Jack left quickly. He still had some chemistry to finish. Grace walked back to Frimmels with Jenny.

Grace worked on homework for a while. Her Instant messenger beeped at her. Jack was online. She typed a quick message. "Hey Jack. I was wondering if you already had two people in mind to be your editors or if you wouldn't mind editing my paper when it's ready for that. I'd be happy to edit yours."

"Sure. Next Monday afternoon I'll come down and we'll swap papers and that should give us enough time to make the revisions."

"Ok. Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Have a good night."

"You too."

Grace logged off and took her shower. Then she went to bed.

Tuesday was a fairly uneventful day. She went through classes as usual. She got back to her room and started working on that dreaded math homework. She of course got herself side tracked. She decided to e-mail Kyle. She was going to be comfortable hanging out with him somehow. She figured the only way to do it was to actually make an attempt to do so. She e-mailed him and asked him if he wanted to take a walk with her after Praise the next night.

Very little time passed when she checked her e-mail again. Kyle had e-mailed back. He said he had pep band on Wednesday but that it ended before Praise did so he would be glad to take a walk.

Grace went through the rest of Tuesday and went to bed.

Wednesday came. Grace got through her classes. At 9 pm she went to Praise. Then she went outside and waited for Kyle. He showed up not to long afterwards. They started walking. They had a normal conversation. They went farther off campus then Grace had ever been before on a walk. This was the first walk she had taken in a very long time with Kyle whereby she did not feel like moving ten feet away from him every time he got within two. Finally!

"I notice you're finally comfortable with me. Thank you Grace." Kyle said as they neared Frimmels.

"You're welcome. And Thank you. I'm glad I didn't lose a friend because of my stupidity." Grace answered.

"I hope you weren't looking to get a boyfriend." Kyle said.

"NO!" Grace looked at Kyle. "I was just looking to restore a friendship!"

"Good." Kyle said.

They got into Frimmels. They said good night at the entrance to Grace's hall since it was past hours.

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Thursday was a hum drum day. Friday came around and her classes were over. Grace went back to her dorm room and began trying to look up some terms on the internet. Jade walked by.

"Hey, Jade. Where are you off to?" Grace asked.

"The music building." Jade answered.

"Why did I need to ask?" Grace said. Jade was always off to the music building. She was a music major.

Jade smiled. "See you later."

"Bye Jade." Grace called as Jade walked through the hall door.

About 10 minutes later, Kyle knocked on the door. "Hey."

"Hey, Kyle. What's up?"

"I was going to see Jade but I thought I'd say hi since you were here."

"Well you missed her. She left for the music building 10 minutes ago."

"Oh. Well then I won't be seeing her for a while."

"Grrrrrrr."

"What?" Kyle looked at Grace.

"Oh sorry not you. I wish I could get google to be my search engine again but it's not working."

"I could help you with that." Kyle sat down next to Grace. He took the computer out of her lap and put it on his. He started fiddling with the computer. The instant messenger beeped, letting her know Jack was online.

"Do you want to get rid of that so that stuff doesn't pop up on you?" Kyle asked.

"No. I'm using Instant Messenger right now."

"Ok. I think if you want google as your main search engine we'll have to put in a new browser."

"Before you do that, can I check my e-mail?" Grace asked.

"You've checked it like 7 times since I walked in here." Kyle said.

Grace moved her hands toward the mouse pad. Kyle grabbed her hands and moved them. Grace all of a sudden...

"Oh no." She thought. That's when she realized that there was almost less then an inch between them."Why? Just two days ago we both knew where we stood. We were friends which is exactly what we both want! AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" She sat quietly.

Kyle finished installing the new browser but had to shut the computer down in order for everything to work right. Grace went to turn the computer back on.

"Why are you turning the computer back on? Aren't you going to come eat dinner?" Kyle asked.

"It's a little early for that." Grace answered.

"Ok. Well I'm going to go find Jade. See you later."

"See you Kyle."

Grace let out a breath she felt like she had been holding for an eternity. "Oh no." she whispered to herself.

She had an hour before she was supposed to meet Jade at dinner. If she was going to be able to eat dinner.
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Flashback. Last Semester. First day of Freshman orientation. She sat down in the chapel for the president's speech. A tall brown eyed, brown haired guy sat next to her. "Hi, I'm Kyle." "I'm Grace." "Nice to meet you Grace." The president's speech was given and Grace and Kyle shook hands and went separate ways. Only to bump into each other in Grace's dorm.
"Hi." Kyle said. "Hi." Grace answered. "You want cake? I have some that I know I won't finish by myself." Grace's birthday was that day and she had gotten a cake from her parents some club on campus made when people ordered it.
"Sure." Kyle answered.
Grace cut some cake and she and Kyle talked and talked and talked. They bumped into eachother at the opening ceremonies at the church across the street.
They bumped into eachother several times. Then the night of homecoming dance came. Grace was coming back to her dorm room from working on the set. Kyle was just walking out of Frimmels from talking to another friend of his.
"Hey Grace I see you."
"I see you too." Grace said a little hesitantly
"Will I see you at the dance?"
"I don't know if I'll be there."
"Please?"
"I don't know."
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Grace went and called her parents until her friend Ryan came in (she had her door open). "Why aren't you dressed. Go get the girls to do your hair. Come on."

"Ryan, I'm not sure I'm going."

"Yes you are."
"Ok. ok." Grace pulled out her dress."Now I'll get changed so just a minute."
Ryan walked out the door and Grace got changed. She walked to the location of the dance with a bunch of girls from her floor and was greeted by Ryan. He kept trying to teach her to dance. Kyle showed up and started talking to her. Grace kept trying to leave but Ryan wouldn't let her. "You should learn how to dance." "Why?"
Ryan and Grace "argued" for a long time. Grace finally left but was followed by Kyle who had been standing there listening to her argue with Ryan.
"You want to take a walk to wind down?" Kyle asked.
"No I just want to go to bed." Grace said frustrated.
"Well, I'll walk you back to your dorm then." Kyle said.
Grace was tired and frustrated. "Why?" She asked Kyle.
Then he said it. They hadn't known eachother two months, they had never been on one date, but he said it.
"Because I Love You."
Grace nearly freaked. They got to Frimmels. "Good night Kyle." Grace said.
"It's not midnight yet. Can I come in?"
"I'm just going to bed."
"Ok." Kyle said sounding defeated.
After that Grace avoided Kyle for a long time. To her the words "I Love You" were supposed to be said after a long time of knowing someone and after being at least 99 percent positive you wanted to marry them. The only issue with all this was that Grace had started to really like him and if he had just waited a little while longer and had asked her out instead of saying "I Love You" she probably would've dated him. But no. Here she was.
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And now it's January and he started dating Jade. Jade is Grace's best friend on campus so when Jade says "I'm going to dinner with Kyle, do you want to come?" Grace feels so weird and never says yes.
She and Kyle had talked this over during Christmas break and the first couple of weeks of the semester had been great. And then this touching of the hands and sitting way to close. AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
She and Kyle had even talked about it over Christmas break. When she came back she thought she was ok. But this hand touching thing, sitting way to close. Oh man.This brought back those old emotions that she had had before the "three word incident" as she referred to it.
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That night Jade and Kyle gave Grace no choice but to go look at stars with them. She was miserable. Finally they all walked back into Frimmels. Grace went to her dorm room and got online. Jack was on. As much of a miserable mood she was in, she decided to say hi. For about an hour she and Jack talked. He sent funny pictures and winks. During that time Grace felt better. She couldn't stop laughing. Over the next few days Grace sent e-mails to Faith and talked to Jack online. She never told Jack about her issues with Kyle but every time she talked to him she felt better. Much better.
Grace and Kyle finally came some closure after talking and e-mailing.
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Grace started hanging out alot with Jenny and Jack. They were always having three way conversations on instant messenger. They attended praise together and when Jack worked in the game room Grace and Jenny would go and hang out with him and help him lock up for the night. Grace actually took some walks now and then with Jack around town. They would just talk about random things. One day Grace realized that she had romantic feelings for Jack and she also realized that she was obvious as anything. So she decided to just tell him.

Grace also realized that her feelings for Jack were probably a way to cope with the whirlwind of emotions that surrounded her friendship with Kyle, so she thought she would just tell Jack that as well. She decided to leave out the fact that it was Kyle though. Jack knew Kyle and she knew that would be weird.
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"and then you helped me feel better. You always could make me laugh and calm down. And then from there I sort of started having romantic feelings for you." Grace finished explaining to Jack one evening.

"Wow." Jack said. "Well, I don't want to make you feel bad but I wasn't looking for that kind of relationship right now, from anyone. I'm sorry."

"That's ok." Grace said. "We're still friends though right?"

"Of course." Jack said.

"Ok. I just was afraid that you would think it was to weird or something." Grace was relieved.

"No." Jack said matter of factly.

"Thanks." Grace said. She felt a lot better.

"Well, I gotta go work on chemistry." Jack said.

"Ok. Good night." Grace hugged Jack. Then Jack left.
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Lent soon came around and Jade and Kyle were attending Wednesday evening Lent services at a church about 6 blocks away. One night they stopped by Grace's room and asked her if she wanted to join them. She obliged and they were on their way. The Lent service was refreshing for Grace since she had missed going to them the last few weeks. On the way back to school Jade and Grace decided to walk in the middle of the road since there was absolutely no traffic. Kyle stayed on the sidewalk. Jade and Grace sang silly songs and Kyle finally started trying to get them out of the middle of the road.

"Come on you guys get out of the road."

Grace all of a sudden out of the blue just blurted out, "Yes big brother." in a voice that could only indicate that she was trying to be a little kid. Grace and Jade got back on the sidewalk as one car did come through.

For the next couple of weeks Grace accompanied Jade and Kyle to Lent services. During that time the big brother thing was set in stone. Kyle was passing by Grace's room and Grace yelled out, "Big Brother!" to which Kyle walked in and answered, "Yes?" From there they picked up a semi sibling relationship, with the every now and then teasing and just a general friendship.
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Spring break was an exciting adventure for Grace. She went home with Jade who lived near St. Louis. They went to the arch and had fun at the museum there. They threw rocks into the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. They had ice cream that went you turned the cup over it didn't fall out. They had really thin pizza and they wrote one of the craziest stories you could've heard. They also got lost in South St. Louis and played a mixture of rock and classical music while trying to find their way back. Grace and Jade watched lots of movies and washed the dogs. They also swang on the swings at a nearby park and slept in late. Grace was sad to leave, but she was excited to go back and see Jenny and Jack and even Kyle.
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One evening in April Jenny and Grace went down to the cafeteria early for supper. They were going to meet their friends Rachel and Christine. They got there around 5:30 and enjoyed simple conversation and food. Rachel and Christine left almost as soon as Jack showed up and so Grace and Jenny hung around with him only for Jade and Kyle to show up. Jade and Kyle ate their suppers while everyone talked. Jack took off and then it was Jenny, Grace, Jade, and Kyle. They didn't leave till 7:30 when the cafeteria closed and they were kicked out.

Kyle started playing with his cups. The cups were flying all over the place and were quite noisy. Jade and Jenny tried to take the cups away, Grace decided to join Kyle. They kept pushing the cups back and forth to each other, keeping them out of reach of Jenny and Jade. It was a brother sister moment. They were being mischevious and working together at it. This led to several other dinners like this. Soon everyone was making sure to keep Grace and Kyle as far apart at the tables as was possible. This didn't stop them. Eventually, though, Grace "reformed" and started taking the cups away from Kyle. Every now and then she still joined him though.
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The end of the year came. It had been a crazy year. Grace had learned a lot and made a lot of new friends. She had, had her first encounter with romance even though it was short and not much really happend and she still hadn't been on a date. She had been to St. Louis and had been on a lot more planes in those nine months then she had ever been.

It was Jade's birthday on the last full day that Grace would be in Nebraska before going back to New York for the summer. Jade's parents brought Jade, Kyle, Jenny and Grace to a nice pizza place and celebrated.

The next day they moved Jade into her new dorm room for summer term and then Jack, Jenny, Jade and Grace piled into Jack's car to get Grace to the airport. Grace began to cry as her friends disappeared from her sight.

That summer Grace worked at a little general shop. It was a long summer. She enjoyed time with her family but didn't like her job at all.

The day she got on the plane was a glorious day. She was so excited. When she got off the plane she was greeted by Jack and Jenny. They got her back to school. The moment Grace saw Jade she ran and hugged her. Then she and Jade moved into their room together. Jack, Jenny, and Kyle helped them lug boxes and luggage up to their room. As everyone stood in the room together, Grace couldn't wait for the adventures that this year would bring.

The End