Teaching Mr. Graham

    The dorm room only came with the bare necessities: two narrow beds in dire needs of sheets and bed garments, two dressers, two desks with chairs, and two small closets. Each side of the room housed one bed, one dresser, one desk, and one closet.

    Tatiana and Kenya looked at each other, both filled to the brim with excitement. "Do you care which side of the room you get?" Tatiana asked.

    Kenya shook her head, dropped her boxes on the floor, and ran towards the bed on the left side of the room. She collapsed on the bed with a squeal, and spread her arms out like she was about to attempt making snow angels.

    Tatiana laughed and ran for the other bed. She spread her arms out and fell backwards on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. In the car, Kenya had reminded her that Tatiana's parents weren't hovering over her shoulder here. She'd brushed the comment off, because she knew her parents. Whether they were here or not, they would keep tabs on her, whether it was with a ton of phone calls, or requesting documentation of her progress in class. Knowing her parents, they'd probably ask for photographs of each assignment she turned in, so they could see her grades. She'd felt like even though they weren't here, she wasn't truly free. But now, lying on the bed, with her best friend in life across the room from her, it felt like the door to the cage she was in popped right open, and the world was waiting for her to fly out and enjoy it. "This is where we're going to live for, like...the next year," she said with a huge grin on her face.

    "I saw a hot guy outside," Kenya said, raising up on one elbow. "Who knows how many are walking around here?"

    Tatiana laughed and pulled her cell phone out of the pocket of her jeans. "You only waited about three minutes before mentioning boys."

    "You say that like it's a bad thing," Kenya said, dropping her head back down on the bed. "In my world, that's a record."

    "I wish I had a pillow to throw at you," Tatiana said, running a hand down her stomach while staring up at the ceiling.

    They both lapsed into silence. Then Kenya said, "You should change one of your courses to a writing class."

    "And then I should choose what I'm going to wear to my funeral and which casket I'm going to be buried in, because my parents would kill me," Tatiana said, closing her eyes.

    "How could they be against a writing class?" Kenya demanded. "Even if you were going to be a doctor or lawyer, wouldn't writing skills help with that?"

    "They said I can take English Composition courses, since those are required...but no creative writing or fiction writing classes."

    "They're not here, though," Kenya said in a singsong voice. "They wouldn't have to know."

    Tatiana sat up with a sigh. "They already told me they're going to be requesting copies of my report cards. Or the school will end up mailing the copies to them, anyway, I don't know. They would find out, and when they do, they'd kill me."

    "But once you did it, you can't undo it," Kenya pointed out. "They'd be mad at first, but then they'd have to roll with it."

    "I don't know..."

    "You're, like...the sweetest daughter ever," Kenya muttered. "They keep you sheltered as hell to the point where you can't do anything. Sometimes I wonder, if my parents weren't out of town all the time and didn't send me to stay with your family so much, if your parents would have even let us be friends."

    "Probably not," Tatiana said, standing and pocketing her cell phone. "It's stuffy in here. I need fresh air."

    Kenya sat up. "We could walk around, get to know the new digs. Get the lay of the land, so to speak."

    Tatiana giggled and shook her head. "Who talks like that, Kenya?"

    "I heard it in a TV show once," Kenya said, standing up from the bed.

    "Where? A special on the Discovery channel?" She opened the door to the room and stepped out into the hallway. A few other students were moving into their rooms.

    Kenya followed her out into the hallway. "Okay, okay, how about this...you can choose a writing class, and we can claim that our schedules got switched up. Or you can tell them that I was the one who switched your classes, because I saw how much you wanted to sign up for the class. I can take the heat. They don't scare me."

    Tatiana reached up and adjusted her hairclip while watching Kenya close and lock their dorm room door. "That's lying to them, Kenya."

    "Every kid lies to their parents, Tati," Kenya said, turning to face her friend and raising a hand to her hip. "At least it would be a lie that matters. One that would end up making you happy."

    "I couldn't be happy, not knowing that I was lying to them," Tatiana said, turning and walking down the hall.

    "So, then what?" Kenya asked her. "You take all of these classes, just to make them happy? Choose pre-law or pre-med just to make them happy? Knowing damn well you don't want to choose either. When does it end?"

    Tatiana shrugged. "I don't know."

    Kenya grabbed her arm. "No, seriously. When does it end, Tati? You're living for them. You only get one life. I'd hate to see you look back at these years and regret them because you didn't choose your own path."

    Tatiana pulled her arm out of Kenya's grasp and started to walk down the residence hall stairs. She knew that her best friend was speaking nothing but truth. She wished she had the courage to go against her parents' wishes, but the truth was, she didn't have that courage. She hated the idea of disappointing them.

    The two girls opened the doors to the residence hall and squinted against the glaring sunlight streaming down onto the courtyard.

    "If I were smart, I would have brought a campus map," Kenya mumbled, looking from left to right.

    "Same," Tatiana said, smoothing down the front of her dress. "So, what...we're just going to pick a direction and run with it?"

    Kenya turned her head left, then right. "I see more people in that direction," she said, pointing an index finger. "Maybe that means there's more stuff over there."

    "We can still go upstairs and get a map," Tatianna said worriedly.

    Kenya linked arms with her. "Where the hell is your sense of adventure, girl? Damn. Come on."

    Tatiana stumbled after Kenya. As they walked along the sidewalk, she felt like a little kid, looking at every single thing in wonder. Looking at buildings, as if she hadn't seen buildings before, looking at the campus library as if she'd never seen a library before.

    Kenya came to a stop in front of a large bulletin board. "Campus announcements," she read aloud. "Ooh, they have posts about classes here."

    Instead of paying any attention to the bulletin board, Tatiana glanced around at the students walking back and forth.

    "Wait, aren't you taking this one?" Kenya asked, poking her arm.

    Tatiana frowned and looked at the board. "Which one?"

    Kenya pointed. "Introduction to Business Law. One of the classes is cancelled, because there weren't enough students who signed up for it. Do you remember the name of the teacher for your class? Was it Mr. Embley?"

    "I don't know," Tatiana said, pulling her phone out of her jeans pocket. "But I have the course schedule in my Inbox still." She slid her finger across the screen and accessed her e-mail. "What name did you say? Embley?" Her complexion paled. "Yeah, his name was Embley. His class is cancelled? So, then...what do I do?"

    Kenya grinned from ear to ear. "You choose a new class, that's what."