~

It takes me two more hours, but I finally get my side of the room decorated and organized. While Samira's side is filled with red and black colors and music posters and artwork, my side is more on the safe and elegant side. My theme is purple and gold with mandalas and flowers and I have some photos of my favorite flowers and bible quotes hung up. My bulletin board has my calendar that shows different crosses and bible verses and the Evangeline Rose nameplate that my mother got me is strung across the top of the board. I place the last small photo frame that I have of Jesus and set it right next to my bible on my little desk. Now I have everything where it's supposed to be.

I take all of my empty luggage, shove it underneath my bed and then sigh in content. Samira went out about an hour ago and said she would be back soon to go to the freshman activities with me. I sit criss-cross on my twin bed and open up my bible. I don't have a tv or a stereo system to occupy myself. I only have books to read for when I have nothing else to do. Just like back home. In our house, we only have a tv that my parents never watch in the living room. I was only allowed to watch tv for 2 hours a day because it would "rot my brain cells." The same went for my cellphone.

My parents had splurged on getting me an iPhone last year for my birthday. They had said the phone was a privilege as long as I used it for the right things. I wasn't on the social media platforms that everyone else seems to have so I never do a lot on my phone anyways. I'm not that good at being social, much less on a social media platform with other strangers. I prefer to spend my spare time getting ahead on homework or reading books.

I am just getting into the last chapter of Romans when I hear a key shoved into the keyhole. The door opens and Samira's bright smile lights up the room.

"Evangeline!" She walks in and a tall African American man follows behind her. "Wow! Your side looks great."

"Thanks," I say timidly. Usually, people don't like my decorations. They think it's too "Holy Mary." At least that's what some of the kids in high school used to say when they saw how I decorated the inside of my locker.

She rummages through her closet and the stranger man is still standing by the door.

"Oh! This is my boyfriend, Latrell." She points at him. "Latrell, this is my roommate Evangeline. Evangeline, this is Latrell."

Latrell looks over to me and turns his mouth upwards in a small smile. "It's nice to meet you, Evangeline."

His voice is deep, but smooth. I have to look away to avoid him seeing my cheeks flame up in red. "Hi, Latrell. It's nice to meet you." My voice is small and I turn my gaze to the floor to keep myself from trying to stare at his handsome face.

I hear him chuckle and from the corner of my eye, I see him turn towards Samira.

"So Evangeline, do you only go by Evangeline, or do you have any nicknames?" She asks as she changes her heeled boots into some black converse.

"Umm," I draw out. "I don't have a nickname. My parents have always called me Evangeline."

"Is it ever a mouthful to say? Cause I know for me, my name can be a mouthful. People always butcher it so I just go by Sam. You could go by a shorter name too if you want."

I bite my lip in thought. I've never had a nickname before. I've never thought of having one either.

"Not that you're name's not pretty," she quickly corrects, laughing softly. "But for a tip, especially in college, a lot of people go by nicknames. It's just easier to remember, you know?"

Not really, but I guess I can have one if it'll make fewer people incorrectly say or spell my name.

"Um, I don't really know what I should be called," I tell her.

Samira stops for a second to think and then her eyes light up. "What about Eva?"

Eva.

"Do you like that? Cause it could be Eva or Evie or Angie or Evan or..."

"I like Eva," I interrupt her midway through her list. Eva feels right, like it belongs.

She smiles at me and then at Latrell. "Okay, Eva. You ready to go to these boring Freshmeat things?"

I nod and stand up. "Yes."

Samira looks at my outfit up and down. I can tell she's not the biggest fan of it, but she and Latrell don't say anything. We head out the door after I grab my bag and shove my bible in it. Some of the other freshmen are walking out at the same time as we are and we all head to the student quad. I'm still not sure why everyone calls it that. It's just an open area in the middle of the campus with a few tables and benches.

"I'll see you later, baby." Latrell turns towards Samira as we get right in front of the quad.

"Okay, I'll text you when we're done here." She leans in and kisses him quickly. I turn away to overlook the quad so I don't get caught staring.

When Latrell leaves us, I turn back to Samira. "Is Latrell not a freshman?"

"No, he's a junior," Samira replies.

"Oh," I say and wonder how she met him if she's only a freshman. I leave those thoughts for later as we head into the large crowd of students.

Some upperclassmen are wearing green shirts and holding up signs with numbers and letters. Students start forming behind them in small groups. On our registration forms, we had a number and letter for our freshman groups. Luckily Samira and I have the same group and we find the sign with 24A behind the massive pool of students.

I stand beside Samira as all of the freshmen finish getting into their designated groups. Once everyone is in our group, our group leader announces that we're going to be playing some ice-breaker games. I nervously look at Samira and she smiles at me. I never was any good at these get to know you games.

~*~

My legs are tired of standing as the games finally end and the sun starts to set behind the horizon. There were four games we played and each one required us to speak out and say interesting things about ourselves. The only things I could come up with were that I love to travel and want to be a doctor. It seemed like that was enough since that was what other students said too.

"You wanna go out with me tonight?" Samira asks as we walk back to our dorm after we quickly ate at the cafeteria.

"Where would we be going?" I ask. If we're going to a party, I don't know if I want to go to that.

"To a party at the UT. It's gonna be lit since everyone is gonna be there for the first night on campus!" She squeals in excitement.

I smile hesitantly. "I don't know. I've never been to a party before."

"They're fun! You meet a lot of new people. You get to dance and have a good time. It's more fun if you're drunk, but you don't have to drink if you don't want to," she explains.

It still doesn't seem like a lot of fun to me. What's so fun about being so drunk that I'd have to be carried home and embarrass myself?

"I don't know Samira."

"Sam," she corrects me.

I nod and internally chastise myself. I'll need to remember that.

"And they're not so bad, honestly. As long as you stay with me, you'll be fine. Just come with me for a little bit. If you hate it and want to leave, then we can leave, okay?"

I think for a moment, then I reluctantly agree. "Okay."

Samira rubs my arm to try to comfort me since she knows I'm hesitant to go to the party. "Who knows, you might like going to parties." She laughs and shrugs.

I chuckle. "I doubt that."

No way is that ever going to happen.

We get back to the dorm hall in a few minutes. As we walk to our room and Samira unlocks our door, I notice the room right across the hall has its door open. I curiously look up into the room and lock eyes with bright blue ones.

"Hi!" There's a fiery red blur that quickly comes out into the hallway. She smiles widely at us. Her smile reveals dimples and some freckles that litter across her cheeks. "I'm Reina. What's your name?"

"I'm Evangeline," I smile back and then point to Samira. "This is my roommate, Samira."

Samira smiles at Reina and waves. "Hi, you can just call me Sam."

"Hi, Sam." Reina waves back and then puts her hands in her jeans pockets. "So, are you guys all unpacked and everything?"

"We just finished right before the games," I reply.

"Yeah, I just finished mine. I have a lot of shit," she chuckles. "Where are you guys from?"

We travel into our room to keep the conversation going. Samira goes to her closet while I sit on my bed. Reina is still standing by the door, so I gesture to my bed, telling her she can sit next to me. 

"Um, I'm from Tecumseh," I answer her question once she sits down.

"I'm from Troy," Sam replies, her focus still on her clothes.

"Tecumseh is like 3 hours away, right?"

I nod at Reina, "Yeah, about three hours."

"That's cool," Reina says. "I'm from Chicago."

"Oh wow, that's a long way away isn't it?"  I've never been to Chicago before, but I've always wanted to go.

Reina shrugs. "It's barely an hour flight so it's not bad."

"What's your major?" I ask.

"I'm a Nursing major."

"I'm Biochemistry and Molecular Biology," I state.

Reina laughs. "So you're like me?"

I nod, smiling, and Samira chimes in. "Well, I'm not! That's why I'm Studio Art."

All three of us share a laugh. Then Samira pulls out different outfits and sets them on her bed. "Reina, you wanna go to the party with us tonight?"

"Where's the party at?"

"The UT," Samira answers. Reina and I don't know what that is. By our confused expressions, she then explains, "The University Towers apartments. It's where upperclassmen live and also where my boyfriend lives."

"Oh!" Reina nods her head. "Cool! I'm down with going to a party."

Samira looks at me and gives me a look like see parties aren't bad! I shake my head, smiling slightly so her eyes don't poke a hole in my head.

Samira smiles widely. "Yay! We have to get ready now since the party starts at 11."

Reina goes back to her room to pick out her clothes and Samira glances over her outfits. "Do you have party clothes?"

I bit my lip and go to my closet to see if I have anything to wear. What do you even wear to a college party?

"What do you wear to a party?" I ask and look through my hangers.

"Shorts, skirts, or skinny jeans. Make sure they're tight so your ass looks good enough to eat." She laughs and I shake my head at her sexual comment. "I'm just playing around, but you need something that will look good, but still be comfortable."

"I don't think I have any skinny jeans." All of my articles of clothing consist of maxi shirts, loose jeans, knee-length dresses, and shirts that are either floral or not tight. My parents wouldn't let me wear regular skinny jeans because they said it was too provocative and attracted too much male attention with them being so tight fitting.

"You can borrow one of mine. I think we might be the same size. Are you a size 8?" She pulls out a pair of jeans that have holes and rips in them.

"Yeah," I nod at the correct size.

"You have a broader waist like me," she acknowledges and hands me the jeans that look like they could fall apart because of how many rips are in them. I gingerly grab them and lay them on my bed.

"You have any tighter shirts or crop tops?"

I shake my head. "No, I don't have anything tight. They're all loose and floral."

"Your parents are really strict aren't they?" She looks through her clothes again to find a shirt for me.

I sigh. "You have no idea." 

She gives me a sympathetic look and then tosses me a shirt that looks more like a piece of scrap material than an actual shirt.

"That one will go good with your eyes."

I hold up the shirt and it looks like it's been cut in half and has a few rips in it. I can't tell if they were intentionally made like that or not. I hope it doesn't fall off when I try to put it on.

"Do you have Converse or Vans?"

I nod my head. That's the one thing I do have.

My parents allowed me to splurge on some white converse last Christmas as long as I kept them clean and only wore them for casual situations. I was so happy when they told me I could finally get a pair after seeing some girls at school wear them. They always wore them around, even to church sometimes in the evenings.

"Wear Converse with this outfit and you'll be good to go!" Samira picks out a pair of black shorts that the girls at home called 'booty shorts' and an army green top that looks like the same kind of shirt she gave to me.

Samira starts to strip her clothes off and I turn away to give her some privacy. I move a few steps back so I'm in the corner near my closet. I try to turn my body so nothing will be exposed when I'm changing. I've never changed in front of another person, not even my mother. "Protect your modesty, even to me," she'd say to me when we were in a dressing room trying on church dresses.

I slide on the jeans after a few tries of getting my feet stuck in the rips. Surprisingly they fit snugly on my legs. It feels foreign to me to have on tight jeans when all I've ever worn are skirts, dresses, and dress pants. I make sure Samira isn't facing my direction before taking off the blouse and jean jacket I was wearing. I put on the navy, thin material and it comes right above where my jeans sit on my waist. It has a few rips in places, but overall, it's not as bad as I thought it was. I pick up my converse that sat on the floor of the closet and quickly put them on.

"Oh, girl you look good!" Samira says and I blush.

"Thanks." Nobody has ever said that I've looked good before. My social awkwardness has made me also bad at giving and receiving compliments. "You look nice too." I try to return the compliment and she laughs.

"Thanks!" She looks at herself in the mirror and then pulls out a clutch bag that looks heavy and filled to the brim. She takes out different gadgets that I think are for hair and then turns to me. "You doing makeup?"

"I don't know how to," I tell her. "I wasn't allowed to ever wear much of it."

"Seriously?"

I nod. "Yeah."

"Damn, your parents didn't let you do anything fun." She bluntly states, starting to pull out different makeup items and setting them on her desk. She then pauses and sighs after she realizes what she just said. "Fuck, I'm so sorry."

I shrug. "It's okay." It's not like I haven't heard that kind of comment before.

"Well, tonight I'm gonna give you a makeover. You are wearing makeup tonight!" I have to smile at how excited she is for me. She scoots her desk chair out and tells me to sit in it.

After putting on some loud music from her phone, Samira gets to work. She uses different products that I can't even remember the names of, but I am only sitting in the chair for 15 minutes when she steps away and tells me to look in the mirror.

My mouth gapes as I look at my reflection. I don't even recognize myself with all of this makeup on. My eyes are dark and defined and my eyelashes look ten times longer. My complexion doesn't look as pale with blush on my cheeks and my lips shine with lip gloss.

"Wow." I touch my face to make sure I'm not dreaming and Samira laughs.

"Thanks. You look good, babe."

I get out of the chair and go to my mirror, so I can keep looking at myself and Samira can start on her makeup.

"This is amazing, Samira. I didn't know I could look like this."

"Sam," she politely corrects me and starts lining her eyes with black. "And it's no problem. You look good with and without makeup."

I smile and brush my hair that still has some curl from the curling I did this morning. I don't know how to do any fancy hairstyles, so I just leave my hair down and then go to the bathroom to brush my teeth. When I come back into the room, Reina is standing by Samira in front of the mirror.

"Oh! Look at you, gorgeous!" Reina loudly says.

"Doesn't she look good?" Samira chimes in after her.

"Damn, girl." Reina looks me up and down and I laugh awkwardly, my cheeks warming with embarrassment. I'm not used to having attention on me.

Samira turns from the mirror. "Is everyone ready to go?"

Reina and I nod. I grab my phone and keys before we head out the door. There are a few other girls who are leaving at the same time as us. They look like they're going to the party too.

When we all step outside the dorm hall, I get nervous butterflies in my stomach.

I feel like my social skills are going to be put to the ultimate test tonight.