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student account. All the icons
were labeled. That was something. She rubbed at her
eyes and pulled up the tab for course schedules,
which was shaped like a day planner.
    Select major , it prompted her.
Oh hell, she didn't have one.
Undeclared?
No, I'll just have to change it later .
    What was something easy? Women's Studies? No,
people were always making fun of the people who
took that. Ditto Philosophy. Psychology? She knew a
thing or two about that.
    Her eyes caught on Animal Behavioral Science.
She hesitated. That was more her forte; she possessed
a greater affinity for animals than people. She loved
them, in fact.
So does he .
    Val stared at the screen for a long moment. Then
she selected Psychology from the drop-down list of
majors. Maybe it would help her understand why she
was so screwed-up inside.
    After she chose her major, another tab lit up at the
top. This icon was shaped like an apple. It contained a
list of all the courses she would need to take in order
to graduate. Available courses were highlighted in
blue, with the day and time listed beside them.
    Her schedule, once she had assembled it, was
about what one might expect. Abnormal Psychology.
Sociology. Social Psychology. Composition. All bare
bones courses and exceedingly dull-sounding.
    A third tab started to glow, this one with a book
icon. Her mood darkened further as she ordered her
textbooks. Six hundred and fifty dollars down the
drain for something she felt lukewarm about at best.
    She headed back for her dorm. A tall Asian boy
stopped her as she encountered the stairs. She eyed
him warily, the way she did with every man she
encountered now. “You live in Otoño?” he asked.
Her wariness increased. Slowly, she nodded.
“Oh, cool. Well, I'm one of your RAs.”
     
One of my what? Then she remembered. Resident
Adviser. “That's nice.” She moved to go around him
and again, he blocked her path.
    “Just letting you know that there's a mandatory
resident meeting tonight.”
“Mandatory? We have to go?”
    “Yup, 'fraid so. It's at eight o' clock tonight in the
Bay Lounge. Don't even think about dodging the
draft,” he warned her cheerfully. “We'll be knocking
on the doors starting at seven tonight, just to make
sure nobody forgets.”
He mimed air quotes around forgets .
    Val was unamused. Even though he seemed
friendly enough she couldn't bring herself to like him.
What was he so cheerful about?
“Thanks for letting me know.”
     
▪▫▪▫▪▫▪
    Val, determined to forget about the meeting, air
quotes or no, crawled into bed for a nap after a dinner
of ramen cooked in the microwave she and Mary
shared for when they couldn't make it to the DC. So
far, Val had been the only one to use it.
    The RA proved as good as his threat. A sharp
rapping on the door yanked her out of another
nightmare, and when she answered the door she
found herself looking at the same boy from before.
    He grinned at her. “Hey—you again.”
Val stared at him blearily.
“You coming to the resident meeting tonight?”
“Fine,” she said coldly.
“It's at eight o'clock. There will be food and
drinks and games. It'll be fun.”
     
Fun .
She
could
hear
him
knocking
on
her
neighbors' doors now. Yeah, right .
    Since her clothes from earlier were rumpled from
the nap she pulled on a new pair of jeans and a
flannel shirt. The makeup on her face had come off
and she wondered if the RA had noticed that her
eyebrows and eyelashes didn't quite match her hair.
    He's a boy. He wouldn't notice.
Gavin would.
    Val grabbed her stick of eyeliner and penciled
over the faint reddish-brown lines. Then, biting her
lip, she rolled black mascara over her eyelashes.
    Angel was right , she thought, stepping back to
regard her reflection in the mirror. I do look pale .
At least she fit in here. People didn't exactly flock
to Washington to sunbathe on the beaches. Her lips
quirked up a little; they would be very disappointed,
if they did.
All the freshmen staying at Otoño—or, at