Page 10 of Shane
“Actually, it’s decided,” I correct him. “I’m coming here in the fall.”
“Yay!” She fake claps. “That’s a wise choice. Were you sent your housing assignment yet?” she asks.“Maybe we’re in the same dorm.”
“No, I’m renting an apartment off campus.”
“Wow, for your freshman year?”
My father smiles smugly. “I wanted to make sure she stayed in something nice.”
“I wasn’t sure I could live with a roommate,” I say, making excuses for my father’s snobbery. “I’m walking distance from campus though.”
“Oh, cool.” She smiles, but I sense a tinge of judgment behind it. “Well, make sure you visit all the tents on campus. There will be opportunities to win even more swag at some of the campus club tents. The chess club is even giving away a VCU-branded Stanley mug!”
Another water cup?
Kill me now.
“Oh, and there are various food trucks over there, too. If you’re hungry, I think the veggie egg roll truck is the best on campus.”
“Veggie egg rolls. Got it.”
“Mr. Bing, if you want, there’s an optional presentation for parents in the auditorium while Kennedy makes her rounds. The dean will be speaking, and it starts in fifteen minutes, so you should probably head over there to grab a good seat.”
“Did they mention a presentation in the informational email?” my father asks, not liking that there’s something official going on that he didn’t know about in advance.
“They may have,” I say casually. “But I assumed we’d learn more about it when we got here.”
“Well, if we hadn’t met Pepper, I would have missed the whole thing.”
Pepper smiles, apparently proud of the job she’s doing as a campus ambassador. “There’s a lot of information for new students to remember, sir,” she says in defense of me.
Okay, maybe she’s not so bad after all.
“So you should get going,” I rush him.
“It’s not that far at all, Mr. Bing. Just follow that stone pathway to your left, and it’s the big building on your right that says Sun Stadium.”
“Thank you, Pepper.” My father gives me a disapproving look. “I’ll text you when I’m finished, Kee-Kee. Don’t get lost.”
“Sure, Dad. Fine.”
“And Kennedy?”
“Yes?”
“Please don’t walk around campus with that scowl on your face, okay? You’re much prettier when you smile.”
I hate it when he says shit like that.
Ten minutes later, I’m scarfing down one of those veggie egg roll things Pepper recommended as I sit on an empty bench in what feels like the only quiet corner of campus. Grateful to people-watch, eat, and decompress before my father returns.
The campus is a lot different from the other schools I’ve visited, but in a good way. Universities from my side of the country are large, sprawling places covered in old brick buildings that have stood there for at least a hundred years. VCU, on the other hand, is a small, relatively new university with modern buildings and a kind of peaceful West Coast aura about it that I find refreshing.
Although based on what I’m witnessing dead center in the middle of campus, maybe I’ve spoken a little too soon.
shane
It’shectic on the yard today.