Clark Kirkpatrick Kirkpatrick

English pd. 2
Mrs. Chiodo
3/24/08

My First Day at College

Finally, the morning I had waited for all thistime. With summer almost over, I

headed off to college. For months I had looked forward to this, and the time had

finally arrived. I hardly got a wink of sleep the previous night, and we had packed

the car with all the things I had started buying months ago, including a year’s worth

of pens, shampoo, paper, toothpaste and a wholearray of other everyday items

back there. It took up the whole trunk and back seat of my dad’s black sedan.

After saying a tearful goodbye to mom and hugging my little sister, and

promising to call every night, dad and I finally got in his anguishedcar and pulled

out. College campus stood a long way off, a seven hour drive from home. I read

most of the time, summer reading required for all incoming freshmen. God, they

give us some boring books. But even though I read, my mind could not be foundin

the pages of their mind-numbing book; how could I possibly think about anything

but what lay just a few hours ahead of me? I was about to begina totally new

experience. I had never spent much time away from my parents except for a few

days here and there, for summer campsand whatnot. I know I’m going to miss my

parents, but pretty much everyone does sometime, so I should turn out all right.

After seven tedious hours on the highway, full of grumbling and complaining

about the other pinhead drivers out here, we finally arrivedat college. A man

showed us to my roomand we unload all my stuff. My room looked tiny, and with

my entire wardrobe stuffed into garbage bags and cardboard boxes, I hadno idea

how it will all fit into the meager space afforded to my freshman dorm room. I

decided that I would have to work out later though; for now, I have to head down to

another building for in-processing.

Clark Kirkpatrick Kirkpatrick
English pd. 2
Mrs. Chiodo
3/24/08

That afternoon, I had quite a surprise. After in-processing (an extremely

redundant procedure, by the way), I returned to my dorm room and wascaught

completely by surprise to see another student already there. This wasn’t just any

student; I knew that at first sight. He looked at me with a goofy grin and said, quite

profoundly, “Hey dude. My name’s Charles, but everyone calls me Chuckie.”

Wonderful. Now I have a creeper roommate whose name is Chuckie. How

much worse does it get? I tried to force a smile, which came out more as a grimace,

and introduced myself. Chuckie’s stuff looked like his mother hadpacked with a

flashbang grenade in the middle, and he simply pulled the pin to unpack. Both

sides of the room were covered with Chuckie clothes; Chuckie high socks, Chuckie

whitey tighties, Chuckie extra-large Hawaiian shirts, Chuckie Pokémon pajamas.

Chuckie clothes even covered my bed.

“Hey, uh, Chuckie? Would you mind getting some of your stuff off my bed?”

I inquired in a measured tone.

“Oh. Sorry ‘bout all that” he said, and trundled over to retrieve his Pokémon

shrapnel. But instead of taking it to his side of the room, he simply brushed it on

the floor and kicked it under the bed. I decided not to press the issue for now, and

busied myself unpacking my first box of clothes.

“Dude, what are you doing tonight?” Chuckie’s irritating voice pierced

through the peaceful quiet.

“I’m finishing my summer reading and unpacking” I replied curtly.

“Really? That sounds sad. You should totally come out with me tonight to

this sick party I’m going to. It’s gonna be intense, tons of hot chicks and beer.

What do you think?”

Clark Kirkpatrick Kirkpatrick
English pd. 2
Mrs. Chiodo
3/24/08

I went on my first instinct without hesitation. “I have a lot to do around here.

I think I’ll stay back tonight and unpack.”

“You can’t go through college without having fun, you know. This iswhere it

all happens. I have friends who went to college last year, and they said the more

you party, the easier college is.”

“No, I’m really okay. There will be plenty of other nights to party. I have work

to do tonight.”

“You’re just making excuses. You don’t have the guts to go out and meet

some people and do the crazy things that people do at college parties!”

That set me off. “I am not afraid! I told you, I have things I need to do. Now

will you please leave me alone?”

“You’re afraid! You can’t handle a college party!”

“I can so handle a college party! Didn’t I tell you to leave me alone?”

“I can’t be roommates with a wimp. Especially one that can’t even go to a

party!”

“OKAY. Fine. I’ll go to your little party, and then you can never say that I’m

too afraid to go to a party, okay?”

“Good. It starts at ten, but most people will get there around eleven. I can

give you a ride, if you want.”

“Fine.”

We arrived at 10:45. The party started at a fraternity house, and there were

already over fifty people there. I walked in with Chuckie, who was dressed in his

best Hawaiian shirt, a baseball cap, tight jeans and a pair of worn, cracking cowboy
Clark Kirkpatrick Kirkpatrick
English pd. 2
Mrs. Chiodo
3/24/08

boots. I wondered if we would be taken as a gay couple; the thought horrified me. I

made sure to keep my distance from Chuckie after we went inside.

The inside of the house smelled strongly of smoke, with an obnoxious mix of

bad music and people yelling and laughing. Most of the people loungedaround

drinking who knows what. I found my way to what was apparently the kitchen,

although I couldhardly distinguishable as one. The floor bowed under the weight of

six kegs of beer, and there were people serving hard liquor and cigars. I decided

that I would look foolish walking around with a soda, so I helped myself to a cup of

beer and exited the kitchen.

Upon leaving the kitchen, I found myself caught in the midst of a swarm of

people dancing to the terrible music that blaredfrom bad-quality speakers. I tried to

walk through the crowd, but quickly lost hope of that. I turned around, only to find

myself completely disoriented in the low light. I had completed my second full turn

around when someone grabbed my hand, and before I knew it, I found myself

directly behind some girl, who had a beer in her hand and had begun

aggressivelygrinding on me. Not knowing what else to do, I decided to endure it

until the end of the song. So I waited. And waited. And finally, I began to lose hope

of the song ever ending. I decided this was not too bad, though, and by time the

seemingly endless song finally came to an end, I wasn’t so anxious to get away

anymore.

At the end of the song I turned to leave, but she held onto my hand and

wouldn’t let go. She trailed me as I found my way out of the dancing room and back

into the kitchen. I tossed my cup in the trash and she followed suit, before turning

to me and saying, “Hi. My name’s Steph, what’s yours?”

Clark Kirkpatrick Kirkpatrick
English pd. 2
Mrs. Chiodo
3/24/08

Before then, I hadn’t seen this girl’s face. She was striking. I stuttered for a

moment before managing to reply, “Oh… uh… I’m Chris.”

“Cool. So I think we should grab another beer and then meet my friends

outside, what do you think?”

I stuttered, again. “Um… yeah, sure, I guess…”

Hanging onto my hand like her life depended on it, Steph put two cups on a

small clear spot on the table and poured us both a beer. Then she handed me mine

and lead me to the door.

We found even more people partying outside than we had left inside. The

number of people at the party had grown exponentially since Chuckie and I had

arrived; I wondered how he had made out, and then decided not to think about him.

It proved almost as loud outside as it wasinside. A hot tub stood around the side of

the house that I had not noticed before and at least fifteen people had jammed into

it. Behind that, farther into the back yard, a huge bonfire burned. Someone had

arranged lawn chairs around it and also near the hot tub, and the people that

occupied them drank and smoked and hadrather unintelligent conversations. It

wasmostly dark out, other than a light over the hot tub and the fire burning in the

back corner. The stench of smoke filled the air, all kinds of smoke.

Steph took me to the bonfire. One of the guys standing there noticed us walk

up, and called to her. We walked over to him, and Steph introduced me to Nick.

Nick appearedtall and lanky, and needed to shave badly. He talked slowly, without

enunciating much, and was smoking a cigar with one hand and drinking a Heineken

with the other. After my introduction, Steph grabbed the cigar out of his hand and

took a long drag. She let it out quickly and took another one, before sticking the
Clark Kirkpatrick Kirkpatrick
English pd. 2
Mrs. Chiodo
3/24/08

cigar into my free hand. “Oh, I don’t smoke,” I said, smiling a little bit and pushing

it back in her direction.

“Well you do now,” she replied with a wide smile, and winked. “Don’t worry,

it’s not as bad as you think it is. Just take a drag.”

Oh, what the hell I thought, and stuck the thing between my lips and

proceeded to inhale rather deeply through it. But as soon as the cigar left my

mouth I started to gag violently. Steph giggled. “You’ll get it. Try again in a few

minutes.” I didn’t think I feltabout ready to try again; my eyes were watering and I

had a nasty taste in my mouth. But after Nick and Steph each took another hit, my

turn came around and I thought that having gagged once was bad enough, I

probably should not make myself look dumb again. So I gave it another try, and did

not do as badly this time; just a little cough at the end. Steph smiled and passed it

around again, and by my third turn I was gaining confidence and smoking smoothly.

After our little chain smoke, Steph informed me that I wasgoing with her into

the hot tub. I was notso sure about that. “I want to go back inside,” I said rather

lamely, “I have to find my roommate, he’s driving me back. And I don’t even have a

bathing suit with me, anyway.”

Steph smiled. “Neither do I,” she said, and without further ado, pulled me to

the overflowing hot tub. Not knowing how to resist, I again gave in to her. Before I

knew it, I had stripped down to my boxers and I was sitting on a ledge in the tub,

wedged between a couple of girls to my right and another guy to my left. Steph did

not hesitate, but plopped right down on my lap.

Rightabout this time I started to feel a little bit fuzzy. I struggled to think, and

I suddenly realized that the cigar I had smoked was not at all just a cigar. It
Clark Kirkpatrick Kirkpatrick
English pd. 2
Mrs. Chiodo
3/24/08

definitely had something other than tobacco in it. The people in the tub carried on

several different conversations simultaneously, and I could not entirely follow any of

them. At one point, Steph got up and got us both another beer. She may have

done this several times, although from that point on, I never had a full recollection

of the details of what happened. We sat in the hot tub for a while, maybe forty-five

minutes, talking and drinking and laughing a lot. It had gotten quite late, and well

past one o’clock, we finally got out.

After we got out of the hot tub and wiggled back into our clothes, we

zigzagged back into the house. After a trip back to the kitchen for more beer, we

collapsed on a couch together, laughing, Steph on my lap. A girl with a tray of shot

glasses walked past, and Steph snatched two and downed one, before feeding one

to me. We talked a little bit, but while I attempted to say something relating to

baby penguins, she leaned over and kissed me, full on the mouth. I do not

remember much right after that, until about half an hour later, after we had found

our way to her car (apparently she had one).

Miraculously, Steph managed to drive us to where she lived with her

roommate, in a small apartment. Her roommate had gone out tonight though, gone

out with a friend and Steph did notexpected back until morning. She lead me

inside, and we stumbled through the apartment to her bedroom. I do not remember

what happened after that, until I woke up the next morning to the return of Steph’s

angry roommate banging on the door to our room. I got myself up and just made it

to the bathroom in time to vomit in the toilet. Half-conscious, I made my way back

to the bedroom and realized for the first time that morning that Steph was in the

same bed I had just gotten out of, and that’s when the night before all came rushing
Clark Kirkpatrick Kirkpatrick
English pd. 2
Mrs. Chiodo
3/24/08

back to me… my first day at college. It definitely did not go as expected; it was way

better than that. I need to add Pepto Bismol to my college purchases for next year.

Oh, and find a new roommate. According to Steph, Chuckie isone of the biggest

drug dealers on campus. I wonder what next weekend will bring.