The Soundtrack To My Semester

Zachary

Alright, my bags were in my dorm, my lovely single dorm. I was showered, dressed, and ready to start a new year with new girls and a new reputation.

I was no longer going to be ‘Zachary the Badass’. Okay, well maybe I could still be just a little bit of a badass.

I noticed some blonde chick walking to my right. She was wearing practically nothing, cut off shorts and a shirt showing way too much skin but who was I to complain? “Zachy baby, party tonight?” she asked as she passed me. I casually turned towards her, walking backwards and gave her a wink. Who was I kidding? It would take a monsoon to change me.

I turned to face the right way and felt something light push against me. Some girl was on the floor in front of me, I guess I just walked into her?

I stood and waited for her to get up because, ya know, it’s the polite thing to do. I waited, and waited, did she hit her head or something? “Are you gonna lay there all day?” I had places to be, people to see, a reputation to pretend to fix.

She glanced up to see me waiting and bolted up, trying to fix herself. I laughed, she was cute. Not cute like Miss Skin girl I just saw, but cute as in warm face, big eyes, lost puppy kind of look. She definitely had potential. I smirked, giving her a hand up. She looked too old to be a freshman, score. One thing I didn’t do was freshman, been there, I wasn’t going back again.

But she looked safe enough. She took my hand and I pulled her up easily, “Hey, I’m Zach.” I said with a smile.

“Regina.” She answered timidly. What a pretty name.

“Sorry about that.” I laughed, looking directly into her eyes. This girl was just too easy. I waited as she swooned.

“Oh, oh it’s no problem, I wasn’t paying attention.” There was something about her though and I couldn’t quite figure it out. It was like there was so much more to figure out behind those simple brown eyes. It might also be the way she stared right back into my eyes. Most girls couldn’t handle it and focused their attention on something else. Yeah, definitely something different.

I was about to ask her to the party I was just invited to when I heard some obnoxious laughing and a small scream. We both turned our attention to the commotion. Of course, it was my loser friends picking on some freshman geek. They were in a circle around him, pushing him in different directions. His bags were being thrown too, poor kid.

I glanced at Regina; she was looking at them horrified. This was my chance to be the ‘hero’. I strategized my plan quickly in my head. I’d go over there, pretend to stop what was going on, then run back to her, accept her worship and praise, then ask her to the party. I needed to give myself a pat on the back later. I threw a disgusted look on, “Excuse me one second.” I muttered angrily and jogged over to the guys.

“Aye! Zach!” Nate called as I approached them. I gave him a hard look and nodded my head back towards Regina.

“Hey you guys need to cut this out.” I spoke loud enough for her to hear me. Of course, Nate understood my battle plan right away. We’ve been a team for 12 years.

“Okay okay, cut it out guys.” Everyone backed off as the poor kid picked up his belongings franticly.

“Will all freshmen please report to the dorm office? Thank you.” A nasally voice announced over the loud speaker.

“That’s you, sport.” I slapped the kid on the back as he ran off. A small part inside of me felt bad, but hey whatever. I gave Nate a smile and started heading back to Regina but she wasn’t where I left her.

Crap. Stupid plan.