Away!

Aimee was practically inside her closet already, and it was not a walk-in closet. She was looking for a long-sleeved shirt which was proving to be quite a task since she was more of a sleeveless or short-sleeved shirt kind of girl.

It was not at all cold outside, and she did not have injured arms, but she felt like she needed the long sleeves to feel secure. She could not find any, she already used all of hers up the previous days, but she found the next best thing; a jacket. She had on jeans, but she decided she had better wear shorts to balance things out.

She could not wait to see her old friends again tonight. College had been fun, except for the last few days, but she did not want to dwell on that at all.

They were not supposed to meet until about eight, and it was only seven, and it only took one short ride for Aimee to get to their old high school, and she has already eaten dinner. And it was the first day of summer. There was nothing else for her to do while waiting, so she just sat down.

The thing that Aimee did not like about herself, particularly at that moment, was that if she was not busy with anything, she would dwell on thoughts she wanted most to avoid. This may sound strange, but sometimes her mind had a mind of its own.

Cue the rippled scenery as her thoughts went to a flashback of the not so distant past. She lived in a co-ed dormitory during the school year, and she was active in the activities of her living quarters. The dormitory had many activities, and one of the biggest was the sports-fest near the end of the year. The dormers were teamed up according to their corridor and compete in sports like basketball, volleyball, table-tennis, and cheer-leading. Cheer-leading was one of the sports where Aimee would compete.

Aimee was a little too competitive, and that gained her a few enemies in the dorm. Evil enemies, she thought of them now. One of them, Nina, was her classmate in one class and they had an exam the day before the cheer-leading competition. The enemy suggested that they celebrate the end of their exam by going drinking and everyone was game, even Aimee who never drank alcohol before. She suspected that her enemy already knew that fact about her because Aimee realized afterward that she was given more drinks than the others, and she passed out.

She woke up at a fast-food restaurant that was open twenty-four hours with a classmate who was also a dormer, but she was from a different dorm than Aimee.

“Good, you're awake. I ordered us some coffee,” she had said. “Nina said I should keep you company and not to wake you because you hate, hate, hate being disturbed from your sleep. She had to go back to your dorm early because she had a competition or something. Funny how she suggested drinking and barely drank herself. But then again that makes sense because of her competition thingy—”

“Oh no!” Aimee interrupted and finished the cup of coffee in front of her before bolting outside to try to go back to the dorm before the start of the competition.

She just barely made it. When she got back and finished dressing (she did not even stop to look at a mirror) it was one minute before her team would perform. Her hangover made it hard for her to concentrate but she saw Nina's angry face when she realized she was not able to keep Aimee from competing.

But Aimee forgot something. It was something very important when you had to wear a sleeveless cheerleader costume and extend your arms a lot.

She forgot to shave.

And Nina made sure that Aimee would never forget what she forgot.

Stupid Nina! Aimee thought with a swift shake of her head, removing the stupid images. She checked the time, mumbled, “Finally,” and got up.