Different Dimension

Here it was. The University of Pennsylvania – UPenn. Zack had been waiting for this day to come all summer, and finally, at the end of August, it was here. He was finally heading to college. He would finally be a freshman. Unfortunately his parents hadn’t been able to drive him up here, unable to get any time off work, but his older sister Samantha had readily volunteered instead. That was still nice though – he was closer to his sister than to his parents. They’d done the 12 hour journey in two stages, driving up 8 hours last night before getting a hotel room, and then the last 4 hours early this morning. It had definitely been worth it.

His sister pulled into the visitor parking lot, parking next to a car with a girl and her parents already unloading. Zack got out of the car with a groan, stretching his legs, his sister just laughing at him, making him blush slightly. What? He wasn’t used to being in a car for long hours at a time.

“Come on, let’s unload the car,” his sister smiled.

Zack nodded and walked round to the trunk, letting his sister unlock it.

“I’m from Florida too!”

Zack flinched at the loud voice, turning to see the girl from the car next to him pointing at their Florida license plate. Oh, right.

“Fort Lauderdale,” she introduced.

Zack laughed. “Jacksonville. But my name’s Zack. Zack Merrick. This is my sister Sam,”

“Sierra Kusterbeck,” she laughed in reply, “This is my mom and my step-dad,”

A friendly conversation already. This was a good sign. The girl was pretty too, with wild wavy brown hair, sparkling brown eyes lined with dark eyeliner, wearing a loose green t-shirt and ripped jeans. Such a shame she wasn’t his type.

Zack smiled and nodded, before returning to help sister unpack her car. What? He couldn’t leave her to do it all. And she sure as hell couldn’t lift the duffel bag with his weights in. Eventually though, the car was unloaded, and Zack was ready to head to his dorm building, ready to sign in officially. Holy shit. That was a scary thought.

“We can turn around right now and go home. We can tell mom and dad you just wanted to wait a year,” his sister frowned.

Zack smiled, shaking his head. Sometimes his sister really was too overprotective. He guessed that came from their parents leaving most of their parenting responsibilities to her as they grew up.

“No, let’s do this,” Zack said confidently.

The girl…Sierra finished unpacking her car at the same time, so Zack just tagged along with her as they walking. It actually turned out they were heading for the same dorm building, which was a nice surprise.

“I’m on the second floor, rooming with a girl called Tay,” Sierra told him, “what about you?”

Oh.

“I’m on the fourth floor, with a guy called Rian,” Zack explained, smiling apologetically.

“That’s too bad. Don’t think you’re getting rid of me that easily though,” Sierra grinned.

“She’s not lying either. Good luck, you’ll get sick of her by the end of the week,” Sierra’s mom teased.

Sierra just laughed, everyone else joining in. This girl was infectious. And at least he’d know one friendly face in his building.

Zack stayed silent as they registered, his sister rambling away out of nerves, smiling as the administrator handed him his key and directions to his dorm room.

“I guess this is goodbye for now. I’ll see you later, yeah?” Sierra said, smiling wide.

“Yeah, see you,” Zack nodded, smiling back.

Could he already have made a friend? Maybe college really did work wonders.

“Why did you have to be assigned the fourth floor? Stairs suck,” Sam protested.

Zack just laughed at his sister. It had been bad luck that the elevator was crammed full when they reached it, but the walk up the stairs wasn’t that bad. And it wasn’t like he’d really brought all that much with him. In the ‘Freshman Introduction’ pack he’d been sent, Zack had found out there was a fitness room in his building, so he didn’t have to bring all his weights, fitting a select few in the box holding all the books he’d had to buy and his toiletries. Zack was carrying that box (as it was the heaviest) as well as his two duffel bags of clothes while his sister carried his bedding and appliances (iPod dock, cables to link his camera up to his laptop, his actual laptop etc), so it wasn’t that bad. Zack didn’t own too many clothes, to be fair though, just a couple of pair of shorts for relaxing (and for hot days), as well as a couple pairs of jeans, and a selection of t-shirts, hoodies and maybe 2 nice shirts, along with two pairs of skate shoes for everyday wear, a pair of flipflops for casual, and a pair of nice shoes just in case. He rarely wore t-shirts in his room at home or in his house, and he didn’t intend to here either, so his roommate, ‘Rian’, would just have to get used to it. What was the point in getting fully dressed if he wasn’t leaving his room?

“407. This is it,” Zack told his sister.

She just nodded, looking even more nervous than before. Bless her. The door was already slightly ajar, so Zack just pushed it open. He could test his key later. Inside, a guy was sifting through a box of books, and he stood up as Zack walked in. Short light brown hair, broad shoulders, kind smile. He seemed nice enough.

“Hey, I’m Rian. You’re Zachary, right?” the guy said warmly.

Zack put his box of books down as Rian stuck out his hand, shaking it in return.

“I’m Zack, yeah. This is my sister Sam,” Zack nodded.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Rian said, smiling.

“RIAN! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE AND GRAB THESE LAST BAGS!”

Rian winced at the loud yell, heading over to the open window. “ALRIGHT, I’M COMING!”

Zack just snickered, Sam smiling.

“Mom’s the boss. See you in a minute,” Rian mused.

And with that he headed out, leaving Zack and his sister to his plain side of the dorm. It wasn’t a bad size, to be honest, and had enough storage room on the walls for everything he needed, as well as a decent desk at the foot of his bed with a wardrobe at the head, drawers built into that. Not bad. Not bad at all.

“You take clothes and I’ll take bedding?” his sister suggested.

“Deal,” Zack mused.

In no time at all, his sister had made his bed for him, folding away the spare linen and towels into the top of his wardrobe, leaving his boxes of books and appliances on top of his desk.

“I’d better get going,” his sister said wistfully, “traffic will be bad if I don’t make a move now,”

It hit him then, that he really was at college by himself, his family back in Florida while he stayed up in Philadelphia. He knew 12 hours was still a hefty distance, but it wasn’t the furthest away of colleges he could’ve chosen, not by a long shot, but it was still way further than he’d ever been from his sister and his parents. But he could do this. He had to do this. He would be fine.

“Okay, text me when you get home. Drive safe, yeah?” Zack said, smiling.

“Call me if you need anything at all. No matter what time of day. Call me every week regardless. And have fun – you deserve it, okay?”

Zack just pulled her in for a hug as her eyes watered, not wanting to cry himself. That wouldn’t be a good first impression to make.

Eventually she left, allowing him to start putting his books in order on the shelves built into the wall by his bed. Five minutes into that, the door was knocked upon, and an older guy pushed it open, standing in the doorway. Dark messy hair, dark eyes, slight stubble, tattoos, friendly smile…

“Hey freshman. I’m Paul DiGiovanni and I’m your RA. I’m in room 401, just 6 doors down,” the guy introduced.

Well that made sense. And at least his RA was nice to look at. Whoops. Maybe not the best way to start thinking.

“Zack Merrick,” Zack nodded, smiling.

“Sweet, well, I’ll learn everyone’s names etc properly over the rest of the week, but tonight I’m organising a floor meeting before the welcome barbecue. Probably around 6pm,”

“Sounds like fun,” Zack said, smiling even more.

A welcome barbecue sounded perfect right about now, and a floor meeting would be useful. He definitely was determined not to be the recluse loner freshman with no friends. No way.

“Let your roommate know, but I’ll knock on everyone’s doors again later,”

“Great, thanks,”

“No problem Zack, it’s my job. Here’s a map of campus, I’ve circled the food hall where you’ll get lunch free today as extra on your meal plan, so just get down there before 2pm. See you later,” Paul rambled.

And with that, the RA left with a beaming smile. Paul. He’d have to remember that. Rian bustled in again not long after that, Zack listening to his constant chatter (in a good way though) as he finished off unpacking. Rian was a nice guy. The kind of guy Zack could be friends with, if he was honest.

So far, so good. Things could only get even better, right?