Chapter 2: Reputation
Brooke was alone in her dorm room sipping on her coffee when she got the first text from Avery.
Avery Black: Missed you in the second half of chemistry. What could you have been up to?
Brooke glanced at her desk where her sketchbook lay open to the page with her drawing of Avery.
Brooke Johnson: Oh, you know, off tending to important matters… and thinking of you all the while.
Brooke immediately blushed bright red with embarrassment. She was so awkward and cringe-worthy when she tried to flirt.
Avery Black:. ..
Just then, as Brooke waited anxiously for Avery’s response, her best friend and roommate sauntered into the dorm.
Alex and Brooke had known each other for as long as either could remember. They had grown up in the same town in Humboldt county, and applied to all the same colleges their senior year. They were both art students, but Alex had the cool, confident swagger to match his lucrative and practical photography major. He dressed in a casual fashion that looked effortless, a dark green scarf tucked into his blue hoodie, and his normally spiky brown hair dripping damply. It must have started to drizzle since Brooke had gotten home.
Alex caught sight of Brooke’s red cheeks instantly from across the room. She was lying back in her bed, phone still clutched in her hands. Alex made a beeline for her, after carefully placing his camera on his desk.
“Well, hello, who’re we sexting?” Alex asked, plopping down on the foot of Brooke’s bed and straining to read over her knees.
“What?!” Brooke spluttered, shutting her phone off. “No one!” Her phone notification pinged; Avery had responded. Brooke itched to read the message. Alex gave her a knowing look, eyebrows raised. She giggled slightly despite herself.
“You met someone! Spill, now,” he commanded, folding his legs up on the bed. Brooke pushed herself into a sitting position opposite him, making sure her head and neck were supported with a pillow.
“Okay, well… and this doesn’t leave this room, promise?” Brooke started. He stuck out his pinky for a pinky swear; she shook it. “Okay. Her name is Avery Black, and she’s possibly the most beautiful being ever to set foot on planet Earth… and we might’ve made out in the bathroom during chemistry.” She sighed dreamily, her eyes fluttering shut at the memory of their encounter earlier that day.
“Wait, no shit?” Alex said suddenly, excitement and incredulity in his tone. “The Avery Black? The star of the soccer team?”
“I’m not sure, she is pretty athletic-looking…” Brooke zoned out for a couple of seconds, picturing Avery standing over her, pressing her against the bathroom door. “It might be.” Alex whipped out his phone, then pulled up the team’s Instagram account. He found a picture of the team taken after they’d won a game. He zoomed in on the tallest player and passed his phone to her. The woman had lovely tan skin and long curly black hair and she wore a long sleeved shirt under her jersey. “That’s her!” Brooke confirmed.
“Daaamn, Brooke!” he said, clutching her upper arm. “Way to go! She’s hot as fuck, you gotta jump on that!”
“She really is,” Brooke sighed again, “I’m not sure if she likes me, though…”
“Come on, Brooke!” Alex said, grasping her wrist. “Don’t make this another Veronica. She clearly likes you or she wouldn’t have kissed you!”
“What do you mean ‘another Veronica’?” Brooke asked, defensive.
“It was obvious she liked you but you waited forever to make a move on her! It was agonizing to watch.”
“Yeah but I did make a move on her eventually,” Brooke protested. “And we dated for almost a year.”
“My point still stands, go out with Avery. She likes you.” Alex pulled out his phone, ending the discussion. Brooke shrugged and glanced down at her own phone. Alex was scrolling through the team Insta for more pics of Avery. He wouldn’t notice if she snuck a quick peek.
Avery Black: Can’t wait to see you tomorrow 😉 <3
If Brooke had been alone and not actively migraining, she would’ve rolled back onto her back and kicked her legs gleefully into the air. Instead, she sat still and listened to what Alex was saying.
“You’ll have to figure out what’s up with the posse she always goes around with,” Alex said, animated. “She has basically no online presence outside team stuff.”
Brooke leaned back on her hands, intrigued. “What do you mean?” Alex always seemed to know at least 3 times the amount of campus gossip Brooke heard. Maybe he just paid more attention to it. Either way, Brooke was content to hear most of it from him.
“Do you walk around with your head in a bag?” he started to explain. “They go everywhere together. There are like five or six of them, all tall, all smoking hot. Surely you’ve seen them around, they kinda stick out.” Brooke shook her head uncertainly. She might’ve seen them, but she couldn’t remember. For a visual artist, she could be pretty unobservant. “You would think they’d be on the team with Avery but none of them are. I’m not even sure they all go here,” Alex continued. “There’s this one girl, Rachel. When I see her my heart skips a beat.” Alex put a hand to his heart and mock-swooned, falling back against Brooke’s pillows.
Brooke laughed giddily, flopping back on her back. “Wait, I thought you were dating that guy from drama?”
“Ehhh, it kinda fizzled out with Lance,” Alex said with a shrug.
“Didn’t you tell your mom BOUT HIM? It seemed like you guys might have been getting serious.”
“Don’t remind me,” Alex groaned. “She’ll be asking me about him for the next 6 months .”
“I’ll have to ask Avery about Rachel.” Brooke smiled in anticipation. “You have any more classes today?”
“Yeah, I have art history in like a half hour. What about you?” Brooke couldn’t help but be slightly jealous that Alex had gotten a spot in the history class she’d had her eye on. Unfortunately, Brooke had slept in on the morning of registration day and, by the time she logged in, the History of the Pacific Northwest was the only one with open spots.
“Nothing today.” Brooke fidgeted with her hands, not liking the idea of doing nothing the rest of the day when she’d already missed half of chemistry. “So I think I’ll go get set up with the student Disability Services.” I have to get it done sometime, why not with a migraine, Brooke thought.
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“Nah, you have class.” The truth was Brooke was afraid of the message it would send if she couldn’t even go get registered for services on her own.
“Okay, then I guess we’ll meet back here this evening.”
“Yeah.” They chatted for a few minutes as Brooke nursed the last few sips of her coffee, then Alex left for his class and the conversation changed to Brooke internally trying to convince herself to leave the warm comfort of her bed.
She would have to go down to the CDS sometime this week, better to get it done sooner than later. But it was likely to be brightly li. But she did have her sunglasses and it should only take a few minutes. Besides, she was already dressed, she should put that effort to good use. Heaving a sigh, Brooke finished the cup of coffee, set down the mug on the desk, and got heavily to her feet.
Walking sluggishly down the hall of the Student Center, Brooke hugged the wall, just in case she needed it to brace herself. She was clearly not the only one wanting to get a jump on things if the line in the CDS office was anything to judge by. Brooke was somewhat reassured by the number of students with disabilities. Surely that should mean the college was used to accommodating them, right? Brooke signed in on the computer opposite the door and took a seat to wait. About 20 minutes later, when she was deep into ranting to herself on why anyone would ever think fluorescent lights are a good idea, Brooke’s name was called from one of the desks deeper in the office.
“So, your paperwork seems to be mostly in order,” said the disability counselor, a short, slight middle-aged woman with short brown hair messed up in a way Brooke didn’t understand until she saw the woman repeatedly run her fingers through it as she read. A busy first week for everyone, then. “But you really need to try and get your primary care transferred to a doctor in this state before next quarter.” Something else to add to the to do list, Brooke mentally sighed, keeping her face in a neutral smile. “But this will do for now.”
The counselor then proceeded to rattle off a long list of possible services provided by the college, most of which didn’t apply to Brooke, before finally getting to the ones Brooke and her doctor had both written on her application forms.
“So, you need to be able to sit where you want in classes, go to the bathroom, etc whenever, and you need an elevator pass. Am I missing anything?” Only the most important items on the list. And the biggest asks.
“My chronic illnesses are very unpredictable,” Brooke started to explain. “So I need to be able to miss some classes and hand in assignments late when my symptoms are too severe.”
“Alright, take these.” She handed Brooke 3 identical forms with spaces to fill in needed accomodations and 2 sign and date lines at the bottom. “Get each of your instructors to sign one, then bring them back here.”
“I will,” Brooke said, folding the forms in half and getting up eagerly to head back to her dorm.
Later that evening, Alex convinced her to rest and watch a movie with him. Why was it so much easier for her to justify needed rest when it was suggested by someone else?
The next day Brooke was walking to Chemistry when a smooth, clear voice sounded a few feet behind her. Avery.
“Good morning, gorgeous,” she purred, closer than Brooke had first thought. She whirled around and her breath caught as their eyes met once again. Avery’s two pools of liquid gold stunned Brooke once again. When she broke eye contact, she could see Avery was wearing black yoga pants with translucent mesh panels that Brooke could not seem to stop herself from looking at, and a girl in red sweatshirt.
“Uhm, good morning,” Brooke managed to get out. She felt herself take an unconscious step towards Avery, skin straining to make contact with hers. Avery stood stiff, her innumerable muscles deliciously tensed, and Brooke wondered if she felt the same way.
“Come with me,” Avery said, glancing over her shoulder and holding out her hand. Brooke took it without a second of hesitation, letting her pull her towards a nearby stand of birch trees a ways off the path. As they went, Brooke saw who she’d been looking at. Just as Alex had described, there was a cluster of very attractive, very fit students about thirty yards away, whispering to each other and stealing looks in their direction. They were stunning, but none of them held a candle to Avery.
Brooke let herself be led into the heart of the trees so that they were blocked from view from most directions and couldn’t see Avery’s friends anymore. As soon as her attention focused back on her guide, Avery turned towards her with impossible speed and kissed her. Brooke kissed her back fervently, urgently; as though the kiss was water and she had spent a day in a desert. Avery’s strong arms snaked around her back and she relaxed into them with a sigh that was instantly swallowed by their kiss. It was over too quickly.
Avery was the one to break off the kiss, to Brooke’s displeasure. She let out a small whine of protest, still held in Avery’s arms. Avery smirked proudly and propped her back on her feet the best she could. Brooke had to lean against the tree behind her for support; her legs felt like Jell-O.
“I missed you,” Avery said then, voice husky.
“We just saw each other yesterday,” Brooke responded, flustered.
“I know,” Avery replied, and looked deep into Brooke’s eyes, squinting slightly like she was gauging her response. Then she really shocked her. “Will you go out on a date with me?”
“Yes! Of course!” Brooke said instantly. As though if she waited half a second Avery might change her mind. Her face broke out in a devastating smile.
“Fantastic! I have practice today and tomorrow, so, does Friday work for you?” Avery asked, still smiling. Brooke didn’t care. She would make it work.
“Absolutely!” she replied, maybe too enthusiastically. She had zero chill around Avery.
“Great, I’ll pick you up at 7.” Two days seemed like an eternity to wait. “We should probably get to chemistry.” Brooke peeked through a gap in the trees to where Avery was watching students make their way into the science building on mass. She realized she had forgotten all about class. She would have to be careful. At this rate she’d fail chemistry.
“Yeah, we should.” Brooke pushed herself away from the tree and strode towards class, just a little shakily, very aware of Avery’s gaze on her back.
When they got there, Brooke took a seat at the front of the class. She needed to actually pay attention to the lecture and that would be impossible with Avery sitting in front of her. Avery took the seat to her right, which turned out to be just as distracting. Brooke could smell the sweet scent of crushed cedar and pine needles drifting across the inches separating them. She could feel Avery’s body heat radiating towards her. From time to time they would touch. Small things: the brush of an elbow, the touch of two hands as one passed a pencil, the gentle bob of a wayward knee against a wandering thigh. Each one sent a warm summer breeze dancing along Brooke’s synapses. Friday could not come soon enough.