I walked down the stairs, careful to avoid the boxes that were placed everywhere, and headed into the kitchen. I placed my pre-packed bag on some hooks next to the front door on my way in. My mom, Isabella, had all the cabinets open and is staring at them intensely.

"Good morning mom," I said to her, startling her from her thoughts. I grabbed a bowl out of one of the many boxes scattered on there counter and the floor, dug through another box to find a spoon, and then poured myself a bowl of cereal.

"Morning honey! You ready for your first day of school?" she asked, walking over to me. I sit down on a barstool and she stood behind me. She started running her fingers through my hair.

"Mom, it's college. It isn't the same as before. I'm going to go, sit through two long classes, and then come back home. It won't be too bad," I replied, spooning more cereal into my mouth.

"I know, but my baby is going off to college and I am just so excited for you!" my mom exclaimed as she gives me a squeeze around my shoulders. I sighed, placing down my spoon, and leaning into her hug. I was the last kid in the house, with my older brother and sister living off on their own. Daniel, the oldest of the family at 30, was married and lived in San Diego, California with his wife, Marie. Marie was five months pregnant, due at the end of January and my parents were ecstatic to be getting their first grandchild. My brother worked for the Navy, but I never kept track of what it is he was actually doing. My 25 year-old sister, Victoria, was in Boston for graduate school. She was going to Northeastern University and getting a degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Her semester started two and a half weeks ago so we hadn't heard much from her since then.

As for me, I was starting at Peninsula College. I was going there because my dad, Jonathan worked there. I would have rather gone to a school back in Seattle, where we had just moved from. But with my dad working there, I got a discount on tuition and I really did not want student loans holding me down later in life, so I bit the bullet and decided to go to PC. I was going to study early childhood education so maybe one day I could teach or work with kids. I hadn't thought that far ahead. I just wanted to get a degree and picked from what was available.

"Try not to rush off campus when you are done. See if you can meet friends!" my mom said as I place my dishes into the sink. "You look great!" I silently groaned. Moving was hard enough, and all my friends from high school had gone off to big state schools, so I was left living in a new town knowing no one. It did not help that this town was actually in the middle of nowhere and was as small as a fly. But I didn't want to complain in front of my mom, so I turned around and smiled at her.

"We will see. Anyway, I have to go! I have a long drive ahead of me and don't want to be late for class. Love you," I said while grabbing my bag from the hooks by the front door. I headed out the door, looking back to wave at my mom, and headed out to my car. I opened the car door, hopped in, and drove off. It was about an hour-long drive to PC, which was just enough time for my nerves to get the best of me. I pulled into the parking lot, found an available space, and took my campus map out of my bag. My dad had given it to me the night before so I would know where to go today. It wasn't a big campus, but the educational building was far from the parking lot.

"You will be fine," I said, reassuring myself. I pulled down the sun visor and gave myself a quick look over. I tucked my shoulder-length red hair behind my ears, wishing I had brought a hair tie with me. I knew it looked better down but I hated the feeling of its weight down on my neck. I had a simple outfit with simple make up. A light denim dress under a teal cardigan with three-quarter sleeves. I wore light pink flats and gold stud earrings. My green eyes stared back at me in the mirror. I took a deep breath and closed the sun visor. I took a quick look at the clock. It was 10:00 am and my class started at 10:30, so I knew I needed to get going. I grabbed my bag and got out of the car.

Using my map, I walked almost all the way across the campus to the Allied Health & Early Childhood Education Building. The building almost backed up to the woods, but I noticed that there was a longhouse also on campus. I knew that there were Native American tribes around this area of Washington, but I did not know much else. I bet it would be interesting to learn a bit about them. When I walked into the building, I put my map back in my bag and pulled out my class schedule. My first class, Introduction to Early Childhood Education was in Room 213. I walked in and found an empty desk. There were a few other people there already, and they were getting their things out. I reached down into my bag and pulled out a notebook and some pens. The professor walked in and started setting up her things in the front of the classroom and soon class begun.

About an hour later, the class was over. I collected all of my items and put them away. I picked up my bag and head out of the room. It was just after 11:00 am and my next class wasn't until 3pm. I pulled my map back out and decided I would try to find a place that was quiet and had some food. I thought I would try the Pirate Union Building (PUB) and see if there was any place to sit. I found an empty seat and sat down. I pulled out the syllabus that my professor had given me in my last class and my planner so that I could fill in dates of exams and projects due. I didn't know how we were going to cover such a huge amount of information in such a small span of time. I wanted to keep track of everything. Having seen my brother and sister become so successful, I had big shoes to fill.

As I was reading through the syllabus and highlighting things to remember, I heard a crash. I quickly looked up to see two guys standing over a plate of food that had fallen to the floor. They were both very large, wearing cut off denim shorts and plain white t-shirts. The weather was nice out but I need a sweater. They must be cold. I could see a faint outline of a tattoo on the shoulder of the one who dropped his food. Both were wearing sneakers that had definitely seen better days, especially now that they were covered in the insides of a breakfast burrito.

"Damn it! Now I have to buy lunch again," one of them said leaning over to pick his food up off the ground. The other one laughed while helping him clean it up. They were both very handsome, with tan skin and dark black hair. The one who had dropped his food had short and somewhat curly hair and a rounder face. He was tall, but a few inches shorter than the other. The other one, still laughing, had a longer and more angular face. His hair was also short, but straighter than his friend's.

After cleaning up the mess, they left to get more food and I went back to looking over my syllabus. I sighed and realized if I read it over one more time I would probably drive myself crazy. I put all my supplies away and looked at my watch. It was almost noon, so I figured I would play around on my phone for a bit, then grab lunch. I wasn't that hungry but knew that I would be later if I didn't eat. After that, I figured I would go on a walk.

A few hours later, after eating and wandering around the campus to explore, and also locating my dad's office in case I ever needed it, I started to head back to the education building for my next class. On my way there, I passed the entrance to the longhouse. It was there that I saw the guys from before in the student building. The same ones who dropped food. They were sitting behind a white table that had papers and a clipboard on it, and they were looking quite bored. They were talking to each other and not really paying attention to who or what was around them. I was going to walk past, but then remembered what my mother had said to me that morning about meeting people. With that in mind, I took a deep breath and walked over to their table.

I had almost approached when one of them got a phone call. He quickly told his friend something, gesturing to the phone, answered and walked away, leaving the other behind the table alone. When I reached the table, he looked up and smiled.

"Hi! Are you interested in reserving the longhouse?" he asked. This was the same guy who had dropped his food earlier.

"Reserving it for what?" I asked, realizing that I had no plan for how this conversation should go.

"Well, whatever you want really. Different groups on campus use it for a variety of things. It will have to get approved first, but they are pretty chill about it," he responded, passing me one of the papers on the table. I took it and looked it over. It was advertising the longhouse space.

"I am actually okay, but thanks for offering. I am new to the campus and was just interested to learn about the longhouse and wanted to see what you and your friend were doing," I said, figuring honesty was probably the best policy to make a friend. The man laughed and nodded.

"Ah, I see. Well, I don't have much to do with the planning of the longhouse space, but my friend and I are both part of the Native Pathways program, so we got stuck sitting out here with the sign-up sheet." He turned around when he mentioned his friend to see where he went.

"Yeah, I'll be honest. I don't know what the Native Pathways program is or really much of anything about the school. I am studying education and I have only sat in one class," I said, realizing I probably had to go soon to make it to my next class. I snuck a glance at my watch. "Speaking of, I probably need to get going to my next class. It was nice to meet you," I said, sticking my hand out.

He took my hand and shook it. I was shocked at how warm his hand felt but I didn't want to be rude, so I shook back. "Yeah, you too! Always great to welcome new people to the campus. Keep the flyer and if you ever want to reserve the longhouse, let us know! You can tell them Quil sent you."

I chuckled and let go of his hand. "Well if you ever want to be a teacher, you can tell them Felicity sent you, although I doubt they will know who I am after a day. See you around!" I took the flyer and put it in my bag and then turned to go towards the education building. As I went into the building through the glass doors, I turned around and noticed Quil's friend came back and the two were joking around with each other.

Quick glimpse of Embry, but no formal introduction yet! Thanks for reading though! I am excited to see where this story takes me. It has been a while since I have written anything so I am hopping back on the bike!

I want to make it clear, I researched many aspects of this story from the distances between the towns in Washington, weather, the colleges, the courses offered at the colleges, everything! I haven't been to any of these places (except in Massachusetts) so if you noticed any information that is wrong, PLEASE let me know! I will correct it immediately. I want to make this as accurate as a fictional world as possible! Thanks for reading!