Chapter 1

I put my arm around my girlfriend. “We did it, babe.”

“We sure did,” Valerie said. At five feet tall, she spent a lot of time looking up to me, sending her long wavy hair flowing back. She sighed, looking across the campus green. It was the first day of the year for college, and students moved about with purpose and excitement. A fresh start was in the air.

And for us, being our first day of our first year, it was a fresher start than most.

“This could be big for us,” I said. “We study hard enough to keep our scholarships, then have a little fun…”

“You mean,” she said, her eyes sparkling with mischief, “you can drill me on my exams… then drill me in bed?” She laughed, punching my arm. “I’m not just here to ‘keep my scholarship’. I’m here to change the world.”

“Lame!”

We turned around. “Erika?” Valerie exclaimed. “Oh my god, I haven’t seen you in months! How was the internship?”

She thrust her hips back, doing a little hip-hop groove. At least, she tried to. For Latina chicks, neither Valerie nor Erika had much rhythm. That would have required, you know, dancing… and you can’t dance and read at the same time, so they thought it was pointless.

“It was sensational!” she said. “If I keep my grades up, I’m guaranteed a job on graduating.”

“Nice, girl! What about boys, any cute boys?”

Erika waved her hand. “Nah. Well, yeah, but nothing really happened.”

They gossiped for a little while, until the fateful-yet-innocuous question arose: “if none of us have classes for a while, what should we do?”

“Are you hungry?” I said. “I hear the mess hall is great. Let’s grab some breakfast.”

“Sure, Noah,” Erika said, “that sounds wonderful.”

Valerie shrugged. “Sure, I guess…”

I could tell she wasn’t keen on that idea… and she only grew less so once she saw the line at the entrance. “That just means it’s really good!” I joked.

She frowned at me.

“Noah! Hey, Noah!”

I looked around until I saw someone waving towards me. I couldn’t place her at first - she was a little shorter than me (which gave her a good six inches on Valerie and Erika), with pale skin and red hair, cut to shoulder length. Then I noticed the freckles and the dazzling green eyes, and the memory came to me. “Meghan?”

“Uh huh!” she said, running over to me. “Great to see you!”

“You too. Uh, Valerie, Erika, this is Meghan. We worked in a kitchen together over a summer or two.”

She beamed at our group. “And I still am. Working in kitchens, I mean.” She gestured to her uniform - black, sensible pants and shirt, adorned with the college’s logo.

“Wait, you work here?” Erika asked. “Does that mean you could… get us in?”

Meghan winked. “Follow me.” She led us to the front, earning us a dirty look or two as we cut the line. “You know, my shift just ended,” she said, finding us a table off to the side. “If you tell me what you want, I’ll point the order in then join you? They have table service here - it’s great!”

We agreed, placed our orders then relaxed into our seats. “Wow, this place is popular,” Valerie said. “Look how big this place is… and they still have a queue like that?”

She was right. Hundreds of students were talking, laughing and, of course, eating. It was noisy… but it should have been much noisier. I took a moment to appreciate some of the design choices here, like the sound-absorbing material lining the ceiling and columns. Whoever built this thought ahead… and knew it would be busy.

Meghan joined us, then our food arrived shortly after. “Watch out, this food is amazing,” she warned us. “I just started yesterday and I’ve already decided to take up running.”

“Is that why you ordered the chicken waffles?” I asked. Not that I could talk - I’d done the same. Erika had pancakes and Valerie had ordered a garden salad.

I took a bite of mine. It tasted… not off exactly, but strange. Almost metallic. It wasn’t terrible or anything… but I was pretty underwhelmed. I was about to ask if anyone else’s tasted funny when Erika cut me off.

“This is… amazing!” She cooed as she shoveled another forkful into her mouth.

“Right?” Meghan said, grinning as syrup trickled down her chin.

“Even the salad’s great,” Valerie said. She put down her fork and lifted the bowl to her face. “How is it this delicious?”

My jaw dropped. Erika might pig out from time to time, but not Valerie. She was big on ‘mindful eating’ - not that I knew what that meant, apart from it taking her hours to finish a meal. Both women were short and skinny - there was only so much pigging out they could take.

Was this some sort of prank? That wasn’t their style… and why would Meghan go along with it?

I took another small bite, this time of the waffle. Again, it tasted okay, if that.

“Are you gonna finish that?”

I looked at Valerie. Her bowl was empty, setting a new personal best for quickest eating. Dressing dribbled down her nose and cheeks, and she had a bit of kale stuck to her forehead.

“You… you want this?” I asked. Smart as she was, I doubted Valerie could even spell ‘carbs’.

“Yeah, definitely.” She grabbed my plate, took a bite and moaned. “This is so delicious!”

It didn’t take long before the plates were empty - even so, they were running their fingers through the syrup, licking them clean. “How were the pancakes?” Meghan asked. “I’m thinking about ordering some…”

“Ooh, yeah,” Valerie added, shivering with delight.

“You should - they were insane!” Erika replied. “How were the waffles? I might get some.”

“You want… more?” I asked. “Valerie, didn’t you say you wanted to go to the library before class?”

She hesitated. “Yeah, I guess I did…” With a sigh, she stood up. “Come on, let’s go. We can come back tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? Babe, if you eat like that everyday…” I sighed. “Didn’t you make me promise to help keep the Freshman 15 off you?”

“Huh?” Valerie looked surprised. “Right, right. Yeah, of course. I meant we can come back next week…”

Erika pouted. “Fine,” she said, looking longingly as three servings of the waffles landed on the next table over.