Chapter 13 - Nicole

Nicole awoke at noon on a Saturday, feeling groggy. She laid in bed another hour, playing around on her phone, before finally hauling herself out of bed. The previous day, she had completed her last midterm of the fall semester and felt the stress evaporating from the hours spent trying to cram in studying. Her roommate, Kate, had offered Nicole a few boost shakes. They were supposed to give you a lot of energy to help you study. At first, Nicole found this claim somewhat strange since the sweet and delicious drinks only really made her feel sleepy. Yet, Nicole found that if they were paired with a cup of coffee, they worked wonders. The discarded shake cartons were still scattered around her room from the stressful week. If the shakes didn't do much to keep Nicole awake, they at least helped calm her down.

Lately, Kate had taken over Nicole's eating schedule more or less when Nicole wasn't hanging out with Carl. This was a perfectly acceptable arrangement for Nicole, who had never had to manage her eating in the past. Kate gave Nicole food when she wanted and gave her how much she wanted. It was all for a good cause. There was a worry about how healthy the food was, that Nicole recently voiced to Kate. It was very reassuring when Kate had told her that she was cooking the food as low or no-calorie servings. Nicole didn't know how calories worked, she just knew you were supposed to count them. If what Kate was giving her hardly had calories, that sounded good to her.

The only place in the dorm suite with a mirror was the bathroom that Nicole and Kate shared. This hadn't always been the case. Nicole had once had a standing mirror in her bedroom but had come home one day to find out it had broken. Kate informed Nicole that a gust of wind had knocked it over from Nicole's open bedroom window. Though unfortunate, the bathroom mirror was serviceable enough. The main issue was that (at Nicole's height), she could only see herself from the chest up. A part of Nicole didn't mind too much since she knew she looked hot in whatever she wore. Yet, it would have been convenient. Nicole had meant to buy a replacement mirror, but just never got around to it, managing with the situation she had.

The previous day, Nicole had gone out on a limb and texted her old friend Jess, asking if she wanted to go to the Rugby house's Halloween Party. Carl was friends with a lot of the guys on that team, so naturally, she'd be going where he was going. It took several hours for Jess to respond to Nicole, and when she did, she somewhat dismissively stated she wasn't going to "That" party. All the cheerleaders were doing a Halloween event with the football players, and Jess was going to that with her boyfriend. Even though it was understandable, it still hurt. Nicole had never gotten around to talking to Jess about her new boyfriend and had hoped a night out would be an excellent way to introduce them. Even more, what hurt was that Jess hadn't even extended an invitation to Nicole for the cheerleader's Halloween event. The conversation slowly fizzled out, and Nicole was left frazzled. She told herself that her friendship was only suffering because she wasn't currently a cheerleader. Nicole knew once she got back onto the squad next year, when her grades got better, things would be normal. Now, it felt like she and Jess were barely friends at all.

Nicole sulked in her room the rest of the day, drinking some boost shakes and getting her meals delivered by Kate. The only real highlight of the day was that her Halloween costume was delivered.