Chapter 1 - Complete!

Here's the end of Chapter one guys, written today. I should have a regular post up tomorrow.

Note: I realized I used the word 'bigot' way too much here, but like I said, I don't have time to do fine-tune editing here.

“Yeah,” Richard replied. “That kind of thing is getting really prevalent these days. We really need to pray for this campus.” He looked at Seth. “But let’s not get you burdened down with that stuff now. You just got here. How about you show around the village and school? I’m sure you’re dying to get your hands on some of that loot.”
“I would love to, but I need to get to the orientation lecture. I want to reach on time so that I could make a good impression.”
“Ok cool. What did you say your major was in again?”
“Mechanical Engineering.”
“Oooh! Gonna build planes and stuff?”
Seth laughed. “Yeah, that’s the general idea.”
“I hope you have fun.” Said Sarah, waving after him. “I hope to see at or next meeting.”
“I’ll try my best to make it.” Seth replied a s he walked off “Bye!”
“Bye!” Richard and Sarah said in unison as they waved at him.
Seth had some trouble finding the orientation room as the map the school had provided when he registered wasn’t the simplest thing to read, but he managed to be able to find it anyway. As he walked, he thought about everything that he’d just heard. So there were gay people around the campus. He shook his head. What was the world coming to? Gays were a cancer to morality. They violated nature itself. Men sleeping with other men? What possible good could come from that? Then everyone wondered why our world was becoming so corrupted. We accept the deviant of behaviors can call it normal. He remembered back in Trinidad, his church had hosted a meeting about homosexuality and how the Bible clearly speaks out against it. A group of homosexuals had gathered outside the church, protesting with placards, calling the pastor and church members ‘bigots’ and hurled all manner of insults and curses at the congregation as they passed by. It was just like them to expect everyone to respect their ‘rights’ when they had no respect for anyone else’s. And now he’d come to a country where they ran rampant. Sarah may have gotten carried away with the military analogies, but he understood her behavior. For the 3 years that he was here, he was going to help them fight this gross misconduct.

He had almost reached the building where the lecture was being held, when the rain began falling. There was no warning drizzle, just sudden fat drops splattering around him. He sprinted to the building, trying to avoid getting wet. Despite his best efforts, he was still fairly soaked by the time he got the lecture room. “What a wonderful way to make a first impression.” He thought to himself. He quickly took a seat next a blonde girl next to the door. “Hi, I’m Cassie.” The girl said pleasantly as she offered her hand to him. He smiled and shook her had. “Hi Cassie,” he replied. “I’m Seth. Nice to meet you.”
As she released his had, he caught a glimpse of a pink triangle on her sleeve. He recognized that symbol from the protest he had witnessed back in Trinidad. It was one of those pro-gay symbols, like the rainbow flag. “Oh great.” He thought to himself. “A lesbian!”

Cassie stood in the room of her sorority dormitory, trying to figure out exactly where everything should go. Her sorority mom had told her that she’d probably have the room to herself, but she be prepared to move everything in case someone else should come later on in the semester, in which case she’d have to share the room. It was a pretty large room so she didn’t mind sharing it, but arranging for someone lose to come when you weren’t even sure they were coming was quite a pain. “Well, maybe you should just keep everything on one side of the room by whichever bed you choose.” Suggested Megan who was helping her out. “Don’t you think that’d crowd everything up.” Asked Cassie, her arms crossed, surveying the space. “I have a lot of stuff I brought from home with me, plus all the other stuff that we bought the other day.”
“You could always leave it with Rebecca or me. My parents won’t mind.”
“Hmm. I guess you’re right. I’d really prefer it if I could keep my stuff though.”
“You really don’t want to share this room with anyone, do you?” asked Megan, cross the room to get all of Cassie’s stuff. “Yeah, I like all the open space.”
“Well ,too bad. There are always late comers. I’m sure that you’ll have to share it with someone soon. Here,” Megan said, motioning for her to come over. “I’ll help you pick out all of the important stuff. Like this.” She pulled out a picture of Cassie and Rebecca. “You could keep this…unless you’re afraid that someone sees it.” Cassie took the picture and set it front and centre on her desk. “Let them come and see. I don’t care. I just hope I don’t have to room with one of those SACS people.” It had been four days since the orientation lecture. She had sat uncomfortably, barely listening to what was going on, knowing that sitting right next to her was probably somebody who hated her guts. School was starting tomorrow, and she really wanted to avoid that Seth guy at all costs. “You know Cass, not all Christians are the judgmental homophobes you think they are.”
“Believe me Megan, they all are.” A knock on the door drew their attention. “Hey guys,” said the sorority mom in a cheery voice. “Everything fine in here?”
“Yup,” replied Cassie. “No problem. Just getting everything set up right.”
“Well about that: you remember I told you that you may have to share the room with someone? Well that someone is here.”
“Oh.” Cassie replied, slightly shocked. Megan threw her an “I-told-you-so” look. The sorority mom looked down the hall and shouted. “Everything’s good. You can come upstairs now.” Cassie heard the sound of heels coming up stairs, shortly followed by the appearance of a girl next to the sorority mom. She had rich dark skin and chocolate brown eyes. Her hair was straightened and in ponytail. She wore large hoop earrings and way more makeup than was necessary. Her feet were adorned with high heeled clogs. Despite the fact that she was obviously trying to hard to impress, she was actually very pretty. She made Cassie seem rather inferior. She wasn’t what you would call pretty. Yes, she did have really pretty blue eyes, but that was about all she could lay claim to. Her heir was blonde, but it wasn’t shiny or full. It had the most annoying way of never lying straight no matter how much she tried to comb it. She had never taken to wearing much makeup which gave her a rather plain look. She never thought herself to be ugly, but if she stood next to this girl, it’d be like comparing Medusa to Venus. “This is Shinelle.” She said, pointing to the girl. “She’ll be your roommate for the next school year. Shinelle, meet Cassie.”
Shinelle offered her hand in a quick shake. “Call me Nelly,” she said. “Shinelle is like way to long to use all the time.” Megan stood behind her and mouthed the word ‘Lipstick Barbie’. “It’s great to meet you Nelly.”
She followed Nelly’s eyes as they lighted on the picture of her and Rebecca that was sitting on her desk. She watched as the expression on her face changed. Cassie sighed. “This is going to be a long year.”

Seth grunted as he carried a box of his belongings up the stairs to his room. “What is it that you have in there that makes it so heavy?” He Aunt Stacey called up behind him.
“Books.”
“Books? Who carries that much books that you have to carry them in a box.”
He laughed. “How do you think I got a scholarship?”
“Well, I hope you don’t nerd out while you’re here. This is New York you know. People come here on vacation from time to time.”
Seth put the box down and came back downstairs. “Well, aunty, I’m not here on vacation. Engineering is pretty work intensive. So I may just end up ‘nerding out’ on you.”
“Oooohhh.” Aunt Stacey said, suddenly grabbing her shoulders and shivering. “Do you feel that chill?”
“What chill?”
“You! You’re cold she said. “Live a little!” She picked up a box with his stuff and started carrying it upstairs. “So, have you met anyone interesting in the orientation thingy?”
Seth memory flashed back to that day. To the uncomfortable hour he spent sitting down to the lesbian girl, Cassie. It was really unnerving to sit next to someone who was probably calling you a bigot in their mind. He met lots of people after the ceremony was over, but his memory of her stuck out like a sore thumb. “I met a lesbian girl.” He said to his aunt.
“Really. A lesbian? On your first day?”
“I think so. She had one of those pink triangles on her sleeve.”
“Yeah, you’re going to meet a lot of those while you’re over here. You shouldn’t try to argue with them or tell them anything though. That usually ends with them saying that you’re discriminating and violating their rights.”
“And they call you a bigot.” Seth added on.
“And they call you a bigot.” His aunt repeated after him. “So didn’t meet anyone else?”
“Well, there was Richard and Sarah from the SACS but that’s pretty much it. Oh and this other girl. Can’t remember her name though.”
“So how come you remember her if you don’t know her name?”
“Well because…” He was about to say ‘because she had a nice smile’, but he decided to skip on that. He didn’t want to imagine where his aunt would take such a conversation and carry it. “Umm...never mind.”
“Never mind? Never mind what? You were going to say something weren’t you?”
“No. No I wasn’t. I’m going to finish packing out mu stuff now.” He quickly ran up the stairs to his room.
“Why was she so memorable?!” his aunt called after him.