I visited what I thought was another college -- something called Northern Tennessee State University (does that exist? I don't know, and neither did my subconscious). A bunch of my old friends from high school had been going there for the past few years. They had transferred there during their senior year of high school and had taken classes there ever since. I was curious to see what had happened to them.
The friend I spent the most time with was Christian. She looked the same as she had in high school, but she acted a lot different. She had a serious boyfriend who was three or four years younger than she was, and she was very outgoing. She wouldn't stop chattering. I was trying to tell her about Adam, but I could barely get a word in. Finally, she led me to a cafeteria so that we could eat lunch.
It looked like a high school cafeteria: small, with plain brown tables and a receiving line staffed by surly elderly women and lanky men with perturned looks on their faces. All they had that day was greasy pizza in boxes. I didn't take one.
At the table, Christian and I sat with our other high school friends, June and Valerie. June looked the same, but one thing she did struck me as very weird at first. She popped something into her mouth, then took out a lighter. I thought she was going to smoke a cigarette. June was VERY religious (Southern Baptist) and would never have done anything even slightly unhealthy or illegal. I tried to tell her that she wasn't allowed to smoke in the cafeteria, but I was interrupted when she got out of her chair and fired a pistol at something on the table. Then she took the pistol and started breathing into it loudly.
"That's her inhaler," Christian said. "For her asthma."
"Ah," I said.
I left the girls a bit later. I remembered that I had signed up for classes at their college as well, and that I needed to attend them. I may have gone to a class, but I don't remember it. I remember exiting a building and going into a library through the side door. A good bit of time elapsed. Soon, I was outside the library, walking next to my dad. He asked if I'd like to come to dinner with him.
I had a sudden thought. "Oh my crap!" I said, then wondered if my dad would object to the word "crap." I realized I had forgotten to go to Creative Writing, my most important class. I kept walking around the campus, wishing there was something I could do, someone I could talk to. I didn't want to be kicked out of the class for missing the first day.
I don't think I found a solution. That night, I was back in the cafeteria, though this time I was with Adam, who was visiting me. I said I wanted to find Emily and talk to her, and I headed into the bathroom. It was a unisex bathroom, and I could hear guys' voices all around me. I was sititng on the toilet with all my clothes still on when a naked guy suddenly slid under my stall and looked up at me. I nearly screamed. It was one of Emily's ex-boyfriends. Luckily, I didn't see him from the front, and he slid back under the stall before I had to look at him any longer.
After that, someone opened the door to MY stall and looked in at me. There was nothing to see, of course, but I was bugged by the principle of it all. The person didn't close the door again, and I was too annoyed to close it either.
