Take a Lemon

I got up early the next morning, because I was about to face my next challenge. Presumably, Marsha ate breakfast with her friends in the dining room, and I still didn’t know who they were. Chad and I had discussed this, and figured out that I had two options. First, I could hope that my roommates ate with me – that way, I could just follow them. Failing that, I could get to the dining room early, ideally before any of Marsha’s friends, and sit where they would find me.

The roommate whose name I didn’t know was waiting when I came out of the bathroom. “Are you heading for breakfast?” I asked her.

“Naw, I’m going to wait for Lee Ann. Are you in a hurry?”

“Yeah, I need to go check on something at the registrar,” I explained. Which I did, actually, since aside from the science lectures, which should be the same, I didn’t know Marsha’s class schedule. I might have just blown my chance to follow my roommates. I wasn’t sure whether the conversation meant that Miss No-name usually ate with Marsha or not. Well, that would just have to wait until tomorrow, I guessed.

The meal ticket in Marsha’s purse indicated that I was supposed to eat in the Danby Hall dining hall, which was a couple of dorms away. There were a few students already sitting after I went through the food line, and I tried to catch their eyes, but they showed no sign of recognition or invitation, so I picked a table near the end of the line and sat down to wait. I had brought my script to study, since I had no idea what time Marsha’s friends usually ate, and I didn’t want to finish before they arrived.

I needn’t have bothered, as it was only a couple of minutes before I was no longer alone at the table. “Why are we sitting here today, Marsh?” I heard.

I looked up to see two blondes just sitting down next to me. Both were wearing t-shirts and jeans, which didn’t really surprise me. That was the college uniform; girls like Marsha who always wore dresses or skirts were rare. It was the taller of the two who had spoken, and I had to stop myself from automatically evaluating her attractiveness. That was a habit that could only cause me problems, especially with girls as pretty as this one was.

“I just felt like randomly picking a different table this morning,” I shrugged. “Consider it a tribute to the second half of the term.”

The girls chuckled at that. “How was your break?” the second one asked.

The first one added, “And did Phil ever call?”

Apparently, the whole idea of Marsha and Phil had been on the mind of more than one of her friends. Maybe if I shot it down for these two, they’d pass it on to anyone else rooting for “us.”

“No, and he’s missed his chance,” I informed them. “I’ve decided to put my dating plans on hold for the rest of the year.”

“Oh, you’re so brave, Marsha. Good for you,” the shorter one complimented me. “Um, if you’re not interested, do you mind if I go after him?”

“Susie!” the other one hissed.

“What’s the problem? Marsh said she wasn’t interested.”

“I’m not,” I confirmed. “Susie is welcome to him.” And thank you for telling me your friend’s name.

“Why are we sitting here today?” asked a new voice, belonging to a dark-haired boy.

“Marsh was feeling random,” the girl who was not Susie answered. “Morning, Jay.”

“Good morning, ladies,” Jay said to the three of us, as he sat across from her.

Thus armed with yet another name, I joined Susie in responding, “Good morning, Jay,” and managed to sound as though I had known him all along.

Over the next twenty minutes, a half dozen more students joined us, including my roommates, so I really could have waited for them. I learned the names of most of them. I already knew Chandra. The girl who had first greeted me was Lisa, and my other roommate was named Terry. I also caught a glimpse of Phil who indeed gave me more of a look-over than I would have liked, but was easily diverted by Susie, who moved to sit next to him.

The first class period was 8:00, and the registrar wasn’t open until 8:30, so I just had to hope that I didn’t have a class that early. Two of the guys at our table did, and excused themselves early to make it there on time. My roommates and I returned to our room together, with me listening more and speaking less than they seemed to expect, and at one point Lee Ann leaned over to Terry and told her something quietly. Terry gave me a sympathetic look afterwards, and seemed to press me a bit less.

I found a shoulder bag in Marsha’s room, which I loaded with all of my notebooks, since I didn’t know yet when I was going to need them, and headed for the registrar. A few minutes later, I had a copy of Marsha’s schedule and was ready to head to my first class. Marsha was in a different Spanish class than I had been, and a different Orgo lab, but the rest of our shared courses were the same: both lectures, the bio lab, and both science sections, which probably indicated that they had been divided by last name.

Second period was the Organic Chemistry lecture. I streamed into the hall with dozens of other students, half of whom were pre-med, like me. I had no idea where Marsha was used to sitting, so I sat in my usual area – left side, about a third of the way back. This put me almost directly behind Geoff, my ex-roommate, with whom I had been accustomed to walking to class. I had no idea if he and Marsha knew each other, so this time I made it a point not to call attention to myself. At some point, I would probably have to force the issue, but I had way too many other things to figure out just now.

The lecture itself was as straightforward as it had been before Midterms. Professor Jones is an excellent lecturer with the interesting habit of illustrating reactions with different colored markers; his students purchase a four-color pen specifically for his class to keep up. Oh, there was the occasional student who would decide to defy convention and take notes all in one color, but those who have tried have generally reported that it was a mistake, as it makes it much more difficult to understand the diagrams in their notes.

Focusing on his lecture and his illustrations was probably the first real shot of normality I had had in over a week. A lecture this technical requires you to concentrate on the matter at hand. All thoughts of unfamiliar physical sensations fade into nothing. I’m sure that had somebody addressed me as ‘Marshall’ just then, I could have had a conversation for some time before realizing that I wasn’t actually Marshall right now.

Before the change, my next class used to be math; now, it was Spanish, which was actually a bit of a positive for me, as it gave me a much shorter walk. I’d gone about halfway between classes when I heard, “Morning, Marsh.”

I turned to see a female student I didn’t know, falling into step beside me. “Congratulations on ‘Mollie’,” she continued. “Are you getting excited about it yet?”

“Very much so,” I replied, honestly. “I can’t wait for the read through.” I was definitely getting the hang of open-ended comments. There should have been no indication that I didn’t know who this girl was.

“Yeah, me, too. I love being the stuffy old lady. Lots of attitude to my role.”

That meant that she was playing Mrs. Boyle, thus giving me one more piece of information that Marsha had somehow had. As Marshall, I hadn’t actually known any of the other cast members; apparently Marsha had already met this girl.

Aloud, I agreed with her description of the role in question. “I’ll say. Do it well, and the audience might even sigh with relief when you’re murdered.”

That brought a giggle, which was so contrary to the personality of the role she was going to be playing that I almost giggled in return. Well, to be fair, I did giggle, just a bit, and was so shocked that I even had the capacity to do anything of the kind that I stopped almost immediately and settled for a smile, which my new friend shared. I had taken an immediate liking to this girl, and wondered what kind of relationship she and Marsha were supposed to have.

I was a bit disappointed, then, when she veered off the path to Spanish and headed for a different classroom, with a “See you tonight, Marsh.” I had hoped to sneak a glance at her notebook to learn her name. It wasn’t a major deal, of course, since I would undoubtedly learn it at tonight’s read through.

My ability to concentrate in Spanish class was hindered by the memory of having giggled. There were so many facets to my role as Marsha, and I never knew in advance what was going to bother me, but this did. Girls both laughed and giggled, but boys were only supposed to laugh. Giggling was… not manly. Giggling was for girls only. Getting into character was fine, but this was dangerously close to going over the edge. And I had only been at it for a bit over a week!