Exiled Mate, Future Luna novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Registrar

Sierra signs herself into Bellmoor University, meets her roommate Dani, and drinks her mother's tea out of habit. Dani says the first-period professor is hot and terrifying.

The woman at the registrar's counter looked at my letter, my driver's license, and the gravel dust on my shoes.

"You're two days late for orientation," she said.

"I'm one day early for classes."

She almost smiled.

"Parent signature on the housing form," she said, and slid it across.

"I'm eighteen as of yesterday."

She looked at my birth date, then at me, and her face softened a little.

"Then you sign it yourself."

I signed Sierra Ellsworth in block letters.

It was the first thing I had ever signed that nobody had told me to.

My grant covered tuition and a bed in Hargrove Hall, room 214, the last one left.

I had spent the night on a bench at the bus station with my duffel under my head.

My ribs ached, a dull steady ache along the left side where the bond had torn, and I kept pressing on it.

Room 214 was on the third floor, with a bunk bed, two desks, and a window that faced north over a ridge of black pines.

A girl sat cross-legged on the bottom bunk with a laptop and a family-size bag of pretzels.

She had curly brown hair, round glasses, and a nursing hoodie two sizes too big.

"Oh thank God," she said. "I thought they'd give me a roommate who wanted quiet."

"I can be quiet."

"No, you can't," she said, looking at my face. "You look like you've been hit by a truck and then reversed over."

I laughed, and it came out wrong.

"I'm Dani," she said. "Dani Normington. I'm nursing, I cook too much, and I talk through movies. Take the top bunk, the bottom one has my snacks."

"Sierra."

"Sierra what?"

"Just Sierra, for now."

She nodded and handed me the pretzels.

By dinner she had learned that I'd come from a small town three hours south, that my family was not driving up, and that I had been dumped.

"By who?" she said.

"A guy. In front of everyone. Against a tree."

Dani put down her fork.

"A tree is the worst place," she said, with real feeling. "No wonder you look like that."

"He said some things."

"Do you want me to key his car?"

"I don't think he drives it far."

"Then I'll key the tree."

I laughed again, and this time it came out right.

She had a whole shelf of boxed pasta, a rice cooker that she called Gerald, and the kind of loud, easy warmth that I hadn't known I'd been starving for.

At ten she turned off the overhead light and climbed into bed with her laptop.

I lay on the top bunk and stared at the ceiling.

I couldn't sleep.

The ache in my ribs had spread, and the window was full of stars.

Every few minutes something tugged me toward the glass, a pull that ran from my chest north across the pines.

North.

I didn't want to look.

I got down, filled the little dorm kettle, and fished the tin out of the side pocket of my duffel.

Mom's tea was a dry mix of grey leaves and something that smelled like rain on a hot road.

Three scoops left, at the bottom.

I made a cup and carried it back up the ladder.

"What is that?" Dani said from the dark. "It smells like a lawn."

"My mom's tea. For my nerves."

"Does it work?"

"I don't know," I said. "I've never gone without it."

I drank it slowly.

The ache dulled, and the tug in my chest settled to something I could ignore.

I had never wondered why that happened, and I didn't wonder now.

In the dark, Dani's voice said, "Okay, first day tomorrow. Do you have your schedule?"

"It's in my bag."

"Mine too, let me see yours."

She turned on a flashlight and squinted at my printout, then at hers.

"We have Folklore and Oral History together," she said. "First period tomorrow. Taught by Huddleston."

"Is he bad?"

"Bad is not the word," Dani said. "Hot is the word. He's about six foot four, he doesn't smile, and the rumor is that he's never given anyone an A on the first paper."

She clicked off the flashlight.

"Terrifying," she added happily. "I'm so glad you're here."

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