There were three long, thick wooden tables in the dining hall, most of which were filled up by the time Connor, Jo and I got our trays. We walked along the buffet style serving line at the right side of the room, Connor practically drooling at the selection of meats to choose from, when he sighed.

"I can't decide what to get. It all looks good."

Beside him, Jo shrugged.

"Get a little bit of everything," she paused to stab a big slab of steak with it's serving fork. "Just be sure to save room for dessert. The chocolate lava cakes here are amazing!"

She placed her steak onto her tray, then handed the serving fork to Connor. After he selected a small piece of steak he made to hand me the fork, but I shook my head.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Connor asked as we scooted down the line.

I shook my head. "Nah, I'm too distracted," I paused to grab a bottle of water. "I wasn't the only one who noticed that back there, right?"

Some of the other students mumbled as we walked by to find a seat. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but I had a feeling it was about what had just happened with Aiden and Duke.

"Yeah, it was pretty weird." Jo agreed.

Weird? More like disturbing. I could still feel their eyes on me, crawling slowly up my skin like a bug. I shuddered.

"Maybe they just thought you were cute." Connor offered.

We found a clear spot at the end of the first table, near the entrance, and sat down.

"I'm not cute enough to warrant getting gawked at like that." I propped my elbows up on the table, resting my chin in my palms. "Besides, there are plenty of other girls here who are way better looking than I am."

Girls like Jo.

She was willowy, and had beautiful long, red hair. And her eyes, a brilliant shade of green, could easily catch someone off guard with their intensity and depth. Why couldn't Aiden and Duke stare a hole through her?

"That may be," Jo spoke, pulling me from my thoughts. "But, there's something about you. You just look so, I don't know..."

"Innocent?" Connor asked after swallowing a bit of steak.

Jo looked like she had an aha moment. "Yes, exactly! Innocent."

Innocent.

I crinkled my nose at the word, a little offended.

It felt the same as being called a child. Children were naive and dependent; neither of which were traits I wanted to associate myself with.

A buzzing sound suddenly cut through the quiet on our end of the table, and Connor dug into his hoodie pocket to pull out a sleek, black phone.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Jo's voice was low, her attention on the glass of milk she put to her lips.

Connor's brows came together, though his eyes never left his cellphone. "Do what?"

Just as he finished speaking, a small, dark hand reached over his shoulder to snatch his phone.

"Hey," his head whipped around, then up, to see who had robbed him.

Standing behind Connor, placing his phone in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag, was a girl with round glasses and a stoic face.

"Name?"

She held a marker to the bag, looking at Connor expectantly.

"Give me my phone!"

"Look, pal, I don't have all night." The girl pushed her glasses up her nose. "Just tell me your name and grade so I can move on."

Connor looked at Jo. "Is she serious?" Then, he looked back up at the girl. "Are you serious?"

"Just do what she says," Jo sounded indifferent as she dabbed the corners of her mouth with a napkin. "You'll get it back when you go on fall break."

Connor was silent for a moment, ears red with anger, when he finally mumbled an answer. "Connor Malone. Freshman."

The girl jotted his info down on the bag before moving on to another student with their phone out.

"What the hell?" Connor watched the girl, confused and angry. "Why did she take my phone?"

"Didn't you read the student handbook?" Jo asked.

Connor shook his head.

"Because," Jo began with a sigh. "Electronic devices are banned from campus."

Connor's jaw dropped. "What? Why?"

"To help maintain a distraction-free learning environment."

I answered before Jo could, reciting one of the very few lines I remembered from the student handbook.

Connor opened his mouth, but snapped it shut when Dean Lachlan approached our side of the table.

"For those of you currently getting your cell phones taken away," the Dean began, pausing to glance down at Connor. "You all agreed to the terms of attending this university, yes? Signed and mailed a copy of said terms with your signature, stating you understood and agreed to comply with campus rules?"

Dean Lachlan waited for everyone to mutter 'yes' before continuing. "Then let this be a lesson to you: do not sign anything without reading it thoroughly."

Mumblings of protest flooded the room, steadily growing louder. When it got nearly deafening, the Dean spoke in an icy and smart tone.

"There is still a boat docked outside. If you cannot adhere to the rules, you are more than welcome to leave."

And just like that, silence swept through the banquet hall.

"That's all of them, sir."

The girl collecting phones came to stand next to him, arms full of occupied Ziploc bags.

"Thank you, Miss Greer. I'll take those." Dean Lachlan placed the bags in a black wicker basket I hadn't noticed him holding, then looked up to address the students. "Now, if you all are finished, Miss Greer and Mr. Wexler--" a bald student stood up from the third table. "--will take you to your dorms. The freshmen tour will begin tomorrow morning following breakfast. Have a pleasant evening." He gave me a brief glance, then departed with the basket.

"Alright, female students, I am Allison Greer, your dorm president." The girl who had been collecting phones said. "Please, take your trays to the back of the room and follow me."

I hadn't gotten anything to eat, so I followed Allison out into the lobby to wait for the other female students. It didn't take long for the rest of the girls to catch up, and when I spotted Jo coming out, I hung back to walk with her. Though, we really didn't get to talk to each other, seeing as how Allison would 'shush' anyone who tried to whisper while she spoke.

"There are approximately seventy-five rooms on both the east and west side of the building; each floor of our section, as well as the boys', has twenty-five rooms on it." The dorm president stated as we ascended the stairs on the left. "There will be-- shh-- there will be two students to each room, and rooming order has been chosen at random."

We got to the second floor landing just as the boy's group did. I looked over to see Connor talking to a couple of guys and gave him a small wave when he caught sight of me. He waved back, then followed his group to the center of the landing. Our group was heading that way, too, and stopped when Allison got to a half-moon shaped table resting against the wall.

She picked up a small bunch of papers, then led us up another set of stairs connected to the middle of the landing. This staircase wasn't like the other one, though; it wasn't part of a twin set of stairs like the one we had climbed, and it was big, big enough for four or five people to comfortably walk side by side on.

Once we reached the top, Allison hung a left and led us down a short corridor with a five-foot wide wooden door at the end.

"Each floor has a door just like this one," she paused to give it a hard knock after turning to face us. "It is always unlocked until curfew. After that, it doesn't get unlocked again until morning."

"What time is curfew?"

A girl near the front asked.

"Nine p.m on weekdays, and eleven during the weekend."

Some of the girls groaned at Allison's answer, but didn't really argue, probably because of Dean Lachlan's ultimatum from earlier.

After the girls settled down, Allison told us about how each floor level corresponded with the dorm numbers--rooms on the third floor started with the number three followed by a letter of the alphabet, second floor rooms started with a two, and ground-level rooms started with a one. Then, she began reading the rooming list.

I was beginning to wonder just how long it would take, when Allison called my name ten minutes later.

"Audrey Ridley, you'll be in room 3Y with Josephine Pritchard."

"Hot damn!" Jo jumped up beside me. "We got my old room from last semester!"

With an eager grin, Jo took my arm and hauled me through the door.

Once we were on the other side, we went down a hall lined on either side with more doors, each labeled with a three and a letter from the alphabet. Ours was the last door on the right, but with Jo dragging me behind her, it didn't take us long to get there.

As promised, our luggage was waiting for us when we got inside. Jo's bright pink, matching three-piece set sat at the end of one bed, and my tatered suitcase and two old army duffles lied neatly at the end of the other bed. I remembered feeling so happy when I bought the luggage at a thrift store a week before I left for college. But now, seeing them next to Jo's new looking luggage, I couldn't help feeling embarrassed.

Jo didn't seem too worried about it, though. She let go of my arm to flop on her bed with a content sigh.

"Man, this bed feels awesome!" She nuzzled against her pillow, eyes closed. "I forgot just how draining the trip here can be."

I came to sit on my bed, and took off my shoes.

"Yeah, no kidding." I yawned. "It feels like it took forever to get here."

I lied back on my bed, unknowingly falling asleep, when I felt something on me.

Eyes.

They were skimming up and down my frame, just as they had the moment I arrived to Lachlan Island. I wanted to look, to see who was watching me, but I was too scared to move. Then, I heard a door creak, and someone with a familiar accent whisper from somewhere in the room.

"Sleep well, my queen."

*