If the first day of classes had been a hectic whirlwind, the second day was like an F5 tornado. She took notes off of the PowerPoint slides and from the lectures that accompanied them, took three quizzes (one of which being a pop quiz to see what everyone already knew), along with more chapters assigned to read.

By lunchtime Kate was starving and headed to the cafeteria for a sub sandwich and a small bag of Doritos. “Hey, friend!” Kate turned and saw her Amanda waving at her from across the crowded cafeteria room. Kate waved back, and made her way to Amanda’s table. There were books and papers scattered across the table, and Amanda quickly filed them away, making room for Kate and her lunch.

“How’s things?” Amanda asked her.

“Oh, pretty good. Insane, but good.” Kate smiled back.

“I actually got a break today. One of my professors is sick or something. Early day for me!” Amanda smiled, revealing her beyond-white teeth.

“Lucky dog,” Kate replied. She was kind of jealous, in a way. An early day already, and just the second day of school! “I already have enough homework for tonight that it could probably fill a small dumpster. And I still have another three hour class to go yet.” she told her.

“Wow. Glad I’m not in your shoes.” Amanda replied. Then she added, “I better be going. Call me if you want a study buddy or something, okay?”

“Sure. Will do,” Kate answered, watching her friend gather her stuff and shove it into her black and red backpack. After watching Amanda navigate through the crowded room and through the large double doors at the other end, Kate pulled out her own book and began to read her assigned chapters. By the time her lunch was over, Kate was halfway through her assignments from earlier in the day. Once again, she thanked her lucky stars for being a fast reader.

****

Later that night, Kate sat on her bed, her brain almost completely fried from the last two day’s worth of information. She had gotten through all of her reading material and other homework, and it was almost ten o’clock. Logging onto Facebook, she saw that she had a new message and two new notifications. Megan had finally replied back to the earlier wall post, and then Pete had replied to her comment from his wall post on Kate’s profile.

‘No problem. Becoming a doctor is almost harder than being one, I imagine. Hope things calm down and fall into a routine for you soon.’

Clicking on the ‘1’ to read her message, Kate saw that it was from Pete, also. It read:

“Hey. Didn’t want to put this out there for everyone to see, but I think you’re really brave for living in the city as a new college student on your own. Especially coming from such a small town. I’m sure your parents are so proud of you. Thanks again for becoming my friend on here.

Pete.”

Well, that was kind of a strange message. Kate was proud of herself, too, but it was a little odd to her that he knew Glendale was ‘such a small town,’ as he had put it. Too mentally drained to seriously think it all over, Kate logged out of Facebook and got into bed. She was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

****