The Alpha Bet Read Online Free

generations of college students before me. One photograph catches my eye and I do a double take realizing that the pants I’m wearing are almost identical to the ones the woman in the forty-year-old photo is wearing. I’m not loving that.
    “No, we were playing doctor,” Jentry responds, laughing into her plastic cup of beer. I was too chicken to order one myself. I was terrified they would ask to see my ID then they would embarrass me in front of Jentry when they found out I was only sixteen. I know I should be honest with her about my age but I’m just not ready yet. They never even carded Jentry. She exudes such an air of confidence that no one seems to question her. I imagine that she must go through her entire life feeling the way I did at my Scholastic Bowl tournaments. I was always so confident. It would be really cool to feel that way all the time.
    “Was he, you know, your first?” I ask, getting back to Aaron. I roll the cool outside of my soda glass against my cheeks to control the blushing brought on by the memory of Aaron’s dragon tattoo.
    “My first what? On campus?” She laughs, picking off a piece of pepperoni and popping it into her mouth. “Wait a minute. Are you a virgin?” She asks, her eyes huge.
    I contemplate lying but I figure I’m going to need a lot of help from Jentry if I’m going to navigate the waters of college better than I did the ones of high school.
    “Yeah, I am. It’s pathetic.” I confess, dropping my face.
    “No, it’s not, and don’t let anyone tell you that it is,” Jentry says forcefully, surprising me.
    “You really don’t think it’s pathetic?”
    “What? That you respect yourself enough to keep it until you’re in love? Not hardly,” she smiles, going back to picking off her pepperoni. “In fact, I think it is so un-pathetic that just to show my solidarity, I’m going on a boy strike. Besides, who needs boys when we’ve got each other?”
    “That’s really sweet, Jentry, but I’m sure you’ll make more friends,” I say, touched by her comment, but not dumb enough to believe that she’ll spend her time hanging out with me once she meets other girls.
    “Of course I’ll make more friends, and so will you, but we’re roomies, so that means we’ll be best friends,” she says, smiling so genuinely that there is no way I could ever doubt her.
    “I’ve never even kissed a boy,” I confess, not the least bit worried that she’ll make fun of me.
    Her head pops up and she drops her slice of pizza. “Now that is pathetic,” she laughs. “Stick with me, GK. This is going to be the best year of your life.”
    I smile and go back to eating my pizza. Move over, Grace Kelly. GK is here to stay.

 
     
     

Chapter Two
     
     
    “I’m so psyched about my classes,” I tell Jentry, as we haul our new textbooks back to the dorm.
    “Sometimes you say the weirdest things.” She laughs, readjusting her heavy load on her shoulder.
    “Do you need to rest a minute?” I offer, realizing that in my excitement I’m losing Jentry. I am still buzzing from picking up my first official class schedule. I swear I almost screamed when I found out that I had tested good enough on my entrance exams to be placed in a sophomore chemistry class. I stop to let her catch up, taking the opportunity to wipe my glasses off on the tail of my button-down oxford. They are fogged up from leaving the air-conditioned paradise of the bookstore and moving into the ninety-degree day. God knows I’m dangerous enough when I can see.
    “Yes, please.” She laughs, collapsing under an oak tree on the quad. I put my bag down and slowly ease myself down. I’m wearing a jean skirt of Jentry’s that she let, or more like insisted, that I borrow. I think I was five the last time I wore a skirt so I’m hoping I don’t accidentally flash somebody.
    “My parents are going to be excited when I call and tell them my books were only three hundred dollars. We had five hundred budgeted,”