Carnelian Read Online Free Page A

family unit.
    “Here,” Sim said, tossing me a booklet.
“Look at the football team.”
    I paged through it until I found the
football team. Sixty-some faces stared back at me, all lined up
together for a group shot. In a way they all looked the same to me.
I didn’t know what I was looking for at first. Sim motioned for me
to turn the page. I turned the page and stopped. Underwear model
was staring back at me. Seth Sangre. He had a name. And he was
their all-star quarterback. I smiled meekly up at Sim. Seth Sangre,
the player, star quarterback, planned to make me a name on his
list. Ugh. College was not off to a good start at all.
     

Chapter 2
    Orientation
     
    The next day was orientation. I woke with enough time to get
ready and scarf down a granola bar. Sim seemed even slower moving
than me so early. I couldn’t blame her. She was correct in that her
parents were hard to get rid of. After unpacking, they insisted on
taking us for an early supper. After that, we had to go to several
stores, as they needed to be sure Sim had everything she needed.
Then after visiting all of the stores and returning to the dorms,
they still weren’t sure if they should leave yet and thought a
dessert run was in order. It was past eleven before we got them on
their way. They seemed even more nervous about college life than
Sim and I combined. While Sim seemed annoyed, I actually found it
kind of fun to be fussed over. I missed my mom already.
Unfortunately for us, the college thought we should get into the
school mentality by having orientation at eight thirty in the
morning the day after we moved in.
    Sim was unusually quiet as we walked to the
union. The great big round building was unique on campus and you
couldn’t miss it. Not many brick buildings were built as a complete
circle. The main meeting room was the center of the wheel with
hallways radiating from it. It made it easy to find our way around,
because either you walked in a straight line to the conference room
or you walked in a circle around it. At the end of the long,
straight hallway, we followed the signs and climbed down the stairs
to the lower level.
    Sim still seemed to be only half awake as we
entered larger, doublewide doors. Other students trickled in around
us, also following the same signs. I paused just inside the doorway
to decide where to go next. Sim wasn’t going to be much help as her
eyes actually closed while walking forward. She was almost
sleepwalking. My new roommate was not a morning person.
    “Did you get your schedule yet?” I asked
Sim, snapping her out of her standing slumber.
    “No, were we supposed to?” Sim asked,
finally opening her eyes and looking around the room.
    “If you registered early enough, they sent
your class schedule two weeks ago,” I explained how I got my
registration already. I held it in my hand and waved it in front of
her.
    Sim gave me a sheepish smile. I was
beginning to doubt Sim did anything with early in the title.
    “Then you need to go that way.” I pointed to
the left of where we entered. Big signs said to pick up schedules
there. Sim nodded and waved before weaving between other
students.
    I made my way to the right toward the tables
that lined the walls. There was a line for the first half of the
alphabet. Since my last name was Navina, sometimes I fell in the
first or the second half, depending on how many people of each last
name were around. I looked closely and thankfully this was the
case. I got into the line with the end of the alphabet and zoned
out while it moved slowly forward. I was a morning person, but
anything moving this slowly would be boring for even the most awake
person. After a longer-than-needed wait, I made it to the front of
the line.
    “Marcella Navina,” I said my name to a
stranger for the second time in two days. I pointed at my name tag
in front of the girl. She slowly peeled it off and handed it to me
before walking back to grab my orientation bag.
    “Sangre,” a familiar