“Is that right? Because I think the papers I received listed me as being in a different room. Here, hang on. Jared? I’m gonna have to call you back. I’m checking into my room now. I know. Yeah, you too. Say hi to Mom for me.”
“Did you request a specific roommate?” Katie asked after Emilee closed her phone.
“No. Are you kiddin’ me? I don’t know anyone here.”
“Then you’re definitely in room 204,” Julia said.
“We had to do some adjusting with the assignments,” Katie explained. “I hope you understand. Your letter might list a different room, but you’re in 204.”
“Shoot! You could put me in a dugout on the baseball field for all I care. I’m just over the moon about bein’ here. Plus, I don’t mind tellin’ you that I prayed a lot about my roommate, and I’m sure she’s going to be just great.”
“She is.” Katie grinned wide. “There is one small detail I should tell you about your roommate, though.”
“What? Does she snore? ’Cuz I brought earplugs just in case. Course, I packed them originally thinking my roommate would want some earplugs as soon as she heard me on the guitar.”
“You’ll have to find out from her about the snoring and music preferences, but at least you won’t have a hard time remembering her name because it’s Emily.”
“No kiddin’!”
“She’s checked in already so she might still be in your room.”
“This is great. Thanks so much.” Emilee extended her hand to shake Katie’s and then Julia’s. She was the first student to thank Katie with such a gesture of appreciation.
“This is gonna be a great year,” Emilee said as she stepped under the Peculiar Treasures banner. Her curly blond hair was pulled up in a high ponytail that bobbed like a bunch of dandelions in the fist of a toddler.
“Yes,” Katie said softly. “It is going to be a great year with women like you on this floor, Miss Emilee Monroe from Alabaster, Alabama.”
Julia placed a hand on Katie’s shoulder. “Sometimes listening to those feelings is the best way to go.”
The rest of the move-ins fell into place like puzzle pieces. Nicole solved the Carley conundrum by putting her in room 203, across the hall from Emily and Emilee, and pairing her with Sierra’s old roommate, Vicki. Sierra was still in Brazil, and all Vicki had requested on her signup form was that she be in the same room she and Sierra were in last year.
When Vicki checked in close to 5:30, she was in a great mood and gave Katie a hard time about the melted shoes last spring. Vicki pointed to her feet and said, “These are the shoes you bought to replace my melted ones, and guess what? I like these much better!”
Katie hoped Vicki would have the same happy feelings about the roommate Katie had “replaced” for her. She explained that Carley probably was going to be Vicki’s roommate, but they hadn’t heard back from Carley if she was switching to a different dorm.
“Okay,” Vicki said without hesitancy. “I don’t know her that well, but that’s okay because I was hoping to be matched with someone new. Sierra and I went to high school together, and even though it was great being roommates last year, I wanted a chance to branch out and connect in new circles.”
Nicole and Katie exchanged quick glances.
“Thanks for being so flexible,” Nicole said.
When Carley returned and verified that she was, in her words, “stuck” at Crown Hall, she was at least happy to hear that she was rooming with Vicki.
“Well.” Katie closed her folder after the last girl had checked in. “We provided everyone a bed without bloodshed. I think it’s going to be a good year.”
“It’s going to be a great year,” Nicole said.
Now all Katie wanted was the chance to sit down and have a long reconnecting conversation with Rick.
She had to wait.
Between Rick’s demands at work and her demands at school, four days passed before the two of them finally connected. Rick brought lunch for Katie, and the two of them met by the fountain in the center of campus.
Instead of biting into her roast beef sandwich, Katie started the conversation with, “Before we talk about anything else we have to have an argument.”
“An argument? About what?”
“It doesn’t have to be an argument, but it could be, so I’m just warning you.”
“Okay, so what’s the problem? You don’t like roast beef?”
“It’s not the sandwich. It’s Carley.”
“She didn’t make the sandwich. Carlos did.”
“Rick, it’s not the sandwich or who made the sandwich.” She put aside the food to gain his full attention. “A couple of weeks ago I heard you went to the movies with Carley.”
“That’s right. You and I never had a chance to talk about that, did we?”
“No. It wasn’t my favorite piece of news. I heard about it on the ferry on the way to Catalina.”
Rick looked intently at Katie. “I’m sorry. That whole night was odd. Carley said she was meeting her boyfriend at the theater and asked if you and I wanted to join them. That’s why I kept texting you. Todd said he and Christy might come too, so I went to the theater thinking it would be a group. Turned out it was just Carley, and she already had bought tickets. I should have paid her for the ticket and gone home.” He shrugged. “It was a big nothing. The movie, the whole thing.”
“Okay, that’s what I thought it might have been. A group plan gone awry. That’s all. End of argument.”
“That was easy.”
Katie took a bite of her sandwich, her appetite returning. “Mmm. Carlos remembered the mustard. It’s perfect.”
“He said he knew how you liked your sandwiches.”
“Do you like mustard on your roast beef?” Katie asked.
“Not particularly.” Rick held up his sandwich. “I went with turkey and avocado.”
Katie tilted her head. “Does it ever baffle you that we’re so different?”
“No, different is good. Maybe it’s time you made peace with the notion that opposites attract because if I haven’t made it perfectly clear, I’m very attracted to you, Katie Girl.”
She smiled. The nickname “Katie Girl” didn’t bother her too much. Maybe it was because Rick put it at the end of such a delicious sentence. A young woman could build an entire dream castle on such a line.
Rick reached over and touched the corner of Katie’s lip. She thought it was a heart-melting tender expression until he showed her his finger and the smudge of mustard he had removed for her.
Katie reached into the bag for a napkin. What her hand touched wasn’t soft napkin paper but stiff paper. “What’s this?”
Rick made a funny grin. “It’s my surprise.”
Katie pulled out two tickets for a baseball game in San Diego. “Rick!” She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a squeeze, nestling her nose into the aftershave-scented curve of his neck.
“I thought you might be ready for a little social event. Just the two of us. I know how much you like baseball and hot dogs.”
“With mustard,” Katie added.
“With mustard,” Rick repeated.
“This is great! How fun! I can’t wait.”
“Me too. I thought I’d quit work early Friday, and we could drive down along the coast. Put on some good music. Take our time.”
Katie froze.
Rick read everything he needed to know in her expression. “Friday night is a problem for you.”
“Oh, Rick, I can’t believe this. It’s our All Hall Back-to-School Event. Nicole and I are in charge of the whole thing. Every pair of floormates takes one of the four major events of the year, and this is the one Nicole and I picked. We thought we would go first to get it over with. Rick, I’m so bummed.”
“Me too.” He took the tickets back from her and put them in his pocket. “I should have asked you first, but then it wouldn’t have been a surprise.”
“I love that you tried to surprise me.”
“Good,”
he said. “At least that part worked.”
“Could the two of us try to do something on Saturday?” Katie tried to sound hopeful and not as demolished as she felt.
“Sure, we can figure something out.” The tone in Rick’s voice made it clear he was disappointed his surprise hadn’t worked.
“It feels like it’s been weeks — months — since we’ve done anything together,” Katie said.
“I know. This isn’t working as smoothly as it’s supposed to, is it?”
“Do you mean my RA position?”
“It’s not just your position,” Rick said. “It’s my job, this Arizona project, and your class schedule. It’s everything at once. We’ll do something on Saturday, and that’s what matters at this point, right?”
“Right. Saturday. What do you want to do?”
“We could have dinner at the new Thai place in Temecula.”
“Sounds good. Does that mean you’re going to wear a tie?”
“I could,” he said, apparently not noticing her play on words. “I’m not sure it’s that formal of a place, but — ”
Katie laughed. “That was a joke, Doyle. Thai restaurant? Tie? Get it?”
“Oh, got it.”
Katie took another bite of her sandwich with a smug grin on her face. She didn’t see the splash of water Rick scooped up and sent her direction, but she definitely felt its effect.
22
Some women keep albums with photos of their favorite moments. Katie’s best moments were stored in her heart. She always liked the verse about Christ’s mother keeping all her memories of her Son treasured in her heart.
Katie knew what it felt like to treasure a moment in her heart. And that’s where she kept her memory of the picnic lunch she and Rick had by the fountain. The snapshot memories included an action sequence of the all-out water fight that followed Rick’s initial splash.
Her reflexes were fast, but on that particular day, Rick’s were faster. Within three and a half minutes, both of them were soaked. Rick was laughing hard, but Katie laughed harder. The injustice of it all, Rick said, was that Katie could go back to her room and change while he had to dry out on his drive down the hill back to work.
What made the moment most memorable wasn’t only the sequence of memories Katie held in her heart but also the way she felt as Rick walked away. She knew what it was like to treasure a memory and to treasure a person in her heart.
Katie didn’t have a chance to talk to Rick for two more days. She barely had time to give thought to anything other than all the RA responsibilities that kept coming in waves. Aside from the expected dorm problems, such as students getting locked out of their rooms and a broken showerhead, Katie and Nicole hadn’t finished The Peculiar Treasures Wall.
During check-in, Katie and Nicole had forgotten to take photos of all the girls to put on the wall next to the verses they had compiled. The challenge now was finding all the girls to take their pictures.
On Thursday afternoon Nicole and Katie made the rounds with a camera in hand. In nearly every room, Katie and Nicole ended up engaged in long conversations. That was great for getting to know everyone better and for building a sense of community. It wasn’t so great for finishing the project as well as jumpstarting their class work. Not to mention all the details they needed to finish for the All Hall Event Friday night.
Katie and Nicole took some great shots of Emily and Emilee. The two new roommates were getting along as fabulously as Katie had hoped. They had rearranged their beds so they were both up against the window. On Emily’s wall above her desk was a stunning piece of woven fabric in a brown and rust African motif. On Emilee’s wall was a lineup of framed photos of her family, friends, fans, as well as one slobbery close-up of her big dog. No one would wonder which side of the room belonged to Emily from Africa and which side belonged to Emilee from Alabama.
When Katie and Nicole moved on down the hall, Katie told Nicole to go ahead. “I just remembered a call I have to make. I’ll catch up with you, okay?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Nicole said. “I only have four more to go.”
Katie went to the RA office and pulled out Emily’s file. The lobby was so noisy she went up to the rooftop hideaway where she had the perch to herself. Pressing in the number of Emily’s grandparents, Katie spoke with both of them and gave a radiant report on how well Emily had connected with her roommate and how she was settling in nicely.
“We want you to know,” Emily’s grandfather said, “my wife and I set aside time every morning after breakfast to pray. We have added you to our prayer list, Katie. We will be praying for you every day.”
“Thank you.” Katie didn’t know what else to say. She had never been told something like that before. She knew her friends prayed for her — at least they said they did, whenever she asked them to. But no father figure had ever taken it upon himself to pray for her regularly.
“My wife and I want you to know how much we appreciate what you’re doing there for our granddaughter. Her parents are very appreciative as well. You made Emily’s entrance into college just about as first-rate as it could be.”
Katie felt encouraged after that phone conversation, which was a good thing because at 10:15 that night a red-faced Nicole came to Katie’s door. “We have a situation. The women in 229 have a guy in their room. It’s past open hours, and their door is closed.”
Katie sprang from her desk where she had been printing out the photos of the girls on the floor to finish The Peculiar Treasures Wall. “Do you have the master key?”
Nicole held it up. “Right here. We need to do this together. Remember from training, we need to be firm and specific, but we’re not supposed to take on the police role.”
Katie nodded. Part of their training during the week of meetings and dorm prep after the Catalina retreat had been role-playing problem situations. Each RA was put in a dorm room with another RA who role-played a predicament.
Katie’s assignment had been to deal with a student who was depressed and homesick. After Katie moved past her initial response, which was to roll her eyes and to want to say, “Oh, come on, grow up,” she was given a little extra time to think through the situation and ended up receiving a strong evaluation. The reviewers said she was sympathetic without being weak and gave the homesick student specific direction and opportunity to take steps out of her depression.
Katie didn’t think she would have scored as well if she had to respond to a role-played suicidal scenario or the one she and Nicole were about to attend to in room 229.
Nicole knocked on the door. Katie checked the names on the door tag she and Nicole had made a few days earlier. “Sabrina and Tasha,” Katie repeated, trying to remember if she had met them yet.
“It’s Nicole and Katie.” Nicole knocked a second time. “We need you to open the door.”
They could hear low voices and shuffling inside. One of the voices was definitely a male.
“Sabrina, Tasha, we know you’re in there. We’ve heard you have a guy in the room. May we please speak with you?” Nicole said.
The doorknob clicked and turned, and the door opened.
The two roommates stood beside each other, looking cool and calm. Katie remembered them. She also remembered this room. Sabrina was the one with the large wardrobe that had been a problem moving in.
Nicole glanced around the room. Katie checked behind the door.
“Hi,” Nicole said, ever the softhearted woman. “We were told you had a guy in here, and I’m sure both of you are familiar with the policy for Crown Hall.”
They nodded.
“So, is that correct? Do you have a guy in here?”
“Do you see a guy in here?” Sabrina asked with a snip in her tone.
“There was a guy in here earlier.” Tasha looked at Sabrina and then back at Katie and Nicole. “We didn’t do anything wrong. He was here during open hours.”
“When did he leave?” Nicole’s voice was still light and friendly.
The girls looked at each other and shrugged.
“Okay.” Nicole brushed back her hair. “Well, I just need to remind both of you of the school policy and to say that it’s not a good idea to go against the rules established here at Rancho. The rules are for your protection.”
“Except the rules are ridiculous,” Sabrina said. “I mean, we’re in college. Why should someone tell us who can come into our room and when that person has to leave? I mean, come on, trust us a little. We’re not in middle school.”
“I know,” Nicole said. “Very few colleges have the sort of restrictions that are in effect here at Rancho. But that’s part of what makes us Rancho. Until those rules change, part of my job is to be an advocate of them.”
Katie took a step closer to the women. “What Nicole is saying is that by coming to Rancho you both signed off on the school policies, and that means you wouldn’t have a guy in here right now.”
“We know.”
“Okay.” Nicole started to leave the room.
Katie wasn’t satisfied to walk out. She had heard the shuffling and the deep voice. On her way toward the door Katie had an idea. She reached over and gave the wardrobe a resounding thump with her fist.
The three other women jumped, and a male voice let out a “whoa!” from inside the wardrobe.
“You don’t have a guy in your room, but you have one hiding in your wardrobe. Is that it?” Katie flung open the wardrobe door, but the guy didn’t come out. He was hiding behind the hanging clothes.
“Yo,” Katie said, “if you’re looking for a path to Narnia, you’re not going to find it there, dude.”
She could hear him breathing, but he didn’t come out.
“Come on.” Katie couldn’t help but laugh as she stood in front of the open wardrobe. “This is ridiculous.” She pulled back the clothes, and there stood a frightened-looking guy trying to exude a tough expression.
He forcefully pressed his way past Katie and said, “It was just a joke. Man, you guys are whacked. Not that it matters because I don’t go to school here, so I don’t have to go by your stupid rules.”
He took off, and Sabrina and Tasha shifted their gaze from each other to Nicole.