The summer flew by in a haze of work and two close calls with Aaron. Before Keeley knew it, she stood before her dorm building with two suitcases and her father. It was move-in day; school started the following day. They used her student ID to get the key downstairs before lugging her belongings up to the third floor.

As a freshman, she was living in a traditional dorm with a communal bathroom and no kitchen. Her room contained two beds, two desks, two dressers, a mini-fridge, and a microwave. It was long, narrow, and had a single window between the beds.

Keeley claimed the right side and asked her dad to put down the box of school supplies and wall decorations.

"Where do you want this?" he asked, holding up some flower wall decals.

She looked up from putting away clothes and squinted.

"Oh, I'll deal with those later. I want to spread them evenly across my half of the room. Could you organize my school supplies on my desk? I have a plastic storage box with drawers."

"Sure thing, honeybun. Where's your backpack? Anything else needs to go in there?"

"The notebooks are already in there, but I have a pencil case. Could you put a few pens, pencils, and an eraser in it?"

As suspected, the dresser didn't hold all her clothes. Thankfully, she'd only brought seasonal items and could easily swap clothes at home in Brooklyn. It would still be warm for another month before she needed fall clothes.

After unpacking, she decided to decorate herself and sent her dad off with a hug and kiss, promising to visit him next Sunday and make dinner. He hugged her tightly, telling her to call after her first day.

He left, and Keeley was alone in her new home. She finished arranging photos on her desk corkboard and was spreading out the rose, daisy, and leaf decals when the door opened.

A petite Hispanic girl with curly hair stood there.

"Hi!" she said with a Spanish accent. "I'm Valentina Benavente. Nice to meet you!"

Keeley put her decals on the bed and hurried to help with the bags. "I'm Keeley Hall. Let me take something."

Valentina smiled gratefully. "Thank you. Have you been here long?"

"About an hour. My dad helped me move in. Do you have anyone with you? If not, I can help you unpack."

"I'd appreciate that! I'm here alone; my parents dropped me at the Lima airport. I want to attend an American medical school before returning home to open a practice," Valentina said cheerfully. She'd been smiling the entire time.

"Oh, you're from Peru? That's cool! I've lived in New York City my whole life but always wanted to travel," Keeley said, finishing the decals before helping her new roommate.

"You'll have to show me the good places around here, then."

"Sure!"

They happily chatted about their first year, discovering they would take many of the same science classes due to overlapping majors. They even shared introductory biology.

Keeley was thrilled to meet such a friendly person. Around dinnertime, they went to the dining hall. Valentina was fascinated by the food and asked many questions.

The dining hall was buffet-style, with various stations offering different meal plates and a dessert bar with cereal and a waffle maker.

Keeley got chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, and a blueberry muffin. Valentina sampled from multiple stations, making her roommate laugh.

"Slow down, friend. You'll try everything by the end of the year. You'll be sick of the repetition at some point," Keeley said, remembering how tiring her meal plan at Boston University had been. She'd been so relieved to move into an apartment with a kitchen.

Valentina was sheepish. "You're probably right…but I've never seen this much American food in one place before."

Keeley clapped her shoulder. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it. Have you ever had pizza or a hot dog?"

"No."

"I'll take you to the best places, then!" Keeley said. "Do you have a job?"

Valentina nodded. "Yes, I have a work visa to be a TA for an upper-level Spanish class in the linguistics department."

That was good; eating out in the city wasn't cheap.

"That sounds better than my job," Keeley laughed. "I work at Burger Barn."

"I've never had a hamburger. Should I get one from Burger Barn?"

"Nah, get a higher-quality burger elsewhere. We're cheap, fast, and easy, but not necessarily good. I'll take you to a nice burger place!"

By dinner's end, Keeley felt she'd made a new friend. Back in their dorm, someone knocked, asking if they wanted to join a ping pong tournament at the rec center.

They went, meeting several neighbors. Dorm life had begun, and Keeley loved it.