Orientation

It was a fun week of learning all about campus and the traditions of the place you planned to spend the next four years of your life. But mostly you enjoyed meeting and making friends with the people and on campus and in your dorm. One of the people you enjoyed most was your RA Nikki.

She was just as tall as you were, but somehow even more stunning. You were still trying to figure out how strict about the rules she would be, but as this first week went on you were just excited to hear her talk all about college. Tonight you, your suite mates, and several other folks from your dorm we’re hanging out in the hallway discussing all of the school traditions you’d spend the day learning about.

“Yeah. All that stuff is pretty fun and cool.” The tall blonde said, “but it’s the unofficial traditions that are really interesting.”

“Unofficial traditions?” Neva asked.

“Yeah. Stuff as a student you’re supposed to do but isn’t officially sanctioned or approved by the University but half of campus does it anyway.”

“So what are they?” Sadie asked. You could already see the gears turning in your wild roommates head.

“Well the big one is the naked mile at the end of the spring semester. The University kind sorta approves of that one.”

“How do you kinda sorta approve of students running thru campus naked?” You asked well aware of the tradition.

“So every year they send out an email before the event saying that they are closing campus to everyone but students and staff. Some bullshit about keeping distractions before exams to a minimum which is clearly crap cause they don’t do it before the winter finals.” Nikki laughed to herself. “And then campus police basically turns a blind eye to it.”

“Have you done it?” Cody a boy from a few floors down from yours asked. You laughed to yourself knowing the mental image forming in his head.

“I haven’t yet. I’ll probably wait till end of next year honestly.”

“Do people do it more than once?” You didn’t catch who asked this time.

“Oh yeah. Lots of people. And they paint the number of times they’ve done it too. If you make it into the IV club it’s a pretty cool honor.”

“The I-V club?” Jerri asked curious.

“Yeah. Like the Roman numerals for the number 4. Means you ran it all 4 years.”

“People actually do that?” Faith asked with a hint of disgust. It had only been a week but the more and more you hung out with Faith you realized how much you didn’t like her.

“Oh yeah. Not a lot but a fair amount. If you go in the spring you’ll see.”

“Crazy that the University is so calm about public nudity.” You commented.

“Oh they very much aren’t.” Nikki corrected, “They turn a blind eye on naked mile night… but you do not want to get caught running around naked on campus any other night.”

The group grew silent listening to your RA.

“Like they’re ok with the Naked Mile, but campus police are dicks about it ever other night. It is official policy to arrest anyone caught streaking onsite, lock em in handcuffs and bring them to the police station and hold them there till someone can come and pick them up. And they will not let you get redressed.”

“So you just hang out in the police station naked??” Neva sounded equally horrified and intrigued all at the same time.

“Yup. Guess the idea is to just embarrass you more so you don’t do it again? Not really sure, but it’s better than actually getting charged with a crime I guess. It doesn’t happen often.”

“So what are the other ‘unofficial’ traditions?” Sadie said with an air of mischief in her voice.

“Let’s see… the other big one is have sex in the library stacks. Then there is swim on the fountain outside the history building. Some people do that naked too…” The blonde laughed to herself as she said that, “Then there’s a bunch of standard ones. Go to class drunk, pull an all nighter. Stuff like that. Oh and a couple of years ago a frat started one that people have gotten into. The night before the SSU game you go to their campus and pee on their mascot statue.”

“Sounds like a bunch of drunk frat guys being assholes.” Faith said again in her fake high and mighty voice.

“Actually my freshman year roommate did that one last year.” The group laughed and then continued on chatting with Nikki until the RA finally excused herself and you and Sadie headed back to your dorm.

“You ok?” You asked your roommate as you both started changing into your pjs. She was being uncharacteristically quiet.

“Yeah… I just… you ever get that feeling where you want to do something crazy?”

You laughed. “I mean I guess. Why?”

“I don’t know. I guess we’ve just been here a week and we haven’t done anything yet!”

“Well yeah… it’s orientation. The upperclassman don’t move in till tomorrow.” You knew that when all of the other students got back to campus the opportunities to party would appear with them.

“Ugh. I know.” The brunette sighed, “Just promise me something ok?”

“Sure what?”

“Let’s never be boring. Let’s never miss the opportunity to have fun. To do the crazy thing. Really make this the best four years of our lives.”

“I promise.” You said boldly reaching out and shaking Sadie’s hand. Little did you know that this one promise would come to shape the rest of your life.