Samantha, 18 year old nobody

"S-Samantha." You stammer out, the nonchalance and uncaring of the woman putting you on edge.

After a few moments, she speaks to you again. "Take a seat, we'll call you when we're ready." You oblige her, and set your things down and sit down on one of the chairs scattered about the room.

Other than you and the lady behind the desk, there is only one other person in the room. You try not to stare at him, but he’s fully preoccupied staring at his phone and won't notice anyway. he hasn't any bags with him and seems fully comfortable in the current situation. You guess he's a returning student, and therefore not part of this study, but if that's the case, then what is he doing here this early? You remember that returning students don't move in until the weekend before classes start, and it's only Friday. Freshmen aren't even supposed to start moving in until tomorrow.

You let your mind wander, thinking about how you can make the most of your first semester at this new school, thinking that if you play your cards right, spend a little time being social, you might get yourself a real boyfriend for the first time here. You start mentally mapping out a plan to balance out studying with spending time with your currently non-existent significant other.

Before you know it, you hear a door open in the hallway connecting this room to the many offices and conference rooms that undoubtedly fill this building. A young looking woman pokes her head out and looks toward you first, then looking towards the boy sitting a few yards away. "James," he calls, "We're ready for you now." The boy, James apparently, gets up and waltzes over to the woman and steps inside the room. You hear the door click shut behind him.

Another ten minutes or so pass, you're not too sure of the time. You found being nervous always made time go both faster and slower for you at the same time. You hear the same door click open again and see James exit, carrying a duffel bag not too dissimilar to your own, followed by another boy. As they walk out of the main door to go outside, you think you notice something. You can't quite place it but something seems off about the second boy. The way he walks, the way he is dressed, it all feels like he doesn't really know what he's doing. You don't get enough time to really observe as they are out the door before you can really understand that something is wrong. You shrug it off and go back to silently waiting.

A few more minutes pass before the woman pokes her head back out towards the waiting room. "Samantha?" he asks. You start standing up and he follows up, "we're ready for you now." It's do or die now for you. You take a deep breath and walk into the room, clutching at your bags.

It's not quite what you expected, a mostly barren room, though you note that there's a curtain half covering a corner of the room. The track on the ceiling suggests that it would block out the whole corner, similar to a partition in a shared hospital room. There's also a table in the adjacent corner stacked with... clothes? You're not sure why there would be clothes here, but that's not something you want to worry about right now.

The woman catches you off guard by extending a hand towards you. You stare for a moment before realizing and shake it. She introduces herself. "Samantha: my name is doctor Clarissa Brown, but you can call me Clair. I trust you have read over the documents we've sent and have them signed for me?"

Your only response to this is a puzzled look. You see a worried look come over her face for a moment, so you try to explain: "Sorry doctor- Clair. I never received any paperwork."

She sighs, but her expression lights back up. "No worries." She hands you a packet of papers. "I always carry a few spares. Can't trust those paper-pushers back at corporate to do their jobs. Take a few minutes to read everything over. I'll be back in a little bit to answer any questions." With that she exits the room, leaving you alone to learn about the study.