Day 1

Sister is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship.” – Margaret Mead

Tatiana Linda Jones

            All she had ever wanted was to be loved by someone that she loved back.  Had this ever happened?  No.  Was it too much to ask?  She didn’t think so but apparently God did.  18-year-old Tatiana Linda Jones was just your average college freshmen with way too much on her plate and not enough time to just enjoy herself sometimes.  She was a biology and chemistry double major.  Not only class but also two different labs a week sucked up her time.  She had met a bunch of new people but most of them were major partiers so she wasn’t very close to them because she did not want to partake in that wonderful American college student tradition.  She had always been against alcohol, her mom and dad would offer her sips of their drinks (wine, beer, wine coolers…) but she had always refused not just because she already she knew she didn’t like the flavor but because it was illegal and she knew way to many facts about how bad the effects of alcohol can be for a person.  She had moved across the country for college hoping that she would be able to start over and not have to deal with all the same crap that she had in high school because no one would know her which would mean that she could be whoever she wanted to be.  She would no longer be another one of the guys because she was sick of that.

            She met her roommates on that first day and was excited about the prospects but soon found out one of them is shyer than she is and the other two are partiers who are out until all hours every night of the weekend.  All she could do was sit there and wonder what she should do as she did not want to be sitting in the room by herself but yet because of her morals she could not rationalize going to the partys with her roomies even if it did mean that they then had a safe way to get back to the dorms so that no one had to drink and drive or just sleep on the floor to sleep off the drunkenness.  She did meet some friends once classes started but they all weren’t on campus on the weekends.  Her best friend was a commuter and thusly was never available to hang out and do things during the week or otherwise.  The other good friend she made was her neighbor so he was very easy to get a hold of but he went home on the weekends because he had decided that nothing good ever happened on the weekends at the school.

            For this second friend she worked so hard to persuade him otherwise and to just stay on campus for a weekend and see that she was telling the truth.  Her grandparents had a house near the campus that they wintered in.  She was excited about this fact because it meant that she could get away for the weekend to this house if she wanted to.  Also this friend lived very near there so he could give her a ride to the house if she wanted.  He surfed at the beach near the house so she could go to the beach with him and watch him surf.  She liked this thought and she liked him.  She thought he might be feeling the same because when she had given him her cell phone number he had said that he put her in his phone as Tatiana, favorite person ever.  She really hoped that something would come of this.  He never used her number though.  She had invited him to come to meals with them and to just send them a text if he wanted to do a meal or something but it never happened.  He seemed to just think that it was a joke or something.  He enjoyed eating meals by his lonesome.  He never invited her or her roommates to join him.  She just couldn’t figure out what was going on with that.

            She was a runner and thrower for the Track team both in high school and now in college.  John, her neighbor and friend, was also a runner on the team.  They had started running together a lot and that was like 30 to 40 miles a week.  She was in the best shape she had ever been in.  Just before she left for school she had run a half marathon.  She was insane in the eyes of all her family and friends but she enjoyed it and wanted to be able to eat what she wanted when she wanted which meant working out…something her sister had yet to figure out.  She and John had lots of fun running and hanging out all the time but as far as she could tell he was not interested in her as she was in him.  This was a disappointment but it was one that she was used to because it was the same thing that had happened with every boy that she had ever been interested in back home for the past 8 years of her life. 

            She wanted to go to church every Sunday because it was good for her spiritual growth as well as it relaxed her and allowed her to release a little stress.  There was a service on Sunday nights on campus and she went to it every week with out fail.  John went with her because he was back on campus already at that point.  One week the service was cancelled so they walked to the nearest supermarket and bought bread and grape juice so as to have communion and their own little church service.  It was the moments like this that she was absolutely and totally at peace with her new life at the school in this new state.

            She had joined the intramural soccer league.  It’s coed and she was one of three girls on the team but one of two that actually showed up for games.  She loved it and she got to play goalie again so that made things all the better.  She played in the games all the time and she continued to win them with the help of her teammates.  She had really impressed the boys who thought she was an amazing goalie for some reason that she could not comprehend.  All she knew was that it really helped to look good when your defense rarely let the ball past them but she liked that they thought she was good.  Now if only one of them would think she was cute and funny as well…now that would be a really good thing.

            She had played in all the games so far and she had yet to lose a game for the team.  She was very excited about the prospects for the rest of the competition and she was very proud to be the only goalie they ever put in!  Then during warm ups before one of the games, the strongest kicker on the team kicked a goal on her and she hurt her wrist.  She shook it off and kept going.  Not wanting to let it affect her as she had done so many times before as well.  An injury at the beginning of a game was not important; it could wait until the end of the game to get dealt with.  She was still in tons of pain the next morning, so she decided that she would go to the trainer that afternoon after her classes to get it checked out.  The trainer was pretty sure it was nothing and that she just needed to rest it and then it would get better.  Tatiana being very sure that something had to be wrong more than just an internal bruise and a slight sprain decided that since she had to see a orthopedic specialist for track that day anyway she would just ask the doctor to take a look at it.  She did and the doctor said that it didn’t seem to be broken but there was always a possibility because there is a bone that could be broken, which would be very dangerous if not caught.

            So she went and had some x-rays taken.  These did not show that the bone was broken so the doctor was called upon again.  He said, “This bone if broken oftentimes does not show up on the x-rays as broken.”

            Tatiana replied, “Well, this hurts so bad that it has to be something more wrong than just a minor injury that will heal itself in a few days.”

            “Well we’ll set up an appointment with a specialist for you and you can talk to him or her about what the options are for figuring out what is going on and how to correct it once you figure out what is going on,” the doctor replied.

            The appointment that the doctor made was not until the next week, which was not going to help anything.  She was in pain and freaking out because of the issues that the doctor said it could cause.  She needed to go in now not then.  She called her mom and told her what was going on.  Now her mom being unable to get there to comfort her and help with the situation felt really bad but did the next best thing she could.  She called the office of this specialist and got her an appointment with a hand specialist instead of just a general specialist for that very day.  Things were going to get taken care of in time for Tati (as her closest friends and family called her) to play in her soccer game on Sunday night…or so she hoped.

            John gave her hope in the male gender again.  She loved him for that.  He was the older brother she had never had but had always dreamed of.  Yes she had a little brother who was now taller than her and quickly on his was to being stronger but it’s just not the same.  All through high school he was just this little weakling who would not have been able to do anything in the way of defending her.  John was fulfilling that dream and filling the hole.  She hoped that he may become more some day but she was fine with allowing him to be a best friend/big brother for the moment.  They were all just settling in to the routine of college still, she understood that.  She just hoped and wished and dreamed and prayed that one day she would finally get that chance to feel what she had watched all the leading ladies in movies and books experience over the years.  Especially a chance to be fought over like Bella Swan was in her favorite series, Twilight; she was a fan before it was cool just so everyone knows.  To have to beautiful men such as Jacob and Edward wanting to win her heart would be absolutely amazing and would do great things for her self-esteem.  This she knew but she would continue to wait.  Hoping that at some point the boys would wake up and realize that they didn’t want the blonde bimbos anymore but rather someone with substance.

            She knew that she was worth it, she knew that she was pretty, but she also knew that she was intelligent and that was something that most males were intimidated by.  A smart girl was something that all boys were afraid of.  The males of our species have egos that are very easily bruised and any small thing that shows a female as better than them is something that they want to stay away from.  Tati understood this and had accepted it years ago…she had no other choice but she couldn’t help but hope that there was someone out there that would be able to get past that weak ego and take a few hits to get to know her and maybe just maybe like her as more than a friend.  Alas this had yet to happen and she was now 18 seriously not many girls at the age of 18 can say they have never been in a relationship no less that they have still yet to be kissed in today’s society at least.  How embarrassing.

            She was an athlete by nature. She had never spent a school year without at least one sport.  She was going to continue this in college.  She had one sport but it took up the equivalent of two seasons.  This was the first time she had been able to start the school year just relaxing and enjoying life…haha yeah right.  There’s this thing called homework, which consumed all the time that would have been spent at practices and competitions in other years.