Chapter 1 He stood at the entrance to the boys’ dormitory, his eyes looking at the scenery from behind his dark sunglasses. Taking a deep breath he looked up at the schools marquee ‘Pepe Bronce School of the Arts’ he had been waiting his whole life to get in and he finally had the chance. Picking up his duffel bag he pushed open the door to a hallway full of excited teenagers and college freshman. He could hear the sounds of different musical instruments as well as singing voices. Passing a room he noticed a pair of art students full of paint just flinging the bodies at a blank canvas making it colorful and bright with life.
He began to wonder if he would fit in with everyone here. He wasn’t much of a social person at his old school and he only hoped that a change of scenery and a bit of being able to express himself could help him be more open. Looking down at the piece of paper he had in his hand he read the number of his dorm room ‘243’. Making his way through the crowded hallway he smiled to himself as he opened the door to his room. He noticed half of it was already decorated and wondered who his roommate might be. Making his way to the empty bed he put his bag on top and started to unpack. He only hoped that his first day of class would help him feel at home.
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Howard Dorough stood outside the girls’ dorms waiting for his girlfriend Jackie to come out. He knew Jackie Rivera since 9th grade at the PB School and they grew closer and closer over the years. It wasn’t until the school last dance recital that Howard got the courage to kiss Jackie and ask her to be his girlfriend. It was going to be the best school semester ever. He smiled when he saw Jackie walking out the door followed by her Roommate and Best Friend Vanessa Acosta.
“Hey D!” Vanessa said as she hugged him “How was Puerto Rico?”
“It was good but not the same since I missed my girl” He said as he pulled Jackie into a long slow kiss.
“Oh, Ewww! Hello single person present please not in front of the single person” Vanessa said as she covered her eyes playfully.
“Ha ha ha very funny Vane (Vah- neh)” Jackie said as she held Howie’s hand in hers.
“Yeah well you guys have fun I need to go talk to Pepe about the dance studio he’s opening up outside of school” Vanessa said as she walked off towards the office buildings.
Howie and Jackie spent the rest of their time talking about their vacation and catching up on valuable make out time.
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Nick Carter sighed as he looked at his blank canvas it was hard to paint when he wasn’t inspired. Groaning in frustration he took one of his brushes and just splattered the dark blue paint that was on it making it splatter all over the canvas. Not paying attention to it he walked away and decided to clear his head with a walk around the schools pond. It was good to be back at PBSA and he missed it greatly. He knew his room mate and Best Friend Brian Littrell was due back today from visiting his family. He only hoped that Brian would help lighten his mood. Walking around the pond he chuckled seeing Jackie and Howie making out under the oak tree. Not wanting to interrupt them he walked around and noticed Vanessa coming out of the Office building.
“Hey V!” Nick called out as he jogged towards her.
“Hey Nickers, Did you have a good Vacation?” She asked as she hugged him tightly.
“Yeah it was good I basically stayed on campus cuz my family decided to leave without me” Nick said angrily
“Aww Nicky why didn’t you tell me you could have come with me” She said as they walked together towards the cafeteria.
“Nah its ok, I just can’t wait till classes start” He said.
“Yeah that means I have to go back to not eating anything at all” Vanessa said.
“What the heck are you talking about? You are practically skin and bones you need to eat something” Nick said.
“Ok Nick you win” Vanessa said as she grabbed a chicken sandwich with a bottle of water. She looked around the room and noticed an unfamiliar face in the crowd “hey nick lets go” She said as she walked to the new face with sunglasses.
“Ok where are we…..” He stopped mid sentence as they reached the new student.
“Hi I’m Vanessa and this is Nick you must be new here” She said and smiled warmly to him.
“Uh, Yeah I’m Alex McLean” He said and motioned for them to sit.
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Anitha Bertot finished unpacking her things and headed out of her dorm room. It felt good to be back and she only hoped that her best friend would comeback as well. She had it all planed for this year she was going to finally tell him how she felt. Taking up a small jog she headed towards their meeting place at the bridge that leads across the pond. She smiled seeing him there.
“Hey Cena” She said and hugged him tightly.
“Hey Ani!” He said as he lifted her up as he hugged her.
Jonathan Cena looked at his best friend and turned his face so that she wouldn’t see him blush. Being in the dance program was not an easy thing for him but he pressed on and became one of the best. Ani was his first friend and from there he became friends with her friends and made his own with the boys. John looked at Ani and smiled at her.
“So how was your vacation?” John asked her as he leaned against the railing of the bridge.
“It was good we just got back from Spain yesterday” She said and smiled
“Awesome, hey have you seen anyone yet?” He asked.
“Nope not yet, we’ll probably get to see them in a few minutes or so since we have our traditional oak tree meeting” Ani said as she looked across the lake to see Howie and Jackie leaning against the Oak tree in a tight embrace.
“Its about time those two got together huh?” John said trying to continue the talk and steer it away from awkward silence.
“Yeah it is I’m very happy for Jackie she deserves to be happy and Howie is a very sweet guy” she said and slowly got closer to him.
“Yeah well lets head on over to the oak tree” John said as he took her hand and lead her to the Oak tree.
Chapter 2 Vanessa and Nick where engaged in a very interesting conversation. Alex was feeling very at home with the two new friends and he only hoped that meeting his roommate would be good.
“Ok, so you have to watch out for Vivian she is our co-ed ballet teacher and she is off her rocker” Vanessa said.
“Good thing I don’t have to worry about that” Nick said as he laughed.
“You guys are nuts well I have to get to my dorm room and finish unpacking my stuff, I still haven’t met my roommate yet” Alex said as he kissed Vanessa’s cheek and gave nick a high five. “I’ll catch you guys later” Alex said as he put his tray away and walked towards the dorms.
Vanessa sighed as she looked at Nick “Come on Mr. Artist we have a meeting to get to” She said as she dragged Nick away from his unfinished dessert.
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Outside, Howie, Jackie, Anitha, John, Gloria, Christy, Brian, Kevin, Leighanne, and Kristin all waited for Vanessa and Nick to arrive. They all cheered as the Duo appeared and laughed when Nick carried Vanessa over his shoulder and jogged to the oak tree. Greetings and hugs were exchanged between the group of friends before they sat down under the shade.
“Alrighty then let’s get down to it, as we all know this will be Kevin and Kristins last year at PBSA” Howie said as everyone awed but cheered for their friends graduation after the semester is over. “So there will be a very well deserved Celebration party” Howie said as the group cheered even louder.
“On to new business, we need to know room assignments to figure out who’s with who this year” Vanessa said “Obviously I’m rooming with Jackie next door to Christy and Gloria, Who are Next door to Anisbell and Anitha , and now for the boys” Vanessa said as she looked at Howie.
“Well, Nick and Brian are Rooming together like always, Kevin and John are Roommates and as for myself my roommate is some guy named Alex Mclean” Howie said
“Oh he’s cool nick and I met him in the cafeteria, he’s really shy we have to see how good he is at dancing, he transferred here from West Palm Beach” Vanessa said as she got the dreamy look in her eyes where she was nudged by Anitha who pointed to A boy Alex’s description walking around the pond.
“Would that be him?” Anitha said as she pointed to Alex who was leaning against the banister of the bridge.
“Yeah that’s him” Vanessa said and smiled.
“Alright you guys I say we let his dancing speak for itself before we invite him to our group, let him get a feel of PBSA before we bombard him” Kevin said as he watched as the Campus began to fill with students settling in.
“Yeah besides Anisbell should be here soon” Anitha said as she pushed John away from her because he was playing with her pigtails.
“Oh, Girls we need to do something just us this weekend maybe see a movie or go shopping” Christy said as she leaned against the trunk of the tree.
“Ok so then us guys will do something too” Brian said in a fake Arnold Schwarzenegger voice making everyone laugh.
Keeping up with their silliness Alex watched the group of friends and felt a bit at home with crazy people like him. He only hoped that they liked him enough to welcome him with open arms. He smiled when he saw Vanessa smile; he felt that her smile just made his heart jump. Shaking his head he knew it would be impossible they didn’t know each other and the last relationship he was in ended up with a bad heart ache and he didn’t want that for either of them. Getting his thoughts back on track in planning his schedule he began walking back to his dorm and finish making his side of the room home.
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After the meeting Nick decided to walk around on his own to see if he would find the inspiration for his art. He sighed in frustration, before the New Year and semester had started his inspiration was anger that his family would leave him out of the vacation. He just didn’t care anymore about it and he wondered what would happen this semester as the classes would start up on the 16th he was still 3 weeks away from making sure he kept his reputation intact.
Why was it so hard for him to find someone like everyone else, he could tell Vanessa really liked that Alex guy but then again, she was always nice. He knew Vanessa suffered with all the relationships going on around them hell Christy had a baseball player fiancé Geraldo who was in PBSA for acting and was in the community baseball team. Gloria had a firefighter boyfriend Albert who she met when there was an accidental fire in the freshman dorms. Nick just knew that John would ask Anitha out any day or even by the end of the year if he had the guts. Then there was Anisbell, sweet nice and a great dancer, and she was beautiful. Who was he kidding she wouldn’t give him the time of day even if he asked.
Taking a deep breath he decided to go back to his dorm to see if Brian unpacked his things. Walking in to the room he noticed Brian put up the basketball hoop and smiled.
“You know I will so kick your but” Nick said as he grabbed the basketball from brains hand and dunked it.
“We’ll see about that” Brian said as they started to play a nice one on one game of basketball.
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Alex was finally settled in his bed when the room to the dorm was opened. He sat up to see that his roommate or at least the person he thinks is his roommate came in.
“Hi I’m Howie sorry I wasn’t here to greet you earlier but I was out with my girlfriend” he said as he put his hand out for Alex to shake.
“Nice to finally meet you I’m Alex and don’t worry I was out looking around the campus” He said and shook Howies hand.
“So how do you like it here so far?” Howie asked.
“It’s ok everyone is nice, and there’s two weeks till orientation so I guess I have time to check out the dance floors and keep on rehearsing or just stay in shape” Alex said with a nervous laugh.
“Yeah, but you know we could use another set of hands to help us with the dance studio if you’re interested” Howie said.
“Ok I guess I can think about it, I just feel like I’m invading” Alex said and chuckled.
“Nah! You’ll be fine once everyone gets to know you, Besides you’re a junior like the rest of us, except for Kevin and his Girlfriend Kristen, they graduate after this semester” Howie said as he sat on his bed and laid back.
The two continued to talk and get to know each other in the comfort of their dorm room.
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Inside her dorm room with Jackie, Vanessa had final finished putting all her clothes in an orderly fashion on her dresser. She was excited about the new semester starting up and about teaching at the dance studio. The Studio was for girls and boys who were too young or who needed to sharpen their techniques to get into the arts school. Taking a deep breath she lay back in her bed and stared up at the ceiling. Her thoughts kept drifting to Alex and his smile. Shaking the thoughts out of her head she chuckled.
“Who am I kidding? He most definitely will go for someone who’s a way better dancer then I am” she said to herself.
The day was over and a new day would soon begin hopefully with a lot more excitement then today.