Until Then (Cornerstone Book 2) (2 page)

Dad pointed at the brochures. “You will apply to these three schools. You can choose which one you wanna go to when you see which ones accept you. If you don’t, we’ll pick for you.”

She crossed her arms again. Despite her rebellious ways, she was smart and got decent grades. She knew she would inevitably be accepted to all three.

“Why these?” She glared at the brochures in disgust.

“Your Uncle Brian is a professor at Cedarville, and Grandpa and Grandma both went to Grace. It’s where they met.”

Michelle wondered how her dad grew up in such a religious family yet still turned out the way he did. Neither of her parents ever had much to do with God, except maybe the occasional use of His name in vain, and He had never done anything to help their family. It was for this reason that the idea of God and religion seemed pointless to her.

She motioned to the last brochure for Cornerstone College. “And this one?”

“It’s another good Christian college, so you have options.”

Michelle flipped each catalog over and noticed the very obvious pattern. “All out of state.”

“Yes.”

“To get me away from my
horrible
friends,” she said sarcastically.

“To give you a chance at a better life,” her grandmother interjected.

“This sucks.” Michelle hated that they were ganging up on her like this. “I love Chicago. It’s my home. I don’t wanna live anywhere else.”

“You’re going,” her mother demanded.

“Screw you!” The fury bubbled up within her.

“You are out of control, Missy!”

“You can’t make me go!”

Her mother’s eyes narrowed. “Watch me.”

2

Michelle opened the window of her dorm room to let in the fresh, late-summer air. A soft breeze blew in and cleared the stuffiness away. She glanced around and took in the drab cinder block walls, boring tile floor, and pale wood doors of the closets. Cornerstone College — home for the next nine months.

She took a seat at a built-in desk next to the only single bed in the room, which she had claimed with her bags. The other two beds were bunks, and there was no way she was sleeping on a bunk bed. It was bad enough she had to share a room with two complete strangers.

She sighed, still not quite believing she was there. The benefits of having her grandparents pay for a full ride to college far outweighed any argument she could come up with for not going, so she had caved and agreed to their conditions. And she spent her final year of high school acting out in any way possible to let her family know just how unhappy she was about the whole thing.

Why she chose Cornerstone had little to do with the quality of the academics or the look of the campus and everything to do with her family’s lack of affiliation with this particular school. She didn’t care to go to Grace just because her grandparents met there, and she didn’t want to go to Cedarville and risk having Uncle Brian as one of her professors. So Cornerstone it was.

She didn’t know how she would survive a month there, let alone four years, with all its rules and strict morals, of which she was in short supply. And she already missed home. Grand Rapids, Michigan was only three hours away from Chicago, but it may as well have been three hundred. She was dropped off by her mom, left without a car, stranded in a strange place.

The door suddenly opened and in walked a pretty girl with sandy blonde hair carrying a laundry basket overflowing with her belongings. A man, woman, and teenaged boy followed carrying boxes and bags.

“Hi,” the girl said. “You must be one of my roommates. I’m Maggie.”

Michelle smiled weakly. “Michelle.”

The man and woman introduced themselves as Patty and Ron James, Maggie’s parents, and shook her hand politely.

The teenaged boy hovered nearby with a flirty grin on his face, his strawberry blond hair hanging over one eye. “Hey, I’m Tom.”

Maggie smacked him on the arm. “Leave her alone, Tommy.”

This made Michelle smile in spite of herself. Being an only child, she had always wondered what it would be like to have a brother or sister to harass.

“I wonder when our other roommate’s getting here.” Maggie opened the closet doors and checked out the space.

Michelle shrugged. “I just got here about an hour ago myself. No sign of her yet.”

Mr. James and Tom left to retrieve the rest of Maggie’s things.

“Where are you from, Michelle?” Patty asked.

“Chicago.”

“Oh, we love the Windy City,” she replied. “Have you always lived there?”

Michelle nodded. “Yep.” She didn’t really know how to do the whole small talk thing.

Maggie rifled through her pile of things at the foot of the bunk beds. She grabbed a black padded bag from one of the boxes and pulled an expensive looking camera from within.

“Will you take a picture of me and Michelle, Mom?”

Michelle groaned inwardly when Maggie stepped to her side and put an arm around her. She faked a smile.

Ron and Tom returned and stacked a couple more boxes and baskets with the rest.

“I wonder which bed she’ll want,” Maggie considered.

Michelle sat on the bed she had left her things on. “I say we get first choice since we were here first.”

“Sounds good to me,” Maggie agreed. She tossed her pillow and some bedding on the bottom bunk. “Hey, we’re going to dinner. Do you wanna come along?”

“Oh.” Michelle shook her head.

“You’re more than welcome to come, Michelle.” Patty looked at her with kind, green eyes.

“That’s OK. I think I’ll stay here and see if the other roommate shows.”

“Are you sure?” Maggie’s eyes were even greener than her mother’s.

Michelle nodded.

“OK. Well, I’ll be back in a couple hours, and we can talk more.”

Michelle cringed at the thought. “OK. Have fun.”

They left the door open on their way out.

Michelle rolled onto her stomach and stared out the open door as more students filed through the hallway with their families. Part of her thought she should have gone with Maggie’s family. They seemed like nice people, but the idea of more small talk did not sound at all appealing.

Waiting for their other roommate was a good excuse, but she wasn’t really going to do that.

The campus was simple yet beautiful, with it’s winding sidewalks lined with trees, lovely landscaping, and a picturesque pond. Michelle walked from her dorm, Miller Hall, across the campus to the gymnasium. The doors were open to welcome the students, and the sound of sneakers squeaking on the wood floor greeted her.

Once inside, she discovered a group of guys playing three-on-three basketball. It was the first thing on campus that gave her the slightest feeling of comfort. She stood to the side of the door and watched, itching to grab the ball and join the game.

One of the guys immediately turned her head. He was tall and handsome with nut brown hair and an athletic physique. But he was a terrible shot, hitting the backboard way too high at least half a dozen times. He suddenly lobbed the ball at the basket and completely missed, sending it bouncing in Michelle’s direction.

She retrieved the ball and dribbled it in place, glancing his way.

He jogged over to her, and she tossed him the ball.

“Thanks,” he said with a grin. “Do you play?”

Michelle flipped her long, dark ponytail over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow in reply. “The real question is … do you?”

He laughed aloud and returned to the game.

Michelle took a seat on the nearby bleachers. Basketball was her game. She had been playing with the guys since they were kids and had played on the team in junior high and high school. She was good, but never good enough to play first string or dare to dream of a college basketball scholarship. She loved the game, though, and was planning to play on a college intramural team in the spring. In the meantime, she hoped to find some like-minded friends to play with, and these guys definitely looked promising.

When their game ended, the handsome stranger and a couple of his friends approached. He was dribbling the basketball, bouncing it back and forth between his legs, obviously showing off with a little fancy footwork. At least he was good at
that
.

He stilled the basketball and strolled over to her. “Hi again.”

“Hey.”

“I’m Simon.”

“Michelle.”

“I would shake your hand, but I’m kinda sweaty.”

She laughed.

“These are my roommates, Wes and Sean.”

Wes’s blond hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat. He brushed it back from his face. “Nice to meet you.” He was shorter than the others, but height hadn’t kept him from excelling on the court.

Sean wiped his hand on his shorts and held it out to her. “Nice to meet you, Michelle.”

She shook Sean’s hand. “You, too.” He had the bluest eyes she had ever seen, like clear, aquamarine water in some tropical location she would probably never visit.

“Are you a freshman this year?” Simon asked.

“Does it show?” Michelle raised an eyebrow.

“A little. What dorm are you in?”

“Miller. You?”

“We’re in Quincer.”

“Is this your first year, too, then?” she asked them.

They nodded in reply.

Wes and Sean then excused themselves to go get cleaned up.

As they walked away, Sean glanced back over his shoulder and smiled. “See ya’.”

She lifted her hand in a wave. “Yeah. See ya’.”

Simon raised a hand to his friends, then turned his attention back to Michelle. “You never answered my question earlier.”

“What question is that?”

He tilted his head toward the hoop. “Do you play?”

“I do,” she proudly answered. “I was on the team in high school. You?”

“Nah. I play for fun,” he replied. “Are you any good?”

Better than you.
“I can hold my own.” She kept her true thoughts to herself.

Simon suddenly tossed the ball at her, which she caught with lightning fast reflexes. “Prove it.”

“OK.” She was up for the challenge.

“Play me a game of PIG.”

Michelle laughed. “PIG? Really?”

“Come on.” He walked backwards toward the court. “You can go first.”

She moved to the three-point line and looked him straight in the eye. “This is gonna be a really short game.”

Michelle walked to the dorm with a feeling of satisfaction. She had crushed Simon at multiple games of PIG. He really was a terrible shot. But it felt good to have someone to play ball with again.

When she decided on Cornerstone, she never thought she would meet anyone that she felt as comfortable with as her friends. Simon Walker was a welcome surprise. And not bad to look at either. He was funny and easygoing, like the guys she hung out with back home. Well, not exactly like those guys, but he would do.

Simon had taken his defeat like a true gentleman — not something she was used to — and invited her to meet up later at the campus hangout, The Skillet, to celebrate her victory.

She wandered leisurely along the sidewalk and noticed many students still arriving, lugging their stuff into the dorms. As she squeezed past a family carrying boxes and suitcases, she heard chattering girl voices coming from her room. She turned into their doorway to see Maggie talking with a cute, petite blonde.