Luke was thankful for the presence of his irrepressible room mate as they approached the ELU gym. He could already see light spilling out of the main entrance, and a steady trickle of other freshmen making their way inside. Noise rippled out across the campus. He found himself nervously drumming fingers against his thigh as they walked up to join the line.

Excitement and nervousness all bundled up into a messy clump in his stomach as they shuffled forward. Students filled the grassy paths, with a bewildering kaleidoscope of colours blaring from their clothes that had Luke second guessing his decision to keep things simple. Sticking with comfort, he had a smart-ish pair of black jeans on above his Converse, a dark t-shirt (this one stamped with the name of a different band) and his dark blue graduation hoodie, plastered across the back with massive white letters that read CLASS OF 2013.

There were a lot of girls here, and a lot of guys who looked like they'd made more of an effort. Luke found his gaze jumping from person to person with nervous energy, instantly judging himself against the people around them. He swept fingers through his fringe half a dozen times as they walked, knowing it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference but unable to stop himself from doing it anyway. Kenny failed not to notice.

"Take it easy," he muttered, giving Luke a gentle nudge with one elbow. "You're going to give yourself a comb-over at this rate."

Luke frowned; stuffed his hands into his pockets. "How come you're so chilled out?"

"Oh, me? I can't shut up. Motor-mouth, you know?" Kenny shrugged and gave him another good-natured bump shoulder to shoulder. "I just keep talking so nobody can ever tell if I'm nervous or not."

"Smart."

"Sometimes." He smiled, casting a mischievous look in Luke's direction. "Other times it gets me into trouble."

Before Luke could ask what kind of trouble, they reached the entrance of the gym where a pair of student volunteers manned a desk, armed with a formidable list of names and a roll of sticky name labels. Once they'd given their room numbers, they were quickly ticked off the roll of prospective attendees and had labels slapped on their chests by the enthusiastic duo.

The zeal of everyone here brought a fresh smile to Luke's face. It was a lot, a lot more than he was used to, but a big part of him wanted to get used to it. High school always felt like a grinding uphill climb, clawing for the grades and navigating the cliquey minefields to stay the course, long enough to nail down a future for himself. He wasn't top of his class or anything like that, but Luke had worked damn hard to get here. He wasn't going to let anything ruin it – not today.

Breathing deep through his nose, he followed Kenny into the hall, and into the noise.

Luke let his head loll back as he took in the cavernous space. People filled the gym in a loosely flowing mass, broken up by long tables of food and drink and the strident forms of more volunteers who brought lonely-looking freshmen together with military efficiency. Voices charged with vibrant, hopeful energy rose up to the rafters where bright lights blazed. An overflow of freshmen spilled onto the bleachers set up on the right-hand wall of the gym hall and the smell of aftershave, perfume, pizza and cheap soda engulfed him.

On autopilot he stayed behind Kenny as his room mate plunged into the crowd, searching intently for whoever they were supposed to be meeting. It didn't take long for him to come to a halt though, his eyes narrowing. He shook his head.

"Gimme a second, they're round here somewhere," Kenny said as he rotated left and right, whipping his phone from his back pocket. After a few swift swipes of his thumb, he held it up, quickly plugging a finger into his other ear to block out the hubbub.

"Hey!" he blurted loudly after moment. "Yeah, yeah, we just got here. You in already? Great. It's a freakin' zoo in here though – where are you guys?"

A pause. A nod.

"Okay..." Kenny's head rose, and he turned, looking past Luke to the far corner of the room. His eyes narrowed for a moment, before flashing wide and he raised an arm, waving animatedly. "Yeah, I see you, I see you. See me?"

Luke twisted around to see if he could spot the intended target. Pushing up onto his tiptoes it didn't take long for him to spot a girl jumping up and down with one arm flailing above her head. When he looked back, he found Kenny's face cracked into the grin that was already becoming a familiar sight.

"Time to meet the rest of the bunch," Kenny told him, slipping the phone back into his pocket again. "Just relax, Luke. I like to think I'm a good judge of character." He winked. "I guess we're going to find out one way or another, huh?"

"Hey, I feel safer." Luke nodded with mock severity and made a strident gesture in the direction of Kenny's friends. "Lead the way, judge."

Kenny chuckled, clapping him on the shoulder as he stepped past, and together they ducked and wove their way through the other freshmen. Sliding around tables and dodging some of the over-eager volunteer minders, they emerged at the far side of the throng to find a trio of other students waiting for them.

He recognised the jumper – a girl with a hint of Asian heritage in her pale, gentle features. Another girl with a bouncing pixie cut of black curls stood with a hip cocked and arms folded. Between them stood a dark-skinned student with hair buzzed down to his scalp and a face that split into a lightning-bright smile as they approached.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Kenny declared, stepping forward and clasping hands with the brawny young man, whereupon he was yanked into a tight embrace. They bounced apart an instant later and Kenny pivoted away, making a sweeping gesture backward with one arm. "Glad you guys made it. As promised, this is my new room mate."

"Hi," Luke managed, raising a hand. "I'm Luke." The introduction stuck him as a little pointless given his name tag, but social convention dictated he say something.

"What's up, man?" the other kid replied unperturbed, reaching towards him. "Kyan. Hope this joker hasn't hurt your ears too bad just yet."

"Careful now, you're gonna hurt my feelings," Kenny objected as they shook hands.

"As if any of us could do that," Kyan shot back, before grinning at Luke. "Stumbled into it by mistake. Opened my big mouth and told him we've got some of the same classes."

"Biochemistry?"

"That's the one. Has he gotten that arcade machine out of your dorm yet?"

Luke glanced over at Kenny with a smirk. "No, not yet. But I don't know, it gives the place a bit of colour."

"A man with taste," Kenny chimed in triumphantly, before turning to the girl with curling hair. "This is Aliyah Chambers, bona fide nurse to be."

"Hey." Aliyah raised a delicate hand, smiling with a touch of awkwardness. "And I'm not a nurse just yet."

"Confidence, Ally, confidence," Kenny chided before turning his attention to the last member of the group. "And last but not least, let me introduce Miss Gabrielle Truong."

Luke shifted his gaze, taking a closer look at her for the first time. She stood shorter than him by a solid six inches, though some of that was made up for by her impressive mound of jet-black hair that climbed from the top of her skull before sweeping down around the left side of her neck, reaching all the way to her chest. In the middle of her lower lip a silver ring piercing glinted under the gym lights.

She rolled her eyes.

"I go by Gabi," she said, giving Kenny a playful thump on the arm before turning her attention back to Luke. "I'm Aliyah's roommate." She jerked a thumb towards the other freshman. "Saturday-Night-Live here tells me you're majoring in Anthropology?"

"That's the plan."

"Cool, I'm majoring in archaeology," she said. "We might catch some of the same classes."

Luke's face brightened. "Yeah? That'd be great! You know your way around this place yet?"

"I'm getting there." Gabi's lips parted in a smile of cloud white.

"Right, alright, alright," Kenny declared, slinging a lazy arm around Luke's shoulders. "So, now that we're all introduced, I expect you all to make Mr. Arbor feel very welcome in Lasquette Bay."

"You've barely been on campus for a week," Aliyah pointed out dryly.

Kenny didn't miss a beat. "But I've lived here all my life. This is home, boys and girls, and a damn fine one it is. Now, who's ready to do a little meet and greet?"

Luke was swept up in his room mate's infectious enthusiasm. Energy seemed to roll off of the kid like a drug and in a matter of minutes the five of them plunged into the fray with him. Paper plates were piled with food; red plastic cups of soda flowed. Upbeat music thumped from speakers that he couldn't see.

People talked. To his excitement he discovered that Gabi was shooting to be part of the college archery team too, and it wasn't long before they were in the swamps of debate over Hawkshot versus Primal; recurve versus compound. He felt himself relaxing into something he actually knew how to talk about. She was from out of state, Montana originally, but a passion for shooting arrows and digging up archaeological artefacts had brought her to Lasquette Bay.

Kyan turned out to be an aspiring ice hockey player as well as hoping to major in Biochemistry alongside Kenny. Aliyah, soft-spoken and reserved, had a singular goal to qualify as a nurse. They spoke with half a dozen volunteers; were almost recruited into just as many student organisations in the process.

Luke was trying to feign interest in yet another extracurricular activity when he saw her.

Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the lonely figure drifting furtively around the outskirts of the gathering, and his head turned. It took a few seconds for him to convince himself that it was her, the girl who he'd run into – literally – at the admissions office.

Now her long tresses of dark brown hair had been swept back in two waves, tucking behind her ears, and cascading down the sides of her face. Her skin seemed to glow in the light, and her eyes examined the room, gathering every detail. She pressed her lips together tightly as she moved, as though deep in thought.

Luke blinked in amazement. Something about this girl struck him deeply, resonating in the caverns of his chest. She snagged his gaze like a fish hook, and he couldn't stop himself from watching her.

She wasn't exactly skulking, but she certainly wanted to remain inconspicuous from the way she avoided any danger of direct contact. Luke wondered if she was as nervous as he'd been when he walked into this place. The girl skirted around the edge of the crowd, unnoticed by the volunteers, eventually coming to a halt beside one of the windows, lounging back against the wall and sipping from a red plastic cup. A willowy frame was concealed beneath her grey sweatshirt, the garment a little big for her and hanging diagonally to reveal her left shoulder. She wore a black denim skirt beneath it, with matching leggings and a pair of flat ankle-high boots.

Luke abruptly realised he was staring and looked away, blood rushing to his cheeks. One day in college and he was ogling some girl like the campus nutcase. He tried to busy himself, looking through the tide of freshman and nodding and laughing at whatever outlandish story Kenny was currently hip-deep in telling. But he couldn't keep it up. His mind wandered and his eyes went along for the ride.

She was still there. Something yanked at his heartstrings.

"I'll be back in a minute," he told Kenny abruptly.

Not waiting to explain himself, he set off, his feet driving forward one after the other before he really knew what he was doing. He zig-zagged through the other students, ducked away from volunteers and slid between long trestle tables until he reached the fringe of the gathering. The noise of conversation radiated from the nucleus of the mixer, where friendship reactions erupted and imploded every few seconds.

Away from all of that, the girl stood and watched, eyes narrow with interest. Luke made sure he was in her eyeline as he approached, not wanting to startle her in any way. He swallowed down the nerves currently forcing their way up his throat and slid into position on the opposite side of the window, leaning on the wall and looking in the same direction she was. Those enrapturing stormy eyes flickered in his direction; widened in recognition.

"Hi," he opened, his whole body cringing with the banality of it.

"Oh, hey there," she replied, a faint glimmer of hesitation in her voice. A couple of crushingly silent seconds yawned out between them. Then she smiled awkwardly. "Good to see you're still in one piece. Hope nobody else has tried to run you over."

A rush of relief shot through him. She did remember. He laughed and shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant.

"Managed to keep my head up for the rest of the day," he confirmed, before pointing to his name tag. "I'm Luke – Luke Arbor."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Luke Arbor. And... sorry again."

"Forget about it." Luke smiled and hoped it didn't look as forced as it felt. "Did they not make you a name tag?"

The girl shot a dismissive glance towards the sign-in desk. "I didn't really think I needed one. Shouldn't be too hard to introduce yourself to people without a piece of paper stuck to your chest." She gave him a nod. "You managed it." The faint rounding of vowels pricked at his ears. Canadian? She didn't sound like she was from Lasquette – that was for sure.

"Can't argue with that," Luke chuckled. "You do have a name, though, right? Unless this is all some elaborate scheme to infiltrate the ELU freshman Friday night mixer."

That earned a smirk. "My name's Oaklynn."

"Oaklynn ...?"

"Just Oaklynn." Her eyes twinkled with mischief as she looked at him. His heart fluttered.

"Alright." He considered that for a moment, then leaned slightly closer, lowering his voice. "And the elaborate scheme?"

"Oh, no, it's safer if you don't know." She winked at him and took a sip from her drink. "And what about you? Scheming or...?"

"Well, I don't have any elaborate schemes," he admitted. "But I thought this might be a good place to meet some people. Get my foot in the door, so to speak."

"And what brought you to my little corner?"

"You looked a bit nervous, hiding out back here." He shrugged. "I know I was when I walked in. Luckily, I had somebody to give me a bit of a shove. Do you know anybody here?"

She looked his way. "I suppose I do now, don't I?"

"Apart from me?"

"Not yet, no."

"If you want, I can introduce you to some people I met tonight," he offered, through the words came out a little quicker than he meant. He cleared his throat, trying to ignore the faint heat in his cheeks.

"Thanks," Oaklynn said, pivoting to face him. "But I'm good here. I'm not really trying to make friends."

"Oh." Luke hesitated; half-turned away. "Look, I don't want to bother you if-,"

"No, no, hold on," she laughed, beckoning him back. "I'm not telling you to go away. I just don't need to meet your friends right now, okay?"

Luke turned back, silently thankful as he leaned against the window frame again. He cocked a quizzical eye brow and flicked a hand towards the gathering of students. "So... if you didn't want to meet anybody, why'd you come?" he asked.

Oaklynn smiled a patient smile, looking at him from behind a stray strand of hair. "Maybe I just wanted to see what I'm letting myself in for with all this?"

He shifted position to look back out into the lake of people. "I know what you mean."

"Not from around here, are you?"

"It's that obvious?"

"I'm used to reading people," Oaklynn replied. A hand flicked up, deftly tucking the stray hair back. "Call it a hobby."

"You're not from Lasquette either," Luke countered, taking a gulp of soda. "You don't have the accent."

"True."

"How about I tell you where I'm from, then," he suggested. "Maybe you can do the same."

More mischief sparkled behind her eyes. "Maybe."

There was a hint of challenge in her voice. Luke felt his mind whirling as he tried to gauge her reactions. She didn't seem unhappy to be speaking with him, but she remained cagey; tight-lipped. He struggled to figure out whether he was annoying her or not.

"I'm from Milwaukee," he told her in the end, deciding he'd find out soon enough.

"Ontario," Oaklynn confirmed, and he felt a faint bubble of triumph that he'd guessed correctly. Then with the abruptness of a spinning weathervane she changed the subject. "So, how come you were nervous coming here? Seems like you fit right in."

"I'm working on that." Luke finished his soda, placing the cup down on the window ledge and stuffing his hands awkwardly into his pockets. "Just... first time away from home. It's a lot."

For the first time her expression of faint amusement softened. "I know how you feel. This is my first time away from my family too."

"It's good though," he said quickly. "I've been working to get out here for years. Just, now that I'm here, I wanna make sure I make the best of it, you know?"

"Me too."

"What are you studying? I'm hoping to get my Major in Anthropology."

She didn't reply, though he saw the tightening of her jaw, her lips pressing together hard as she looked at him. It looked like she wanted to say something more, but in the end, silence won out in whatever internal debate she was having. Oaklynn drained the rest of her cup and set it down neatly on the nearest table. Then she faced him, casting a smile that warmed him to his bones.

"I've got to get going," she said.

Caught off guard, Luke felt a cold stab of disappointment that froze him to the spot for an instant. He quickly tried to gather his composure, forcing a smile of his own and nodding as though he understood.

"Oh ... oh, sure," he stumbled. "I guess I'll see you around campus?"

"It was nice talking to you, Luke." She placed a hand on his arm and bobbed her head toward the students behind him. "Give yourself a break and try to have some fun. New things are only as scary as you let them be."

Then she was walking away.

For a moment he just stood there feeling like an idiot. He couldn't pull his eyes away from her as she picked her way around the perimeter of the gathering, eventually disappearing through the main doors of the gym, lost to sight. Luke pursed his lips, his shoulders slumping as he tried to sort through the interaction in his head. There wasn't anything for him to do; she had walked away, and he wasn't about to follow her around if she didn't want his company.

But her presence lingered around him like charged particles and he felt the sudden sensation of regret, as though he'd missed out on the opportunity to ride a thrilling roller coaster. With a sense of missed opportunity clawing at his guts he had no choice but to slouch back through the crowds to his friends, with Oaklynn's face lingering in his mind.