"I cannot believe that you did that," Jasper mutters to me, glaring at me as we walk down the long sidewalk that connects our apartment building to the Art Institute building that's just around the corner. Another major bonus of finding our apartment.

"Oh, lighten up," I say with a quiet laugh. "You'll love it, it'll be fun. You'll see."

"Spending my afternoon getting repeatedly dropped into a large bucket of dirty, unsanitary water does not sound like fun to me," He tells me with a bitter frown. I had just told him about signing him up for the dunk tank at Jenny's human society fair and, if you haven't noticed yet, he isn't taking this lightly.

"But you're doing it for a good cause," I remind him. "And you can invite Conner and it'll be kind of like a date."

"We aren't dating."

"Really?" I wonder with raised eyebrows. "Then what are you doing?"

"We're talking," He says to me.

"You didn't call me to tell me that I couldn't come to the apartment on Tuesday just so that you could talk," I say to him with a pointed look.

"Okay, well we're more-than-talking but we aren't dating," Jasper insists, a blush creeping onto the tips of his ears. When we get to the building, I look down at my dress and make sure that I look okay. I'm wearing a blousy crème dress with a dark floral print on the bottom. It's a conservative dress with lacy sneakers so that I don't have to wear heels- I can tolerate them most of the time but I try to avoid heels when I can. I want to look nice today though, for all of the had honchos that are going to be there today for orientation, which I had forgotten about until this morning when Jasper had woken me up extra early so that I could get ready.

"It sounds complicated," I mumble, eyeing the building in front of us. It was a perfectly rectangular white building with symmetrical windows on each side and it looked to be about four or five stories tall. This will be my school for the next few years. I like it. "But you sound happy, so I'm going to let it slide. Do you think that you're going to date in the future?"

"That isn't letting it slide."

"Okay but I can still be curious," I refute as we walk into the front entrance of the building and we're immediately met by people, who are probably students themselves, ready to direct us to where we need to be.

"Hello!" The brunette girl in front of us beams. "Welcome to orientation! There's going to be an introductory meeting in 102 and that's going to be the third door on your right. There's a big sign, you can't miss it."

We politely thank her and then follow her instructions, walking down the hallway with all of the other people who are walking through the doors right now for the same reason as us.

"Well, I don't know," Jasper tells me honestly. "He really is pretty awesome. It'd be kind of awkward though, don't you think? I mean, you hooked up with his brother and they're really close and we're really close so you'd be bound to run into the guy sometimes."

"Don't worry about me," I say quickly, looping my arm through his as another one of the guides ("Orientation Leaders" as their black polo shirts said) points us into the room, 102, which is a large lecture hall filled with people who are about to start out their college life here just next week, and then some parents as well. "I'm happy if you're happy."

"Don't be cheesy," We sit down in one of the middle rows as people are still filing into the large room.

"I'm serious," I say with a laugh. "I can deal with awkwardness with Noah. And who knows? Maybe it won't even be awkward."

"As in you're going to sleep with him again," He fills in for me.

"I'm not saying that I plan to," I defend. "I'm just saying that if the situation were to present itself, I wouldn't be against considering the possibility of reacquainting myself with Noah and his various talents."

"Right, so you'd jump his bones," Jasper jokingly rolls his eyes at me.

"Not if you don't want me to," I add.

"I don't mind," He assures me as one of the 'Orientation Leaders' starts handing out pamphlets. "Do you think that things could get serious between you two though?"

"No, I really doubt that," I tell him honestly, making sure to keep my voice down so that nobody else can hear me. "I mean, he's nice but I just can't date a guy that I've hooked up with, you know? Like, I either have sex with you the night that I meet you and then we're done or we have to wait like, at least a month."

"That's a very weird policy," Jasper says to me and I just shrug.

"I know, but that's just how I work," I explain just as the room falls silent and a man dressed in a business suit stands at the front of the room with a microphone and a bright smile on his face.

"Welcome, class of 2018!" He chirps in a cheery voice. "My name is Dr. Myvett and I am the president here at the Art Institute of Atlanta and on behalf of all of the faculty here, I would like to welcome you to our campus and to our beautiful city. Before we get started with the day, I'm just going to go over the schedule just to make sure that everybody's on the same page."

The pamphlet that they just passed out has the schedule on it, so I just read off of that as Dr. Myvett explains everything.

11:30-12:45: Group discussions- Media Arts (Room 201), Design (Room 214), Fashion (Room 115), and Culinary (Room 326)
1:00- 2:00: Lunch and schedule pickup in 410- Your group leader will give you your time and location for scheduling
2:15- 4:00: Student ID pickup in the office
2:15- 4:00: Meet and greet with faculty in 201
4:15- 5:00: Meeting for your major- Your group leader will give you location for meeting
5:15- 6:15: Closing remarks in 102

The first thing on the list, the group discussion, meant that Jasper and I had to split up because graphic arts is a major under the category of Media Arts but photography is a Design major. I'm not too upset about that because it's not like I expect to be connected to Jasper at the hip while we're here. I just wish that we had some more time before we had to go our separate ways.

Dr. Myvett dismisses the audience group by group and the smaller two groups go first- culinary and fashion.

"Text me when your schedule is done and we'll meet up for lunch," Jasper says when they dismiss the Media Arts students.

"I will. Good luck," I offer him a small wave as he goes up the aisle and leaves the room with the other Media Arts majors, which leaves just us Design majors. When we're dismissed, we kind of walk in a herd towards the stairs and then I just follow everybody else to room 214, which is another lecture hall but it isn't as big as the one that we just came from, but it isn't as small as a normal classroom.

"Hello, everybody," A lady greets us when we're all sitting in the room. "My name is Marjorie Gibbons and I am the director of the Design department here in Atlanta. How is everybody's day going so far?"

It just started. Other people murmur polite responses and then she dives right into talking about the department and all of the opportunities that it gives us. She explains a lot about the criteria that we need to meet to graduate and all of that important stuff too, so I pay attention but it isn't the most exciting stuff so my mind admittedly starts to wonder a little bit.

She talks about how there's walk-in tutoring available for most introductory courses and stuff like that too and then, after she's done explaining how our portfolios will look by the time we graduate, it's almost 12:45.

"Okay, well that looks like all of the time that we have but before I let you guys go, let me give you your scheduling assignments and major meeting rooms."

She calls out everybody's name and when she does, that person will raise their hand and she'll hand the person a slip of paper. "Josephine Mast?" She called my name and, like everybody before me, I raise my hand and then she scurries over to my set and I thank her when she hands me the paper. It reads:

Josephine Mast
Schedule Pickup: 1:15
Major: Photography
Meeting room: 424

That gives me about half an hour to kill until my schedule pickup so I decide to find a restroom to touch up my makeup so that I look presentable. I know that Sebastian King is going to be here and he's one of my photography idols so I really want to impress him and although I'm sure smudged makeup won't exactly make him hate me, I just want to look nice.

On my way to get my schedule, Jasper texts me and tells me that his schedule pickup time is 1:20 which is good because that means that we can go get lunch afterwards before we go pick up our student IDs. Which is another reason that I wanted to look good today, we're taking our student ID pictures today.

When I walk into the schedule pickup area at 1:15, I'm led to a table with a scheduling advisor who introduces herself as Lilian and then we sit down and she starts to talk about the courses that I'll need to take this semester and for the spring semester afterwards.

I tell her that I'd like all of my classes to be as early as possible, that way I can get them over with in the morning and have my whole afternoon open to do stuff- which probably includes getting a job. Lilian shows me how to sign up for my courses online so that I can do it by myself for the rest of my semesters and then she signs me up for a schedule that I like with all of the necessary classes and then she prints it out, hands it to me, and sends me on my way.

Looking down at the paper, I'm happy with what I decided.

Monday Wednesday Friday:
8:00- 8:45 Observational Drawing
9:30- 10:45 Introduction to Photography
11:30- 12:15 Digital Color Theory
Tuesday Thursday:
10:00- 11:15 Principles of Photography
12:00- 1:30 Public Speaking
2:00- 2:45 English I

"Observational drawing?" Jasper says with an aggravated look on his face when we meet up outside of the schedule pickup room with his paper in his hand. "Tell me why I need to know how to draw when I'm in graphic design major."

"I have it too," I tell him with a small laugh, showing him my schedule.

He takes my paper and starts comparing it to his own. "Well, would you look at that? We have that stupid pointless class together. That and digital color theory which, I'll admit, is way more useful than observational drawing."

I laugh and loop my arm through his as we start walking towards the lounge where they were offering lunch. It was weird since the building doesn't have a cafeteria or anything so it was all kind of crowded but the sandwiches were good. "They want you to be a well-rounded artist is all."

"Well, it's stupid," He decides. "I can't draw. Like, at all."

"I have to take public speaking," I say to him. "And that's kind of irrelevant to being a photographer."

"Yeah, but you're a great public speaker so it doesn't count," Jasper rolls his eyes at me when we sit down in the crowded lounge area and start eating our sandwiches and bagged chips that the orientation leaders are handing out.

"Do you have to take it?"

"Yeah but I'm holding out on that one until the last possible second," He shrugs. "I also hate public speaking."

"You're a good public speaker too," I say to him. "You're just crabby about the required courses."

"I just want to design graphically, I don't want to draw or speak publicly."

"Well, you have graphic design courses too, right?" I ask with raised eyebrows, taking his schedule from his hand to look at it. "See? You have Digital Illustration and Design Fundamentals so those will be fun. You're such a baby."

"Maybe," He concedes with a small laugh.

When we finish eating our lunch and going over our schedules, it's time to go to the office to take our ID pictures and then get our student IDs, so we go do that before the line gets too long and then when we have that done, we leave the office and go towards the room that has the meet and greet in it.

"I think Sebastian King will be in there," I tell Jasper excitedly as he's eyeing his ID. "What? You don't like it?"

"No, it's not that," He says, showing me the ID picture. "My hair looks weird though."

"That's because you brushed it this morning," I remind him teasingly as I run my fingers through his soft blonde hair, messing it up a little bit.

"Oh, yeah you're probably right. Anyway, Sebastian King, that's a big deal. Are you nervous?" Jasper wonders, throwing an arm over my shoulders as we walk.

"I'm not letting myself get nervous," I decide. "I mean, he's a brilliant photographer and he works right here in Atlanta and he could possibly be one of my professors but you know, why should I be nervous?"

"You shouldn't be nervous. He'll love you," Jasper assures me as we climb the stairs to the second floor and then follow signs for room 201.

"Do you know any of the graphic design people that you want to meet?" I ask him just before we go into the room.

He shrugs. "Not really, no. I think I'm going to go find some though, while you talk to that Sebastian guy. Good luck."

I turn to wish him good luck too but he quickly kisses my temple and then he's hurrying away from me and disappearing into the crowd. I start to search the room for the photography booth and eventually come across a table covered in a black fabric table cloth with the words "Art Institute of Atlanta: Photography" embellished on the front in red and white letters with the school's logo.

The middle-aged man standing behind the table is wearing a suit with his curly brown/gray hair shining with gel and he towers over everybody else, demanding a presence in the room. I make my way over to Sebastian King as he converses with a guy that's probably another incoming student.

Right as I approach the table, the guy looks like he's saying goodbye to Sebastian so I take that as my opportunity before I can talk myself out of it. I push myself towards the table and offer the man a wide grin. "Dr. King? Hi, my name is Jo Mast. I'm a really huge fan of your work."

I offer him my hand to shake and he politely reciprocates. "Really," He says with a warm smile, his voice low and rumbly.

"Absolutely," I continue, reminding myself not to get caught up in my words. I notice that the boy who he was talking to before I approached is still standing beside me at the table, watching our conversation. "I've been to your gallery in Los Angeles countless times. It's really stunning. Breathtaking, actually."

"Thank you, Miss Mast," Sebastian King, one of my biggest idols, says to me. "I appreciate that. Are you going into photography?"

"I am," I confirm. "I actually won the Timothy Bird Scholarship."

"Ah, I thought your name sounded familiar," He tells me, a smile spreading across his face. "I was quite impressed with your portfolio when we were reviewing applicants."

"I was runner up for that," The guy beside me interrupts and I offer him a polite smile although I really want to just smack him and tell him to go away because this is my moment. "I heard that it was a close decision."

"It was," Dr. King agrees. "But Miss Mast's work just holds so much spirit and honesty. Is the Broken Doll series based on your life? I was absolutely blown away by it."

My breath caught in my throat. He was blown away by it? BLOWN AWAY?! My idol is telling me that he likes my work. No, he didn't just like it, he was blown away by it. "Wow. Wow, thanks. Yeah, it's mostly about my childhood."

"Well, I think that you both have stunning potential. I'm eager to see your progress here," He tells me and the intrusive guy beside me.

"Thank you. It was so nice to meet you," I say with a chirpy grin and I can tell that there's a line growing behind me to talk to him so I use that as my goodbye and I turn to walk away but not before throwing a fleeting glare at the stranger beside me just because he annoyed me.

"So it looks like you're my biggest competition," The guy said, following me as I walk away from the booth to go find Jasper.

"It looks that way," I reply.

"I'm Felix. Felix Gabriel," He introduces himself with a cocky half-smile.

"Jo," I say with a quick smile because although this guy is kind of getting under my skin, I still want to be polite.

"I'd love to see your work sometime," He tells me. "I've heard good things."

I turn to look at him and when I see that off putting half-smile still plastered on his tan face, I realize that he's hitting on me. To make it even more obvious, when I turn to face him, he makes a big deal out of dropping his eyes down to my legs and then back up to my face. "I'm actually pretty private with my work."

"Oh, come on. I need to know what I'm up against here," Felix insists, his eyes widening as if to make himself look innocent and full of good intentions.

"Well, it'll be on display at the student expo next month, so you can see it then," I say to him, trying to be polite about it and let him down easy. As if I don't have enough masculinity in my life, I really don't need Felix there too.

"The expo?" He wonders with raised eyebrows. "That's only for upper classmen, how'd you get in?"

"The winner of the Timothy Bird gets a slot," I remind him. "Which is me."

"Man, I would have loved to get in that thing," Felix says, now looking annoyed and not nearly as cocky and charming. "I should have won that scholarship, my work is good."

"Well, I'm sure it is. Since you got runner up and I'm sure they gave you something for that," I say and then I realize that maybe I don't want to be polite to the creepy guy who is my competition and he's still glancing down at my legs, so I cock my head to the side and give him my best mean girl face and then say, "Perhaps a gift card to Walmart or something?"

He opens his mouth to say something but I just give him a little laugh and continue.

"Anyway, I have to go. I'll probably see you around," I add before sauntering away from him to go find Jasper, who is standing at the Web and Graphic Design table, talking to the woman on the other side of it and when I step up closer to the table, I can hear that they're talking about internships. I stand by his side but stay silent and just listen in on the conversation until he says goodbye to the lady and we depart together.

"That seemed insightful," I say.

"Oh yeah, she was really nice. She's the intro teacher, I have her for a few classes," Jasper explains. "Did you find Sebastian King?"

"I'll tell you about it when we get into the hallway," I tell him, not wanting to freak out in such a packed crowd because even when I think about what Dr. King had told me about my work, I just can't stop smiling, even if that Felix guy wants to try and ruin my good mood.

"So it's either really good or really bad."

"It's good," I assure him. "It's amazing, really."

And then we empty out of the large crowded room and once we're in the hallway where nobody else is standing, I let out an embarrassingly loud squeal and jump into Jasper's arms, hugging him tightly. He hugs me back and then spins me around in the air, feeling happy just because I'm feeling happy without even knowing why we're so happy. That's just the amazing kind of friend that Jasper is.

"Okay, get this. So, I introduced myself," I start to say when I'm back on the ground. "And then I tell him that I won the Timothy Bird Scholarship, and then he said that he remembered my work."

"Wow."

"Yeah, it gets better," I say with a giddy grin as I relive the whole experience in my head. "He said that he was blown away by my portfolio. Blown. Away. By me."

"That's because you're a rock star and also an amazing photographer," Jasper tells me with a small laugh. "But that really is amazing, Jo. Congratulations."

"Thank you. I still can't believe this. I can't wait to tell Sienna, she's going to be so excited," I gush. "Anyway, what time is it? We have those meetings for our majors soon, right?"

"Yeah, we should probably be headed there. What room is yours in?"

I pull the little slip of paper out of my pocket that has all of that info on it and I read out the room number, "424. What about yours?"

"256," He says. "So we'll meet up right before the closing thing, alright?"

I nod and lean forward on my tippy toes and kiss his cheek. "Have fun with the other graphic designers."

"You have fun with the other photographers," He returns as I head for the stairs to go up to the fourth level to find room 424. I really hope that I don't run into that Felix guy again because he's not exactly the company that I want. Maybe I'm just being too judgmental but he just seems way too competitive and he sees me as the person that he needs to take down. And also sleep with.

Both of which will never happen.

I get into the room and sit at one of the single desks with all of the other incoming students and wait for the meeting to start so that it can end. After this is over, I'm going to dinner with Jasper, Scott, and Macy, who is leaving for school next week, right after the charity fair, and so she's spending every waking moment with Scott. I understand completely but I haven't seen him much in the last week.

When the speaker starts to talk about the photography course, I notice that Felix is sitting just a few seats over and when he sees me looking at him, he winks. I grimace and turn back to face the front of the room. Of course the only other photography major I meet is a total dickhead.

As Ms. Henry discusses the different types of labs that we have available, I start to think about how much that irritates me. I don't want to just know one person who is incredibly irritating. I want to know other people in this major so that I'm not forever alone in the corner taking pictures.

With that in mind, when she's done talking and dismisses us for the closing meeting downstairs, I look around for the nearest girl to me, who is siting to my right, as she bends down and grabs her purse, throwing it over her shoulder.

"Hi," I say, tapping her on her shoulder.

She looks up at me and her red hair falls into her face a little bit. "Hello."

"My name is Jo," I really shouldn't be allowed to talk to strangers because I'm not very good at it. "I'm a photography major. I mean, obviously. Anyway, I noticed your Prada bag and I absolutely adore it."

"Oh, thanks," She smiles at me. "It's just a knock off though."

"It's still gorgeous," I assure her. "Where'd you get it?"

"Belize," She tells me. "This summer. I'm Haven."

"I've always wanted to go down there, I think that Belize is such a cool place from what I've heard, they have such an interesting culture. My mom is afraid of planes though so she'd never agree to it."

"Yeah, you should go, it's really amazing. Their mango is also to die for."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I made my first friend in photography.