A Mermaid's Kiss (Bay State University #1) - Katie Holland Page 0,5
have known better.
“Nana,” Karma yelled, “we met some hot guys at the beach yesterday.”
I was hoping Nana didn’t hear, but she did. I wasn’t going to talk about that with her so I handed the phone to Karma. She’d talk to anyone about anything. I took the opportunity to put my books in my room. By the time I was back, Karma and Nana were laughing about something, probably me.
“Bye Nana,” Karma said. “Love you.” She handed the phone back to me.
“What were you two talking about?” I asked. “Wait, I probably don’t want to know.”
Nana chuckled so I knew I was right. “I’m glad you seem to like it there,” she said.
“So far it’s great. But, I’m reserving judgment until classes start on Monday. We have a team meeting this afternoon. I’ll let you know my practice schedule when we’re done.”
“Okay honey. You take care and have fun.”
“I will. I miss you, Nana.”
“I miss you too. Bye, sweet baby.”
“Bye,” I said and hung up.
“I just love your Nana,” Karma said, when I put the phone down. “She’s a cool lady.”
“I can’t argue with that. I’m lucky to have her. So, what do you want to do? We’ve still got an hour until we have to be at the swim complex.”
“I say enjoy some of this California sun. Let’s go people watch.”
Karma loved people watching and, truthfully, so did I. I grabbed my sunglasses and we left the dorm. We found a bench close to the swim complex and sat down to enjoy the afternoon sun. Back home in Tulsa, it was over 90 degrees today, but here it was a lovely 75. I could get used to this.
Just before 2:00, we walked over to the building that was going to be our second home. There were about a dozen other people sitting in the stands waiting. Karma and I joined them.
“Excuse me, are you Kayleigh Mills?” someone said, from behind me.
I turned around. “Uh … yes,” I answered. I had no idea who this guy was.
“It’s great to meet you. I’m Wes.”
“Hi, Wes. Do I know you?” I hoped that didn’t sound rude, but I had no clue if I was supposed to know him or not.
He smiled at me. “No, we’ve never met in person, but I’ve seen you compete before. You’re really good.”
“Oh, well thanks.” I wasn’t sure if I should be flattered or creeped out.
“It was last year at Nationals. I got knocked out in an earlier meet and got the opportunity to watch the rest of the competition. You swam the 100m freestyle and kicked everyone’s ass.” He grinned.
Okay, so maybe he was a little cute.
“I remember that swim. It was a good day.” I glanced at Karma and silently begged her to rescue me, but she wasn’t moving. Instead, she smirked at me. “So, where are you from?” I asked.
“Dallas. I’m here on a scholarship.”
“Me too, I mean the scholarship part, not Dallas.”
He smiled at me again. I’m sure I sounded like an idiot. Luckily for me, one of the coaches got our attention and our meeting started.
Forty-five minutes later, we were done. I’d met my teammates, was issued my school swimsuits, and given our practice schedule. Karma and I compared schedules, they were the same. We had practice Monday through Friday from 6 am to 8 am, and again Monday through Thursday from 4 pm to 6 pm. If there wasn’t a meet on Saturday, then it was practice from 8 am to noon. The only time off we had was Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday. It was going to be hectic but if I focused, I could do it.
Chapter 4
Major
As I predicted, I hated my dorm room. It was cramped and ugly. But at least I found a place to put my surfboard. Somehow I was able to get Bodie as my roommate. I suspected my parents had something to do with that. They were both alumni of Bay State, and still heavily donated to the University. Even one of the buildings was named after our family.
“Hey man, you ready to go?” he yelled from the other room.
“Yeah, just give me a minute,” I yelled back.
I took one last look in the mirror. I knew I looked good and I was sure to score tonight. We were headed to a party that I’d heard about, and I was planning to get into someone’s panties tonight.
“Alright, let the games begin,” I said, as we left the room.