Page 3 of Ink & Ambition

I wish I could take only journalism classes for the rest of my time at Tomlin University but alas, my advisor informed me that I needed to take three electives this year. In my haste to finish my course schedule on time and not get closed out of any of my core classes, I picked the first three electives I saw: Public Speaking, American Sign Language, and Psychology.

ASL and Psychology I can handle but Public Speaking? I am absolutely dreading it. I pull the syllabus up on my laptop and stare at the first assignment due on Monday.

“Prepare a one-to-two minute speech about something that scares you,” I read aloud.Does this class count?

What scares me? Doing my taxes. Calling customer service lines. Dating.Ugh.I shut my computer and push it away from me on the bed. This will be tomorrow’s problem, I decide and curl up under the covers to finally get some much needed shut eye.

Chapter Two

Margot

Iwakewithastart, as I sometimes do when rattled by a particularly startling dream. Grabbing the journal I keep on my bedside table, I furiously write out the insane scenario that just ran rampant in my head. After a few minutes, I sigh deeply and pull myself from the warm and cozy bed.

Clutching my dream journal, I head into the kitchen, immediately spotting Danika with a blanket around her shoulders, brewing a fresh pot of coffee.

“Good morning, beautiful people!” Sydney hops into the kitchen, clad in one of her twenty matching workout sets. Skipping the coffee, she grabs a water bottle from the fridge as she inserts her headphones into her ears. “Headed to the gym. See you in a bit.” Danika and I groan our goodbye as the door closes behind her.

“Weird one?” Danika asks, looking at the worn down book in my hand. I hand it to her as I grab a mug of coffee. Behind me, Dani has flipped to the most recent page in my journal.

“Aliens? That’s new,” she comments as she reads. I plop myself down on the couch with my mug and Danika joins me.

“Green and blue aliens. Thoughts?”

“Well,” Danika starts, humming as she thinks through the weirdness that invaded my head last night. “Being abducted by aliens is pretty cut and dry. You’re not happy with where you are and you wish someone would come and transport you to a different place. Whether that be a physical location or some other change in your personal life.”

She hands me the journal and takes another sip of her coffee.

“Maybe it’s trying to tell me to transport myself out of that public speaking elective class I have tomorrow.”

Danika gives me a sympathetic look. “You’ll be fine. Journalists need to be good at public speaking. This is good practice.”

“Since when?”

Danika only shrugs as she settles deeper onto the couch.

I sigh. “I think I need to log some hours in the library this morning. My study room is calling.” I take a final sip of my coffee, and Danika hands me her empty mug as I walk toward the kitchen. “Care to join?”

“No, thank you very much,” Danika replies, already hitting the power button on the TV remote. “I think I’ll take this last day before classes really start as a day to rot.” She scrolls through Netflix until she finds her favorite season of whatever dating reality show she’s obsessed with this week and pulls the blanket over herself.

I laugh at her, wishing that I could join but I need to get this speech done and the only way I can truly focus is in Study Room G6–my sanctuary in the campus library. Getting myself together, I grab my things and head for the door.

“Enjoy rotting,” I call to Dani’s immobile form.

“I plan to!” she calls back and I chuckle as the door closes behind me.

While having an apartment off campus has its clear advantages, it also has an even larger amount of disadvantages, at least for me who has no mode of transportation other than public or begging. Today, I was too slow to hitch a ride with Sydney so onto the bus I go.

Fifteen minutes later, the bus pulls up to campus and I hop off with vigor.

I can write this speech.Just pick an easy topic. It doesn’t have to be that deep.

“Hey Margot,” Edith, the school librarian, says when I scan my ID. “It’s nice to see you back. How was your summer?”

I shrug. “Uneventful,” I reply with a smile. “How was yours?”

If she is allowed, Edith, with her tight gray curls and her lovable yellowing grin, can chat for hours on end without skipping a beat. Luckily for me, I have a couple years of practice on how to get her to focus on what’s in front of her, which right now is me, trying to get the key to my study room.

Right in the middle of the word “Nantucket,” I make my move. “Oh, Nantucket! I hear that place is beautiful in the summer time. I’ll have to make a trip out there at some point. Anyway, I’m just going to head downstairs to G6, okay? See ya!”

---