The Long Winter #7
Orientation part 7
“You're not really going to message her, are you?” Leah asked.
Penny frowned at Leah over the top of her tablet as they sat on the grass in front of the dorm the following morning. Penny was comfortably under the shade of one of the tall maple trees with her legs tucked under her. Leah sat across from her, constantly pulling on the hem of her skirt down over her knees with one hand while she leaned on her elbow and tapped the screen of her own electronic device.
“I thought we were here to study,” Penny answered, turning her lower lip out into an adorable pout.
Maddie snickered at them.
“I can't understand how you two can study anywhere.” The blonde girl laid beside them in the sun, her arms stretched above her head and her legs splayed out. She was a vision of languid laziness with grass clippings stuck on her clothes and in her hair, her eyes half-opened as she toyed with her pony tail.
“I did not schedule this morning as a purely study session,” Leah said, producing her phone. “Social obligations are important to maintain as well.”
Penny squinted as she leaned forward to look at the screen.
“Wow, you even have bathroom breaks scheduled…”
“No way!” Maddie bolted upright and snatched the phone, scrolling through the schedule presented to them. “Bathroom breaks, all her classes, the exact times she plans on studying… What's this “personal time” mean? Looks like you have it scheduled between taking a shower and going to bed.”
“It's personal.”
“You masturbate then!” Maddie laughed and grabbed Penny's shoulder. “What do you think she's thinking about when she's busy with her “personal time?” Henley? He's handsome in a weird way. Definitely not Clark!”
Leah sighed and plucked her phone from Maddie's clutches.
“If it's personal she shouldn't have to tell us,” Penny said, watching her friend fight back a blush and a glare. “Personal things should remain personal.”
“I tell you all my personal stuff,” Maddie said, turning her nose up in a show of indignance. “You two don't respect me enough to do the same?”
“What, you want to hear about what I ate for breakfast and how long it took to poop it out?” Penny said with an evil grin.
“You have definitely been spending too much time with Clark,” Leah said. “And where is the Gorilla-man on this fine morning?”
“He's still busy processing the porn stars he saw having sex,” Maddie said, rolling her eyes.
“You could barely see them from the house,” Penny muttered. “No way was I getting anywhere near them. Gross.”
“What do you have against porn stars?” Maddie asked. “Everyone's got to make a living.”
“That's a very Libertarian outlook to take,” Leah said.
“I'm not against it if they're not.”
“What about the human trafficking it engenders? The damage it does to girls who get taken advantage of by the industry? The damage it does to the males who watch it?”
“All overstated. I'm for freedom. Freedom means people have to live with their mistakes, but it also means they're free to learn from them. If they can.”
Leah nodded, but not in agreement. She turned to Penny, whose eyes had returned to her tablet. “Care to weigh in?”
“I don't like porn. I don't watch it. I have no interest in it.” Penny kept her attention on her schoolwork and her words terse.
Leah glanced at Maddie. The blonde girl shrugged.
“I don't watch it with any regularity,” Leah said. “I like stories better.”
“I was raised a good Christian in a good Christian home,” Maddie said, turning her nose up into the air again. She then turned back to them with a smirk. “But I've seen it. It's not my thing. I'm glad we have easily offended Princess Penny with us so we didn't get dragged to see last night's show up close.”
“I'm not easily offended.” Penny glared over her tablet at Maddie.
“Okay, okay. Maybe it's your fascist side. Do fascists hate porn? Is that a fascist thing to hate? I'm not up on my fascism.”
“You've been spending too much time with Clark as well,” Leah said, her eyes returning to her own studies.
“Whatever. Clark's a jerk. A cad.” Maddie could not stop herself from glaring at Penny.
“What? What did I do?” Penny dropped her tablet at the look.
“Nothing. What are you talking about?”
“That look just now. You were like, totally mad at me.”
“Was not. You were imagining things.”
“You were so! You were—”
“Oh my gosh, you and Clark, you and Clark, maybe you two should just admit you're in love with each other and just fuck already.”
Penny squawked in response and there was a moment of awkward silence as the trio glanced between each other. Maddie laughed.
“I got you!” she said. “I got you good! You thought I was serious, but I'm really just a terrible prankster! I guess it goes along with my hyper-competitiveness.”
“Some joke,” Penny said. Movement beyond Maddie caught her attention and she watched a girl with vivid blue hair exit the dorm and begin walking towards the academic buildings. The girl wore tight jeans with rips in exciting places and her hair was tied into the tiniest pig tails Penny had ever seen. The blue-haired girl looked back at her, and her eyes narrowed.
“Do you know her?” Maddie asked.
“Who, her?” Penny straightened and glanced over at the blue-haired girl again. “Uh, no. Just… I don't know.”
“Weird,” Maddie said, her eyes passing over the blue-haired girl on their way to the windows of the dorm. “Almost looked like you had a moment there.”
“Huh? Moment?”
“Yes, it looked as though something unsaid, some mysterious thing, passed between you two,” Maddie said. She giggled and leaned towards Penny. “You should totally catch up with her and find out what she's about. And by that, I mean you should find out if she's gay.”
Penny's face twisted in irritation.
“Aw, Maddie, come on, I do not want to do that, I'm having enough trouble as it is with Geri stalking me and that stupid date with her Friday,” she whined. Still, she continued to watch the blue haired girl walk past. The blue-haired girl looked over at that moment and caught Penny looking at her. The half-Asian girl reacted with a start, and turned her panic-widened eyes back to her tablet and tried to pretend to study once again.
“She's coming over here,” Maddie said, grinning at Penny.
“Oh no, please tell me she's lying, Leah,” Penny squeaked, slumping down behind her tablet.
“She's not. That girl looks angry.” Leah looked up at the blue-haired girl as she approached and then set her eyes straight ahead.
“Angry?” Penny glanced at Maddie. Maddie nodded, barely able to stifle her amusement. Penny cringed as the blue-haired girl arrived at her left shoulder. She could feel the heat of madness radiating towards her.
“You look like you have something to say to me,” the blue-haired girl said, reaching down to poke Penny's shoulder. “Say it and get it over with.”
“I don't have anything to say,” Penny answered, wilting before her.
“Like fuck you don't. Say it to my face, don't sit here and talk about me behind my back with your bitchy friends.”
“Bitchy?” Maddie's amusement completely vanished and she bared her teeth at the blue-haired girl.
“Our friend there is a lesbian and is trying to avoid relationship drama in favor of studying,” Leah cut in before Maddie could escalate the conflict. “Maddie was trying to incite her to go talk to you after you looked at each other, but Penny was refusing.” Leah turned her cold eyes up at the blue-haired girl. “I am sorry if this is offensive.”
“Offensive?” the blue-haired girl stepped back and looked at them all again, reassessing the situation before her. “A lesbian?” This time, she knelt down and touched Penny's shoulder tenderly, giving her a light shake. “Is that true? You're a lesbian?”
“Like, yes?” Penelope was still cringing even as the blue-haired girl smiled at her.
“We come in many shapes, sizes, and varieties, don't we?” the blue-haired girl said, patting Penny's shoulder. She glanced at the half-Asian girl's friends. “You too?”
“Nope!” Maddie said, a smile returning to her face.
“No,” Leah answered simply.
“Right,” the blue-haired girl said. She then extended her hand to Penny. “Alright, I'll make this easy on you then, since you look like you're a freshman and completely lost. I'm Ashley Rosedale, my friends call me Ash, and I'm fucking gay, too. Let me know how to get ahold of you and we can hang out, even if it ain't dating.” She smiled at Maddie and Leah. “Your breeder friends, too.”
“You're a lesbian, too?” Penny reached out and let Ash shake her hand.
“Uh huh. Look, I told you my name. What's yours?”
“Pen—Penny.”
“Pen, I like that.”
“Penny,” she said, groping after her senses. “It's Penny, Penny.”
“Yeah, sure,” Ash smirked at her. “Look, are we gonna be friends and hang out or are you gonna just sit there and mumble your name over and over again?”
Maddie giggled at Penny as the half-Asian girl blushed under Ash's gaze.
“Friends, yes.”
“Great! Mind if I study with you guys then?” Ash asked. “My friends are all super busy and have different majors so I'm more alone this year than last.”
“Sure, feel free,” Maddie said.
“Thanks. I'll be right back.”
“Okay.” Penelope smiled at her and watched her walk back to the dorm in her torn jeans.
“Are you gonna go out with her?” Maddie asked in a hushed voice.
“Shut up,” Penelope hissed back with a quick glare.
“What? It's an honest question.”
“Shut up, she's coming back soon and you're being a jerk!”
Maddie giggled.
Ash returned to join them under the shade of the big tree in a few short minutes. She sat down right beside Penny.
“So, Pen, what are you doing hanging out with these breeders?” she asked, glancing at Maddie and Leah.
“They're my friends, Maddie's my roommate and we met Leah during orientation.”
“Maddie and Leah, eh? Ash.” Ash shook their hands.
“Nice to meet you,” Maddie said, grinning.
“Yes, a pleasure,” Leah said coolly.
“So you hang out with all straight girls?” Ash's attention was immediately back on Penelope. “No wonder you're ignoring your love life.”
“No, it's not like that,” Penny said, pulling on her sleeves in irritation. “We were hanging out with some other friends yesterday and there was this like, huge, like, girl, and she's trying to force me to go out on a date with her and I'm trying my best to avoid it but she's been popping up everywhere I go and I'm not sure I'll be able to avoid it, and—you know what? This is crazy, why am I telling you this? We just met.”
“I know, but it's weird,” Ash said, frowning at her. “I don't know why, but it feels like we've met before. Have we met before?”
“Are you trying to hit on me? Is this some kind of a pick-up thing?”
“No, not at all,” Ash put her hands up.
Penny sighed and looked at Ash again. She had felt something strange when the blue-haired girl stepped out into the sun, and the feeling had only gotten stronger since Ash sat down with them.
“Weird,” she murmured. “Well, I'm sorry for this, for like, being all weird and drama-y.”
“Nah, it's cool,” Ash leaned back on her arms and smiled at Penny. Her eyes swung back up to Maddie and Leah. “So you guys weren't like, freaked out when she told you?”
“What? Freaked out? Why would we be freaked out?” Maddie looked at Leah and they shrugged at each other.
“I did some research into it after we met,” Leah said. “You mentioned when you first came over here that lesbians came in all varieties and I believe that's true. Penny has been nothing but honest and kind to me, to both of us. What is there to be freaked out over about that?”
“Heh, like nothing.” Ash looked back at Penny. “She says you're kind and honest. I like you and I don't even know you. Come out with me, if not tonight then at some point this semester. There are plenty of others like us up here, especially across the street, but I only hang out with a few of them (the cool ones, let me tell you). You'll do yourself a favor by mixing in with them.”
“If by mixing in you mean sleeping with them all, I'm not sure I'm interested in that,” Penny leaned away slightly from Ash, but she just laughed at her.
Ash laughed. “You're hilarious, you know that? Sleeping with them all, shit. You don't really think that everyone you meet wants to fuck you, do you?”
Penny turned her nose up at Ash.
“Many of them have so far.”
Ash laughed, then reached out and swatted Penny's shoulder. “You know, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
“Ouch.” Penny rubbed her shoulder, but she felt anything but ire when she looked at the blue-haired girl. “Beautiful friendship, neh?”
“Beautiful. Here, let's exchange numbers and we'll hang out. I'll introduce you to the others…”