“Calm down!” Rylie hissed at us, “Just shut up everyone!” I gaped at her and we all fell silent. Her face softened, “I'm going to go check if they're still there I would ask one of you to go with me but-” she stopped and looked at us. We were all in my dorm. Maddie was crying, Whitney was biting her nails nervously. Lexis, Amika, and Samantha were huddled together standing motionless in the middle of the room. My roommate Lizzie had woken up and was sitting with Monica on her bed. I had sank down to comfort Nellie because she was shaking like a leaf. “I'll go with you.” I offered. “You will?” she asked surprised. I stood and brushed myself off “Yeah. I'm not scared.” I replied. Maddie pulled her phone out “We've got to tell Miss Lauson.” She announced her salty tears still dripping from her eyelids. Then everyone began talking at once. I felt that my ears were about to explode, the tiny room was nails on chalkboard, I panicked “NO! MADISON! WE'RE GOING TO GET IN HUGE TROUBLE!” I screamed forgetting about being quiet. It was too late though we all listened as Maddie began to tell our counselor what happened. I shook my head in disgust. “Alexia, coming?” Rylie asked me. “Yeah.” I replied.

I already knew what Maddie was about to break to our counselor. “Miss,” I could almost hear her saying “We were in my dorm talking when we heard noises coming out the window. We looked out because it sounded like someone was in pain but it was a bunch of college drunks yelling. They saw us and yelled 'Hey look girls.' We all got scared.”

I walked into Maddie's dorm again Rylie clamped my hand as if to say “We're here together. Alexia don't leave without me.” I walked toward the window, it was still wide open with the blinds blowing freely as if reaching out to get us. I peered out then fully stuck half my torso out “They're gone!” I announced happily. “Let's go get the bunch of scaredy-cat and tell them.” Rylie breathed. I laughed and followed her back to my room which was conveniently across the hall. “We can go back. Their gone.” Rylie announced. Everyone just stared at us. “Guy's let's go!” I commanded impatiently as I picked up Nellie and grabbed Lexis's arm. Rylie and I led everyone back. Then I apologized to my roommate “I'm sorry Lizzie. They were all scared and you know our room is directly across the hall and well...” “It's okay I understand.” “Well I”ll let you get back to sleep, okay?” “Yeah see you tomorrow.”

I waved goodbye and returned to Maddie's room. Everyone was still quiet, Rylie looked at me expectantly. I laughed “Come on guys, nobody got hurt everyone's fine. And I laugh because that's the way I deal with things I guess...But I actually thought it was kinda funny.”I burst into giggles. “Remember Lexis I was trying to get you out so I grabbed your arm and led you off the bed-” “Yeah and then I fell!” She replied smiling. “I know she was liking crawling really fast trying to get out and-” I paused to laugh “She crawled right off the bed and went crashing to the floor. Then I picked her up and ran.” Everyone erupted into giggles.

We returned to chatting. This was fun. We were at camp on a college campus and had known each other for about four hours meeting at the after-formal-dinner-dance. Yet it seemed like we were all best friends. Rylie, Amika, and Nellie were all from Northern Idaho, and Samantha, Maddie, Whitney, Monica, Lexis, and I (Alexia) were all from Southern Idaho. We had bonded and decided to have a giant sleepover at Maddie's dorm. For some strange reason we all confided in each other sharing really personal stuff. Instant trust, instant connections, and instantly friends forever. “I'm going to miss you guys,” I announced while we munched on chips, candy, cookies, and excess piles of junk food. “Yeah.” everyone else agreed. “Soooo how many boyfriends has miss Alexia had??” Nellie asked me grinning from ear to ear like a Siamese cat. I laughed. I would never forget these girls.