Nadine's Point of View

Nobody said it was easy,
Oh, It's such a shame for us to part.
Nobody said it was easy,
No one ever said it would be this hard...
-Coldplay

"It's my first day of college! My first day of college! My first day of college—bring on the knowledge!" I hollered at the top of my lungs while jumping up and down on my bed.

"We get it!" Twister called from his room.

"It's only orientation anyways." Jas muttered as she walked past my room.

I rolled my eyes and flopped back onto my bed and stared at a picture of Sinatra that was hung up on my wall. "They just don't get it man, this is my hallmark. My moment—proof that I made it through my last year." I turned to look at my Alanis Morissette collaged closet door, "Because last year was hell and so was the summer before it—the fact that I kept it together is amazing."

"Amen to that, honey." Mom said as a greeting, walking into my bedroom. "So...you're excited about your freshman year?"

"Of course."

Mom bit her bottom lip and then smiled, "That's great, honey."

I stared at her quizzically for a moment and was about to ask her what was the matter, when Angie entered my room wearing a wine red fedora. "Are you ready?" She asked as a greeting, striking a dramatic pose.

"Of course I am, child." I replied, grabbing my heather gray fedora and placing in on my head with a tilt.

"Ready to be one of the weirdest chicks in RWC College?"

"I've been one of the weirdest chicks since preschool." I replied, picking up the purse I had knitted over the summer from an assortment of different yarn.

"Too true." Angie laughed and then waved at my mom, "Hey Mrs. Whittaker, or should I call you Prof. Whittaker now?"

Mom smiled, "Only at school, Angie."

"Alright Professor."

I rolled my eyes and leaned down to grab my Chinese coin purse that I had kicked under my bed the night before and paused when my eyes connected with a ring. It was a plain silver ring with no engravings or adornments, nothing like that. It was Thatcher's. He used to wear it on the middle finger of his left hand. A little over a year later and I'm still finding things that belong to him, things he left behind. That boy had effectively moved into my life, into my world, that's for sure. The other day I had found one of his shirts in the back of my closet and almost had a complete breakdown.

Taking a deep breath, I scooped up the ring and my coin purse and straightened. "Let's hit it."

Angie gave me a small, sad smiled and then quickly nodded her head, "Let's hit it."

"You know that we seriously need a car, right?" Angie announced almost twenty minutes later. Since Rose Water Creek is such a small town, everything seems to be on the outskirts of it. The only thing around in walking distance is downtown, where you can hardly find anything in the town shops. Although we do have an amazing ice cream parlor and a place to buy everything you need for your pet rabbit. If you actually want to find a Walmart, a McDonald's, or our own college, you have to be willing to walk for a while.

"Out of the two of us, you're the one that's allowed behind the wheel of a motor vehicle." I pointed out, shuffling my feet and wishing that I had brought water with me. That would've been smart...a liter bottle of flavored water—since regular tasting water is icky—cherry would've been great...

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." Angie muttered and then turned to look at me, "I saw the ring, by the way."

I sighed, "I thought you might have."

"And my only question is: did he take anything with him to Italy?"

I laughed softly and after a brief moment of silence I turned to look at her, "You know, I'm kind of forgetting what he looks like."

"Really?"

"Yeah, the image is dimming—I'm beginning to wonder if he even was all that attractive."

"You haven't looked at the pictures in awhile, have you?"

I rolled my eyes, "Perhaps not, but that's beside the point. What was so attractive about him before? Was it the fact that he had a well-defined chest? A happy trail? Was it the fact that his shoulder muscles where beautiful or that he had nice hands? Seriously, when you break everything down—"

"—You still have a very hot guy."

I sighed, "Yeah, maybe...but why? Why do we consider those things attractive?"

Angie shrugged, "Because we're hormonal girls?"

I chuckled and then sighed again, "He is dimming though, everything about him, and...and I think that's for the best."

Angie reached over and patted my shoulder, "Yeah, definitely for the best."

I smiled, "Hey, maybe this year I'll actually think about dating someone, instead of thinking that even thinking about it is cheating on him. I mean, it's been a little over a year—he's not coming back, it's about time I started to move on."

"Right."

"Besides, I was only with him for three months, there's really know reason why it should be taking me over a year to get over him, to date again." I announced, not feeling a single word of what I had just said, but saying it all the same.

"Nadine, I know you don't feel that way." Angie said, "It doesn't matter how long you were with him, he was your first love, and it was intense. The two of you had one of those passionate connections, Nads. You don't have to act like you didn't. No one's judging you about how long it's taking to get over him, we all understand."

I smiled sadly and turned away from her, "Thanks." I took a deep breath and stared up ahead of us, "That doesn't change the fact that this is going to be the year. I've had a year of wallowing and licking my wounds, I'm ready to go out into the world again. Because you want to know something?"

"What?"

I looked over at her and burst out laughing, because I knew how ridiculous what I was going to say next would sound. "I seriously miss kissing."

She laughed as well, "What?"

"I do! I miss it, I keep having dreams at night about it and it's kind of starting to freak me out."

I think I'll keep it to myself that all the dreams are about kissing Thatcher....

"You want to know something? I kind of miss kissing too. I haven't kissed anyone since Luke, our junior year."

I grinned, "And I bet I know who you want to kiss." I said in a singsong-y voice and when she gave me a questioning look, I threw my arms into the air dramatically. "Huey! The one and only, Matthew Sancho Taverez."

Angie rolled her eyes and blushed, "As if. Besides, he hates me—he's still holding a grudge about what I did to you two years ago."

"He thinks of me like a sister, have you seen how protective he gets over them?"

Angie rolled her shoulders back and adjusted her fedora, "Whatever, what I'm saying is that it's never going to happen between the two of us, okay?"

I laughed, "Okay, okay." Angie sighed and we walked in silence for a moment and then I smiled slightly, "You know what I keep remembering, though?"

"What?"

"The tests."

She laughed, "Aw, the infamous boyfriend tests."

I grinned, "Do you have any idea how many of those he passed?"

"No idea, but I do remember him in the feminine hygiene section of Walmart."

I laughed "Oh yeah, I remember that test; he brought back an economy size in every kind of pad they sell. I kind of wondered what he thought we went through every month. He may have actually believed that we needed to be on blood transfusions to survive."

Angie cracked up laughing and I followed suit, which is how we entered our college. Two laughing girls in fedoras, leaning against each other and making jokes about our times of the month. I don't want to sound too sure of myself or anything, but I think there's a pretty good chance that we could be the weirdest freshmen girls in RWCC.

Ten minutes later I found myself waving at Angie as she walked away with the rest of the first year, nontraditional, and transfer students that had last names that started with K. Then I turned to follow my own group of said students with last names that started with W. "Okay Ws, my names is Tommy and I'll be your guide today." Called out a tall boy with sandy blond hair, "Now, I'm going to hand out your name tags—come and get them when I call you name. Emily Warner!"

I zoned out until he called my name and then went shoving through the group to get my name tag. Then I zoned out again, wondering what college life was going to be like. Whether or not I'd make any friends and whether or not people would label me as crazy moments after meeting me. I was in the middle of a daydream where a cute guy told me that I belong in the loony bin, when Tommy called out a name that efficiently tore me away from my thoughts.

"Thatcher Wood!"

My head quickly jerked up and I looked around our group quickly. I couldn't see him anywhere and that caused me to immediately relax. Well, it also caused my ears to ring and a great deal of terrified disappointment course through me, but mostly I relaxed.

"Thatcher Wood!"

Obviously he applied here, but that doesn't mean that he was actually going to show up. I bet he thought about coming here for college, but then changed his mind. He's got Nicola and Matteo to worry about, there's no reason why he would ever come back to the States.

"Last time, Thatcher Wood!"

There's absolutely no need to worry.

"Sorry I'm late." Came a deep, smooth voice that I immediately recognized. It was a voice that took my breath away—and not in a good way. In that scared way that makes you throat feel like it's on fire and you're heart's about to explode. For a blind moment I couldn't figure out what to do—duck down to the floor and hide from him or try to see him? Like a deer in the headlights, I was struck frozen, just waiting for what to happen, to happen.

Thatcher eased his way through the crowd and headed up towards Tommy, apparently not noticing how many girls were watching him as he moved, and grabbed his name tag. After applying it to his shirt, he glanced up and his eyes connected with mine.

"Oh, God." I whispered.

A/N: That doesn't really feel like a cliffhanger, but I suppose it is. Anyways, hi all! This is the sequel to Quandaries of a Quirky Romantic (if your just now reading this and haven't read the first story I'm not sure this'll make that much sense...although you probably get the gist of it) and this is just part one of a two part chapter. I've decided to write how they both ended up where they did in their own perspectives. This was Nadine's and the next will be Thatcher's, but his will give a little more history than hers did.

Um, I hope you enjoyed this first chapter! In case it wasn't clear, it's been a little over a year since QoaQR ended. So Nadine's finished high school and is going to turn nineteen her next birthday. Thatcher's almost twenty and is a transfer student (not a first-year) for his second year. Yeah...okay, I hope I cleared that up...

Thanks for reading!

-:Secretive:-

Soundtrack to chapter: "When September Ends" by Green Day, "Thinking Over" by Dana Glover, "Follow Through" by Gavin DeGraw, "The Scientist" and "Trouble" by Coldplay, "Tears and Rain" by James Blunt, and "How to Save a Life" by The Fray.