"Cooney, Linda A - Freshman Dorm 06 - Freshman Games" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cooney Linda A)

Freshman06 - Freshman Games - Cooney, Linda A.

One.
The Coleridge Hall lobby bustled with activity. Art majors set up displays of I pottery and painting. A flute player warmed up. Two theater-arts majors carted out an old, dried-up Christmas tree while flames crackled in the fireplace and a flutter of snow fell outside.
KC Angeletti yawned. It was early. They were all setting up for the Post-Christmas Clearance Craft Fair, a bargain-basement sale where all the Coleridge arts majors could get rid of their creative wares that hadn't been bought as Christmas presents. KC was one of the few non-Coleridge,
non-creative-arts majors there, but she knew that her table would be among the most popular. She was selling the U of S Classic Calendar, a collection of photos of the best-looking students on the University of Springfield campus.
"I won't even need to lower the price," she reminded herself with a smile. The calendar had become so popular that KC and her business partners couldn't keep up with sales. She was eagerly awaiting a new printing that morning.
Meanwhile, she flipped through her single copy of the calendar and checked her watch. When she got to the model posing for December, she stopped and stared.
"Good morning, Warren Manning," KC whispered. Warren's hair was black and straight, cut so that one long lock fell diagonally across his forehead. His photo peered up at KC with sleepy, sapphire blue eyes. His jaw was square and his lips were parted in the most intimate of smiles.
KC chuckled, flipping the calendar's pages again. "Talk about saving the best for last. Ho ho ho." She giggled, then put a fingertip to her lips and looked around. "Okay," she told herself. "Enough. It isn't good business practice to lose your head."
KC didn't usually pay attention to guys, let alone stare at them. But guys didn't usually look like Warren Manning.
Still, that morning KC had a professional image to maintain. "Faith and Winnie, are you ever going to get here?" KC sighed as she wiped the dust from her tabletop and set down her copy of the calendar. Her two best friends, Faith Crowley and Winnie Gottlieb, were supposed to meet her and help with sales. KC was hoping that Faith's rich roommate, Lauren Turnbell-Smythe, might even pitch in and help, too. But she hadn't seen any of them at breakfast.
Faith and Lauren lived right upstairs in Coleridge Hall, but Faith, a theater-arts major, had probably gotten stalled by some dramatic inspiration. And just about anything could have kept Winnie, since she was late to nearly everything. KC, on the other hand, was always on time. She figured that promptness and success went hand in hand.
"And where are the rest of my calendars?" KC checked her watch again and prayed that her new stock of calendars would arrive before the craft fair officially got underway.
"Is that KC Angeletti?"
KC looked up at the sound of her name, hoping to see Faith or Winnie or someone delivering a load of calendars. But it was Kimberly, the pretty black dance major who lived next door to Faith in Coleridge.
"Oh, hi, Kimberly."
Kimberly glided through the maze of tables. She was wearing sweats, leg warmers, and a sweater with reindeer leaping across it. She was carrying a box of something that looked like hardened blobs of spaghetti.
"Hi!" Kimberly said cheerfully.
KC peered into the box that Kimberly was carrying. "What are those?"
Kimberly laughed. "Reject Christmas-tree ornaments. Gross, huh? A friend of mine made them. No one bought them before Christmas, and I don't think anybody will buy one now."
KC agreed. "They're certainly . . . unusual."
"Ifou can say that again." Kimberly dangled one ornament by its string and made a face. "Can you imagine actually sticking this on your Christmas tree? You might as well hang up a five-day-old pizza."
"Maybe there's somebody on this campus who loves five-day-old pizza."
"I doubt it." Kimberly hopped up to sit on KC's table. She tugged at her leg warmers, then
picked up KC's calendar. "But I bet about five hundred people here still want to buy your calendar."
"You think so?"
"I know so."
"Actually I'm hoping for sales of about five thousand." KC grinned. She was the marketing consultant on the Classic Calendar and would receive a percentage of the profits. She needed extra money badly, because her hippie parents, who ran a health-food restaurant back home, didn't have a penny to spare.
"Everybody in my hall's been talking about this calendar," Kimberly assured her. "I bought three copies before Christmas. My younger sisters loved them."
"Really?"
Kimberly nodded. "Your picture is incredible. You look like a professional model."
"Do you think so?" KC had originally gotten involved with the calendar because she'd been asked to pose. And she'd only agreed to model in order to get involved on a business level.
"Do Ithink so?" Kimberly scoffed. "Come on, KC. You look totally gorgeous. That picture of you is not to be believed."
"It's just a photo." KC wasn't sure yet what to
make of her photograph, although she had a heady sense that it might turn things around for her, that it might transform her from an ordinary freshman business major into someone sought after and important. During fall rush, KC had ruined her chance of joining the Beta Beta Beta sorority. But after word of her calendar had gotten out, there had already been several very friendly letters from sororities taped to her dorm-room door-including one from the Tri Betas.
"It's not just a photo," Kimberly said, opening the calendar. "It's art."
KC stared at her face above the month of March. There she was, her face taking up the whole page, all glossy lips, sculpted cheeks, perfect skin, and challenging gray eyes.
"I love how everyone is supposed to look like a classic movie star," Kimberly went on. "Was that your idea?"
KC shook her head. "Matthew Kallender thought up the whole thing."
"They're all great photos." Kimberly quickly flipped to the last page. She elbowed KC and let out a low, lusty laugh. "Who is Mr. December?"
KC leaned in and stared, too. "Warren Manning. He's supposed to look like Clark Gable."
"Talk about knockout."
"I know."
Kimberly flipped to July, where a gorgeous black guy, who happened to be student-body president, posed as Sidney Poitier. "Wow! What a hunk."
"I know."
Kimberly sighed.
"It was my idea to have half the models be guys," KC mentioned proudly.
"Good thinking." Kimberly pointed at Mr. July again and pretended to faint. "I wouldn't mind going to Winter Formal with him. I wouldn't mind going anywhere with him. I wouldn't mind just standing here for a few years and staring at him." Kimberly finally laughed and gave the calendar back to KC. "Oh well. Let me know when you get more copies in. I'll buy twelve."
With that Kimberly did a quick time step, then took her box of coagulated-spaghetti ornaments and went off to set up a table of her own.