jamielynn11

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It was a cold winter day, and the air danced lightly along Alyssa McLamb’s bare arms creating small chill bumps up and down her body. Normally, she would have thought nothing of it, but today the feeling was strange. Today as each chill passed, an over powering warmth followed, the kind of warmth she could remember feeling when her father’s strong arms had encircled her as a small child. That warmth made her feel safe and loved in spite of whatever fears she might have had. It was almost unnerving because each time the warm breeze embraced her, she could envision her father standing beside her, wrapping her in his arms, and relieving each of her fears. The thought was ridiculous to Alyssa, but she wanted so much for it to be true that she sat a moment longer in the strange breeze before she pulled her sleeves down from her elbows to her wrists and rubbed the cloth against her skin to erase a final chill that had gripped her. It was as if the chill had reached out to grab her and hold her to the spot where she had been sitting on the steps of the J.K. Morton Religion building at Anselly College.

As she stepped slowly down the stairs, Alyssa looked around half expecting to see someone standing near her, but there was no one. School was out for the Christmas holiday, and the students would not return for two weeks. She loved her friends, but she also enjoyed the solace of the towering empty buildings and unsoiled pathways she would normally take to class. Today and for three days now they had all been hers and hers alone. The campus seemed to be sleeping, and it had provided so much time for her to practice her painting. She had painted each building and now marveled at how intricately each had been constructed. Had it not been for the solitude, Alyssa knew she would never have noticed the care with which the entire campus had been laid. The J. K. Morton building, or Morton Hall, was her favorite. It was older with a windowed bell tower that seemed to extend to the heavens. When the sunlight hit it in the evenings, it sparkled with blues, greens, purples, and reds that cascaded down the buildings surrounding Morton Hall. When she had painted it, she had called it, “Heaven’s Rainbow.” It was overcast now though and she had given up on seeing the rainbow this evening. Pulling her sleeves to her finger tips to shield her hands from the cold and brushing her curly brown hair behind her ear, she began the walk across campus to her dorm. As she walked away, however, she noticed a small band of the rainbow had managed to escape through the clouds and now danced along the columns on the front of the Mitchell Canon Law School across from Morton Hall. Though it was tiny, it had made her stop, and in spite of herself, she smiled. Her father had once told her that light always overcomes the dark, but to her it definitely looked like the dark was winning today. Pushing her hands into her coat pockets and letting out a small sigh, she continued her walk to the dorm.

As she walked, she wondered what was happening at her mother’s home. It was Christmas Eve, and she felt certain her mother had orchestrated a huge church gathering to celebrate. For a brief moment, Alyssa toyed with the idea of driving to the church or by the house just to see. She would never actually attend the gathering, but she could drive by and at least reminisce. After all, it was only a 45 minute drive. Twirling a single brown lock around her finger, she considered turning toward the parking lot until she realized that doing so might bring her face to face with her mother, and she could not risk that. It had been at least 2 years since Alyssa had seen her, and she had no desire to see her either not after what had happened.

Alyssa had always been a daddy’s girl, but her mother and she had also been fairly close until her father’s untimely death. Thinking about her father again made Alyssa shudder. She bit her bottom lip and batted her eyes furiously to fight the tears. Closing her blue eyes tightly, she pictured her father’s face. She could see his kind brown eyes, and she felt anger. Even though it had been four years since his death, she could not and would not let go of him or how he died, and she knew exactly who caused it: her mother. Alyssa thought about how everyone at Mount Sinai Baptist Church had supported her mother after her father’s passing, and it made her resent them as well. He was their Pastor Dale, but he was her daddy, her best friend, and her hero, and no one had felt his loss like Alyssa had. For his death, she could never forgive her mother. The church members said they understood, but Alyssa knew she never would, so when she had come to Anselly, she had decided to never go home. In the beginning, her mother had called daily and pleaded with Alyssa to come home, but after a few months those calls had ceased, and Alyssa had also managed to successfully evade all of her mother’s personal visits. Finally her mother had given up, and now Alyssa was alone, the way she wanted it. Crossing her arms across her chest, Alyssa decided it was better not to think about home anymore. She needed to focus on her painting and enjoying the peace before her friends returned. In her two years at Anselly, Alyssa had made many friends, and she knew when they returned there would be no time to paint.

Following the cobblestone path, she heard faint laughter and talking in the distance. It appeared to be coming from the direction of Strickland Hall, the oldest dorm on campus. Alyssa contemplated heading in the direction of Strickland Hall. She thought she had been the only one left on the campus except for staff, so she was mildly curious to find out who else had chosen to remain on campus. Even though Strickland was in the opposite direction from her own dorm, she decided she had nothing better to do, and perhaps the people in Strickland might be of some interest. Although she did enjoy her solitude, she also loved meeting new people and learning about their lives. Anytime that she listened to others talk about their experiences it took her further and further away from her own.

Strickland Hall did not match the rest of the campus. It was part of the original Martin Anselly Boarding School that had once occupied the property. The boarding school, however, had burnt to the ground in 1979. Alyssa’s father had graduated from the boarding school the year before the fire and had often described the old campus to her as a child. His descriptions were part of the reason she had chosen Anselly. As she approached Strickland Hall, she felt happy. The old hall always made her feel close to her father. She could picture him sitting on the cracked concrete steps that spanned the entire front of the building. She had been there with him once when they had come to have dinner with one of her father’s old roommates who was then a professor at Anselly. Though she was only around 10 years old at the time of the visit, she remembered it well. Her father’s friend, Dr. James Maitland, and he had sat on the stairs reminiscing and laughing for hours while Alyssa had run up and down the concrete stairs with Dr. Maitland’s twins, Aaron and LeAnne. While running, Alyssa had fallen and busted her knee and chin open on the bottom two steps. Her mother had come running, cleaned her up with a fresh wipe, and covered the scratches with a Barbie band-aid. If nothing else, Karen McLamb had always been prepared for an emergency except for the day Alyssa’s father died.

Feeling lonely suddenly, Alyssa chose not to think about the visit a moment longer and directed her attention to the laughter and talking that had grown louder and more distinct. As she approached the old wooden double doors that led to the main floor of Strickland hall, she could hear two female voices and at least one male voice. Suddenly, the doors flew open almost knocking Alyssa down the stairs and revealed a petite girl with pale green eyes and shoulder length blonde hair.

“Oh!” gasped the girl. “I am so sorry. I didn’t see you there.” Her eyes were dancing as she spoke and she looked as though she would burst into laughter at any moment.

“No, problem,” Alyssa stammered as she tried to recover from the near fall.

Turning toward the hall, the girl yanked open the doors and yelled, “Hey, DJ, you have got to come out here.”

“I am so sorry,” she turned to Alyssa and said. “It is just that we thought we were the only ones here.”

Alyssa smiled back at the girl who was now standing in the open side of the doorway and replied, “You’re not the only one.”

The girl stood staring strangely at Alyssa in an awkward silence. Alyssa was not sure what to do, so she stared at the glass trophy case that hung on the wall just beyond the entranceway. Down the hall from one of the end doorways, a guy in a brown sweater and blue jeans appeared. As he came closer, Alyssa noticed paint smudges on the knees of his jeans. He was tall with a shaggy head of brown hair that curled just at the edges around his face, framing his brown, autumn colored eyes and broad grin.

Once he arrived at the door behind the blonde girl, he exchanged glances with her and wondered aloud, “Well. Well. Well. What have you found, Lill’?”

“An intruder,” the girl replied with a wink.

“No, a cast away,” he laughed winking back at her and extending his left hand to hold the top of the door the girl was leaning against.

Alyssa’s face turned red. She felt like she had intruded on something private. She rubbed her hands together and shifted her eyes from his face to his tennis shoes that were a collage of blue and green paint.

“So, what do you think?”

Alyssa returned her eyes to his and realized that he was addressing her.

“Huh?” Alyssa had no clue how to answer. She was too embarrassed and confused to even try to understand what was happening.

“I am DJ, the magnificent,” the guy said extending his right hand to Alyssa, “and this young lady is the lovely lady Lily.”

The blonde girl giggled as crimson washed over cheeks. Alyssa studied the paint smudges on the hand extended to her before she reached to grasp it.

“Hi. I’m Alyssa.” DJ’s hands were rough and dirty, but he had a firm grip that showed strength and security. He shook her hand for a moment before turning it over and leaning down to kiss the back of her hand.

“Well, it is very nice to meet you, Lady Alyssa,” he said as he rose from the kiss and winked at her. Alyssa noticed a momentary look of concern and jealousy wash over the blonde girl’s face, but it was gone almost instantly as he took his left hand from the door and pulled her against him and between him and Alyssa.

Looking at Alyssa, she nodded her head and said, “Alyssa, you will have to excuse DJ. He is kind of a jokester. We were in here daydreaming that we were on some exotic cruise, and we thought that the five of us were the only ones on campus. Our friends Jamie, Mick, and Nancy are down the hall. Are you alone?”

“Yes,” Alyssa replied, “I stayed behind to get some painting done.”

“You’re a painter?” DJ questioned with a note of surprise.

“Um, yeah, I try and I guess you could say I have a passion for it,” Alyssa could not fight the grin that spread across her face. She always seemed to glow when she talked about painting. It was the one constant in her life and the only time she felt truly at peace.

“Obviously, you are a much neater painter than I am,” DJ laughed. “All you had to do was look at me to know that I am a painter.”

Alyssa smiled and nodded. She was not sure what to make of the pair, but she knew she would love to talk with someone who shared her passion.

“I think that you should hang out with us, Lady Alyssa, if you have no further engagements this evening,” DJ implored. As he spoke he glanced at Lily for approval who responded with an affirming nod so he continued his persuasion, “After all, it is three guys and only two girls. With you there, at least we will be equal.”

Alyssa was not sure what to say. The idea of being around new people was definitely appealing, but she also did not want to intrude.

Placing her hand gently on Alyssa’s arm, Lily smiled and said, “It is ok. We will be old friends in no time.”

Alyssa nodded her head yes, and Lily interloped her arm with Alyssa’s to guide her down the hall to the last door on the left. “See,” Lily declared, “We’re already friends, and you’ll love Nancy. She is so funny. We needed a third chic.”

As Lily spoke, Alyssa listened to her voice. She had the kind of southern accent that made every vowel sound long and melodic. It reminded Alyssa of the cousins she had once visited in Savannah, Georgia. Lily’s voice was also sincere and full of laughter which made Alyssa feel at ease.

DJ was in front of them, and Alyssa found herself grinning as she watched the flair he used as he guided them to the room. He possessed a regal gait with his head held high and his chest pushed forward. When he arrived at the doorway, he stopped and leaned forward in a bow while extending his arm to usher the girls into the room.

“Lady Lily and Lady Alyssa, please enter,” he said in an overtly faked British accent. Lily reached over and playfully smacked him on the arm.

“You are so silly,” she laughed sticking out her tongue at him.

The room was nothing outstanding. There were two single beds on opposite walls. The one on the wall to her right was made with a dark red bedspread that had a black trim. The bedspread looked like it had been pressed, and the desk beside of it was immaculately kept. One pencil and two pens were in the pencil holder and a single book, Gulliver’s Travels sat in the middle of the desk. On the opposite wall was a bed that had a navy blue comforter that was mostly on the floor, no sheets and two pillows: one orange and one green. The desk was covered in various paint colors. Paintbrushes were scattered all over the desk and some even rested on the floor. Beside the desk was an easel with indiscriminate markings across the top of it. Alyssa immediately knew which side of the room was DJ’s. Directly in front of her was a small couch. On the couch were a girl with shoulder length brown hair and huge blue eyes and a guy with thick red hair, dark brown eyes, and chalk pale skin. In a chair to the left of the couch was a boy with cheek bone length blonde hair, chestnut eyes, a chiseled chin, and dimples that highlighted the corners of his smile. He appeared to be very athletic, and Alyssa was immediately taken with how handsome he was. He and the strikingly beautiful girl on the couch looked like they would have been the classic prom King and Queen. All three looked at Alyssa curiously.

“So, everyone, this is Alyssa. I almost knocked her down when I opened the front doors,” Lily stated as she sat down on the unmade bed. Silence followed and the three studied Alyssa closely. She started to say something but was cut short.

“Hey, Lil’, you aren’t so great at introductions,” the blonde guy smirked. “We know who she is, but we don’t know why she is here and she doesn’t know who we are.”

The brunette on the couch reached over and punched him in the side of the thigh. He winced and tossed a paintbrush from the floor in her direction.

“We don’t know why you are here, jerk,” she joked.

Looking at Alyssa, she smiled and said, “Hello, Alyssa. My name is Nancy. This is Mick, and the idiot in the chair is Jamie. It is nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you,” Alyssa replied feeling a little out of place.

“Have a seat,” Nancy invited gesturing in the direction of the neat bed, glancing mischievously at DJ, she added, “but I wouldn’t sit on DJ’s bed. Something might bite ya.”

Alyssa looked around and saw the only place left to sit was the neat bed. However, she felt uncomfortable sitting there, so she remained standing.

“Don’t worry,” Nancy laughed, “Jamie won’t mind you sitting there. It will be good for his bed to finally find out what a girl feels like.”

The others laughed while Jamie simply shook his head. Turning toward Alyssa, he smiled and replied, “Have a sit. I don’t mind at all. Nancy is just embarrassed because my bed hasn’t seen all the traffic hers has.”

A slow creep of crimson appeared at the base of Nancy’s neck and washed over her cheeks and neck. She started to respond but was immediately cut short by DJ who had crossed the room from the door and now stood in front of Jamie. He had a paintbrush grasped in one hand like a sword.

“Jamie,” DJ demanded in the same fake accent from earlier, “I challenge you to a duel for insulting the fair maiden.”

“Fair maiden!” Jamie burst into laughter. “I think you’ve had too much to drink, man.”

Reaching up with his right hand, he plucked the paintbrush from DJ’s hand and tossed it onto DJ’s desk. Alyssa hadn’t noticed it before, but as DJ crossed the room to sit by Lily, she saw the staggering of his steps. He sunk down onto the bed and released a long sigh as he rested his head on Lily’s lap. She began running her fingers slowly through his hair and placed her other hand on his chest lightly drawing small shapes with her fingers between his breast bone and abdomen. Lily’s eyes sparkled as she studied every distinction of DJ’s face. Alyssa recognized the look in Lily’s eyes instantly. It was love. Alyssa had never known that kind of love, and since her father’s death, she had closed herself off to any kind of closeness from others. Looking at Lily now made Alyssa wish she had someone.

“So, are you ready to run?” Nancy asked interrupting Alyssa’s thoughts.

“Run?” Alyssa replied still feeling a little unsure of her surroundings.

“Yeah. I figured that by now you’d be ready to run from all of us crazy people,” Nancy laughed loudly.

Her laugh was genuine, and it filled the room. The tone was rich and deep. It warmed the air and caused everyone to laugh.

“Hey!” Jamie said. “Speak for yourself.”

Mick who had not spoken till that moment said something very quietly.

“What did you say?” DJ chided Mick. “Don’t be fooled, Alyssa. He may seem quiet, but Mick is the craziest …”

“I am not,” Mick interrupted. “They’ve all just had too much alcohol and that’s why they seem crazy.”

“See,” DJ laughed slurring his words as he spoke, “you just proved my point. We need alcohol to act crazy. You just are crazy.”

Mick rolled his eyes and slumped back against the couch. His face wore a tired expression, and he rubbed his temples with his finger tips for a few moments before closing his eyes and letting out a long sigh.

Nancy leaned toward him and kissed his right temple.

“Oh, poor baby,” she cooed, “are you tired of playing grown-up? Let me kiss it and make it better.”

Mick took his hand and pushed her face from his. A strange look crossed Nancy’s face before the smile returned. Alyssa was not quite sure what to make of the look. It almost reminded her of a child whose toy had been taken away. Alyssa had been certain that Jamie and Nancy were a couple, but now she was not so sure.

“Let’s show Alyssa our secret,” DJ declared sitting up abruptly.

“I think that’s a great idea, but she’ll have to be blindfolded,” Jamie whispered looking directly at Alyssa. At the moment Alyssa did want to run.

“Y’all are ridiculous,” Mick said getting up from the couch.

“Yes, Mick,” Lily agreed. “It is ridiculous, but it’s part of our pact.”

Alyssa looked around the room and realized all of them were looking at her waiting for a response. She didn’t know why but she liked them, all of them. However she was not prepared to wear a blindfold for them.

“I’m sorry, but I have to go to my room. I’m expecting a call.”

“Come on,” DJ reached forward grasping her hand. Alyssa jerked it away from him and shoved it deep into her pocket.

“We scared ya, didn’t we?” Jamie asked.

Alyssa was scared but she had learned a long time ago to hide her emotions, so she looked him directly in the eyes.

“I don’t scare easily,” she stated very slowly and emphatically, “I just cannot miss this phone call.”

“Well since you’re not scared,” DJ said, “You can come with us tomorrow, right?”

“I guess so.” Alyssa replied.

“No. Promise,” Jamie demanded, “or we’ll know you were scared.” He winked at her as he spoke which made her feel a little more at ease.

“Ok. I promise,” she said shaking the hand he had extended to her.