Nancy felt pretty good about her decision to come to Southern after her first week of classes. Though the classes so far weren’t getting into nano-engineering yet, she could see that they were laying the groundwork. She felt challenged, but not impossibly so; it was clear that she could handle the work. The classes were small, interesting, and filled with people who wanted to be there, and that helped keep her interest level up. This was everything she could have dreamed it would be!

The threat of Mary Lou coming down here and causing a scene – or worse – was still there, of course, but it had been shoved into the background by the actual challenges of the present. Her last bad few months at Spearfish Lake increasingly seemed like a dream; they were behind her now, just like Mary Lou.

Unlike Jack and the rest down in the two-bedroom apartment, or Cody and Jan for that matter, Nancy wasn’t trying to attend classes and live on a shoestring. She had a couple of good scholarships, she had some inherited family money that had been earmarked for her education, and her parents, while not rich, weren’t exactly worried about money, either. That meant she had a good budget for her apartment – which was why she was living by herself – and didn’t have to eat out of cans or packages of ramen noodles. While she had some groceries in her apartment meant for the times she didn’t want to take the trouble of going over to the cafeteria, or if she wanted some odd-hours snacks, she didn’t have to do much cooking for herself.

The meals in the cafeteria were good and wholesome, not bad tasting; the only real problem was that it would be far too easy to eat more than she should. That was something she knew she would have to keep an eye on.

Eating in the cafeteria also meant that she got to know people around campus a little better than the other students in the Spearfish Lake House. While she hadn’t made any major friends at school yet, she knew a lot of people by sight, and some, mostly those who shared her classes, she’d talked to a little.

That last group included Logan McBride, who she’d met at the GLBT SIG meeting earlier in the week. He was in all of her classes but one, and after the discussion at the meeting she felt she knew him a little better than the rest. So when he came over to her table when she was eating lunch on Saturday and asked, “Mind if I sit here?” she was happy to see him.

“Not at all,” she replied, glancing up at him. He wasn’t bad looking, she thought, even for a guy. “So how are you today, Logan?”

“Oh, I’m all right,” he said, perhaps a little listlessly, or so she thought. “How about you?”

“I’m really happy to be here,” she replied. “This place is proving to be everything I hoped it would be. I know we’re not really into the program yet, but it looks fascinating and there is a lot to learn.”

“That part of it is fine,” he replied, setting his tray on the table and taking a seat across from her. “It’s just, well, I guess you’d have to say I’m a little lonely. I mean, there are plenty of people here but I don’t know very many of them.”

“That’ll work out in time,” she counseled. She was feeling a little bit the same way herself.

“Oh, I know it will, and that it is going to take time,” he shrugged as he picked up the hamburger that seemed to be the core of his lunch, along with a small paper tray of French fries. “I mean, it’s just that right now you’re the person I know best on campus, with the exception of my roomie, and I don’t like him very much.”

“That has to be hard,” she replied, once again feeling a little grateful that she was living by herself. “Studying would be a lot harder if I had to deal with a roommate I didn’t like.”

“It’s already getting to be a problem, and I can see that it’s going to get worse,” Logan went on as she took a bite of her salad. “Trent, well, I hate to use the word around you, but he’s an asshole from the word go.”

“That’s all right,” she grinned. “In case you’re wondering, I’ve had reason to use the word myself.”

“Yeah, I suppose, but I was always taught to be respectful of women.”

“I appreciate it, but you don’t need to worry about it. So what’s wrong with this Trent?”

“He’s loud, he’s obnoxious. He likes to play music loud, if you can call what he listens to music at all. It’s all disgusting rap shit. Worse, he knows I’m gay and he doesn’t appreciate it. I mean, I get shit out of him about it all the time. He doesn’t step over the line but he gets awful close to it at times. It’s pretty damn insulting, to say the least.”

“I know exactly what you’re talking about,” she said as he took a bite of his burger. “I was perceived as a lesbian in a small school, and I caught more of that kind of trash than I want to think about from just about everyone including the teachers. At least I could go home to get away from it. It may have been the only reason I got through high school in the first place. Then when I finally got a so-called lover, things got worse instead of better. I was so glad to get out of the place it wasn’t funny.”

“I know where you’re coming from on that,” he said. “Do you remember me talking about Ronnie at the meeting the other day?”

“Your partner, and you drifted apart from him?” He’d given a pretty good outline at the GLBT meeting.

“Yeah. Looking back on it now, he mostly was the leader in the relationship and I followed along because I didn’t have anything better to do. It was already there, so why change it? I mean, I probably wouldn’t have been gay in the first place if it hadn’t been for him.”

“Are you saying you doubt yourself?” Nancy said, her ears perking up a little. Some of this was beginning to sound very familiar, though she wasn’t ready to admit to her own doubts about how much or little of a lesbian she really was. That was still a little personal to want to say around another member of the GLBT SIG.

“I’m not saying that. Well, maybe a little. Let’s just say that if Ronnie and I hadn’t started fooling around in grade school, back in those days when girls were strange creatures mostly dripping with girl cooties, well, I might have wound up going straight when I got a little older. But Ronnie was always there, we had our good times, and we didn’t have to get involved in the mystery that girls were, if you know what I mean.”

Nancy couldn’t help but giggle. “It’s nice to be thought of as a mystery,” she smirked as he picked up a French fry and ate it. “But yes, I know what you’re saying. At that age, oh, maybe ten or twelve, boys were loud, obnoxious, rough, and not very appealing. And then, when I found out what a guy and a girl were supposed to do with each other when they got together, it really seemed gross and disgusting. I couldn’t imagine why a girl would want to do anything like that! It was so much more fun to hang around with girls who weren’t like boys, and who wanted to do the things I was interested in. I just sort of stayed that way, and somewhere along the way I must have mentioned what I thought about the idea of boys and girls having sex. After that people began calling me a lesbian, even though I never did anything of the sort until less than a year ago with my so-called lover.”

“It wasn’t like that for me. I mean, Ronnie and I were already fooling around at that age. Like I said, it was more comfortable to stay with what I had than it was to explore new territory. Besides, girls got to be more of a mystery, rather than less, and it was more comfortable to be with guys, especially Ronnie. Then once we got into high school, well, there was a group of three or four real flamers, and Ronnie started drifting toward them.”

“That’s sure different than it was for me in high school,” she sighed. “Until less than a year ago I was the only one in my class who was perceived to be a lesbian. There was one guy in the class who everyone thought was gay, but he proved them wrong.”

“How’s that?”

“He wound up getting involved with this smart little busty blonde girl, and I mean very involved. They wound up coming here too, and they have the apartment downstairs from mine. From the sounds I hear through the floor, I can tell you that if he was gay, he’s not any more. I don’t want to say they go at it like rabbits, but they sure seem to enjoy what they’re doing, if you know what I mean. In a way I envy them for that.”

“Late bloomer, I guess,” Logan shook his head. “I mean, not knowing him or anything, but kids grow up at different rates and sometimes things change along the way. But like I said, if I hadn’t gotten involved with Ronnie at that age there’s a good chance I could have gotten interested in girls about the same time as most of the rest of the guys in my class.”

“If things had happened a little different for me, I might not be a lesbian, either,” she agreed, which was about as far as she wanted to go along that line with him, at least for now. “I sometimes wonder about it.”

“I do, too,” he sighed. “After Ronnie started hooking up with this crowd of real flamers, like I said we drifted apart. I mean, I was pretty out about being gay, but I didn’t want to be quite that out about it, if you know what I mean. Some of those guys were real assholes, too and that was the kind of guy Ronnie seemed to want to be. Well, I didn’t like it, and that’s where we started drifting apart. It happened slowly, but one day I looked up and realized Ronnie really wasn’t part of my life anymore, and I was just as glad.”

“You’re lucky about that,” she sighed, taking a sip from the paper cup of soft drink in front of her while he finished his burger. “I got tired of my ex-lover Mary Lou very quickly, and finally couldn’t put up with the skank anymore. I mean, she was already a skank before she gave up boys, but taking up with me didn’t change her very much in that regard. She made a real pain in the ass of herself wanting me to get back with her, and I had to hide out from her all summer. I’m so happy to be here and away from her it isn’t funny.”

“That’s probably not much better from what I had,” he shook his head. “It got real lonely my last year of high school. The school was, well, pretty tolerant of gays, so that wasn’t a real problem, but I caught a lot of shit from that crowd of flamers, including Ronnie, about the fact that I wasn’t holding up my side of the deal, so to speak. But I’m not that kind of person and I didn’t want to be. About all I could do was keep my head down, and as soon as school was out I didn’t have to have anything more to do with Ronnie or that crowd. That was a relief, even though it was a little lonely. I was really looking forward to coming here to be away from all that stuff, but then I get here and have to put up with Trent.”

“That’s got to make it hard for you,” she said sympathetically. “But look, if you want to talk about all this to me sometime, well, I usually have my meals here. In fact, if you’d like to just sit around and talk about this or something important like nanotechnology, I’d love to do it.”

“I might have to take you up on that sometime, but not this afternoon. Trent is with a carload of guys who went over to South Bend to see if they could get into the Notre Dame game without having to pay too much to scalpers. That means I’ve got the dorm room to myself, and I might as well take advantage of the time to study without that damn rap shit blaring in my ear. I only came over here to grab a bite, and I’ve got to get back to the books.”

“Yes, I need to get in some study time, too,” she grinned. “At least the sounds that drift up from downstairs aren’t obnoxious, and a little light rock or New Age music played softly will cover them up. And they don’t do it all the time, anyway.”

“Wow, you’re lucky in that,” he said. “That music and Trent being an asshole means that I’m falling behind already, and I can’t see how it’s going to get any better.”

Nancy flipped it over in her mind, but it was an easy call. “Hey, we’re both working on nano,” she smiled. “If you’d like to study together sometime, or at least get away from the noise and distractions, give me a call. So long as I’m there, you’re welcome to come over.”

“You really mean that?”

“Of course I do.”

Logan shook his head. “That’d drive Trent nuts,” he grinned. “I mean, to know that I’m hanging out with a girl.”

“Join the club,” she laughed. “It would make Mary Lou absolutely livid to know that I’m hanging out with a guy, gay or not.”

*   *   *

Cody glanced up and saw Nancy leaving the cafeteria, in an animated conversation with some young man he didn’t know. That part of it wasn’t surprising; he didn’t know a lot of people around the campus these days, with all the new freshmen who had shown up. It happens every year, he thought.

More importantly, it was good to see that Nancy was making friends, or at least acquaintances. That was an important part of fitting into the college scene. He and Jan hadn’t been real active about making friends, especially in the first year or so here at Southern. Neither of them were the outgoing type who made casual friends easily, and they’d always been pretty wrapped up with each other. Oh, they’d made some friends, since the incredible amount of baggage they’d carried around in Spearfish Lake wasn’t a factor here. Few people here knew that story, and as far as Cody was concerned he would be happy to keep it that way. Jan’s battles with her bad dreams resulting from that awful evening were ever so slowly getting better, so at least that was moving things in the right direction.

Cody took another sip of his coffee and glanced around the cafeteria. Not much was going on and he didn’t expect it to be. That was fine; he was accomplishing what he and the police chief wanted to happen, which was to be seen wearing his police uniform.

This whole deal was still a little strange. He was working with essentially no supervision; he was expected to check in at the station every day or so, but for the most part he was on his own. It wasn’t hard to spend twenty-four hours over the course of the week on campus, because he probably did that anyway. The trick was to be on campus in uniform as much as he could without it looking like he was patrolling the place, which is exactly what he was doing.

It was especially difficult to do it on weekends. On weekdays he had the option of supposedly “taking an hour off duty” to attend class in uniform and he could occasionally arrange to hang around a little longer, but too much longer could raise questions. On weekends it was even harder, but he thought he’d give a try to dropping into the cafeteria for an “off-duty” lunch. Normally he would have eaten lunch at home to be with Jan, but this at least offered an excuse. He’d even gone down to the station and picked up a patrol car, which was now parked in an “official business” slot at the back of the cafeteria. It lent more credibility to the story he would tell, if asked, that he’d taken off from a routine patrol around the city to take advantage of his student discount at the cafeteria. It would be stretching the truth, but so far no one had asked. That was fine with him.

So far this duty was picking up a whole lot of nothing, which both he and Chief Bascomb had expected. The idea, after all, was to show a little police presence around the campus without it being overly noticeable, and maybe that in itself would scare perps enough to lay low. To tell the truth, Cody sincerely hoped nothing would ever come of it, but he was quite willing to go along with the idea since it got him off night duty, and it increased his hours besides. He and Jan could use the money, after all; law school was going to be expensive, and Jan’s ongoing schooling, no matter how stretched out, wasn’t going to be cheap, either.

It was time to finish up here and get back in the patrol car, take it back to the station and go home for the day. Even though it was still early in the semester, there was studying to do, plus a couple things that needed to be done around the house. His mind was more on the non-working doorbells for a couple of the apartments than it was on anything else, so he was slow to realize that there was someone next to him. “Hello, Mr. Archer,” he heard Dr. Thompson say. “How are things going this afternoon?”

Cody pulled himself together quickly. He’d figured he’d be confronted by Dr. Thompson sooner or later, and how well he handled himself would probably have a lot of influence on how this assignment would go – and whether he’d be back on nights as a result. “Pretty slow,” he replied casually. “It’s times like these that I’m glad we don’t have a football team here. It would make Saturday afternoons tough.”

“I’ve been on campuses where Saturday afternoons are a real pain in the neck because of it,” Dr. Thompson replied genially. “So what brings you over this way?”

“The student discount in the cafeteria,” Cody replied, deciding that he had no choice but to try out the excuse and see if it worked. “I save a buck everywhere I can.”

“I thought it might be something like that,” Dr. Thompson said. “I’ve noticed you on campus in uniform, oh, two or three times this week. I’m wondering what that’s all about.”

“Nothing in particular, except that Chief Bascomb had to put me on days,” Cody replied, telling a partial truth. “I’m learning how to juggle work and classes with the new schedule. Sometimes I don’t have time to change clothes, go to class, then change back to go on duty.”

“Well, I suppose it can’t be avoided in that case,” Dr. Thompson shrugged. “Have you run across any trouble in your official duties?”

“Not a bit,” Cody admitted. “But then, I’m not exactly looking for it, either. I’ve been a part-time cop here since my first year, and since I live close to campus I’m on the emergency call list if anything were to happen here, but I’ve been called to something maybe half a dozen times, nothing serious, mostly things like fender-benders.”

“I hope it stays that way. Mr. Archer, I’m sure you know I’m no big fan of having police on campus. We’ve been able to avoid problems with it here, but in my younger days the presence of a uniform could often touch off trouble rather than keep it under control. I know times have changed in many ways, but I can’t help but be a little leery of it.”

“Like I said, I haven’t seen any problems, and don’t think I have been the cause of any.”

“I’m not aware of any, and I’d just as soon keep it that way. I realize it gets a little awkward for you and there will be times you can’t avoid it, but I’d just as soon you keep your uniformed presence to a minimum. If you have to make it to class and juggle time, then it can’t be avoided, but try to not make a habit of it.”

“I’m aware of the problem, sir,” Cody smiled, not wanting to say that in this case he thought Dr. Thompson was the problem, or at least part of it. “In fact, it’s something Chief Bascomb and I talked about when he put me on days. Believe me, I want to work it out because I’ve learned that going to class and working nights don’t go together very well.”

“No doubt,” Dr. Thompson grinned. “There’s something to be said for staying awake in class, after all. Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Archer. I’m not blaming you. It’s just what I said earlier, in my experience police on campus can often lead to trouble. I believe that the university and students should be able to take care of their own problems.”

“Dr. Thompson,” Cody said, drawing himself up a little, “I’m not here to cause trouble. But I also have to say that I’m still a cop whether I’m on duty or not. If I run across trouble, I’ll deal with it if I have to. Now, since I’m a student, doesn’t that mean that a student is taking care of a problem?”

“Tricky logic, Mr. Archer, tricky logic,” Dr. Thompson laughed. “Believe me, I’d much rather have you around campus in uniform than a good many police officers I’ve seen over the years, ones who don’t understand what happens around a college, and frankly, when to turn the other cheek. At least you being a student, you have some idea of what’s appropriate or not.”

“I’m glad you think so, sir.”

“Do what you have to do, Mr. Archer,” Dr. Thompson laughed. “As I said, I’d appreciate it if you minimize your time on campus in uniform, though I realize it can’t be avoided totally. But if trouble should break out, I have little doubt that you will handle yourself appropriately.”

“I’ll try to, sir,” Cody replied. So far it seemed like he’d been able to make his point, but he didn’t want to push his luck. “I’d better polish off this coffee and get back on patrol, but I’m glad you understand that I’m trying not to cause trouble.”

“Good enough, Mr. Archer,” Dr. Thompson smiled. “And keep up the good work.”

Whew, Cody thought as Dr. Thompson turned and walked away. Made it, at least this time.

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