Breaking Fences (The Breaking Series) (3 page)

“You get a maybe,” I said. Then I clamped my hands over my ears before Molly’s squeal made me deaf.

***

I ended up not going to rush night. Instead, I went out to buy a mattress, which was almost impossible to carry inside the building by myself.
Graças a Deus
for the girl who was ascending the stairs to go to a party, and took pity of me and helped me out. After throwing the other mattress under the bed—I would deal with it later—and putting my new one in place, I organized my stuff around the room.

When she came back from the house, Molly seemed upset about me not showing up. I tried explaining to her that I didn’t think it was for me, but I liked the fact that she was into her sorority. She shrugged and didn’t look at me again until the next morning.

“Hello, sunshine!” she said, sitting up on her bed at 8 a.m. sharp.

At least she was in a better mood than last night.

“
Bom dia
,” I mumbled before pulling the covers over my head. Two seconds later, Molly yanked the covers away from me. “What the hell?”

“Come on.” Molly grinned. “We’ve got a big day today.”

Other than getting our student IDs in the afternoon and buying our books, I had no idea what she was talking about.

I hugged my pillow and turned my back to her. “My bed feels so good right now.”

“Come on, Bia!” She pulled my pillow away.

“Hey!”

She chuckled. “You have orientation all morning—”

“That’s optional.”

“—and we have to get our IDs and buy our books. Oh, and I’m going to introduce you to my friends. You’re gonna love them.”

After about fifteen minutes of her chipper self, I couldn’t take it anymore. I gave up and got out of bed. She hovered so close to me, I thought she would follow me into the bathroom. I would shove her off if she did.
Graças a Deus
, she didn’t and I was able to take a shower and brush my teeth in peace. After much thought, I decided to go with my usual ensemble. No need to try to impress anyone, or be someone I wasn’t.

Molly looked me up and down when I exited the bathroom. “You do take your cowgirl style seriously, don’t you?”

I glanced down. Jeans, a white tank top, thick black suede belt, and my favorite black and white Lucchese boots. If only she knew I almost reached for my black hat, but decided it would be too much. For now.

I shrugged. “Anything wrong with it?”

“No, it’s not that.” She smiled. “I’m just not used to it.”

I looked at her clothes. A not too short jean skirt, a pink blouse with slight cleavage, and high-heeled sandals, and too many rings and bracelets and necklaces. Yeah, not my style.

Molly walked with me to orientation, and I was surprised when she stayed with me for the entire thing. I asked her a couple of times why the hell she wanted to sit through it if it was optional, and she wasn’t new to the university.

“Just because,” was her answer each time.

The girl probably didn’t have anything better to do, or she wanted a favor later, in which case I should be careful with what else she did for me just because.

After the boring introduction and brief tour of the main sites of the campus, Molly took me to a Panera Bread just off campus.

“Bia, meet Audrey and Sarah.” Molly introduced me to two blond chicks who had on too much makeup for my taste. But then again, most American women—or little girls for that matter—wore too much makeup for my taste. She took a chair across the table from Audrey and Sarah. “This is the girl I told you about last night.” She gestured to the chair beside hers. “Audrey is the president of my sorority, and Sarah is the rush chair.”

I sat and stared at Molly. “Are you setting me up?”

She averted her eyes. “Not exactly.”

“She just wanted us to meet you,” Audrey said. Her blond hair fell in perfect waves down her back, and I wondered how many hours she spent in front of the mirror to get that effect each morning.

“We’re her friends and you’re her roommate,” Sarah said. She flipped her straight-as-a-board blond hair—this one also spent at least an hour flat ironing her hair every day—and looked me up and down. With her fancy skirt and pumps, I bet my jeans and boots didn’t really please her. “She says we’ll get along famously.”

I was starting to doubt that, but hey, I was the foreigner here and I didn’t mind diversity as long as everyone respected each other.

“I’m sure we will,” I said. Seeing as Audrey and Sarah were already waiting on their food, I stood. “Hey, Molly, why don’t we go order something?”

“Yeah, sure.” Molly stood and followed me to the cashier.

I ordered a panini and soda, and Molly got a salad and ice tea. When we returned to the table with our plates, Audrey and Sarah were almost through theirs. Not surprisingly, they were eating salad.

“What brings you to the United States, Bia?” Audrey asked as soon as I sat on my chair.

I had rehearsed this answer several times, because this was another one people always asked me. “My family. My brothers are polo players, and they have a contract with an American club.” I just hoped they didn’t want more about it.

“Oh.” Sarah looked me up and down again. “But Brazilian girls aren’t exactly cowgirls, are they?”

I didn’t get that question often. “Like here, there are many kinds of girls in Brazil. There are a lot of farms and ranches in the state I was born, and lots of girls become sort of a cowgirl, called
prenda
.”

Audrey pushed her empty plate aside. “Interesting.”

“How about English?” Sarah asked. “I thought Brazilians spoke Spanish.”

I gritted my teeth and counted to twenty. I knew it wasn’t anyone’s obligation to know which language we spoke in Brazil, but Brazil had a huge rivalry with Argentina, and assuming we spoke Spanish was like saying we were Argentines. Or worse, that Buenos Aires was the capital of Brazil.

“Actually, we speak Portuguese,” I answered after calming down. “English is taught in schools, but that’s only the basics. There are private language schools in Brazil, and because of my brothers’ international career, my father thought it would be a good idea to learn English from a young age.”

“That’s good, I guess,” Audrey said, sounding uninterested.

We talked some more about college in Brazil and here, and how they were different. The same conversation I had had with Molly the day before.

“See,” Molly said. “She would be a great addition to the house.”

I was about to open my mouth and tell them I had zero interest in joining the sorority when Audrey said, “We have time to change your mind. Meanwhile, you can help us plan our stand for the Welcome Carnival on Saturday. Got any ideas?”

Banners for the Welcome Carnival were everywhere. Apparently, it was a huge evening event in the main courtyard, which happened every semester on the first Saturday after classes started.

Sarah leaned over the table and smiled. “I bet our carnival isn’t like your country’s Carnival, but I bet you’ll love it anyway.”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. One, it was
Carnaval
, not Carnival, and two, I also bet it was different, but I wasn’t a big fan of it in Brazil. Maybe I would like this one better.

I forced a big smile. “I can’t wait.”

We were getting ready to leave when a girl with red curls stopped by our table. “Hello, girls,” she said, her tone a little sarcastic.

“Hello, Gina,” Audrey said, her expression closing.

Gina turned a bright smile to me. “Hi, there. You must be Bia, the Brazilian girl.” I gaped at her. How did she know that? “I’m Gina, president of the ZTZ. I know you missed rush night, but I want to invite you to the house tonight, so you can meet the girls and me.”

“That’s illegal,” Sarah said. She turned to me. “It’s against the rules to rush after the rush night, or to bid on someone before bidding night.”

“Oh,” was all I said.

Gina didn’t lose her composure though. “Girls, let’s be honest here. I know you bent the rules a few times, and you know I did too. Besides, I know you’re going to bid on Bia, so I’m here throwing my hat in the ring too.”

Audrey glared at her. “Take your freaking hat somewhere else.”

Unaffected, Gina smiled at me again. “Don’t worry about them, Bia. Just don’t forget you have other options. And I promise, our bid will be
good
.” She winked before leaving.

Sarah tilted her head to me. “Bia, if you plan on joining a sorority, you should know there’s no house better than ours.”

“True,” Audrey said. “And whatever her bid is, we’ll make it better.”

I almost told them that I wouldn’t join any sorority, no matter what bid I got, but maybe they would launch in an argument and try to convince me about why I should join if I did, and I wasn’t in the mood for that. Better to stay quiet.

I just nodded. “Okay.”

After leaving Panera, I actually had a good time with Molly, Audrey, and Sarah. We walked around campus, got our student IDs done, bought books for our classes, then stopped by a froyo stand between the science and the English buildings. They told me all about sororities and fraternities. I also found out most girls were allowed to live in the house, but Molly had a scholarship that involved boarding, which meant she had to live in the dorms.

The trio knew everyone around. We would take a step, and they would say hi to someone and call that person by his or her name. If I had to guess, they must have greeted at least three hundred students in the short time we spent together, and they actually knew all of their names. That alone would be a miracle for me.

Some people stopped and started conversations with them. Very polite and cordial, the girls introduced me with flare. Apparently, being Brazilian was an exciting thing, because everyone turned to me saying, “Really? That’s so great!” or things of the like. Shame I forgot the name of four of every five student they introduced me to in less than three seconds.

They had been nice to me and, even though we didn’t share the same tastes, that didn’t mean we couldn’t get along well.

Chapter Three

A pillow flew to my face.

“
Que porcaria é essa
.” I sat up, lost for a moment.

“Get up or we’ll be late for our first class,” Molly said, combing her hair in front of the tall mirror she had brought from home.

I looked at her alarm clock—it was eight, and my first class was at eight thirty—and shot up.

I put on my uniform: jeans, tank top, my favorite cowboy boots, and braided my hair down my back.

“You look cute,” Molly said, her voice a little cold. I guess she was still mad at me. After Gina, another two sorority presidents stopped me to invite me over for an unofficial and private rush night.

I shrugged. “Thanks. You too.”

In silence, we left our building and walked to the science building. My first class was Biology 201, and Molly had Biology 101 next door.

As soon as we stepped out of our building, a girl wrapped her fingers around my wrist and yanked to the side.

“
Tche
!” I exclaimed, ready to spit my anger in her face, but I recognized her. She was one of the girls that cornered me last night, the rush chair from one of the sororities.

“Sorry,” she whispered, letting go of me. She pulled a piece of white paper from her pocket. “Take this. We’ll talk later.”

I took the paper and she left.

I stood frozen. “What the …?”

Molly pursed her lips for a second. “It’s probably a bid.”

“But I haven’t even been to their house.”

“Well, they might think that by offering you a good bid, you might show up at their house for bid night, regardless of rushing or not.”

“That’s crazy.”

“Yup. They know early bids are illegal, but if she thinks you’ll get better bids from other houses, she might want to be the first.”

That sounded ridiculous. Why would they waste their time with me if I weren’t going to accept anything? It didn’t make any sense to me.

Curious, I unfolded the piece of paper and read the brief note.

We’ll wash your clothes, clean your room, and you’ll have prime meals in the house.

“That’s a nice bid,” Molly said, reading it from over my shoulder. “Will you take it?”

“No! I don’t care what they offer me.” There was no garbage can in sight, so I shoved the paper inside my purse. “Come on. We don’t want to be late for class.”

With a frown, Molly walked beside me as we crossed the campus. I made a list of things I could comment on or ask to break the ice growing between us, but nothing seemed good enough. I wasn’t one for small talk. But being too direct, as I usually was, might not be the best way to fix whatever was going wrong between my roommate and me.

Two steps before I entered the science building, a girl bumped into me, dropping a blue paper in my hands.

“You gotta be kidding me,” Molly muttered.