[GL] Someone Once Told Me the Grass is Much er on the Other Side-Chapter 132: Freshmen Year Arc: Two

"My dorm mate never showed," Aurora said to her mother on the phone through the screen. They had been face screening one another for a little bit.

"What you mean they never showed?" Lacy asked her daughter.

Aurora shrugged. "They never showed. It could have been a Beta or Omega, we could have been best of friends."

They continued to talk to one another about mundane things until finally releasing the line. Aurora threw her phone on the bed on the other side, not her bed. She flopped down on her bed and laid on her back.

Her walls were bared and half of the room felt empty because it was empty.

Knock, knock!

The sound jolted Aurora upright. Standing frozen in the doorway, clutching a clipboard, was a pale young woman with jet-black hair chopped unevenly at her jawline.

The Omega’s eyes darted around the half-furnished room, lingering on Aurora’s lone suitcase propped against the wall, then the stark emptiness where another desk stood empty.

Aurora recognized the RA badge clipped lopsidedly to her oversized hoodie: Jasmine, according to the faded print. Jasmine shifted her weight, the squeak of her worn sneakers slicing the dorm’s thick silence.

She didn’t smile. Her lips remained pressed into a tight, bloodless line as she scanned the vacancy with unnerving stillness.

"It looks like you have the room to yourself," Jasmine said. "It seems your dorm mate decided to go to another school. Lucky you."

Aurora laughed as the Omega stepped forward. They shook hands.

"Jasmine Small."

"Aurora Theresa," Aurora introduced herself.

"Later on, we’re gonna have a get together in the common room, feel free to come by," she said exiting the room.

Aurora’s hand still tingled from Jasmine’s unexpectedly firm grip when the RA vanished down the hallway.

Out in the court yard bruised sky heavy with impending twilight, clouds churning like dirty dishwater.

She grabbed her thin windbreaker off the hook, the one her mom insisted she bring "just in case", and slipped out without a backward glance at the echoing emptiness.

The afternoon pressed down hard in the courtyard, thick and damp. The bruised clouds were lower now, leaking a fine, cold drizzle that misted Aurora’s face instantly, plastering stray wisps of dark hair to her temples.

Distant thunder growled typical of the Ashley city, a basso profundo counterpoint to the nervous patter of rain on plastic picnic tables and the skeletal frames of unused bike racks.

She walked aimlessly, sneakers squelching on the soaked grass, drawn toward the cluster of ancient oaks at the far end.

BOINK!

"OWWW!" Aurora landed on the ground with a hand on her head. An Alpha female ran up to her and picked up the frisbee.

"Are you okay?" The Alpha asked lending out a hand to help the Omega up. Aurora got up after taking the hand and brushed herself off. "Sorry about that," she said. Her hair was plastered to her face because of the sprinkles of the rain.

She was handsome. "No worries. Thank you for helping me up," Aurora said. The Alpha smiled and ran back to her group of friends to finish playing ultimate frisbee.

The next day, Aurora made her way to the atheltic building to work out, and to see the locker room, and gym she would be practicing volleyball in.

She turned abruptly once outside her dorm, heading towards the athletic complex, its angular glass and steel facade looming grey and indistinct through the the heavy rain.

Inside the echoing tunnel-like corridor leading to the gymnasiums, the sudden warmth felt oppressive, steam rising faintly from her jacket as she shrugged it off. The sharp squeak of rubber soles on polished hardwood intensified as she pushed through the heavy double doors into the cavernous main gym.

She entered into the locker room, already seeing athletes from the volleyball team. The Omegas and Betas who were present looked at her as she made her way through, just looking. Her smile made a difference though because they instantly reached out to her.

"Hey, are you new on the team," a Beta said appoarching her. She held out her hand to shake it. "Janet is my name, sophmore." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"Aurora, yes, I’m a freshmen," she said.

"Whats that? We got new fish!" Everyone laughed as an Omega appoarched him. "Ayo! Whats up? I’m Charlotte!"

The locker room held low chatter with a nasty smell of body odor, sweat, and even urine. Janet kept Aurora’s handshake brief, her grip strong and calloused, then gestured sharply toward the gleaming rows of lockers. Charlotte fell into step beside them, her movements fluid and giddy.

Aurora scanned the long aisle. Each locker was identical: steel-gray, numbered, dented. One near the end stood slightly ajar, its hinge squeaking softly with the humid drafts from the showers.

Inside, someone left a crumpled protein bar wrapper and a sticky residue ringed the bottom shelf. Aurora’s nose wrinkled. She tore a disinfectant wipe from her backpack, scrubbing the sticky mess until the metal shone dull silver.

They had small talk as Aurora began to get settled into her new life. It was weird to not have friends with her but they were all off in their own direction. Shatwa enlisted into the military, Gordan was going to culinary school, Mosiah was going to an IT school, and Brie was going to a different school majoring in biochemistry.

Aurora walked into the gymnasium and sat to watch of her new team practice. She had forgotten that she had practice later that day as well but she just wanted to see what she would be getting herself into.

Whump!

Aurora slid onto the cold metal bleachers, unnoticed in the shadowed periphery. Rain still streaked the high windows, turning afternoon into a murky twilight inside the cavernous space.

She watched bodies blur in coordinated chaos: Betas digging low for impossible saves, Omegas exploding upward at the net, fingertips straining toward the high beaming lights.

Spike!

A stray spike rocketed wide, slamming into the padded wall behind her with a hollow thump that vibrated up her spine.

"See ya later, Aurora!" Her friends said as they went off their own ways.

"So that’s your name, Aurora?"

Aurora turned around to see the Alpha she had met yesterday at the field in the common area of the university. She was able to get a good look at her inside the athletic building.

A shock of copper-red hair, cropped close at the sides and messy as if she just rolled out of bed, framed a face sharpened by high cheekbones and a faint scar slicing through one eyebrow.

Her lean frame, all coiled muscle beneath a faded blue short sleeve shirt, radiated restless energy. Eyes the startling blue-green of glacial ice scanned Aurora. Rainwater still clung to the scuffed leather of her high-top sneakers, leaving faint, damp prints on the polished floor.

"That’s a pretty name," she said, stepping closer to Aurora. "I’m Jasona. Um, I’m on the Alpha basketball team." She held out her hand for Aurora to shake it. She did. "And you do...volleyball?"

"Yes," Aurora finally said something.

"Can...I walk you to your dorm?"

"Umm, I’m actually going to the cafeteria," the Omega laughed.

Jasona nodded, the scar above her eyebrow catching the harsh light as she gestured towards the exit with a jerk of her chin. Aurora fell into step beside her, the Alpha’s stride long and easy despite the lingering dampness clinging to their clothes.

The rhythmic squeak-slap of Jasona’s sneakers echoed Aurora’s own softer steps in the echoing corridor, a wordless counterpoint to the muffled shouts still emanating from the gym behind them.

Jasona pulled out her umbrella and placed it over both of their heads. "I hate how it rains here."

"You’re not from Ashley?"

"No, I’m from Li Kan, which is three hours about north east from Ashley," she explained.

They walked in silence for a while, observing each other’s movements and facial expressions without saying a word.

Aurora took in the way Jasona flexed her forearm tendons as they navigated around puddles. Jasona, in turn, tracked how Aurora’s shoulders relaxed incrementally beneath her windbreaker, how she unconsciously tucked a damp strand of hair behind her ear only for it to escape again moments later.

She was gorgeous was all Jasona could think of.

"So what year are you?" Aurora asked the six-four basketball player.

"A freshmen," she answered back. Aurora was actually shocked by that. Wow! Was all the Omega thought.

Eventually they got to the cafeteria just as the sun was setting. They managed to find a small area in the back of the large cafeteria. Jasona pulled out the chair for Aurora, allowing the Omega to sit without ease.

"What me to get you your food?" Jasona asked.

"How about you get me my food and I get you yours?" Aurora recommended. The Alpha just laughed at the suggestion.

Jasona came back with a small pasta plate for Aurora who then got up and came back with a protein rich plate for Jasona who bursted out laughing. Yeah, she was digging this Omega.