Hideaway: Chapter 2

Hideaway

“Okay, Casey,” Rita said, watching Carly flinch at her new name and then placing Carly's laptop squarely on the shabby wooden desk that stood underneath her lofted bed. “You better get used to your name. People are going to be calling you that while you're here.”

“I know that,” Carly said, plopping down on the chair underneath the loft. “God, do I know. This is all happening so fast.” She looked around for her alarm clock and finally saw it on her desk. “My roommate should be here soon. What did you say her name was? Rebecca something... I hope she's nice. I hope she likes me.”

“Who doesn't like you?” Rita said with a smile and then placed a set of pens in the desk drawer.

“Who doesn't like Carly Callahan?” Carly countered. “I'm a famous rock star. We have no idea who will like Casey Lewis.”

Rita shut the desk drawers and turned around to look at Carly. “Trust me. They'll like you!”

Carly reached for her Coke bottle on the floor and opened the top, nearly jumping out of her chair when the door opened and a girl with long strawberry blonde hair in a ponytail and an older woman with short auburn hair walked in behind her.

“Oh, hi!” the girl said, smiling at Carly and Rita. “You must be Casey. My name is Becca, and this is my mom, Nancy.”

Rita and Nancy exchanged hellos and struck up a conversation while Becca stacked some boxes on her side of the room. Carly followed her outside of the room to help her get some more of her things.

Carly jumped down on the landing. “Cal State. My aunt moved up to Minnesota for her job this summer, and I followed her.”

Becca chuckled. “Wow, are you in for a shock when winter comes.”

“Oh, I've been here before,” Carly said with a knowing smile. They went outside and towards Becca's mom's truck. “My aunt and I have done a lot of traveling.”

Becca looked back at Carly, and she handed her a large box and their eyes met. “You know,” she said, “You do look a little familiar. Did you go to grade school up here or something? I feel like we've met before.”

Carly felt her cheeks heating up slightly. “No, I grew up in California. I guess I just have one of those faces.”

Between the two of them, they managed to get the door open with their loads. “Thanks,” Carly said when she squeezed through. “I'll need help with that for sure.” Becca had no idea how much Carly would need help with the clothes thing. She hadn't bought her own clothes in years...

*****

Rita left shortly after Becca and her mom had arrived, and after Becca had gotten her things settled in, her mom also drove back to her home in the cities. So once everything had been mostly put away, Carly and Becca decided to order pizza and watch a movie. They had just opened the box of gooey cheese and pepperoni pizza, when there was a knock on the door.

Carly's heart rate picked up pace. So far, she had felt safe with Becca, but other people made her nervous. She knew she'd have to face them eventually, but for tonight, she just wanted to relax.

She closed the lid on the pizza and waited while Becca got up to get the door.

“Paul!” she exclaimed once she saw who was standing there.

Carly peered around her shoulder from her place on the floor and saw a tall guy with dark brown hair and a short beard on his chin. He was grinning at Becca, and when he saw Carly, he waved, smiling. “Hey, who's your new roommate?”

“Oh, sorry,” Becca said. “Paul, this is Casey. She's new to Gustavus. Casey, this is Paul. He's, believe it or not, enrolled in Pre-Law, majoring in Political Science”

Casey stood up to greet Paul. “Nice to meet you,” she said, accepting his handshake. “I'm taking a Political Science class this semester, but it's only Introduction to Government.”

“Yeah,” he grinned. “I won't be in that, but my roommate is. Maybe you'll be in his class. Speaking of which, he's in a foul mood tonight. I made some hotdogs in the microwave and then realized that we didn't bring any ketchup. Artie refuses to eat a hotdog without ketchup. Do either of you have some?”

Both girls shook their heads.

“Well, can't say I didn't try,” Paul said with a sigh. “I'll try another room. Thanks, anyway.” He was just about to turn around, and Becca tried to shut the door, when Paul stuck out his hand and stopped it from closing. “Wait a second. Casey, has anyone every told you that you look just like that singer? What's her name.... Carly Callahan, that's right!”

Carly tried to play it cool, but inside, her heart felt like it was in her throat. “All the time,” she said. “Wish I could sing like her... ha ha...”

“Oh, well,” Paul smiled. “You're very pretty. We should go on a date sometime.” He winked and turned around, not giving her a chance to reply.

Becca closed the door. “That's why you look familiar!” she said, and then made her way back to the pizza. “You do look like Carly Callahan. He's right.”

Carly watched while she sat back down on the pillows they had set down on the floor and picked up a giant piece of pizza.

“Don't look at me like that,” Becca said. “Carly Callahan is gorgeous. It's a compliment!”

Carly took a deep breath and sat back down. Rita was right. Even if people did realize the resemblance, that didn't mean they would put two and two together. Carly just hoped that it would stay that way.

*****

The next morning, Carly came out of her new walk in closet, which was considerably smaller than the one she was used to in her LA apartment, and stood waiting for Becca to look away from her computer. “Does this look okay?” she asked.

Becca turned away from her screen to face Carly's outfit which consisted of a plain blue t-shirt and light colored jeans. She looked back up at Carly. “What exactly do they wear in California?” she wanted to know. “I would think your clothes would be a bit more… you know… flashy."

Carly chuckled nervously. “I just want to fit in,” she admitted, going back into the closet. “It's hard being a transfer student. If this is too plain, I can look for something a bit more dramatic.” She held up a top with a colorful print on it. “How about this?”

“That looks fine. I actually have something similar,” she heard Becca say.

Carly quickly slipped out of the blue t-shirt and put the other one on. She really wanted to blend into the crowd today… and if Becca said she had a similar shirt, then that was good enough for her; Carly should be able to pass as any other college student..

A few minutes later, Carly was on her own across campus. She had signed up for an array of classes in what she was hoping to be her only semester on campus. On her first day, she had Beginning Acting at nine am, followed by Interpersonal Communications and then Intro to American History after lunch with Becca.

Carly walked through campus and noticed that there were a lot of other students walking about. She tried not to look at them all, but she couldn't help it. The first thing she noticed was that no one was staring at her... no one was recognizing her! They all thought she was another college student going to class! Maybe this would work after all!

Carly smiled while she put walked into the auditorium and took a spot near a few other students already seated. She pulled out her blackberry and checked the time. Good. Five minutes early… perfect!

“Casey! Earth to Casey!”

Carly turned her head around to see a guy standing there smiling at her.

“Hey, there! I've said your name three times… remember me?” he said, climbing over her, almost knocking the phone right out of her hand. “I'm Paul. I came to your room last night asking for ketchup.”

“Oh, right. Paul,” she said, grasping onto her phone for dear life. “I remember you. Nice to see you again. I guess we have Acting together.”

He put his arm around her and squeezed her shoulder. “We can be acting buddies!”

Carly noticed that another guy had sat down on the opposite side of her. She gave him a weary smile.

“Oh, him. That's my roommate, Artie. He's in a bad mood because he never got his ketchup last night,” Paul explained.

“It's Arthur,” Artie insisted, his voice even.

Carly looked back at Paul just as he rolled his eyes.

“He says that, but everyone calls him Artie.”

“Don't you think if he prefers to be called Arthur, you should call him that?” Carly asked. “How would you like it if everyone called you Pauly?”

Paul removed his arm from her shoulders and shrugged. “Some nicknames just stick.”

Carly turned back to Arthur. “My name is Casey,” she said, smiling. “It's nice to meet you, Arthur.”

His blue eyes met hers, but he didn't smile. “Likewise,” he said.

Carly looked back to the front of the auditorium as the professor began the class. She was beginning to understand why Paul gave his roommate a nickname... he seemed to desperately need to lighten up. Then again, maybe she should get to know him a little before she decided what type of a person he was.

Paul opened up his backpack and sorted through wads and wads of unorganized paper before pulling out a notepad and holding it up with an accomplished grin. On the other hand, it didn't take her long to figure Paul out.

Professor Levine went through the syllabus and introduced the textbook briefly before telling the students about their first in class assignment: getting to know each other. Professor Levine said that it was important to know your acting classmates well and this was just the beginning. First, they would learn two things about a partner and then share them with the class.

“Feel free to ask your partners lots of follow up questions about what they share!” Professor Levine shouted over the students after they began to talk to one another.

Carly chanced a small look over at Paul, but he was already chatting with a guy on his left, so she turned around towards Arthur and smiled at him. “Do you want to be my partner?”

Arthur shrugged. “Sure.”

Carly turned more towards him and poised her pen over her notebook. “So, do you want to go first, or should I?”

“How about you?” Arthur suggested.

“Okay...” Carly thought hard. It was a little hard to say something about herself without revealing her true identity. “Let's see... I love to travel all over the country with my aunt. It's kind of our thing. We like to check out different places and take lots of photos. Most recently, we went to Chicago, Detroit, and Pittsburgh. But my favorite place is New York City. We go there a lot.”

Carly thought she saw Arthur smile at her. “You must be really close with your aunt to spend so much time with her,” he said.

“Oh, for sure,” Carly agreed. “She's like a big sister to me. When I lived in California, we spent almost all our time together. Now that I'm staying in the dorms, we won't see each other quite as often, but I still plan on seeing her a lot.” Carly paused for a second to see if Arthur had any questions, but he just made a few notes in his notebook for when they shared with the class. “Okay, so how about you?” she said. “What's your first thing to share?”

“Paul's family lives on a lake near St Peter... Lake Emily,” Arthur started. “One of our favorite things to do, that is, when we're not doing school work, or I should say, when I'm not doing school work... Paul is usually slacking off... is go fishing.”

“Fishing?” Carly raised an eyebrow. “Like... with a worm?”

Arthur gave her a sideways glance. “No, with a shoe. Of course, with a worm! Well, sometimes we use leeches...”

Carly wrinkled her nose. “Leeches?”

“Haven't you ever been fishing?”

“No! I'm from LA!”

“Why does everyone keep telling me that?” Carly wanted to know.

Arthur looked away from her and back down to his notebook with a funny little knowing smile. “What's your second thing?” he asked.

“Oh,” Carly said, tapping her pen against her notebook. “Let me think... oh! How about this. I love music, and my favorite artist is the dreamy and gorgeous Brandon Sloane.” Carly batted her eyes. Now that was the truth if she ever heard it!

Arthur rolled his eyes and wrote down the word 'music' onto his paper. “Too bad he has a girlfriend.” he said. “Didn't you hear? Carly Callahan.”

“That doesn't bother me,” Carly said, not missing a beat. “I like her.”

“Sure, if you like that kind of music.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

He looked back up at her. “Not everyone likes pop music,” he explained.

“Hold up,” Carly said, setting her pen down on her notebook. “She doesn't strictly sing pop music—”

“Who cares...” he said, shrugging. “Let's move on. I've thought of my second thing. It's not really mind blowing, but neither was yours. Anyway, I guess mine is that I like also like music, only not of the Brandon Sloane variety."

Carly looked up at him again, interested. “Oh? What kind do you like?”

Arthur looked up at her briefly from his notebook and then looked down at his notes again. "Just music in general," he said.

“Come on,” she said, leaning forward over her own notes. “You gotta to have something in particular you care for.” When he didn't answer and continued writing in his notebook, she went on, “I'm not going to judge you, or anything. I think all types of music are great… I mean, even country music has its high points, right?”

He looked up at her with narrowed eyes, and she grinned at him.

“You like country, right?” she guessed. “Well, it's not so bad.”

“I told you,” he said. “I like all music.”

“Okay… fine.” she wrote his music preference, 'All kinds,' down in her notebook. “I get it. You like all music except that of Brandon Sloane. But I mean it. I listen to country every now and then in between Brandon Sloane songs. I even downloaded Rascal Flatts' latest CD from itunes.”

Carly thought she saw Arthur smile at her, but the professor called out that time was up before she could call him on it.