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DECISION

Barbara Horst

Cindy finished at the mirror and looked across at the dimpled,
pink face of Audrey Blackstone. Cindy took one more reflective loo.k
in the mirror before she plopped down in the room's one easy ~halr
and exclaimed, "Audie, I'm so on edge and nervous! You'd thmk ,~
was about to go to the Queen's coronation, the way my stomach feels.

"I know, Cindy, this is all so new and exciting. We've only been
here for one day, and already I feel like I've known everyone for a
lifetime."

"What do you suppose the mixer will be like? I want to meet
everyone, and yet I feel as though I don't. I do want our first year to
be as successful as possible. Can't you hurry with your hair, so we
can go down? I want to dance all night."

Cindy settled deeper into the chair, realizing quite abruptly th~t
she was going to spend a good deal of her next year waiting for Audie
to get ready for everything. She smiled as she watched her too short,
too plump roommate daub powder on her pert little nose. Audie did
have a pretty face, and she seemed to have a most congenial person-
ality. But Cindy didn't know her well enough yet to be sure that she
and Audie would be confidantes. Too many times before she had set
her heart on having someone as a special friend, only to find that she
was shunned and ignored once confidences became too involved.

From out in the hallway, high-pitched, feminine voices entreated
them to hurry, and finally Audie took one last pinch at her cheek and
left the dresser. The girls gathered cardigan sweaters and emerged
from their room into the bustling, one-way traffic of freshmen girls
making their way to the gym for the first informal mixer of their col-
lege career.

Once inside the gym, they were swept into the gaiety and laughter
of a diversified group of boys and girls, brought together for the first
time-and yet already so much a part of one another's lives that their
paths would never separate. With a slow and deliberate gaze, Cindy
surveyed the room, taking mental note of the general atmosphere of
friendliness and togetherness. Audie was gone, she had been scooped
into the arms of a tall, thin boy with horn-rimmed glasses. Then as
she was about to find some of the girls she had become acquainted with
earlier that afternoon, she felt a hand on her arm and heard a steady

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