Chris and Jo by Desire Scheepers (classic reads .TXT) 📕

Jo was very nervous. It was her first day of college and she had no idea what to expect. She had already registered at the main office and been given her room number and directions to the dormitory. To get there was another thing. Jo was a shy girl who couldn't say ‘boo’ to a spider never mind stand up for herself.
She had been like this since she first went to school and had to endure the teasing of the other children. She had light, honey- coloured hair, blue eyes that could become light aqua depending on her mood and very fair skin with freckles that was prone to multiply if exposed to the sun for any length of time.
The other children would always tease her about them and in time she withdrew more into herself until she lived in her own little shell.
Jo had promised herself that this year would be a new beginning. She would enjoy her college years as she hadn't been allowed to enjoy herself during her school years.
As she walked through the campus, she observed everything around her. There were a lot of trees around which meant that she could do some studying outside without having to worry about her freckles all the time.
She finally arrived at her dormitory and realized that she would have to climb to the second floor because there were no lifts available.
After lugging her suitcases and bags up the stairs, she had hardly any breath left to speak, so she just left everything at the top of the stairs and took one case with her to her room. As she dodged between the other people in the corridor she noticed that there were also male students roaming around, which meant that it was a mixed dormitory. As she reached for the door handle, it suddenly sprang to life and sent her flying backwards. She found herself lying on the ground, slightly dizzy and trying to figure out what the shape above her was saying. “You should really watch where you go, you know. Someone could get hurt.” the person said and turned around to walk away.
”I’m sorry, I didn't know anyone was in there.” Jo said softly and desperately tried to locate her glasses which could've landed anywhere.
“Well, next time be more careful. By the way, I'm Chris.” he said and proceeded to pick up her glasses and handed them to her.
As Jo put on her glasses, she suddenly developed bad hearing and extremely good vision, for Chris was Hercules and Johnny Depp all rolled into one.
“Uh, thank you.” She stuttered.
“No problem. Tell me where your bags are and I’ll get them for you.”
She slowly pointed towards the top of the stairs and hoped that he would not notice her trembling finger.
He quickly negotiated the passage and picked up all her luggage like it weighed nothing at all.
“Here you are. Where’s your room then I can leave it there for you.”
“This is my room.” She said and proceeded to get up.


Chris stood looking down at the girl standing up from the floor and thought to himself that she really needed some help. She had no sense of style and spoke no louder that a spider’s fart.
She couldn’t be serious. He had moved into the dormitory to get away from home. His three sisters were driving him crazy. He really loved them a lot and would do anything for them, but he had no privacy at home. They were always bursting in to his room and interfering in him personal life, such as it was. He didn’t think that he could cope with living with another one quite so soon.
He processed this in the subconscious part of his brain. The main thought running through his mind was the statement which she had just made.
“I’m sorry, I think you are mistaken. This is my room. My roommate’s name is Joe Sandler. I’ve never met him but the office gave me his name when I registered this morning” He said.
“My name is Jo Sandler. Short for Jo Anne. I think they must have thought that I was a man.” She said so softly that he had to lean down to hear her better.
“Let me put this down first and then I think we should go to the main office to see what they can figure out.”
They entered the room and Chris put Jo’s bags down on the floor. He saw her looking around and felt slightly embarrassed. He had not finished unpacking, so the room was in a mess, with clothes and shoes and all types of different things scattered around. It was almost as if a whirlwind had hit the room, throwing everything around. He was normally very organized, but he had not expected a girl to walk in and say that this was her room. He hastily shoved some bundles of underwear into his closet, hoping that she hadn’t noticed when he saw her blushing furiously, trying not to look at what he was doing. So much for not noticing.
“Uh, I think we should go and try to sort this out as soon as possible.” He said and opened the door for her.
As they walked through the corridor, Chris contemplated what it would mean if Jo would actually be staying with him in the same room. She didn’t look like she would be a problem, but he wouldn’t be able to walk around in his underwear – not that he did, but still-, he wouldn’t be able to talk like a guy and worst of all, where would he take his girlfriend?

Jo was having a hard time keeping a straight face, breathing and walking all at the same time. Her heart was beating like a horse gone mad and her mind was racing faster than the wheels of a steam train.
What had happened? Here she was, assigned to share a room with a guy who looked like something from a dream, had excellent manners, because he kept on clearing the corridor in front so that she wouldn’t have to walk past anyone and had even collected her bags.
Things like this never happened. Not to her, anyway. She had never had a relationship before, so she didn’t know how to handle men at all. The closest she had come to exposure to a man had been one of her cousins and he had turned out gay, so she couldn’t even use that as a reference point.
Right now she wasn’t thinking straight. She had to concentrate and stop thinking all over the place. The office had clearly made a mistake and would rectify it as soon as possible. They had to. She couldn’t even contemplate what it would be like to live with a guy, especially one like Chris.
No, they simply had to fix this. She had wanted to enjoy her college experience, but this was not exactly what she had in mind. She had thought to maybe go out with friends or at least attend a party, but this was completely different.

As soon as they had reached the main office, they looked for one of the registration personnel to assist them, but the office was a mad house. It seemed that all the students had waited until the last moment to register.
“Come, that person over there doesn’t look busy. Let’s see if he can help.” Chris said and took her elbow to guide her through the throng.
When they reached the man, his badge proclaiming him as Stan, Chris started explaining their situation to him.
“Hi, my name’s Chris and this is Jo. We have a slight problem. I hope you can help us. You see, we have been assigned to the same room. I understand that the dormitory is mixed but that the rooms are supposed to be the same gender. I think maybe they thought that we were both male, but as you can see, we are not both male. What can be done? Could you maybe assign one of us to another room?”
“Listen, I understand your problem, but when you registered, you signed a form that said you were happy with your room assignment. And even if I could assign you to another room, everything has been taken. All the rooms are full. You can wait for about two weeks and then come back to see if there will be a room available then. There should have been a few drop outs by then.” Stan said and turned to the people behind them, his attitude dismissing them.
“Well, not exactly what we wanted to hear. I guess we’ll have to wait for two weeks and then come back.” Chris said and taking Jo’s elbow again, proceeded to twist and turn through the masses to get outside.
“I’m sorry. I never thought something like this would happen. I’ll try to stay out of your way. You won’t even know I’m there.” Jo said.
“It’s not the end of the world. I’m sure that we’ll get along. It’s just for two weeks anyway. We’ll be so busy that we probably won’t even see each other a lot.” He said hoping that it was true.

Walking back to the dormitory, they each silently contemplated the turn of events and what it meant for the near future. They would share a room for two weeks. Chris was used to sharing a home with women and was sure that he would be able to handle it, but he wasn’t sure how Jo would react. She was very quiet and from the little he had seen, she was painfully shy as well. He hoped she would relax before she developed permanent neck spasm. He could see her trying not to look like she was upset, but she wasn’t succeeding.
“It won’t be so bad. I promise I’ll behave.” He joked, trying to make her feel better.
“Yes, thank you. I’m sure that it will be fine.” She said, blushing. She would have to stop behaving like a young school girl every time Chris spoke to her.
Chris saw her red face and couldn’t help but wonder at the reason.

They arrived to find the dorm in the same mad state as when they had left.
Jo needed some time to collect her thoughts so she excused herself and went in search of the bathroom.
The bathroom was at the opposite end of the corridor. As she wended her way through the people she thought again about the impossible situation she found herself in. She had no idea how she would handle living with a man even if it was only for a few weeks.
She struggled to pull the bathroom door open and after a few seconds realized that she had the wrong end of the stick. She was supposed to push and not pull. She had been so preoccupied that she had made a stupid mistake. If she didn’t watch out she would be doing a lot of things like that, but who could blame her? She was living with the best male specimen around and instead of mulling over all the problems it might present she should be enjoying the experience and learn everything she possible could.
By the time she was finished in the bathroom she had come to an important decision. She would take the proverbial bull by the horns and enjoy everything until the last second had come and gone. It was time to start her education.

Chris had nearly finished clearing up the scattered bits and pieces when the door opened and Jo came in.