Page 2 of Semantics

“Not a specific language?”

“Kind of hard to do that when I tested out of all of the ones my university offers and a few more on top of that.”

“Really?” Violet asked.

“Yup.” Enya nodded. “Besides, linguistics is the science of languages, so it’s a good place to start learning.”

“What do you want to do when you graduate?”

“I’ll probably be a translator somewhere.”

“Probably?” Violet asked.

“Yeah. I don’t know for sure yet.”

“Wow,” Violet replied.

She had no clue what that was like. She’d known what she was going to do since she’d had her first cogent thought, or at least, that was what it had felt like to her, anyway.

“Hi. I’m Sarai,” another woman said to the student with a sign. “I’m in the right place, yeah?”

“Sarai Kaplan? Yeah, I’ve got you,” the woman replied. “Okay, that’s all of you, so we’re just waiting on the one who went to the bathroom, and we can head to the shuttle. Anyone still need to get a bag or anything?”

All nine of the students in their group, sans Arlowe, the student whom she’d met first, shook their heads, and Violet tried to imagine what programs the others might be in. Sarai was wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses and was a snappy dresser, as Violet’s grandmother would say. She had on a business suit with short heels, and it wasn’t at all wrinkled, which told Violet that she’d hung it up on the plane and had probably put it on in one of the bathrooms. Enya was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and sweatpants with what looked like the airplane slippers that they issued in business or maybe first-class, which was an interesting combination, and when Arlowe reappeared, Violet took stock of her clothing choices as well. Arlowe was in a pair of worn jeans with holes in the knees and a zip-up hoodie. Her long, black hair was pulled up into a messy bun, and her eyes were a shade of gray that Violet hadn’t ever seen before.

“All right. So, we’ve got fifty students overall in the semester abroad program. My name is Colby. I’m an American as well and here for my master’s program. I’ve been living in Amsterdam – or, rather, outside of it – for two years now, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask me. You’ll all be living in the dorms, and I’m there, too, so I’ll be around. For now, we’ll get you all checked in there, give you some time to settle in, and tomorrow morning, we’ll meet in the multipurpose room to go over any details you need and answer questions you have for your first week. You’re mostly in different programs, but the programs are more or less run the same way, so most of what we talk about will apply to all of you. Are we ready?”

No one said anything, but they all nodded. Then, they were walked out of the airport and into a waiting shuttle bus that took them more around the city than through it and to their campus, which would be Violet’s home for the next five months. As she watched what she could see of the city pass her by, she couldn’t help but feel the excitement and anticipation. She was in the Netherlands. She was going to school there, yes, but she was going to have a good time, too. She’d left her girlfriend at home, but they could do long-distance for a few months, and she could visit Violet at least once or twice as well. Violet had no plans of doing anything to risk ruining her relationship, but other than that, she wanted to go a little wild, drink in some tourist bars, and maybe even try weed for the first time. She’d be safe, yes, but she’d also have fun.

That had been her plan, anyway. Then, orientation had started, and she had met Stella Ross. All thoughts of fun had been tossed out, and Violet had put on her game face.

◆◆◆

“I cannot believe she’s here… She knows I hang out here,” she said five months later.

“It’s a bar. She’s allowed to go to a bar, Vi,” Arlowe replied. “And we’re not here to talk about Stella fucking Ross. We’re here to help me with my broken heart.”

“You only have a broken heart because you’re refusing to try a long-distance relationship. Eline was into the idea,” Enya suggested.

“For now. But what happens when I’m there, and she’s here, and we can’t visit for, like, a year, and–”

“Arlowe, you would’ve figured it out. You didn’t have to dump the woman,” Sarai interjected.

“Stella knows we come here. Why couldn’t she just go to one of the five hundred other bars in Amsterdam?” Violet persisted.

When they’d first arrived at the dorm months ago, Arlowe must have noticed that Violet had needed a little help with the social stuff, so she’d taken her under her wing, and they’d picked up Enya and Sarai, too, making their foursome complete. Since that moment, they’d been fairly inseparable, but Violet had had to miss out on some nights out in the city in order to study to keep up with Stella Ross. She supposed that was what had been pissing her off the most. She hadn’t expected someone to challenge her for the role of best student in the program, and that challenge had meant that she’d missed nights out with her new friends.

Stella had become her mortal enemy from the moment of that first student meeting the day after they’d all arrived. Every time Violet had raised her hand with a question, Stella had had her hand up first and had asked the same question. Violet had recognized her type then, the type A, always-had-to-be-right kind of asshole, and, it had turned out, she was in Violet’s business program. Sarai was, too, but she was in the marketing concentration, so they only had a couple of classes together. Stella was in the main business program along with her, and they had been battling the entire semester for who would win out as the top student in the program. Violet didn’t know much about Stella other than the fact that the woman was pretty annoying.

Well, Violet also knew that Stella was gorgeous, funny, not at all awkward in groups, unlike her, had tons of friends here as a result, and she was obviously smart. To Violet, Stella seemed to have the whole package, while she had always felt like she had the smarts, but not much else.

That was until Violet had met her new friends, who had somehow managed to make her feel like she fit right in. Arlowe, it had turned out, was a coding genius who had already built several apps for freelance clients as well as one for herself that was making her money. Enya was a polyglot who could understand dozens of languages and speak most of them fluently. It seemed like she was always picking up a new one, and now that she’d lived in the Netherlands for a few months, her Dutch was flawless, according to the actual Dutch people whom Enya checked with, which she did regularly. Sarai was a marketing whiz. She’d helped a friend of hers start her own business, building the brand from the ground up, and it was already turning a profit.

Violet, who had had the biggest head start of them all, felt a little behind after getting to know all of her friends and their accomplishments, but she knew it wasn’t really true. She would have a job the moment she got her MBA and never had to worry about finding one, whereas the rest of them had to figure out their futures. There was a blessing with that, but there was also a curse. She wasn’t sure where she was on that spectrum tonight, thinking it more of a blessing or more of a curse, as she sipped on the beer she didn’t like very much, but Arlowe had bought the drinks for all of them tonight, so she wouldn’t complain.

“Have you ever thought that the reason you hate her so much is actually that you want to fuck her?” Arlowe suggested.

“What? I do not want to fuck Stella Ross. I have a girlfriend,” she argued.