It was a beautiful August morning, the sun was just about to cut through the tree line and there was not a cloud in the sky. Johnny had become so accustomed to these mesmerizing sunrises in northern California.
“Today's the day!” repeated Johnny over and over.
This is what he had been anxious about for upwards of a year now, the day he received his acceptance letter along with a second noting his full ride academic scholarship to Stanford University.
“Are you ready to go hun?” asked Terry, his mother.
“Yeah, just a minute.” said Johnny softly, taking one last look at the place he called home for the past 18 years and staring at his reflection in the pure blue water of the mountain stream he was ready.
It was just leaving home for John, but saying goodbye to everything he has ever known. Since his only teacher up to this point will be the women driving him, his mother. He had never really known anything else because the nearest high school was around forty minutes away, but this was to be expected living in the Sierra mountains. He often asked the question of why they lived in the middle of nowhere and he always received the same answer, to escape her abusive and crazy old boyfriend. Anyway, today was the day he was to open a whole new chapter of his life, the true start to his adulthood. Johnny really did not know what college would bring, he did not know a soul there. This made him uneasy and he’s always been unsure about making new friends and trusting. The thoughts ran through his head and he became more anxious than ever before, now the time left on the drive was ticking away.
“Is Allen already there?” asked his mother.
“I am not sure, we have not talked in a few weeks.” replied Johnny.
Allen was going to be his roommate, they had talked on the phone a few times but he didn’t know much about him. At this point he was growing more and more nervous, his hands shaking as if he had just had a half dozen cups of coffee. They neared the drive into the main parking lot, now they would park the car and move Johnny into his dorm . After they had received the information and what room he was going to be in, the walked to the dorm. They hauled his stuff up three flights of stairs and now approached the room. At this exact moment, John Patrick Gamble had never been so scared of what someone was going to think, he prayed that his roommate would like him for who he really is. His hands were sweating profusely as he turned the handle on the door and pulled it open, much to his chagrin Alec was not there. All of his stuff had already been laid out, so John and his mom both made the assumption that he had been moved in earlier today. Finally it was time for goodbyes. As she was crying Terry said,
“Call me if you need me.. or miss me.. or just need someone to talk to. If you need anything at all don’t be afraid to call!”
“I won’t mom, thanks for everything!” said John, with a steady tone reassuring her he will be just fine.
“I love you son.” was made out by Terry through the sob, saying goodbye was not easy.
“I love you too mom! Don’t worry everything is going to be great.” said John, but she couldn’t see the fear in his eyes of being on his own.
Johnny walked his mother back to the car and gave one last goodbye, then he watched the tires roll out of the parking lot, “And so it begins” he said to himself with one last wave before he turned around and headed back.
Johnny took a walk around campus making sure he still knew how to get to all of his classes, it had been a while since orientation. After this he decided that he had worked up the courage to go back to the room and meet Allen. He dragged on the walk across campus for upwards of 20 minutes until finally it was time, he had reached the base of the building which was next to many other buildings looking very similar. He soon learned that this area is known as “The Row”. Now he was walking inside, no turning back he was ready to go. He raced upstairs and walked into his room, there stood Allen..
“Hi I’m Allen, you must be Johnny! It’s great to finally meet you.” were the delightful first words out of his mouth.
“It’s nice to meet you too, wana go get some food?” retorted John.
By now he was comfortable and not as nervous, now getting Allen to like him was John's biggest goal.
“So what time did you get here today?” John asked, just starting off with some small talk.
“I have actually been on campus for about a month and a half now, training.” responded Allen.
“What? Why have you been here training?” asked John curiously, no wonder the room looked like it had been lived in for some time now.
“I came here and tried to walk onto the football team, and surprisingly I made it, not to jinx anything but it looks like i’m going to be the starting quarterback next week at Oregon.” said Allen modestly.
Next the two decided that it was a good idea to stroll through campus and get to know each other, they had about an hour before Allen had to go back and report to watch film.
“So what do I need to know about you?” asked Allen contently.
“Nothing really, I’m just an average nerd from Northern Cali.” Responded Johnny, “I was adopted by my mom when I was really young and she has raised me on her own. I have been homeschooled my whole life and to be honest I’m really bad at making new friends..”

After he said this his heart started racing wondering what he was going to say, quickly again he thought of something to say and let it out, “So are you going to switch rooms so you can be with someone on the team?” now that he had spoke his peace he was quiet and looking at the ground.
“No I planned on staying with you if that is okay, and I’m a kid from New Jersey who was initially here on academic scholarship, my mom died in childbirth and I was raised by my dad, he was married before but he divorced and his ex wife was never really in the picture. Now I am playing quarterback for the football team and majoring in Bio Chemical Engineering.” replied Allen, looking at John seeing if he was attentive.
The walk went on and they continued to talk, growing more and more fond of each other every second. After this walk they both knew that they were not going to have any problems being roommates or best friends. The first semester blew by and before they knew it football season was over and it was time to go home for Christmas break. Allen and John had practically been interchangeable and they knew everything about one another, or so they thought. John did not inform Allen that over break he was going to attempt to contact his father for the first time. They said their goodbyes as they took a cab to the airport together.
“JOHNNY!!!” was the first word he heard as he stepped out of the terminal, his mother ran up and gave him a huge hug.
When they got back to the house and were all settled in they went to bed, John was going to try and locate his father in the morning now that he finally had time. This had been something that he had always wanted to do just never had the means or time to do it, but now was the time and he was nervous as ever. Morning came and he looked and looked for hours until he finally found a phone number. Who knew if the number was actually correct but it was the only lead that he had so he took it. After another few hours of contemplating and waiting he decided to make the call, the phone rang for what seemed like forever until it was finally answered,

“Hello” said the man on the other line, immediately Johnny hung up hearing the voice of someone familiar, it sounded like Allen.. How didn’t he know? All his mom had done to protect him was not enough, now he really knew who his father was. No wonder he and Allen had been getting along so well, they were brothers.