Sophie pulled herself off the floor. Dawn filled the room with a cheerful orange glow. Her dress was a sweaty stained mess, and would need dry cleaning if it could be saved at all.
She couldn't recall much of the previous evening. Amazingly she didn't have a hangover or any discomfort from spending the night in a heap on a tile floor. She felt calm, confident, and energized. All ready for her trip.
Sophie McKenna was 21, a senior, and ready to graduate with a comp sci degree. She also was at a huge crossroads in her personal life. All through high school and her first two years of college she had been the unpopular short fat nerd girl.
Embracing her awkwardness she adopted a goth persona. Black cloths, heavy boots, many piercings, and a love for heavy metal; she let herself be the stereotype. Her Irish heritage gave her the pale skin, and she had dyed her normally copper colored hair a bright purple, transitioning to an electric blue at the tips of her straight banged bob cut. Dark eye shadow made her pale blue eyes even more striking, usually complimented by bold lip stick matching one of the colors of her two toned hair.
Then at age 20 she had a freak growth spurt, shocking everyone with its lateness and intensity. From 5'1" to 6'2" in one year. Her baby fat and spare tire hadn't stood a chance in the face of the metabolic demands of adding a quarter inch of height every week. The growth spurt left her long legged and thin, the melting baby fat revealing a beautiful fine featured face underneath. Straight from short and dumpy to head-turning hot. Being bisexual, she played this up to the fullest with the guys and girls. The male attention in particular was a revelation, as their lack of interest had previously pushed Soph to the lesbian side of the spectrum.
This abrupt life change brought her to the current personal crisis. She had long planned to go to college, kick ass and graduate at the top of her class, get a tech job in Cali, find a girl, and generally live up her queer goth nerd lifestyle.
However her newfound confidence and willingness to be more social had opened another option. A professor had noticed her newfound confidence and pointed her to a scholarship program aimed at grooming more women managers in tech, which snowballed to a full ride scholarship offer for grad school at Penn State, very close to home. This had an added bonus of putting her at the same school and program as Michael, her male high school crush. They had reconnected over winter break, with the new statuesque Sophie getting his attention in ways she never could before. She had a chance at the traditional relationship and life she had always assumed wasn't possible. Dump the goth look, hook up with the high school quarterback, have a normal career and family life.
Sophie had to choose. She had a deadline to accept both the scholarship and commit to grad school if she wanted that life. Her plan was to commune with nature over spring break, solo hiking 200 miles of the Appalachian trail. In the process hopefully find out who she really wanted to become.
Odd tingling twitches in her stomach brought her back to reality.
'Must be hungry, don't feel it though.'
Waffles went in the toaster, and she stripped down and hopped in the shower for a quick clean up. No need to get overly presentable, she planned to be sweating her way to self discovery in a few hours.
As she showered, she failed to notice a raised area stretching from her tailbone up to mid back, as if three narrow strands were braided together spiraling up around her spine.