How I Acquired my New Orange Water Bottle

At the end of my Dartmouth class last Tuesday, everyone was packing up and leaving the classroom. I saw an orange Nalgene bottle sitting on the ground by one of the chairs, and I remembered who had been sitting there that day, so I thought I would just run out and bring the girl her water bottle. But when I left the room, I didn't see the girl anywhere. I contemplated bringing it back to the classroom and leaving it with the professor, but then I was worried how weird it would look to show back up in the classroom to drop off the water bottle just five minutes after class ended. So it seemed that my only option was to bring the water bottle home with me and bring it back to class on Thursday.

I started walking to my car. I felt very odd carrying this random girl's water bottle, and I hoped she wouldn't see me from afar and think that I stole her water bottle. I kept looking around for the chance that I might see her walking around. It was a really hot day though, and as I was walking I got so thirsty and tired and I couldn't help myself, so I drank out of the water bottle.

When I got home I felt very odd about having this random girl's water bottle (which now had less water in it then when I took it from the classroom) and about drinking from this random girl's water bottle. And then I thought how weird it would be when I showed up on Thursday and said "Hi, I took your water bottle home and now here it is." I started to regret that I didn't just leave the water bottle in the classroom in the first place.

When Thursday rolled around, I brought the water bottle (which I had now emptied out) to class. It was sitting in my backpack for most of class, and I swear the girl was looking at it and probably thinking that I stole her water bottle. At the end of the class as she was leaving I knew I had to say something, so I called out to her and asked her if it was her water bottle. Now, this girl has previously told me that she is from Orange County, so you can imagine the tone in which she then responded "Uh, no?" and gave me a look like I had two heads.

I then found myself in the same conundrum: what do I do with this stupid water bottle?! I decided to just set it down in the classroom and started to walk away, but then I felt odd that my professor had seen me leave this random object in her classroom. So finally I just took the water bottle home with me.

And now I have a new Orange Nalgene water bottle.