Standing in Doorways

Study House, begins in January of 1995 and is set on the campus of an elite, Midwestern university. The residents of Study House, a sobriquet for the dorm that is home to those who are receiving scholarships for various mental disorders so as to enhance the diversity of the school's student population, are returning from winter break and getting reacquainted at a mixer. A midyear transfer student, Vivian Lee (identified simply as "he"), wishes to change his room assignment, so he approaches Vivien Leigh (identified as "she") in hopes that she might share the extra bed in her room with him. During their first conversation (chapter 1), they discuss their backgrounds. He is a homosexual with father issues from a small town, she describes herself as "barely human" and unable to read people. She goes on to describe other residents of Study House: a schizophrenic, a psychopath, a personality shifter, and a genius who is attempting reinvent the English language. The pair makes a deal-she will share her room if he teaches her to figure out what people are thinking. And the story goes...