After moving onto LSSU’s campus, Kylie and her new roommate, Jimi, explored the booths at Lakerpalooza—a campus-wide event where students can check out clubs and organizations. They stopped by The First Responders Association booth, which was advertising a sporting clay event. The club advisor and two LSSU seniors, Ray and Gary, were running the table.

Kylie immediately signed up and struck up a conversation about her competitive shooting background with the advisor and Gary. Ray, on the other hand, didn’t say a single word—but later looked up Kylie’s social media using the information from the sign-up sheet.

A few days later, Kylie stopped by the Public Safety Office to clean her shotgun in the campus armory. The officer on duty told her he’d grab someone to accompany her while she cleaned her gun. After buzzing her through the door, Kylie turned the corner and found Ray standing there.

“Are you here to clean your competition gun?” he asked.

Kylie, who didn’t recognize this stranger, quickly texted her roommate, Jimi: “If I go missing, I’m in the armory. I think I’m being stalked.”

Ignoring her better judgment, Kylie followed Ray into the armory and got to work. The two made light conversation while she cleaned her shotgun. Once she was finished and had locked it away, Ray asked for her phone number. Kylie replied that she didn’t text much. Undeterred, Ray quickly asked for her Snapchat instead—which Kylie gave him, very reluctantly.

Shortly after they met, Kylie mentioned she wanted to see a beautiful U.P. sunset. So, Ray planned a road trip to Whitefish Point to make it happen.

After a two-hour drive, they arrived—only to find the foggiest beach imaginable. No sunset was visible that night, but they still had a great time.