The Beginning
Alexandria
She rolls her eyes as she accidentally catches the reflection of herself speed walking past the glass buildings. She was going to be late, is was first day of college in Seoul and a million different thoughts were racing through her mind.
everybody's going to stare at me when i walk in
im going to be the fattest one there
im stained
The thoughts of a self conscious 19 year old girl who was about to experience her first day as a college sophomore in a foreign country.
Adding a little more speed to her steps, Alexandria's chubby frame skips through the streets, allowing the floral hair scarf wrapped around her head to tug on her hair.
Her thoughts increase as she stands in front of the lecture hall, 5 minutes late. The chatter that can be heard from the outside puts them at ease for a little,
at least it hadn't began yet.
Taking one last breath, Alexandria pulls on the heavy door and allows herself inside. She walks with her had down past the rows of seats, feeling a hundred pairs of eyes on her as she takes a seat at the very back of the left section of seats. She catches the faces of multiple people as they stare at her.
The class hadn't begun yet, everybody was talking amongst one another, forming group chats and speaking about their country of origin. Alexandria watched with blurry vision at them, wanting to join and find friends, but feeling glued to her seat. She takes out her glasses and notebook instead, placing her corduroy tote bag in front of her legs.
Now, with her big, round, tortoise shell glasses placed on the bridge of her nose, she was able to properly see everyone in front of her,
too clearly, she thought as she could see even the finest of details on her jeans,
can everybody see like this? can people see my hyperpigmentation?
She thinks and subconsciously brings her wavy chocolate colored hair to the sides of her neck. She also took this time to fully look at the people in the hall.
To her surprise, there was many people her were of different races, and thankfully, more overweight women, although it was only one, maybe two but she couldn't properly tell. She also realized that she couldn't see the very front, where the white boards and desk were, and the professor who was sitting on the chair. even with her glasses, even if she squinted, it was still blurry.
But she was not going to get up and move closer, the attention and embarrassment would be too much.
The professor introduced himself, Jung Sung-ho, from Korea, as he made sure to mention at least 4 times, this was Alexandria's first and most anticipated class of the day, 1900's literature.
She decided that Professor Sung-ho, as he told his students to call him, would be a good professor. he was funny, kind, and charismatic. His favorite novel was northanger abbey, and this was the thing that fully convinced her him agreeable.
if he could proudly announce that to the whole class, than he was going to be good
By the time lecture ended, Alexandria has forgotten about most of her insecurities and focused on hitting down notes about the syllabus (that had been passed out) and about the different novels she would have to buy, the first on on her list - northanger abbey .
She also decided that the girl who sat a few rows below her with short, jet black hair, was the most approachable, and that the guy in the grey sweatshirt who sat in the same seat as her, but on the very right side, was the least.
After class, Alexandria gets a coffee from a place she had seen on her way there. It was cute, decorated with tons of flowers and vines, and wasn't too expensive.
Getting a boba milk tea for her roommate, she makes her way back to her dorms.
"Omg, I love you," Valeria, Alexandria's high school best friend and now roomate, says as soon as she is handed the drink. "How was your class?"
"It was so good! The professor was good, and the books we are reading are so good! First, we are going to read northanger abbey, by ..."
and so began Alexandria's rant about books and nonsense as Valeria listened.
