Cutie Pi

1

First day of college, how did I get this old?

I know no one here but any school has to be better than where I was, an all girls boarding school where they only cared about grades and mental illness was more common than people wearing their skirts at an appropriate length. A school that was so 'feminist' that they thought all boys were pointless. The last 5 years were a delight really.

But I'm here, I made it, after convincing my parents that I would survive here and that I really wouldn't if I went back to that place.

Another good thing about college was the uniform, I can wear whatever I want, and although some girls are definitely testing the limits of what counts as clothes, I'm just happy I get to wear all my favourite dresses and skirts on a daily basis, school uniform always felt so constricting.

I walked into my first lesson, Maths. There were only 6 girls in the class of 24 and the teacher had very wisely paired them together. I sat down next to a small girl, following the seating plan displayed on the board. I smiled slightly and got out my glitter covered pencil case and crayons. This year I can be myself, that's what I've been told.

Suddenly the teacher came in, he was a tall man, and he looked very kind, his eyes almost mischievous and I could tell this would be a good year. "Hi Guys, so I'm Sam, here at college we're all on a first name basis, it's all about mutual respect, so if you listen to me, I'll listen to you, got it?"

There were vague nods around the room and he grinned, "Perfect, right let's get going then, so you guys did the basics of this at GCSE so you should know how to do it and we'll start with exercise 3"

The lesson passed quickly after that, whenever I put my head down and get lost in a maths question, the rest of the world disappears, then the feeling when you solve it and get the right answer, the pride in yourself and in the brilliant person who discovered that this works. I'll never be that smart but I can appreciate it.

Maths was definitely my favourite subject, it was by far the hardest, but there's only one answer, there's rigid structure and rules to follow, it explains the universe and it feels magical.

As I packed up my things, people piled out of the room. I was rather slow, so I ended up the last in the room. I looked to where Sir- I mean Sam was sitting at his desk, "Thank you," I nodded, he smiled back. No one else I noticed had said thank you but it was a force of habit, plus I genuinely meant it, he's teaching me, allowing me to understand a topic that I find interesting and fun, of course I'm grateful.