Life as a Flower

First day as a university student

Here is another chapter guys, I hope you like it! This time the picture on the right is of our mysterious 'tattoo guy'. Please comment and let me know what you think so far :)

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I was sitting at the kitchen table, painting my fingernails a very vibrant orange when Hannah finally decided to show herself. She'd been staying up late at night, preparing for today. She was on the welcome committee, which meant that she was a member of the club who organized activities for new students. This was the perfect club for Hannah, as most of the work involved happened at the very beginning of the semester, meaning she had the rest of her year off to study like she needed to. Hannah had always been involved in extra-curricular clubs and activities. She had been student council president in high school, as well as a reporter on the school newspaper, and on the prom organising committee. As for me...well, let's just say going to class everyday was the most of school that I could handle. Things were different now though, I felt prepared to study and work for good marks. I only hoped that my enthusiasm wouldn't fade. Today was my first day of university and I only had two classes. Both were three hours long though.

"How do people even stay concentrated for three whole hours? I know for sure I'll be sleeping after one..." I mumbled to Hannah, as she poured herself a cup of hot coffee. She yawned in her hand, "There's a break mid-class, usually fifteen minutes. It's enough to go get a coffee, that's what everyone does. But yeah, not gonna lie, three hours is brutal..." I had finished painting my nails and was now sitting there, with my fingers oddly stretched out, so as to not ruin them. Hannah just looked at me strange before going back to her room. "What?" I asked, but she closed the door. I laughed to myself and shook my hands a bit, hoping that would speed up the drying. Living with Hannah had been pretty cool so far. We did fight a bit, usually it was about how I didn't clean up after myself, or because my room was a mess. I guess I understood her point about leaving stuff lying around in the kitchen or living room, but whether my bedroom was a mess or not shouldn't bother her, really. What business did she have in there, anyway?

Finally satisfied with the state of my nail polish, I went back to my bedroom and stared at my bed. I had laid out three outfit choices. The first one was pretty simple, ripped up dark jeans with a white t shirt and a turquoise hoodie. The second one was black shorts with a grey, batwing shirt. I would probably wear my black ball cap with that outfit. It was a plain black cap that said SORRY in white letters on the front. The third outfit was a gray maxi dress with which I would wear a jeans jacket. I finally settled for the black shorts outfit, seeing as it was pretty hot outside, and I didn't want to die.

I did my makeup like I usually did, but this time I put on gloss too. This was me actually making an effort. Somehow, I found myself thinking about the guy with the tattoos. I had asked Hannah if she knew someone like that, or had ever seen someone like that on campus, but she hadn't. I wasn't too surprised. He didn't seem like someone who would fit in Hannah's crowd anyway. When I thought about him, I would get a sinking feeling in my stomach. I was sure he had recognised me, but just didn't want to talk to me. Did he think I was ugly or annoying? Probably, why else would he have acted so cold?

I sighed loudly and looked at my cell phone, class would be starting in fourty minutes now. I had to leave soon, cause walking took around twenty five minutes. I ran to the bathroom and brushed my teeth, checking myself in the mirror one last time before I yelled goodbye to Hannah and slammed the door behind me. She had night classes, mostly, so she was probably going to be still at home when I got back from my classes. I shuffled down the stairs and almost ran right into Mickael, the landlord's son, but he jumped out of the way just in time. "Yikes, sorry about that!" I said, cringing. He laughed, his ears coloring a bit. "Umm...is your sister home?" He asked, keeping his eyes down. Poor guy, I thought to myself as I smiled. "Yeah yeah, she's home! Sorry, I gotta run, I have class." I explained and waved to him as I ran to the other flight. He nodded and I saw him going up. I secretly grinned to myself, knowing Hannah was probably still in her pyjama's, and would be mortified of him seeing her in them.

The streets were crawling with students, on their way to classes. It felt refreshing, being able to walk to class like this. Back home, we lived in the suburbs and had to take a one hour bus to get to school. Walking would have taken hours, probably. Maybe I wouldn't be thinking this way in the winter, though. I took out my sunglasses from my orange canvas backpack as well as my headphones. Plugging them in, I listened to some Cut Copy. They were definately one of my favourite band at the moment. They sounded kind of 80's, but that was really cool.

Slowly, the campus appeared in the distance. I found myself feeling a little nervous, but I was glad Hannah had taken time to show me around. I knew where the coffee shop was, the bookstore, and where all of my classes were. They were all close to one another. I looked at my phone, class was starting in ten. I let out a sigh and walked to my first class, Introduction to Archaeology. As I stepped inside the classroom, I was taken aback by the small size of it. It's not like I was expecting there to be hundreds of people taking this class, but surely more than twenty, which seemed to be the maximum capacity of this room. I smiled shyly to the people who were already present and they responded likewise. It was mostly girls, with a few guys. I sat near the middle of the classroom, next to this brown haired girl. She was wearing big black glasses and had on a Rush tshirt. "I like Rush too, used to listen to them all the time in highschool." I mentionned with a smile as I took out a notebook from my backpack. She grinned at me "I'm Kyla, first year anthropology major." I grinned back, "I'm Emilie, same as you." We talked for a few minutes before the professor finally entered the classroom. I learned that Kyla was from Montreal, and was still living with her parents. We had all the same classes, only she had two more than I did since I was only a part-time student.

The professor was a man, probably in his early sixties. I felt kind of depressed and worried that I would be struggling to stay awake in this class. That is, until he started to talk. It was obvious how passionate he was about the subject, and he really made an effort to keep students interested and encouraged participation. I found myself asking questions and making comments during class, something I would never used to do in high school. When the break finally came around, I almost felt disappointed. 

"Wanna go for a coffee?" Kyla asked, getting up from her chair. She took out her wallet from her bag. I followed her lead and did the same, "Yeah, sure!" We went to the coffee shop on campus, and thankfully we were among the first ones there, because just after we had finished paying there were  atleast ten people waiting in line. That's when I spotted him, he was sitting at a table with a coffee, staring straight at me. The guy with the tattoos. I stared back, not knowing if I should talk to him or not. If I did and he still insisted he didn't remember me, he would probably start thinking I was some sort of crazy stalker or something.  Finally I looked away and Kyla and I started heading back. "Yo!" He called out and I spun around. Yup, it was me he was calling out to. Kyla said something about going back to class and left. I looked at my watch, still had a little over six minutes before class.

"You're that girl from the bar, right? The one who was making out with random guys?" He asked me, with a slight smirk. "Wha...One guy, why the plural? You're making me out to be a slut or something." I said, raising one eyebrow at him. He laughed a bit and got up. "Yeah, sorry about last time. I'm not real good with faces. I guess I recognized your voice finally, when we were in class. Seeing as you just wouldn't stop talking. You some kind of teacher's pet or something?" He asked me, taking a sip of his coffee. Although his mouth was hidden, I could tell from his eyes that he was smirking. This guy seemed to enjoy teasing people. "We're in the same class?" I asked, feeling confused. "Yeah, I got there after the teacher, so I sat in the back near the door. My name is Jack, by the way. You're Emilie, I already know. I heard your name called at the beginning of class" I just stared at him, mouth ajar as we walked to class together as he explained everything.

Back in class, I returned to my seat next to Kyla. She just smiled at me knowingly and I pretended not to notice. Class resumed and I found myself being completely captivated, forgetting the events that had just happened. At the end of class, Kyla and I exchanged cell phone numbers. She was going to have lunch with her roommate, but we had class together again in one hour.

When I finally got my things back into my backpack and got up to leave the classroom, I found that it was already empty. Somehow, my heart sunk a little. I was being stupid, did I really expect Jack to be there, waiting for me? He had finally remembered me, but really that didn't mean anything. Pushing the door open, I almost jumped back when I saw him standing there, his arms crossed over his chest. "Slow much?" He said, rolling his eyes. I couldn't help but grin widely.