Winter in Cambridge

Chapter 1 - Introductions

Author Note:

Accompanying song

Captivate You by Marmozets

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"Shit! Shit! Shit!"

Winter cursed herself loudly after she automatically slammed her car door shut in frustration, locking it, and only now seeing the shining heart-shaped key chain attached to her car key hanging from the ignition.

"Fucking. Bollocking. Hell!"

As if luck wasn't already not on her side, the heavens opened, and it started to pour down with large raindrops. It was as if God had something against her and was punishing her for some unknown broken rule she wasn't aware of.

"FUCKING GREAT!"

She fumed as she leaned her head against her driver's door window and rattled the handle in case it magically opened with sheer hope and prayer alone.

The second-hand or perhaps fifth-hand car was an old maroon Ford Fiesta with duct tape keeping the front bumper from falling off and an AM/FM/cassette radio. Her car was so old it was now considered a classic in some circles with its manual windows and worn smooth steering wheel. A hand-me-down vehicle passed through her siblings. It was her family's right of passage into the world of adulthood and freedom.

It was only meant to be a car used for a year after passing your driving test before it should have been passed onto a cousin or some other blood relative. Winter should have invested in a new car by now, but as she had spent her savings on travelling instead, she was still saving for a new car. She was putting ten pounds away each week, but needless to say, it was taking her a while to save up enough cash to replace the heap of junk that had now seemed to have given up on life just when she needed it.

Her raincoat was also now staring back at her, sitting conveniently on her passenger seat. Temptingly close, but still out of her reach, locked inside the car.

It was Winter's first day back of term as she started the final year of her English literature degree at Cambridge. She gained top marks in her first two years and was now on track for a first-class degree.

But Winter had had the worst luck imaginable these past two weeks.

Firstly, her parent's washing machine had broken while she was home in the Cotswolds. She had yet to find the time to wash her clothes before returning to university, and she wasn't going to go down the route of handwashing them. That was barbaric. This left her with the only option of her waitress uniform: a white button-down blouse and tight black trousers.

Then, her car hadn't wanted to start this morning, and her dismissal bank account had informed her via phone notifications two weeks ago that she didn't have enough funds to renew her breakdown cover. So much for her student loan being her saving grace, as it hadn't cleared through yet, and her bank account was still very much in the red.

Winter would have to sort out getting back into her house later as her house keys were also shining, mockingly bright, like a teasing packet of crisps stuck in a vending machine inside her car. At least she knew her housemate would be at the same lecture she was now even later for.

"Screw it!"

Winter considered calling in sick, but that wasn't in her nature. She quickly dismissed the thought and decided to do it on foot, making a dash for it through the rain.

Leaving her car where she had parked it outside her shared student house and grabbing her leather satchel from the floor containing her notebook, pens and laptop, she decided to walk/run the twenty minutes to campus.