The Perfect House

Chapter 12: managing

The first week of lectures: Florian was surviving and enjoying the excitement of the new academic year. His change in the morning was sometimes a bit awkward because of other students using the back gate, but he was managing. The afternoon changes were pretty easy because then there was rarely anyone else about.

He caught up with Macy and Adele on the first Monday and told them that his name was Florian, not Flora, and that he was a boy. They were apologetic, but Macy, certainly the liveliest and cheekiest of the pair, added, "It's a pity, I reckon you're really cute, you'd have made a great lez."

"Macy, behave." Adele was the bigger of the two and apparently the more sensible. "Florian, tell her that she's a rude bitch."

Florian was beginning to be amused by it all. He put on a stern face and intoned, "Macy, you're a rude . . ."

"Oh, come on, Flori, be nice," Macy interrupted him with a highly suspect plaintive cry and then she leaned forward and kissed him on his cheek.

"Macy, behave," Florian mimicked Adele.

They all burst out laughing, and then Macy tossed her head in mock affront and complained, "God, what a couple of nags."

They parted company with broad grins.

Florian had decided that he should be careful about making friends among his fellow students - probably best not to get too close, but those two girls were fun. He began to see quite a lot of them in lectures and tutorials, and quickly realised that they were actually very smart girls, especially Macy who seemed to understand everything effortlessly. When looked at from the assistance with academic progress point of view, they were good people to know.

Also, maybe having satisfied Macy and Adele that he was a boy, they would serve to protect him from other inquisitive people. Yeah.

Florian was getting more confident dealing with Mrs Stein, and he was beginning to quite like her; she was a very nice person and easy to talk to.

"I haven't seen you in that lovely yellow hat of yours again, Florina."

"No, I don't wear it much, Mrs Stein. As you have probably noticed, I prefer fairly subdued gear; my yellow beret is a bit showy for me."

"Of course, I understand, dear. You should wear what you feel most comfortable with."

And as they were parting: "Oh, Florina, I've been meaning to ask you, do you think those boys of yours would like another chocolate cake?"

Grinning, "Don't spoil them, Mrs Stein, maybe next week."