Aiden's Quest For Apollo (Published, Paperback available on Amazon)

Chapter 2

The airport was a half an hour drive from where I lived. I unloaded the luggage and went to the departure section. There was a huge group of students wearing identical T shirts of Priscan University. I somehow knew that they were not freshmen, as they moved too close with each other unlike us freshers, and neither they were from Madison. I am informed that there would be a student guide from the third semester to lead the group. But I couldn't find anybody like that there. I did not have another choice other than walking to the group of YOU-KNOW-WHO's and getting myself embarrassed.

I gathered all the courage I could and stood in front of them. Nobody noticed me, nor did they give a damn. I tried talking to a few of them but they didn't care to answer.

"Excuse me," I shivered. I didn't realise that I almost shouted until everyone stopped what they were doing and stared on.

I received a series of strange looks. My eyes scanned through the lot and struck on a boy who was distributing what looked like forms to a few others. I made my way through these head hunters.

"Hi," I said.

"Hey, you must be," he took a long pause, "Aiden?" I nodded.

"I checked your student profile, cracked at the first try eh? You must be dope," he was being honest.

"Oh, no no," I was being modest. Though I knew that it was next to impossible for a few students.

He seemed rather friendly, which was something unusual for me. Nobody gets along with me that easily.

"Who are they?" I pointed out to the babbling crowd who might at present cause half the noise pollution in the world.

"Oh, they are exchange students from Canada," he said.

"Oh. So are you the student guide?" he clearly was. I mean how dumb I was to ask him such a stupid question. It looked as if I was a teenage girl who was fan girling on a not-so-hot high school dude just because I was desperate to have a boyfriend.

"Umm... Yeah. Anyway, here is the instructions pamphlet, and please collect the goodie bag," he points out to a cluster of bags at a distance. There were name tags on each of them. I picked mine as soon as I spotted it. The bag felt like there was a baby elephant in it.

"Why is it so heavy?" i asked in a rather constipated voice trying to get the bag sit on one of my legs resting on the other. I was a mess.

"There is a lot of stuff in it. You have your t-shirt, subject related books assigned for you, and a surprise from the headmaster," he giggles like a little girl and walks away. What is wrong with the world?

It instructs that we had to open our bags after we are told. But I couldn't withstand my anxiety; also because I wanted to wear one of those t-shirts. They were cool, and I never got to wear one at school because the only club I joined was robotics and we had no t-shirts due to the insufficient funds we suffered with until I passed out. To my knowledge, the bag I received differs from the one that is given to the transfers who pounded on theirs and were exploring its contents. I had to therefore restrain myself for the next 30 hours from finding out what was inside that freaking bag.

We all boarded the flight on time. It was the longest flight I had ever taken. I jumped like a kid but I was nervous at the same time. Le Voyage got boring but Kevin, the student guide I spoke to earlier engaged me in talking about his tricks in animation. How he gets his film marketed and other technical noise I will have to face in future. After the long, tiring 30 hours flight we reached à l'aéroport de Madison. It was très grande when compared to the one back home.
As soon as we collected all our stuff, a group of non-teaching staff arrived to receive us. They seemed to be good, and they turned out decent unlike those cruel teachers I used to have back at school. The University was near to the airport which saved me from another journey. We reached in 15 minutes, with no hassle. The entrance was grand, beyond my reach of imagination. I calculated how long it would take for me to get used to this setting. Separate rooms are allotted. They must have mentioned it during admissions. I should have listened. It would have at least saved me from all the unnecessary stress I put on my mind all the while.