Amber & Ice

Chapter 8: Do you plan on coming to any lectures this year?

The next morning, Athena felt a little disappointed to be back in pink. Last night had been a nice break and she knew that she had looked better than she did in the pink top and grey jeans she had put on for her lecture. The snow had fallen continuously over night and was still fluttering through the air now. Athena shivered and threw a soft pink jumper over the top, as well as a scarf to keep her neck, which was still exposed, warm. Despite the inhospitable weather outside, Athena was looking forward to going out; the lecture was on World votes, which was one of the University’s more glamorous topics. She also felt that she needed something that could reaffirm her faith in the system after last night.

Cress was on time, for once, and was already waiting by the door when Athena went through into the kitchen. “Come on, Athy! We need to make sure that we get there as early as possible to get good seats!” She practically pushed Athena through the door then knocked for Demi and Dora, whose flat was just down the corridor. Demi opened the door still in her socks, with a hairbrush in one hand, which Athena thought was going to give Cress a nervous breakdown. “What are you doing? We should be gone already! Throw some shoes on quick! And don’t worry about your hair now - it’s too late. It’s snowing outside anyway; just put a hat on!” She picked Demi’s snow boots up and tossed them towards her, following suit with Dora when she emerged from her room to see what all the commotion was about.

“Chill, Cress. There will still be seats. There’s no need for us to get there twenty minutes early.” Dora told her, buttoning up her coat.

“But we need to be sat as close to the front as possible? How else are we going to get noticed?”

“It’s the first lecture, Cress.” Dora kept her voice calm; reason was the only way to get through to Cress at a time like this. “They’re not going to notice anyone in particular today. So where you are sat is not going to effect your chances of a future career in World voting. All you need to do is take lots of notes and make sure that your essays are amazing. So calm down and let Demi fix her hair - otherwise we will be standing out!” Dora patted her own, perfect braid before putting a coral hat carefully over the top.

Cress sighed and didn’t try to argue back, but she kept gigging impatiently while waiting for them to finish getting ready.

Once they were outside the building, she hurried them through the streets and into the LUP building. Even with Demi and Dora’s minor delay, they were still ten minutes early, but the room was nearly full. Cress glared darkly at Dora, who just shrugged and rolled her eyes.

There was a bench a few rows from the front which still had three seats spare on it and Cress made a bee-line towards it, nearly taking out another first year with her eye on the same seats. Athena hung back, letting Demi and Dora sit beside Cress and sat down on the row behind them instead. Athena hadn’t decided what she was going to focus her studies on next year yet, but she didn’t think it was likely to be World voting. Judging from the packed lecture hall, she must be one of the only students who thought so.

Athena didn’t mind sitting alone, either. She didn’t think she could keep up with Cress’ enthusiasm for the topic. And she especially didn’t mind when a black bag was thrown down next to her minutes later. Aridne.

“Two lectures in one week?” Athena asked, her eyebrows raised. “I thought you were allergic to this sort of thing.”

Ariadne grinned. “New Year, new leaf. I’m going to see how many I can make it to before I max out. I kind of want to see what all the fuss is about with regards to World voting, too - it sounds kind of boring to me, honestly. Besides,” she added as she sat down, “my parents pointed out over the break that they’re paying good money for me to attend this course; they would like me to receive some form of tuition while I’m here.”