Ne'er

Chapter 1

A/N:  This is the main character, Matilda Forscythe.

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I woke up to my alarm clock rudely buzzing and sunlight streaming into my dorm room.

Blargh.

I reached over and slammed the annoying thing off.  Honestly, if I could've taken a sledgehammer to the damn thing, I would have.  But I didn't have one, so I just had to deal.

As I was just about to roll back over, something possessed me to look at the time.  The ruby numbers read 8:00.  I rolled onto my side before I fully processed the time.  8:00?  On a Monday?  I was going to be late for Precalculus!

I jumped out of bed -- 30 minutes until class.  I ran into the bathroom across from my room - I had a quad suite- and brushed my hair and teeth.  I ran back into my room, threw on a red dress, grabbed my keys and backpack and shoved my notebook and textbook into it.  I also nabbed The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs: Second Edition by Gregory S. Paul on the way out. 

I raced over to the kitchen, grabbed a granola bar, and opened the fridge to get a water, but the refrigerator was empty.  It was Diana's turn to buy groceries -- two days ago she should've gone shopping.  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.  She was always late with things.

After making a mental note to remind her to go grocery shopping, I ran out the door, locking it behind me.  I rushed downstairs and ran to catch the shuttle to the main campus.

Five minutes later, the bus pulled up to the main campus.  I hopped out and sprinted to class.

I arrived at class out of breath, but 6 minutes early.  One of my two best friends were already there.  Danielle Lane was a petite Irish blonde with hazel eyes flecked with gold.  Growing up in Huntington Beach, California, she was a surfer and longboarder and loved the outdoors.

As class started, Alex Reutger, my other best friend, carefully opened the door and crept to where we were sitting.  He was the opposite of Dani in many aspects; he was a tall, brown-haired Italian that was an amazing cross-country runner.  He grew up on the East coast in Kennebunkport, Maine, and preferred to sit inside and hang out.

I, on the other hand, was an odd mix.  I was an only child, tall, skinny and had long black hair that fell to my lower back and -- get this -- glacial blue eyes.  I had a love for Science fiction, reading, archery, and dinosaur paleontology.  In essence, I was a bookworm and a nerd.

The Professor announced, "Today we'll be learning about more trig identities.  Now..."

Dani turned to Alex and whispered, "What took you so long?"

"I overslept," he responded.  Turning to me, he said, "Mattie, I'm surprised that you made it to class early.  What's different this morning?"

"Nothing," I responded.  "My alarm went off at 8 again.  I really should fix it, though."  I unwrapped my granola bar and took a bite.  Mmm, peanut butter chocolate chip.  My favorite.

Alex then said, "Mattie, how can you stand this weather?  It's only February and it's 70 and humid!  It's muggy,  and the bugs are friggin' huge!"

I replied, "Well, when you've lived in Florida your whole life, you're used to it.  The roaches and other insects aren't that bad; it's the mosquitoes that I hate."

He said, "Mosquitoes suck, literally and figuratively.  I hate them.  They swarm you in the summer in New England."  He looked at Dani and said, "You have it lucky -- the climate's so dry in Cali that there's no mosquitoes there.

"Well, we do have rattlesnakes, scorpions, wildfires, earthquakes..."

Class continued on for another mind numbing hour.  After that, the three of us stumbled out of the classroom.  We headed to the library, and when we got there, we sat down together to work on homework.

I opened up my laptop and began research for a presentation due at the end of the month.  I mean, get it done, right?  Pretty soon, though, I wasn't able to focus, as Dani and Alex were talking too much.  I closed my laptop and sighed.

What were they talking about?

"I so think that the Hulk would win in a throwdown with Master Chief!" Dani said.

"Absolutely not!" Alex replied vehemently.  "Master Chief has way better armor, maneuverability, and weapons than the Hulk!  All he has is a major anger issue problem!"

"He has superstrength and size!  And --"

"The kaiju Otachi could crush them both," I interjected, "in one blow."  They gave me bblank looks.  "Pacific Rim?  Giant, Godzilla-like aliens and skyscraper sized robots that fight each other?"  Still no acknowledgement.  "We've gotta watch that movie," I finally said.

"I swear to god," Dani said, "If it has as bad a plot as Avatar..."

"Which was written in a week during the 80s, before other movies like it came out," I retorted.  "It's one of the best movies out there."

"It was still about a three hour waste of my time," she said.  I rolled my eyes.

My phone started vibrating; pulling it out, I saw that it was my mom.  I answered it.

"Hey, honey, how's it going?" she asked.

"Hi mom," I replied.  "It's going good.  I'm at the library with Alex and Dani."

"Are you doing homework?"

"I was, but some people are talking too loud for me to focus!" I said, looking pointedly at my friends.  They had moved onto who would win in a slapping contest: Kim Kardashian or Taylor Swift.  "Hold on a second," I asked her.  I told them, "I vote Taylor Swift; she's got attitude."

I returned to the phone with Alex's triumphant, "See!  I told you!" in the background.

"Sorry, I just had to add my two cents to that argument," I told my mom.

"No problem.  What was it about, may I ask?"

"Whether Taylor Swift would win against Kim K in a slapping war," I said.

"I vote Taylor Swift," she announced.

"Hey Alex!" I said, "my mom votes Taylor Swift too!"

"Ha!" he crowed.

"Anyways, I just wanted to say to have a nice day and that I love you.  Don't get distracted," she said.

"I won't, and I love you too.  Say hi to dad for me," I told her.

"I will.  See you soon."

"Bye."  I hung up.  My alarm buzzed; time for Chemistry class.

I turned to my two friends.  Now they were debating whether a Thanator or a T. rex would win in a fight.

"Guys," I said.  No response.  "Guys?  Guys?!  HELLO!!!" I yelled.  They paused and looked up.

"I need to go to Chemistry," I told them.  They got up.  "You don't have to get up!"

"We need to walk anyways," Dani said.  Alex nodded.  We then gathered up our stuff and headed out.

"Oh, and by the way," I commented, "the Thanator would so win.