"Crap, I am late. I am so freaking late!"
Today is April 14, Monday. The first day of the summer program. This day was supposed to start smoothly, with me arriving at Sacred Athens University on time and in style. But here I am, running around the campus hallways, late and lost.
"Where the heck is that classroom?" I say. I check my watch. It's 8:17. Great. All of us were supposed to be here at 8 o'clock. Well, technically I am here, but I'm not in the classroom yet. I'm looking for a room called MS - 401, and I have no clue what on earth MS stands for. I check the labels on the classrooms I pass by. BC - 302, BC - 303, BC - 304... Judging from the labels, I am pretty far from where I'm supposed to be.
It probably took me seven more minutes to finally reach the room where our classes would be held. "Finally!" I sighed. I take a deep breath, wondering if the teacher, or rather, the professor (Since the program's classes will be taught by college professors) will reprimand me for being this late. Bracing for the worst, I open the door of the classroom slowly and dramatically...
And to my surprise, there is no professor present in the room. There's only students, talking aloud and laughing about stuff I probably don't care about. Since it's now past 8:20, I didn't expect this. The professor is even more late than I am.
"Oh, hey Nelson!" says a girl wearing eyeglasses, a pink blouse and blue jeans. She sitting on one desks of the classroom. She waves at me, smiling. Since she knows my name and looks happy to see me, I think I met this girl before.
"Hey, uh, who are you again?" I ask her.
"Huh? You don't remember me? That hurts, Nelson. It really does." she answers.
"Well, I, um..." I say, embarassed at myself for not remembering this girl.
"I'm Greya! Greya Banner! We met each other during the orientation, REMEMBER?" she says. She seems to have emphasized on that last part.
I am such an old man. See, three days before the start of this summer program, we had an orientation where we would get to know and make friends with the others that would be joining us in participating in the program. I did meet people and made friends, but sadly for them I forgot most of their names. And Greya is one of the people I kind of forgot about.
"Oh, now I remember." I say. "I'm really sorry about that, Greya." Actually, I'm not sorry in the slightest bit, because it's not my fault that I couldn't remember her.
"Geez, how could you forget? I mean, you and I were seatmates during the entire orientation!" She doesn't seem that mad. Lucky me.
"Try to understand him, Greya. It's not his fault for having Alzheimer's at a young age." says a tall boy approaching us, wearing a hoodie vest. Now this person I remember well. I met him during the orientation.
"Very amusing, Darwin." I say sarcastically. "Have you ever tried out for stand-up comedy?"
"I was just joking man!" he replies. "Anyway, why are you late? You're lucky the teacher set their alarm clock at a much later time than you did."
"I have my reasons. None of which are of any importance now." Which also translates to I just overslept but I'm not gonna tell because that reason's kind of lame.
"There you go again, being mysterious." says Greya. "Did you know that girls are attracted to that?"
"I didn't know and I didn't care." I say.
"Girls are also attracted to that kind of attitude." she says. Oh really now...
"Well, if you guys would excuse me, I'll just take my seat in the far corner, near the window." I say, trying to avoid any more conversation.
"Hang on, dude!" Darwin says. "Just one question: Are you even in-" Darwin fails to finish his question, due to the door suddenly opening, and the arrival of the professor.
Everyone rushes to take their seats. Of course, I take my seat as well, at the far corner near the window. It's the perfect spot for me, since I like looking out the window, with only few disturbances.
The male professor takes a few seconds to scan the room, and to scan us. He looks intimidating. Finally, he speaks up, "Is everyone present?" Not even bothering to address the fact that he's thirty minutes late.
The class remains silent. The professor takes the sillence as a yes. "Then let me introduce myself. I am Mr. Roy Rolands, and I will be your Mathematics Professor. We will be tackling on the math subject Statistics. Before we start, I will check the attendance. If I call your name kindly stand up. Keep in mind that the list is not in any kind order. Greya Banner."
"Present." Greya raises her hand.
"Rica Angela Leer."
"Present!" says a girl who I never knew, up until now.
"Archimedes Oron."
"Present!" says a boy. What the hell kind of a name is Archimigee? Or was it Archimaijeeze? Whatever.
"Joseph Lang."
"Present."
After a while, he is able to call the names of all the students who are present in the classroom. Well, all except one important person: me.
"That's everyone on the list. Is there anyone whose names I haven't called?" he asks.
I raise my hand. "Uh, yeah, Sir? My name hasn't been called."
"What's your name, son?" He asks me.
"Lew. Nelson Lew." I replied. Yeah, I know, my name probably sounds stupid.
He looks at the list of students he has in his hands. I figure that he's trying to look for my name. After a few seconds, he looks straight into my eye.
"I'm sorry, but your name isn't on here. Are you sure that you're in the right class?"
"Well, I think I am." I reply. Suddenly I get a bad feeling.
"This is room MS - 402, Magus section. Were you assigned to this class? he says.
The moment he said those words, I knew that I was screwed. I was assigned to MS - 401, and I belong not in the house of Magus, but the house of Curo. I. Hate. Myself.
"Oh... Oh crap! I got the wrong room!" I shouted. Everyone in the room laughs, including the professor.
"That was what I was trying to tell you, man!" Darwin says, chuckling. "I had a feeling you mixed up the rooms."
"You didn't get much sleep, did you?" Greya says, trying her best to hold in her laughter.
"Oh, shut up you guys!" I say.
"Well, you should get going now." Mr. Rolands tells me, while smiling. "The other section's professor had arrived exactly on time. And she's, well, not too happy to have late comers.
"I-I got it. Sorry!" I dash out of the room, the entire class still laughing. Bunch of bastards. I make my way to the room just next to the room where I had been, and I read the label, "MS - 401" it says. I am so brilliant. like seriously, I am so, so smart. I open the door very quickly, unlike last time.
And there it was, the scene I was hoping to avoid: Me arriving very late and in the middle of a lecture. I definitely interrupted something. All eyes in the room turn to me. This is really awkward.
"Uh, hi." I say, not sure what to say.
The professor, old and female this time, asks me, "Are you Nelson Lew?" She smiles. Maybe she's kind enough to forgive me for being late. Hooray!
"Y-yes, yes I am." I reply. Her smile reassures me somehow. But her smile quickly turns upside down, and her eyes, well, gain the angry look.
"YOU'RE LATE!" She says loudly.
Well... shit. What a great first day this is turning out to be.
