DisPLACEd: The Iron Horse

Chapter One

The lecture hall was near-full. Jake sat in the middle of the room, looking at other students chatting amongst themselves. He turned his focus to the chalkboard, an unusual sight on a university campus. Written on the board in white chalk were the words: 'Welcome to An Introduction to History'. His notebook and pens were neatly laid out on the desk.

"Hey stranger," he heard a familiar voice say as a flash of turquoise bobbed down into the chair beside him.

"Harley!" Jake was surprised to see her.

"Are you stalking me?" she joked.

Jake turned bright red. "No! No, of course not."

Harley unzipped her small backpack. She dropped a notebook onto her desk and stuck her pen in her mouth - further deforming the plastic lid. "Why are you here? I thought you were some fancy law student," she quipped.

"I have one free elective per semester. This was on my course list. I transfered last minute," Jake explained. "What about you? What does history have to do with art?"

Harley raised her eyebrows. "You're kidding, right?"

Their laughter panned out and the moment became awkward. Jake shifted in his seat, having asked the question more to fill the silence. Harley turned her attention to her notebook, doodling a series of flowers on the cover.

"Are you really going to move out of the house?" Harley glanced sideways at him.

"Well, yeah. I have to," Jake said with a shrug.

"You don't have to," Harley insisted.

"Aadita and I already spoke to Dean Olson. We're on the transfer list, it's just a matter of waiting." The Dean had been as unenthusiastic as usual, but acquiesced when Aadita gave an impassioned speech about her poor roots in India and her dreams for her future. Jake had been taken aback, unsure if he had ever felt as passionately about anything as she did.

"I don't want you to go."

The words took Jake by surprise. He began to turn red, a smile pulling at the corner of his lips. He didn't want to leave Harley but he needed to do what was right for his future.

"Goooooood morning, class!"

Jake and Harley turned in the direction of the voice. A man in his late thirties, dressed in a collared shirt, blue sweater, and tanned chino's walked boisterously down the lecture room stairs.

"I am your teacher, Mr Godfrey," he paused. "I'm kidding you can call me Brad. Welcome to An Introduction to History."

Harley faced the front and opened up her notebook, ignoring her feelings towards their previous conversation. Jake followed her lead, re-adjusting his glasses to give himself something to do.

"This semester, we are going to be focusing on 'What is History?' What makes history?" Brad waved his hands vigorously when he spoke. "Why do we need to know about these things and what do they mean for the current day? Is your own history important in the grand scheme of things?"

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