Scholars | c.s

7

The remainder of Freshers week flashed by in a blur of Facetime calls, pre reading and Fliss staggering into our room during the early hours of the morning. By the time the first official day of term rolled around, it was fair to say that I was more than ready. My body naturally woke me up about an hour before my alarm was meant to go off which meant I had time to slowly shower and get ready. I laid out a cropped jumper and denim skirt for me to wear and was turning on my hair straighteners when I heard a groan escaping from Fliss's bed.

"Rise and shine!" I exclaim loudly, receiving nothing but verbal abuse in response. Fliss eventually wakes up and as she gets ready, I apply some light makeup and we head to the common room together.
"How are you feeling?" Fliss asks me as we walk in.
"Excited. I've done the summer reading and I've heard good things about the courses. You?"

"This is going to be my third time restarting this course. It's just an average day." She says putting toast into the toaster. I hadn't mentioned anything to her about what Raph had told me. I thought it'd be better for her or him to tell me more about the situation before I lay out all of the facts. I pour my usual cup of coffee and go and sit on the table next to Khayla.
"Good morning, you look pretty." She smiles.
"You do." Raph agrees.
"Thanks guys." I say smiling. I don't think anything can ruin my mood today, even Cole looking miserable and making a point of not looking up from his mug of tea until Fliss approaches our table.

"What is everyone studying?" I ask taking a bite out of my crumpet.
"Finance." Raph responds.
"Somehow that makes sense."
"Im doing English Lit." Khayla says.
"So does that." I respond.
"What are you doing?" She asks
"A Dual degree in Psychology and Spanish."
"Wait what?" Cole finally breaks his silence.
"Psychology and Spanish." I repeat.
Khayla laughs. "Well that's fucking weird. You two are doing the exact same courses."

"Oh, wow." Cole never really striked me as a Psychology kind of guy. Which is ironic because I actually find him very confusing but I am amused at the weird coincidence in us doing the exact same courses.
"Who's your Psychology professor?" I ask seeing as that's the first lecture on my schedule.
"Professor Allister." He says before exchanging a quick look with Raph
"Same." I reply cautiously.
"Well that's mad," Fliss says looking at her phone, "guys I have to get going. After the disaster that was last year I'm on arse licking duty. I've got to be the first person in that seminar room."
"I'll leave with you, I want to get a good seat." I add getting up and picking up my things.
"The English block is near Psychology, I might as well come with." Khayla says getting up too.
"Well I guess we're all going then." Raph says putting his mug down.

*********
Apparently me and several other early birds had the same idea as my ideal seats are all occupied when I enter the room. I manage to find a decent seat and arrange all of my things for the lecture which should start any minute now. I look around the room and notice Cole near the front sitting next to a pretty brunette in deep conversation. My attention is soon turnt from them to a well dressed man in the centre of the room who introduces himself as Professor Allister.

"Welcome to Psychology," He begins and something about the air of confidence he walked into the room with grabs my attention instantly. "rather than bore you with the talk you're expecting, I'm going to just begin by making sure you're all aware that picking this course may have been the smartest decision you've ever made. Through the contents of this course, you're going to learn to perceive the world in a different way. You're going to second guess everything, everyone you know now and everyone you will ever meet. If by the end of it you're still idle and don't question just about everything, I've failed you as a teacher. With that being said, welcome to psychology. If you could all email me your summer research if you haven't already. If you haven't already, don't expect it to be marked, there are deadlines for a reason.."

********

After about a fortnight of assignments and adjustment, we'd all slipped into a drab routine. We'd wake up, go to a lecture if we had one that day, come back to our dorms, revise and then we were all too tired by the end of the day to communicate properly and all just went straight to bed. The only time we really had any time to catch up was over breakfast.

"To think that I was beginning to miss this place. What type of vicious cycle is this?" Khayla moans to the table.
"It's called adulthood," Raph replies.
She shrugs in response and takes bite out of her toast.
"Why don't we all do something in my room tonight? To give ourselves a little break." Raph offers.
"I don't know. I've been pretty tired." I reply
"You won't be missed." Cole says.
"Unnecessary." Khayla chimes in my defence.
"Cool then," Raph continues, "my room at 8." He says getting up and leaving.

"Is anyone actually gonna go?" Fliss asks us.
We all shrug in response.

I head out to wait for the campus bus to drop me to my Spanish lecture. Spanish had quickly become my favourite part of
the timetable. Maybe it was more enjoyable to me because I had the upper hand of being fluent but it wasn't easy, we studied the history of the language which I also found intriguing. As I sat in my usual seat and waited for the lecture to start, Cole walked in with the same brunette from week one Psychology who had become known to me as Camila. It turns out a combination of Psychology and Spanish wasn't actually as unique as I thought. They'd made a routine of attending every lecture together since the very first day and I don't know why I often found myself observing them when they walked in.

My Spanish professor, Professor Rodriguez loaded up a powerpoint which projected a list of all of our names onto the board. She went on to explain that we were to be assessed partially on coursework that we would carry out in groups of four that was to consist of a unique personal project that we'd collectively decided upon. As I inspected the board more observantly I'd realised that we'd been allocated into our groups:
Valentina
Cole
Camila
Kevin.

I had no idea who Kevin was but for now I could only curse my luck. I just hoped Camila was nicer than Cole but the fact that they got on so well meant that wasn't really probable.

                                 *********

"Do we really have to go?" Fliss moans
"The roles have weirdly reversed here. Look I actually agree with Raph for once. We all just need to chill out a bit, it's been a stressful few weeks." I say as I knock on Raph's door.

He opens the door wearing his usual smirk and a muscle fit polo shirt. "We were beginning to think you weren't coming."
"Oh we were close." Fliss says taking one of the beers he has in his hand.

I walk in smile at Khayla, a boy who I've never met before and a girl I recognise as Fliss's friend. "This is Alexis and Marco." Khayla introduces.
"Hey," I look at Alexis close up, "We've never actually met before. Im Val." I smile
"Hm yeah." She says with a weirdly icy smile.

Alright then?
I sit down on another couch next to Fliss.
"Do you live on your own?" I ask Raph.
"No, my roommate is having a delayed start to term. Unspecified circumstances. But there's always room for you in my bed if that's what you're really trying to ask."

"Gross," I say rolling my eyes. "And what is this?" I asked holding up the dark glass bottle of beer he hands me.

"Um it's a beer," He replies. "Oh shit wait," He says jumping up with a start and going towards the fridge. He opens it and pulls out an opened bottle of Prosecco. I can't help but laugh a little. "That's not all I drink you know."
"It seems like it."

Our laughs are halted by another knock on the door. I peer my head around to get a proper view. I recognise Cole's stature and start to realise he's linking arms with someone. Camila.

A/N
It's 1am and pissing down with rain and something about that combination makes writing extraaa cathartic
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