Changing Prudence (EDITING - ON HOLD)

Chapter 11

They only had half an hour to go until they reached the campus.  Just like the old days Rue’s dad was driving, her mum sat in the passenger seat and her and Cole sat in the back. They had been having an argument about whose subject was better, for the best part of the past hour, until their mum got fed up of their argument and told them to agree to disagree. Cole was studying English literature so obviously Rue’s subject was better because it required her to get messy and do experiments.

They were notified by her dad when they had reached Aurburn. Rue stared out of the window in awe; she was greeted by trees and more trees of different shades of green. ‘You know if you want anywhere to visit for a walk, that forest is definitely the place to go. It goes on for miles.’

‘Has it got a lake?’ If it didn’t have a lake she wouldn’t think it was as good as he was making it out to be.

‘Of course it does, why would I recommend it otherwise?’ He added sarcastically.

‘There is a part of it that no one goes in, though I don’t know why. It’s just common knowledge that you should stay out of those parts.’ He thought he would warn her while he had the chance, so if she decided to go for a wander without him, she would be aware of the deserted parts. He would have to take her on a tour, make sure she is safe before she settled in more.

Rue was even awe stuck at the buildings when they got closer to campus. She wasn’t expecting them to be this pretty and clean. All of the houses in sight where Victorian and pristine. There was no sign of pollution showing on any of the buildings and didn’t show any signs of being so near a student village. It was beautiful.

Rue must have been sat with her mouth wide open because her brother’s hand gently pushed it back shut. ‘The affect will wear off in the next week.’ He laughed, not surprised at all by her reaction. She hadn’t been to an open day, she just took Cole’s word that it was the best University the United Kingdom could offer. In reality she just wanted to go there because that way if she didn’t get settled she always had her brother she could go to, and that way she didn’t have to leave all her family behind. And she didn’t have to buy her own car or learn how to drive herself. And she would have her brother to borrow money from if she needed it. Cole seemed to have a never ending supply of money and was always happy to lend some to Rue if she needed it. Though she doubted that would be the case for a while, with the shear amount she expected her grandma had given her.

They parked outside the main campus and registered at the main entrance. They were given their dorm rooms and offered a guide, which they refused since Cole knew the way to both of them, and set off to Rue’s dorm first. It wasn’t far from the main campus seeing as the science labs were in the first block of the main campus.

She unlocked her door she was in one of the more expensive rooms as she had applied late and this was one of the only rooms left. She was surprised she managed to get such a good one only a ten minute walk from the science labs. She looked around her room. There were two plain single beds each on opposite sides of the room. In the middle of the beds were two computer chairs and desks, topped with a desk lamp, above the desks they each had their own cork board on the wall with about ten pins already stuck in each. On the other side of the beds were standard size wardrobes and drawers. They shared a bathroom with the other people in this row of rooms, which would be about six people when everyone had arrived for the start of term. She put her bags down on the far side of the room and put the handful of books she was carrying on her desk. With a smile on her face she turned round to her parents and Cole to show how happy she was with her room. ‘This is much bigger than I had expected.’ Even though the room wasn’t really that big, it only had the space of the two desks in between the beds, it was bigger than she had expected, and much cleaner.

‘You won’t be saying that when you have a messy roommate who leaves clutter all over the room.’ Cole just had to go and burst her bubble.

‘Great, thanks for that, you couldn’t have just left me thinking it would stay this tidy for the whole year.’ She added sarcastically. ‘Let’s go and dump your stuff in your room so we can get on with that tour you promised me.

It took another ten minutes to walk from Rue’s dorm to her brothers and it was more or less a straight path they took to get there. Cole’s room was less than half the size of Rue’s him and his friends from the last year had decided to get single rooms but on the same row of dorm rooms. They had discovered last year that half of them were total slobs and the other half were clean freaks so they decided it best for them to have their own rooms this year. It was just as clean as Rue’s and he would have to share his bathroom with the same number of people as she would.

He dumped his bags down under his desk and locked his door, not bothering to have a good look at his room. He probably knew what these rooms looked like anyway, from visiting friends in them last year.

They walked around the university campus for hours, it was absolutely huge. Cole took them to all of the places that were most likely to interest Rue. The vast number of Canteens which were closed, with it not being term time yet, were the biggest she had ever seen and from what she could see from the outside extremely spotless. He also took her on a tour of the science buildings, which didn’t take much time, as Cole had little knowledge of this side of campus. He showed her around all of the beautiful surroundings and student village, which were mostly parks and colourful shops.

On the corner of the street they were coming to she spotted a huge library. This she wasn’t expecting, she knew there had to be a small one somewhere on campus. But this was humongous. The red brick building must have been at least twenty metres tall, towering above all of the other buildings on the street, it was one hundred percent hard to miss. She walked off from her brother and parents up to the front of the vast building. She gasped. It really was the perfect place for her. Her family caught up to her as she walked inside and stood on the spot staring around at the place in amazement. All around her were two metre tall bookshelves filled to the brim. At the front of the library she was stood in the middle of the art section. It must be in alphabetical subject order. She wandered round the ground floor of the library taking in the beauty of the old bookshelves. At the back of the library building she found the non-academic and fiction books. She would definitely have to visit this building in her free time.

She had lost her brother when he had gone straight up two flights of stairs to the second floor where he said he would find the general studies section. Rue followed suit but carried on ascending the stairs until she got to the floor labelled Q, R, S, T, U and headed along the aisles to the science section. There was no free wall space in the science section; it was filled with posters of various things. Over in the corner, the human skeletal structure and anatomy where propped up against the wall. Small round tables where dotted around the fourth floor for people to work at. She must have spent hours on that floor without being disturbed by the rest of her family. She browsed through the selection of science books on the floor occasionally picking up a particularly interesting looking one to read the blurb and the occasional chapter.

When she had finished skimming the last shelf of science she took a look round the rest of the library. Every section and floor was completely different to the last varying from different posters on the walls, to different lights and hanging objects for each subjects and different layout. It was the prettiest building she had been in for years.

She found Cole and her parents on the ground floor sat around a table, each with a coffee cup in their hands. They had obviously got fed up of waiting and knew it would have been hopeless trying to get her out of the library before she had finished.