Spiced Up

One - Home Away from Home

It's the first semester that some universities have begun classes on September. Because of the prolonged vacation, every student is itching to experience the spicy life again that college life brings. If boredom could only kill, many of them are probably gone by now. One of the universities that shifted their academic calendars is the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). The students enrolled in UPLB come from all over the country, making the population rich in variety and culture.

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Raven, a former green archer in high school, is now in his second year in the maroons' team. He comes from Alabang, Muntinlupa which is roughly an hour or less away from the campus. On this glorious Sunday noon, he arrived in LB (or Elbi) straight from the church with his elegant-looking mother and eleven-year-old twin brothers.

"Turn right here and then another right." Raven pointed towards the street along Grove, talking to the family driver.

The driver followed his instructions until they reached almost the end of the road and stopped in front of the huge green building on the right side of the street. There stands Fifth of September Mansion, Raven's new home for this semester.

"See, Mom? It looks better than my last apartment." He said, as they waited for the dorm's guard to open the gate.

"Yes, honey, but isn't it farther too?" Raven's mother asked, pulling up her designer sunglasses as she scanned the building.

"Nah, it's okay. I like walking anyway." Raven smiled. He doesn't mind walking, as long as there's no jerks to live with. He suddenly dreaded the idea of having an awful roommate again. It couldn't be worse than before, he convinced himself.

"If you say so, Ray. Okay, let's leave your things first in your room, and then have lunch before we go, okay? Ryan, Ron, just stay here in the car." His mom told them, and the boys did as they were told.

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Sofia's alarm rang annoyingly as the clock said 11:45. She has been snoozing it twice now, so she went down from the upper bunk bed groggily. She arrived in LB two days ago, just bringing two bags where her laptop and clothes were packed. Most of her stuff were kept in the dorm's storage room because she's been in Fifth for two semesters now. The dorm manager informed her yesterday that she will have a new roommate this year because her former roommate applied for LOA and migrated abroad. Hence, she forced herself to wake up at this hour, which is still too early for her.

She managed to move her bags to the corner and tidy up a bit. Then she opened her laptop and watched anime. She figured she wasn't hungry yet so she decided to just eat a biscuit and have a heavy dinner later, probably with the people in the next room. But she was hoping with her new roommate, if they would get along.

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"@lodeguzman: Finally omw to Elbi! Huzzah, that vacation was the longest time of mah lyfff *insert sad-faced emoji*" Lawrence tweeted. In an instant there were ten likes, and this is possible because he has around a thousand followers on Twitter. To him that is only few, he has like 10k on Tumblr. He tweeted on the DLTB bus (thank god for wifi, he thought). He comes from the province of Bataan, which is probably four to five hours from LB. Good thing there's this blessing in disguise called the Internet that makes one distracted from extreme boredom.

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(unfinished)