My vision is engulfed with darkness, yet I can hear a combination of noises surrounding me. Sinks running, people talking, a loud ringing noise and an increase of volume of someone calling my name.
"Mel..Mel...Mel wake up!"
Right away, I began to recognize my father's voice and had to wake up.
"It's already 7 o'clock."
"Okay.."
Feeling reluctant I finally got up to get ready to today.
"Jeez, It's only Wednesday. This week needs to go by quicker. But at least I have tomorrow off."
Yes that's right. With the way my class schedule is set up have Tuesdays and Thursdays off. In a way it's really nice and relaxing but sometimes I wish that my life were a bit more eventful.
"Hopefully today's exciting [yawn~]"
After gathering my things I have the responsibility of driving my younger brother, Jo, to his school.
"Let's go Kuya (Big Brother) I have a meeting to get to at school."
"Alright let's go I need to get going too."
My brother is a member of his high school's Naval Junior Officer Training Corps (NJROTC). Not only that, he's also the Lieutenant of 300 cadets. More or less I'm proud of him, though it does cast a kind of shadow over me.
I wish my life was more like that.
As of now I'm at my first semester of my second year of college at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Up until now I have made no new friends and the only friends I have are the ones from my old high school. And to be more in detail they're mostly all male. If it weren't for my social anxiety I'd try and make some female friends.
Right now I'm majoring in Criminology and so is one of my friends, Hal Knox.
Hal is an interesting character but mostly kind of an asshole. Though he can be resourceful at times and give decent life advise. I'm usually with him in the mornings since we're in the two classes, Criminal Law & Justice (CLJ) 220 and Spanish 101.
"Hey Hal."
" 'Sup, Did you do the homework for spanish last night?"
"Yea of course."
"It was f*cking bulls*t. I got an 85% on one of those!"
"You'll be fine Hal."
"No! I won't stand for any failures like that!"
"Well do your best then."
Hal as always been keeping up with his studies this way. He's either competing with himself or chooses someone to compete with even if they don't know it. It's kind of weird but at least he can get through classes he dislikes.
After CLJ and Spanish we have a break for an hour.
"F*ck! I think I failed that exam!"
"Hal I'm sure you did fine. You studied right?"
"Nope."
"..."
"Ahh Whatever. Oh by the way I'm going to give the girl in front of us your number."
"Hell no!"
"Why not? She's pretty and Asian, why not go for that?"
"She's not my type."
"Bullsh*t!"
"Just find someone else please."
"You will accept it and savor it!"
"Hal keep my preference in mind!"
Since I don't have a girlfriend Hal and another friend of mine, Deron, agreed that they'd find the 'right' girl for me. But since I'm very picky my choices are very small in women.
My usual day of classes end at 2:50 to 3:00pm and during this time I'd wait and meet up with Hal and Deron so we could leave together.
"Hey Mel!! What's up buddy!"
"Yo Deron, I'm still waiting on Hal."
"Ahh I see. Did you call him?"
"Yea, I texted him. His professor ran class a bit late so he'll be here soon."
"Okay, but listen I need to go."
"Oh why? Got a date with another girl today?"
"No you jackass I got work today, buuut I did get a girl's number in class today! Pound it!"
"No I'm fine."
"Ah no can do!"
In a quick motion Deron snatched my wrist and completed the pound.
"Well I got to go, see ya man."
"Alright see ya."
Deron Lew, a man of many talents and ties with different women. He's a good friend from high school like Hal except with his way with women. No matter what scenario Deron will always get a girl's number and have some kind of intimacy with them within weeks. I respect him, yet envy him for his gift.
While waiting for Hal I got a bit bored and decided to get out and walk around.
"Man my life sucks. Is there anywhere that can be interesting!"
I stopped and looked around for a moment.
"I guess not."
While I was walking around I ended up in a rest area and took a seat. Then I just sat and stared out into space.
The gentle breeze of the Fall air was nice and cool.
But Suddenly a piece of paper got stuck on the back of my head. I took it and looked at where it came from. Then I heard a yell coming from the same direction.
"Look out!"
Right when I turned around a gust of wind flew by me followed by tons of papers at the same time.
"Oh cra--"
Boom!! With the sudden rush of papers I fell back nearly buried by all of the papers.
"Jesus Chirst! What is all of this!"
"I'm terribly sorry!"
I look around trying to find who was talking, then it hit me. This beautiful blonde girl with glasses comes up and helps me.
"I'm really sorry that this happened! Are you okay?"
"Yea I'm fine, just lost my balance there for a bit."
"Well that's good. I hope you're really okay."
"Yea don't worry about it here let me help you out with this before it gets dragged by the wind again."
"Oh thank you. I suddenly lost grip of all the papers and then the wind suddenly picked up."
"Alright we let's get to it."
After gathering all the papers together I noticed that it was mixed with textbook pages and UIC documents.
"So what's with these documents, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Oh, well it's pretty much transfer papers really."
"Transfer papers? Awful a lot of papers for a transfer alone."
"Yea well I'm not actually from around here."
"You mean Chicago?"
"No... more like London?"
London? That's pretty cool but she didn't have any kind of accent to really back it up plus I feel like she's confused herself.
"London huh? You don't seem so sure of it."
"Well I grew up in Toronto."
"Toronto?!" (Canada?!)
Right then I became very confused. Seeing this girl is british and born in Canada but can't make up her mind. We sat and pondered on it for a while and we had still yet to come to a conclusion. I just had to ask.
"Umm Miss?"
"Oh I got it! I am British that's Canadian born and now a US citizen. Make sense now?"
"Wait, wait, wait, I feel like we already established that before."
Then I realized something.
"Hold on you're a US citizen?"
"Yea. Also a Canadian and British citizen too."
Whoa hold on a bit! Dual, no, Tri-citizenship! I didn't know it was possible. Maybe it's just me but this girl is something else.
"But my family lives in London though."
"Ahh, I see. Wait, so why are you here?!"
"Well I asked my father about the university he went to when he was younger."
"So it was UIC?"
"No, I think it was University of Illinois."
"Which one?"
"Hm? Is there more than one?"
Outraged by this girl's ignorance I calmly explained to her about how there are three Illinois universities but in different cities.
"Ohh~ so that's what you meant. Kind of confusing."
"No kidding [sigh]."
"Hehheh."
"Hm? What's so funny?"
"Nothing, it jus seems like you really know about the school and that you're having a good time here. That's probably why my father went here in the first place."
After saying that she let out a gentle smile that could better yet be the most genuine, innocent smile I've ever seen. If it weren't for my composure I probably would've fallen for her at that moment. Then I realized that I didn't even introduced myself after all of the chaos.
"Oh by the way my name is Mel, Mel Oscor. We didn't go over introductions."
"Well pleasure to meet you Mel. My name is Clara, Clara Wensworth."
As we got all of our stuff together and went over to Clara's things I noticed that she had luggage with her, like three or four bags.
"Hey Clara, did you just get here?"
"Yea I did. My father got me an apartment for me to stay here in the city."
Well that explains it.
"I wanted to stop by the university to get all of the paperwork but ended up making a mess in the end, tehee."
"Well if it's not too much trouble, mind if I help you out?"
What?! Without thinking I just nonchalantly offered myself to her. What's wrong with me?! Am I that desperate?! I'm probably over stepping my boundaries here. Maybe I'll just take back my offer.
"Actually never mind I don't want to bother you Clara so--"
"No please... I'd appreciate the help."
Stunned, I didn't know what to do. For the first time a beautiful girl like Clara doesn't mind that I [a complete stranger] would help her out. Is it weird to think like this? Probably so.
"Okay then, umm, here I have a car so we can put your luggage there and we'll drive if that's fine."
"Yea no problem. I hope that I'm not keeping you from anything."
"No, not at all I'm free right now really."
Not remembering that I always take Hal home after classes.
"Okay then I'll take your offer. Let's head off and go~~!"
The moment she said that Clara accidentally let go of all the papers we collected and got caught in the wind again. We ended up making a second attempt of gathering them.
"[pout] I'm sorry."
"It's fine."
My eventful life wasn't that far off.
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