A boy stepped off the bus with his luggage
and quickly scanned the surroundings. He saw many just like himself, first
timers away from home and also others who were already used to it. It was
pretty obvious who were who. The seniors would seem more confident and relaxed
while the newbies were unsure and anxious.
He fished out a piece of paper and read it
once again for the nth time. He had spent almost 30minutes studying that piece
of paper on the bus earlier to make sure he had a clear picture of the
directions to his dorm, or the house that he’ll be staying in. He got in touch
with a landlord through some of his friends and rented a room from the house.
It was a good deal, a single room with a bathroom attached and dinners are
provided too.
Go
straight till you see a red mail box and turn left, then walk straight till you
see Al’s Diner. Then turn right at the t-junction and find a white house with
87 on the door.
He nodded at his mental notes and left the
bus station.
After wandering for 20minutes, he stood in
front of a white house with a number 87 on the door. He rang the doorbell and
waited.
‘Coming!’ a voice muffled through the thick
door and it opened soon after, revealing a lady with chestnut brown hair.
‘Er..am I at the wrong house?’ he asked
because the person he spoke through the phone was clearly not her.
‘You’re Soretto right? You’re at the right
place then!’ she greeted him brightly as she ushered him into the house.
Once inside, he took a glance at the interior.
It was a simple house, quite cozy actually. There was a wooden dining table
which sat in the middle of the dining room and an island counter to separate it
from the kitchen.
In the living room, there was a couch and television set. A
pretty humble and cozy house to live in.
‘Oh forgot to introduce myself’ the lady
said with a bright smile. ‘I’m Victoria and the person you spoke with on the
phone is most likely my brother, Jake.’
‘Nice to meet you, Ms Victoria. I’m
Soretto. You have a very nice house.’ He complimented to leave a good first
impression.
‘Thank you. Now come on, I’ll show you
around.’ She gestured him to follow her as she went upstairs.
‘That one is my room, while the one on the
left is my brother’s. You won’t see him that often due to his work. Anyway, your
room is over here.’ Victoria opened the door. ‘bathroom’s over there, behind
that door. If you need anything, please feel free to ask.’
He was still trying to soak up everything
said earlier and wasn’t paying attention to what Victoria was saying but he
nodded anyway and managed to mumble ok out.
‘Great! Dinner is at 6.30pm, that’s ok with
you right?’ another nod from him. ‘Cool, see you later.’
***
‘Your cooking is really delicious, Ms
Victoria.’
‘Aren’t you generous with compliments? And
please drop the miss, I’m not that much older than you.’
‘Ok..’ he swallowed his food and proceeded
with another big bite. Victoria sat and watched him eat while chuckling
occasionally, until he suddenly started to cough.
‘haha goodness, what’s the rush?’ she
handed him a glass of water.
‘I’m really hungry after the long bus ride’
he chucked down the whole glass.
‘Right, Soretto, there are some ground
rules I better let you know.’ He nodded
‘1. Please stick your schedule on the
fridge once you get it. I’ll stick mine later. 2. There’s a board next to the
TV, if you have anything that you watch regularly, say series or anything,
please write it there so that there won’t be any fighting over the remote,
though we are a bit too old for that. Haha mine’s already written.’
‘ok, I’ll check it out later. Anything
else?’
‘yes, 3. Please give me at least a 24-hour
notice if you’re not having dinner at home. 4. Please refrain from blasting
music in the house. 5….I’ll tell you when I think of it. Any questions?’
‘4 rules. Got it. No questions so far.’
‘Great! I think we’ll get along just fine.’
Victoria extended her arm out for a hand shake.
‘Yup.’ They shook hands like they had just
sealed a deal.
***
Classes begun and the first week is always
the worst. There’s getting lost on campus and ultimately being late for class,
earning yourself a glare from the lecturer. There’s also those seniors that
just love to pick on new students and there’s also adaptation and coping
problem. It’s not easy to cope with being in a huge campus with an equally huge
population of students and staff members. It gets hectic at times.
Every evening Soretto would return to the
house dead tired. Usually he would just collapse onto the couch and stay there
for about ten minutes before he slowly dragged his body upstairs to wash up for
dinner.
‘Dinner’s ready.’ Her voice echoed through
the little house as Victoria called him from the bottom of the staircase.
Reluctantly, he brought himself up from the bed and trudged downstairs.
‘You ok? It’s only first week and you look
like a zombie..’
‘Huh? I’m fine. Pssh..whatever gave you
that idea?’ he tried to brush off her comment.
‘Your panda eyes gave you away on
Wednesday.’
‘I’m fine. Just not used to it yet. I’ll be
ok after the weekends. Gonna sleep them away!!’ he announced with a sleepy
grin.
***
Everybody took their seats in the lecture
hall, awaiting the arrival of their math lecturer. Some were chatting, some
busy texting while some just laid their heads on the table and tried to catch
forty winks.
The door opened abruptly, silencing the
bustling class. Her heels clicked as she sauntered to the podium. She was of
average height, with long flowing hair and dressed in a simple blouse and a
skirt. Honestly, it was very possible to have her mistaken as a student. She
settled her things on the podium and looked up at the students who were staring
at her. With a smirk, she introduced herself.
‘Good morning class, my name is Victoria
Song and I’ll be your math lecturer this semester.’ her eyes locked at one of
her students staring at her with mouth wide open.
‘This is my office and also my weekly
consultation hours and my staff email address. Please make an appointment
before coming so that I can prepare. Any questions?’ she turned around after
finished scribbling on the board.
‘It’s a must to make an appointment first?’
somebody in the front row asked.
‘Yes.’
‘How bout an appointment for lunch?’ a
cheeky student piped
‘Sorry boys, I’m out of your leagues. Go
check out one of your classmates instead. Now any other questions? If not,
we’ll begin our class.’ She paused and looked around, seeing most of the
students shook their heads ‘alright, let’s begin….’
***
‘Wow Ms Song is a beau isn’t she? I’m
looking forward to the next class already!!’
Students emptied the hall as soon as she
walked out and automatically started talking about their lecturer.
All but one who still haven’t recovered
from the shock earlier.
‘Dude, you ok? You’ve been pretty quiet
since Math started’
‘Huh? I’m fine..just hungry..let’s go find
some something to eat. I’m starving!’ he quickly regained his cheery self.
What
the hell?!
***
‘Soretto, dinner’s ready.’ Victoria called
from the stairs like what she has been doing for the past few days.
Upon
hearing a muffled ‘coming’ she returns to the table and continued to set up the
table.
Dinner was much quieter than usual that
day, only the clanking of cutlery against the porcelain dishes were heard. Of
course there were also other sounds like the ones produced when they chewed
their food. Other than that, it was particularly quiet, and not to mention tad
bit awkward.
Victoria couldn’t take it any longer. She’s
a lively character and that sort of atmosphere wasn’t her cup of
tea, so she
decided to break the silence.
‘..so..how was class today?’
Soretto looked up from his plate and
swallowed, ‘oh ya know..the usual…’ before resuming his meal.
Gawd
it’s so awkward.
‘oh ok, anything interesting happened
today?’ Victoria couldn’t suppress her laughter after asking the question.
‘You could’ve told me sooner, Ms Song.
Would’ve saved me the shock.’
‘and we’re back to the Miss thing..haha it
was a surprise, and also to help knock you out of your sleepy pre-lunch mood.’
‘right….you know this kinda stinks, having
you as my lecturer and all.’
She threw him a questioning look and he
continued ‘this means I can’t slack off and math is not exactly my favourite
sub.’
‘We’ll have to work on that then.’ She
smiled and got up to do the dishes.
***
A/N: yes as the title of this post suggest, this is an untitled and discontinued story i had started August 22nd last year. kinda sad really, i'm pretty happy with this setting and with what i've wrote so far but i don't know how to expand it further so yea..i'll try to think of something but the chances are really slim to be honest =[
regardless, what do you think about this?
