The Story of Ty and Jessi - One Shot

A figure sat stoically by the bed, hands cupping that of the one currently occupying the bed. Her expression was unreadable, whatever turmoil that was going on in her mind, were kept from onlookers who were around the room. Some were standing idly while looking that the girl and the bed’s occupant while some where trying to keep themselves busy with their phones and music players.

Just a few hours ago, the girl was seen thrashing around hysterically, crying out to the doctors. Her friends had to restrain her or she would’ve clawed the doctors who stepped out of the operating room with their heads hung low. The girl knew the odds were against them but she kept her hopes up while the operation was going on. She wanted to believe that the person she loved would come back to her. After all, there can be miracles when you believe right? Wrong.

The crash that took place earlier that evening was labelled as the worst crash their city has seen in years. Six cars were involved and her beloved was unlucky enough to be the one in the middle. Not only that, another car had spun out of control trying to avoid the piling wreck had rammed to the side of her beloved’s car from another direction. Yes, the crash took place at a cross road.

Out of the six, her beloved’s car took the most damage. When they finally retrieved him from the wreck he was already unconscious. It was a good thing that the pile of wreckage didn’t catch fire or else, removing him from the vehicle would’ve been impossible. The paramedic rushed him into the emergency operating room just as she burst through the hospital doors, panting and crying. A good friend of hers, Sunny, was already there waiting for her. Eyes red and puffy, it was clear Sunny had cried as well. Sunny had told her that he looked almost unrecognisable with all the blood on him. He was barely breathing as well. The crew in the ambulance had restarted his heart once already while on the way to the hospital. She dropped to her knees and buried her face in her palms and cried.

She brought her beloved’s cupped hand to her lips and kissed it before bringing it to her cheek and leaned into it. She was tired. The night was no longer young and the crying she did earlier had taken a toll on her. Eye lids were heavy, dark circles were visible and her eyes were hurting due to lack of sleep. It didn’t help either that she was already sleep deprived no thanks to an incoming project deadline. She willed herself to stay awake, with the help of several cans of coffee earlier; now sitting in the trash can by the door. She would not forgive herself if she let him leave without her by his side.

Her beloved was in a coma but the doctors said he would not last the night. Too much blood was lost due to internal bleeding. Though they manage to patch up some of the major areas, it was not enough. She watched as his chest rose and fell rhythmically, she listened to the barely audible sounds made when he inhaled and exhaled through the respiratory device. She listened to the beeping sound the machine her beloved was hooked up to made. She paid attention to every little detail, like the interval between each action. It had been constant, she should be happy. Her beloved might just pull through. But just when she was starting to at least try to be positive, the next beep was a few milliseconds too late and she cut her gaze to her beloved at once.

His breathing tempo was off; it was getting slower and slower. The other occupants in the room noticed it as well, because the interval between beeps was longer. They kept still, being as quiet as possible as all laid their eyes on the one on the bed, listening to the machine as the beeps’ interval gets longer and longer and finally they heard the dreaded extended beep.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion at that time. The girl got up and shook her beloved, calling out to him while others went to move her as doctors and nurses rushed in. She watched helplessly as the doctors did their last check and pronounced her beloved dead.

“Ty Kim, time of death 4:18am”

***

“Jessica!!”

A tenor voice echoed in the bustling airport and the said girl whipped her head towards the voice and beamed. Rushing over, she nearly knocked him over when she tackled him into a bear hug. She nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck and he could feel her smiling as he picked her up and gave her a squeeze.

“You silly girl..leaving your poor luggage abandoned like that” he ruffled his hair and she puffed in annoyance while he walked over to retrieve the abandoned luggage trolley sitting in the middle of the arrival hall. When he returned she latched herself onto his arm, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder while he wheeled the trolley towards the car park.

Ty asked about her recent trip abroad, mostly consisted of close ended question and she nodded or shook her head in reply. Jessica had just returned from a backpacking trip around Europe with her friends after their graduation. She had gone to London to pursue her tertiary education while he stayed behind. Ty attended her convocation but was sorry he couldn’t join her for the trip because he had limited number of days he could take off from classes. He still had a semester to go back then while Jessica had already finished hers.

Between the convocation and the end of her European trip, two months had passed and it felt really good to have her beside him again. Though it was only a couple of months but those two months were the worse. Those months were his final few weeks in university and he had to work extra hard to keep his grade point average at an acceptable level. After an unexpected failure the semester before, he had the added pressure of having one subject more than his peers and it didn’t help at all that the subject he failed was dubbed the hardest to pass in his faculty. Nevertheless he made it through and his convocation was a week away and he couldn’t be happier that Jessica would be able to attend it.

He was really glad to have her back, the drive back to Jessica’s house was filled with the comfortable silence that they have both gotten accustomed to over the years. He was looking forward to spending as much time as possible with her before the two of them get caught up in job hunting and all those boring, grown up things. They weren’t able to chat online very often because of the time difference. Wanting to have a nice long chat would mean one would have to sacrifice sleep and they both agreed that even though they really want to, they should set their studies as their priority. It was Jessica’s idea. She frantically scribbled her logic on to the board and showed him. Her logic was if they had wasted sleeping time, they would under-perform in classes and that could lead to them having to extend a semester or two and that would mean even more time apart. Before Ty could even refute the somewhat ridiculous yet logical argument, she quickly tossed the board and marker away and silenced him with her lips.

When Ty woke up the next day around noon he called Jessica but her sister picked up the phone instead and told him that she was still asleep. He thanked her and chuckled after hanging up.

This princess..ah well…who needs lunch dates when there’s dinner dates and late night movies…

He smiled to himself and got ready for lunch as the aroma of food seeped into his room.

***

“Now listen here young man, just because you’ve known my daughter for a long time doesn’t mean I’m going to go easy on you. Do you hear me?”

“Yes, sir. I completely understand.”

“You will have her back before 11 and no funny business whilst on your date, do you hear me?”

“Yes, sir. We’re going for dinner and a movie and I’ll have her back before her curfew.”

“And one more thing…” Jessica’s father said in an exceptionally stern voice while placing a hand on Ty’s shoulder, causing him to gulp. He tried to keep a straight face while he was being stared down by the man. There was a longer than needed pause before his expression soften and he said

“Just..take good care of her ok?” and gave his shoulder a few pats before Jessica emerged from upstairs. She came up to him and gave her father a look that said daddy, stop scaring him before taking Ty’s hands and dragged him out of the house. When they got in the car she looked at him with concern and he patted her head.

“Don’t worry, he didn’t scare me” before pecking her on the cheeks and started the car.

Though he said he wasn’t scared, he was. . Jessica’s father was usually a very calm man. Ty had never seen him angry before, not even when Jessica accidentally knocked over a can of paint while taking her new bicycle out from the garage and it fell onto the car, successfully denting the hood. Jessica got so scared she immediately hid behind Ty while her father came out to see what the ruckus was about. He didn’t get angry at all but he told Ty to step aside and gave his daughter a reassuring hug that everything was ok.

Comparing that man from all those years ago to the man who was almost threatening him at the house, he shuddered at the vast difference. It was understood. He was taking his darling daughter out on a date. Who wouldn’t get overprotective?

Ty was not planning on asking Jessica out on a date, much less confessed to her during their school festival. He was taking a break from his shift at their class’s café and was talking to a few other friends when they started teasing him how good Jessica looked in a waitress’s uniform.

“Jessica is looking fine today, isn’t she Ty?” one of his friend elbowed him and wiggled his brows.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Right..and we also didn’t see you checking her out when she walked in this morning..”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about..” Ty reached for his water bottle in his bag and unscrewed it.

“Just tell her already! Gawd!! What’s so difficult about it?”

“What’s so difficult about it? Well, obviously it’s super easy to walk up to your best friend and say ‘hey I’ve liked you since forever, will you go out with me?’ ”

Ty remembered that everybody in the room was looking incredulously behind him and there she was, standing by the door and had heard everything. That indirect confession had led to a series of fortunate events which involved an ecstatic Jessica throwing herself at a confused by equally happy Ty and their friends, who were eavesdropping outside, came bursting into the room congratulating them. And all of that had led to their first date and also a chain of dates in the following months.

Like any other day, Ty and Jessica were chilling at their usual spot under the tree in Ty’s backyard. Ty had fallen asleep while resting on her lap in that lazy afternoon. The weather was perfect. It was a cloudy day and the air was chilly as though it had just rained. Jessica smiled to herself as she stroked and played with his hair, completely forgotten about the book in her other hand. She quickly fished her phone from her side and took a picture of her boyfriend, sleeping contently on her lap with his mouth wide open. Chuckling, she took a few more pictures for blackmailing purposes and turned her attention to her neglected book, smiling contently to herself. That day happened to be their first year anniversary as a couple. After confessing that he didn’t know what to do to celebrate, Jessica proposed the idea of just spending the day together like how they usually do. It was not bad of a first anniversary.

She glanced down at the white board and marker that laid next to her and pondered for a moment that how on earth did that lead to them being what they are today. Ty had been with her all the way since they were younger; fending off bullies who teased her about the board and marker she always carried around.

***

Eyes watched from a distant as a new figure joined the existing group in the playground. It was a girl of five or so, wearing a frilly pink dress and looked like a total princess. She tried to befriend a few who were playing in the sandbox but nobody was bothered about her. The little girl got onto her feet and went to the swings but no luck there. Same with the see-saw. Everybody was too occupied with their own cliques to bother about the new girl, especially when she just stood there smiling holding up a board that said “hi, my name is Jessica. Can we be friends?”. They probably thought she was weird, he mused. So she went to take a seat on a bench. She wanted to cry because nobody wanted to be her friend. Noticing that her bottom lip was trembling, he quickly got up and made his way to the girl, flashing her his biggest grin.

“hi, my name is Ty and I want to be your friend!”

End.

A/N: well...i pictured it to be better than this but somehow words failed me today. haha but still, i hope you like is at least. thank you for reading.

i started typing last night but it suddenly became a five page document on Word so here you go haha

There was this girl in my class way back in the days, I remember her like I just saw her yesterday. She was one of the..quiet ones, as the rest would like to call her. She was not particularly pretty, just an average looking teen trying to fit into the crowd.

How did I know she was trying to fit in? For one thing, the way she spoke around people.  She was being terribly cautious that it was misunderstood that she was being reserved or even shy. She was in this group in class, the brainiacs , I would classify them as. They seem to mind nothing but their books even though we had no tests or assignments due. They fought the teachers regularly for extra marks if they were unsatisfactory with the ones they were given during a test or a quiz. But she never did any of those things.

No, she was quiet, as she was depicted. She was with the group but I am not sure if she ever felt like she belonged in that group. She was unlike the rest, I could tell because while the rest were arguing for extra marks she merely sat in her seat, quietly reviewing her mistakes and then would occasionally look up at her friends and sometimes she would shake her head at them and then continue to review her mistakes. I can tell she was satisfied with the scores she got most of the time. It was written all over her face. It showed contentment mostly, and if she broke into a grin it would simply mean that she did better than expected.

Compared to her group of friends, she was rather average, though she could very well beat half of them if she had put in the effort. She was a smart kid or else she wouldn’t even have been in our class. I asked her before, once I don’t remember when, how she studied and she said she didn’t and merely waved it off as she was just lucky to be sitting here. I peeked at her report card once in sophomore year, you don’t get grades like those based on luck. She was smart, but she didn’t want to draw any attention to herself.

I had my own group of friends but our groups crossed paths pretty often while hanging out. Our town isn’t very big and there were only that many hang out spots back in the day. Surprisingly those brainiacs know how to hang out and let loose once in a while. They can laugh and joke, who knew? We didn’t talk to them much, they seemed rather inapproachable since, you know, eyes glued to the book and all. But she was different. In class she would stare up at the board in front and day dream, with or without the teacher in front. She got called pretty often by our Math teacher since she almost always day dreamed in his class and he also almost always caught her day dreaming. She got called into the staff office once because she screwed up her homework pretty badly.

It was Algebra, I remember asking during lunch when she finally returned to class with her book in hand. Her face was unreadable. She quietly slipped into class while everybody was happy about the break and took her seat. Being seated a few seats a way, I crossed the room and took the seat in front of her and turned to face her. She was rather surprised but was poker facing as usual. She had a very good poker face, practically unreadable if she wanted it to be that way. I asked what did he want with her and she showed me her book. Red marks were abundant, needless to say. I scanned her book quickly and returned it to her. She slid it into her bag and sighed.

She said it wasn’t that she didn’t get what went on during that class, it was that her concept was wrong from the beginning. We also studied Algebra the year before and she had misunderstood completely what the teacher was trying to say and so the wrong concept had been embedded into her brain and so she got the whole exercise wrong and was called to the office for some one-on-one tutoring session. She said itso animatedly and with so much horror in her face I burst laughing. I apologised afterwards but she said it was ok. It’s been a while since she made anybody laughed she said. I felt sorry for her. It was pretty obvious that she was the quiet one in the group, one of the members even called her Miss Invisible, which irked me to no end.

How could you call your friend a name like Miss Invisible? You’d make her feel bad, as if she didn’t already feel bad enough that you guys were having most of the fun and did most of the talking while she just sat and listen like a dumb block of wood. I saw her twitch once when her friends hollered at her from a distance. It made my blood boil a bit because it was degrading to call a person that. I wanted to punch him for her because clearly she did not like that name one bit but was too reserved to say or do anything about it.

During one of the holidays I bumped into her after having dinner. We both ate in the same shop but we never saw each other in the bustling little shop. We were both with our family but I decided to ask if it were ok if the two of us hang out for a while and our parents agreed. She seemed happy about the idea of us hanging out, mainly because none of her friends had scheduled any meet-ups at all and it was three weeks into our three month long summer break. I asked her what had she been up to since break started and she told me a repetitive cycle of eat, computer, book, jogging and sleep.

“Wow you guys are boring..”

“Well, not my fault they’re boring…” she said and shrugged and left me rather surprised. I never knew she could speak in such a tone of voice. A tone that suggested that she was sick and tired of her so called friends but had decided to just bear with them since we only had a year left till we graduated.

That night was the turning point for her. We started hanging out more during that summer break, turned out that her circle of friends didn’t meet-up at all. She said it was ok since it was like that every summer. They’d go off to some place on their own and she was an oversight. I felt sorry for her but she told me to stop because she didn’t want or needed my sympathy. I can still remember her eyes. They were filled with numbness because she was so used to it she didn’t feel a thing. All she wanted to do was to graduate and leave their sorry butts.

I also invited to her to come hang out with us. At first my group were a little bit hesitant since they didn’t know her that well. Heck, I didn’t know her that well but we agreed anyway. She hung out with us a couple of times and got the hang of it pretty quick. The rest also started to talk more with her and for once, I saw that her smiles actually reached her eyes. That summer was the first time I’ve seen her throw her head back guffawing. It was refreshing, in a way. The rest of the group agreed that she’s pretty fun to hang around with. She cracked us up with her jokes, laughed till she cried and was so lively, completely opposite from the girl we always saw in class.

That summer, for her, was the best. That was what she told us. It was the first time since she stopped going to summer camp that summer was fun! She said her parents commented on her new found cheerfulness and were very grateful to the eight of us for helping her. Her parents even treated us to pizza a week before the school reopened. They were nice folks. They owned the spectacle shop half of us went to get our glasses at. Who knew? They said if they’ll give us a nice discount for our subsequent pairs. That was really nice of them. They said it was the least they could do for helping their daughter find her smile and laughter again. Apparently she hasn’t been smiling or laughing much the past couple of years. I noticed, but I think the other seven didn’t. Couldn’t really blame them though, she wasn’t exactly the most noticeable person in class.

Before the summer was over, we made a pack to continue being a group. We were a pretty big group, there were nine of us if we include her. She was hesitant at first, giving reasons like she wasn’t sure how we were like in school. Summer was a time to let loose and forget about school but in class, it was different. People changed, even the most laid back will become intensely serious. We understood and I assured her that we were different. We were a group that studied hard and played hard. It took a while to convince her but she agreed in the end, a few days before we returned for our senior year.

First day of senior year, the sad part was, her old group didn’t even notice that she wasn’t sitting near them anymore. She was with us toward the right side of the class. We made a bet on when they’d notice and all of us lost. By the time they noticed, it was already almost half the semester. All our bets were roughly within the first week of classes. She was a bit hurt at first but then, it happened, confrontation. It was the softest confrontations I have ever seen, volume wise.

It happened during lunch. She kept her voice in control, soft and calm as usual. One of them came up to us and asked why wasn’t she with them anymore and pretty soon, the rest came to back that person up. Slowly she stood up and it began. She calmly told them that she was done with them constantly taking her for granted and making her feel left out almost all the time. She was tired of them not caring what she had to say. When we felt she needed some backing up, we stood and backed her up. It was more intimidating that it seems, having eight people backing somebody up and all eight were glaring. She finished it off rather humorously, if memory served.

“So, why don’t you guys make like a tree and leaf.”

It was a classic pun. The group nodded and left. One of them turned around and apologised and hoped that they’ll still be friends or something. She nodded in acknowledgement before she took her seat and resumed eating. We congratulated her on a job well done and she gave us a gracious smile, with some hints of tears in her eyes but she sucked it up. That there, was one brave and strong person.

The year passed in a blink, ok maybe a few blinks. Ok, maybe in a whole lot of blinks. In no time at all we were all cramming for our college entrance exams. We gathered at my place since I had a relatively big dining hall with one of them long rectangular dining tables for twelve seaters. For about two or three months we were there, with our books scattered all across the table. My dad even loaned us one of his portable whiteboards, the ones you can find in school, for us to have an easier time discussing topics.

One of us was actually the first in class, having stayed on top for so many semesters we all lost count. She was really proud that none of the brainiacs managed to beat her scores after finding out what they did to our new friend. So she used the board most of the time, taught us how to solve questions, drew mind maps for us to help us remember things easier. Studying in a group was really fun, our new friend admitted. Before this she had always studied alone. None of the brainiacs had initiated a group study and she told us all of them studied separately as well, each too stingy to share any info that they had. Jerks, we all agreed.

During our study sessions she was really helpful, too. She had her own tricks of remembering facts and wasn’t afraid to share it with us. We had an unwritten agreement that we were all working towards the same goal which was getting good grades to enter the college of our choice. So why not help each other to achieve that same goal?  The results were more than satisfactory.

After every paper we wore bright smiles and were happily discussing that we were spot on in guessing which topics would be tested and laughed out loud when we agreed that thank goodness one of us made a joke about those few important facts and we could recall the jokes easily, helping us write better in our paper. The brainiacs constantly looks constipated with their serious looks on their faces. Brows furrowed and lips pursed. It was not a pretty sight and she was glad to not be one of them, fretting and worrying about what had happened and what was coming up next.

We aced our exams. All of us got into the colleges and/or universities of our choice. That would also mean separation. On the last day before everybody had to leave we had a party. A farewell party, no alcohol involved of course. We agreed that it would not be smart to hung over the next day and miss our respective flights or trains. You’d think that in a group as big as ours, at least two would be going to the same place. No, all of us were headed to different parts of the world. Some stayed back in the country, but went to different states while others flew out to the continents. We purposely booked our tickets on the same day so that we would not have to go through so many potentially tearful goodbyes. We sent those who went by trains first then the rest of us parted in the airport.

Goodbyes were never easy; she cried the most out of us. We understood. She probably went through her whole schooling life wanting to belong and she did with us but the time we spent together was short. She gave us each a bone crushing hug and each kisses on the cheek and of course, the mandatory group hug. And slowly, one by one we boarded our flights and left.

We kept in contact over our years in uni and tried to meet up whenever we had overlapping breaks. Our mission to keep in touch throughout uni life was a huge success. We met up once every few months and during the four Christmas we had as Uni students, we went on trips to anywhere in the world, usually to somewhere warmer than our freezing winter.

The last time I saw her would be a few weeks ago I think? She moved back to our hometown and I bumped into her in the store. She was with her husband. Actually I saw her husband first, wondering the aisles frantically looking for his wife. I helped him search and we found her walking aimlessly with a box of raisins in her hand. It was her favourite snack. When she saw me her face lit up and she greeted me cheerfully.

“Hey!! I haven’t seen you in the longest time!” and she gave me a hug while her husband went to return the box of raisin to its respected shelf somewhere in the store.

“Yea, how you’ve been?”

“I’m great! Are you excited for your wedding? I bet you are! Weddings are exciting and fun but also nervous at the same time.” She allowed herself a little chuckle before she continued “what are you doing out here? 

Shouldn’t you be preparing for it? Isn’t it later in a few hours?”

“Yea, don’t worry about it. I have time.”

“Really? That’s great.”

She was about to continue when her husband came and said they had better go.

“Oh right. I’ll see you at the wedding later ok?” she beamed at me and I smiled back at her as I saw her 

retreating figure.

I choked back a sob as I hurriedly made my way back to my car where my son was waiting for me.

“Mom, I thought you wanted to buy something?”

“Oh, I don’t think I need it now.”

“You sure? Do you want me to go back in and get them for you?”

“No, it’s fine dear. Let’s go home.”

“Ok…wait..mom are you crying?”

“I saw an old friend in there. I guess I got a bit sentimental.”

“Aw” he gave me a hug and showed me to the passenger seat. He kissed my temple before closing the door and jogged to the driver’s seat and drove us home.

There was no wedding later. My wedding was well over 20 years ago. She met an accident years ago and she cannot remember anything for more than a few hours at best. But the only thing she remembers as clear as day was that summer and our senior year in high school.

END.

Author's note: so what you guys think?

Shot 1: Untitled&Discontinued

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?