Chapter 1
(Blake)
My Professor, Prof. Riley Avery, had pulled me aside quickly after the day’s lecture. He wanted to talk to me about something, I could tell.
Professor Riley Avery was about somewhere in his 30s, at most. He has never told us his age, for reasons I’m sure he has. He has dark, black hair that falls to his shoulders; he has to put it in a man bun for every practical lecture, which always makes the females in class fawn over him.
“What do you need, Prof. Avery?” I ask him as I come to a stop in front of his desk. He adjusts his glasses, putting them on top of his head in a way that I can already tell is just gonna make them stuck there. He took a deep breath, like he was about to tell me that a family member of mine is going to die or something. “Is something the matter?” I add, trying to hide the sudden worry in my voice, which he seemed to pick up on anyway, cause he immediately shook his head. “No, nothing is the matter, Blake, don’t worry, just…” he paused for a moment before looking up at me in the eyes. “You’re going to be a mentor buddy for someone coming to the University in a few days, and she’ll probably be rooming with you for the semester.”
“Wait, what?” I start, not with anger, but with confusion, and a little bit of amusement. “This is the big thing ‘you need to pull me aside’ for?” I continue.
Professor Avery looks confused himself, “Wait, you’re not angry about the arrangement?” he asks, his eyes searching my face as if searching for a crack in my emotions, to which I just shake my head and huff amusingly slightly. “Of course not, Professor Avery, that sort of thing doesn’t worry or bother me. Why did you have to make it seem so dramatic?” I say with a chuckle, which trails off as I see Professor Avery pause, like physically, his eyes still searching my face in a way that makes my skin pickle slightly. For a moment, I question why he is looking at me so intensely before realising why, and I sigh softly, now with a little bit of annoyance. “It’s ’cause of my face, isn’t it?” “I-” Professor Avery starts, then clears his throat, which I cut him off. “You don’t have to explain, it won’t be anything I haven’t already heard, just tell me about this student I’m mentor buddying.”“Oh, um, alright, I’ll tell you what I know so far,” Professor Avery starts. He waits for a nod from me before continuing, “From what I know so far, the student is female and she transferred here from another school, and that said student will be sharing your campus dorm for this semester while the school figures out what to do with her.”
I nod along with what he is saying, “Why did she change schools? Do you know?” I asked, to which he answered with a shake of his head.
“No, I don’t even think Principal Nutty knows why; she just changed in the middle of the year, though I do know she is studying teaching,” he says.
“Teaching? If she’s in teaching, why is she getting a place in my dorm? I thought the school wasn’t allowed to do that,” I question.
“Great question! It isn’t allowed to do that, but I guess because she came in the middle of the year, and teaching is so popular at the moment, maybe they have no other places to place her? That probably will be my best bet,” Professor Avery says.
I nod, understanding how he came to that conclusion, “Yeah, that makes sense, I suppose,” I say. He gave a small, proud-of-himself nod, as if he weren’t a Professor in one of the hardest courses there is.
“When does she come?” I ask after a moment of silence between us.
“Oh, right, forgot that,” Prof. Avery says. “Principal Nutty led her to the library for now… I think they’re just waiting for you to go down there.”
“Wait, you mean she’s already here!?! How long has she been here? Do I have to head to her right away?” I almost rush through all my questions in a panic. “Whoa, easy there, Blake, it’s alright, to answer those questions though; yes, she’s here already, she’s been here all day, and yes, you should head there as soon as we’re done here,” Prof. Avery says.
“Ah, okay, well, are we done?” I ask. He gave a dismissive nod.
“Yes, we are done, I’ll see you next class,” He says.
I give him a nod. “Great! I’ll see you then,” I say before turning and heading out the door.
I head down the many hallways to the library, my footsteps echoing louder than they should, my mind running through a dozen possible scenarios of what this ‘new student’ might be like. Before I can talk myself out of it, I’m at the doors. I take a deep breath and step inside.
I look around the place before my eyes find Principal Nutty at the front desk. I take another deep breath and head over to him.
“Principal Nutty?” I call softly, my voice instinctively lowering in the quiet library. “Professor Avery says that you wanted to see me?”
Principal Nutty looks up from the library’s computer. “Ah, yes, Mr Kase, I did want to see you. I assume Avery told you why?”
I nod, trying to calm the flutter in my chest. “Yes, he said that you have a new student you would like me to mentor buddy?”
“Ah, yes, Mr Kase,” Principal Nutty replies. “She’s been waiting for you in the library,” he says, nodding toward a corner where a figure is sitting. “Right over there.”
I follow his nod. It’s a young woman in a cute light pink short top with bows on the shoulders and a matching pink knee-length skirt.
“What’s her name?” I ask, my voice unconsciously going breathier as I stare at her without really meaning to.
Principal Nutty brings me back to earth with his reply. “Why don’t you ask her yourself? Come.” He leads the way toward the young woman.
I trail after Principal Nutty, my steps feeling heavier the closer we get, my palms are already a little sweaty, and I try not to think about how ridiculous that is.
The two of us stop in front of her desk, and the young woman looks up from whatever she is writing, her eyes glancing between us.
“Hello, Remi, this is Blake, one of our final-year students. He’ll be your mentor buddy,” Principal Nutty introduces us. “Remi, this is Blake. Blake, this is Remi.”
The young woman, now named Remi, looks me up and down before her face breaks into a sweet smile.
“Hello, I’m Remi,” she says, leaning forward to offer a handshake.
I offer her a soft smile before reaching out to take the offered handshake, hoping she can’t feel how sweaty my palms are.
“Hello, Remi, I’m Blake,” I say back.
Silence falls between us as we shake hands for a moment. Up close, I notice a few things: light freckles across her nose… and that her top dips just a little too low. I quickly shake my mind out of the gutter and break our connection.
“It’s nice to meet you,” I say, pathetically, shoving my hands into my pockets.
Remi gives a smile that makes her eyes smile from her cheeks.
“Likewise, Blake,” she says sweetly, and I swear my heart is pounding against my ribcage.
Principal Nutty clears his throat. “Nice little meeting, and all, but it’s almost dinner time. I’m sure lovely Remi here will love to get settled into her room before then, Blake.”
“Oh, right… um, follow me, Remi,” I say, suddenly back in my body.
I step aside, and we start walking toward the dorms. My mind is still buzzing from that first smile, and I can’t help stealing a glance at her as we go.
“So, what’s your major?” Remi breaks the silence suddenly, nearly making me jump out of my skin.
I clear my throat before answering. “I’m in nursing.”
“Oh! Fun! “ Remi says all bubbly, which just makes me smile softly at her. ‘Okay, she’s cute, wait, I just met her,’ I think to myself.
We go back to making our way to the dorms in complete silence, except for each of our breathing.
After far too many steps, that I have grown used to doing, we were at the doors of our dorm.
“This is ours,” I say, softly, way too softly, but she seemed to have heard as she nodded. I turn around to the door and unlock it with the key. “You’ll probably get your key for the place in a few days,” I mention as I open the door for her to step inside.
“Oh, that’s okay, I’m pretty patient with that sort of thing,” Remi says as she steps inside, having a look around from the entrance, and she makes a small approving nod. “Cute,” she noted.
“Yeah, it’s not much, but it’s just enough,” I say, looking around at the dorm myself. “So, I’ll give a quick tour of the place if you want?” I ask, looking back at her.
She looks back at me, her eyes lighting up sweetly, like I had just told her I was going to take her on a date or something- wait a minute. ’What is going through my mind right now, oh my god!’ I think to myself before her voice cut into my mind, saying, “Oh yes, please! That would be very helpful! Thank you!” Her voice sounds like how I think cherry blossoms would sound- ugh, oh my goodness, brain stop that!
“Very well, follow me,” I say, leading the way, “So for starters, we have the bathroom on the left side of us coming into the dorm –” I explain, opening the bathroom door up just enough for her to be able to see inside. “In it has a bath, a shower, a toilet, a sink, some shelving, nothing too promising, but it’s a bathroom.”
“It’s such a tiny bathroom, it’s cute,” Remi giggled softly, which I chuckled along with, though mine is more awkward than hers.
“Yeah, I suppose it’s pretty cute,” I say, clearly my throat as I close the bathroom door and turn around. “And while we’re here, on the right of the entrance is the mini dorm kitchenette, it has a sink, cabinets, oven and stove, fridge and freezer and a small bar stool island thing,” I explain, gesturing to everything I am mentioning. “Oh, now this is cute too,” Remi says, stepping around the island and running her fingers over it before turning back to me, waiting for me to continue the tour. I take a deep breath before continuing.
“And then coming back over to the left side of the place, beside the bathroom door, is the hallway closet thing - just has like ladders, extra lamp lights bulbs and just the little things,” I explain.
She follows me as I lead into the open area. “This is the open area, which I haven’t figured out what to do with yet,” I explain, gesturing to the bareness of the area.
Remi glances her head around the area and then immediately says, “We could put a small dining table in here, it’s just off the kitchenette.”
I blink at her, processing what she said, before saying, “Ahh, umm, yeah, we’ll talk about that another day, let’s just get this tour over and done with first,” to which she chuckles softly.
“Oh, right, sorry, I’m just always jumping ahead in things,” She explained. I brushed it off with a wave of my hand. “It’s alright, you’re probably just excited, let’s go continue onto the bedrooms,” I say, leading the way to my bedroom first. “First, this side is my room. I have a few rules about my room, which I’ll probably type out and put on my door for reminding, but the main one is just don’t go in when I’m not there, or uninvited, so just always knock whenever you wanna come into my room to chat about something,” I explain.
Remi nodded at what I was saying, actually seeming interested in my rules, “Okay, got it, don’t go in when you’re not here and make sure to knock, got it!” she commented.
I nodded, grateful for having someone understand my need for my own space.
I led over to the other room, pointing at it as I said, “And then this is your room.” I twist the knob and open it for her. “I’ll let you get settled in before dinner. We have about an hour, so you should be able to get a few things set up. I’ll call you out when it’s time to head off, shut if you need a hand for anything.” I add.
Remi gives me a nod, holding the backpack - that I am just now noticing she had to her chest, looking at me gratefully. She says, “I will, thank you, Blake,” before taking herself and the other bags that I am also just noticing, she had a backpack, and two suitcases, and I’ve only just noticed, my bad.
I turn away from the door as soon as she closes it and head to my room to get ready for dinner.
