LS: The Beginning (3 page)

My first lecture was in twenty minutes, so I left the library center and began looking for the class. As I entered the required room, everybody was seated except the
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teacher.

“Welcome! Please, take a seat,” he said.

I noticed how everyone had carried their jackets along with them, and so I followed suit, taking mine with me. Back in Africa, you’d hardly see students wearing jackets, because the weather didn't agree to it. Here it was mandatory; either get a jacket, or be attacked by the cold. No one in the class chose the latter.

I walked to a seat at the back and quietly sat down. I glanced at the board and saw the name: Dr. Gabriel Taylor.
This must be the teacher's name
, my subconscious informed me.

The lecture was about to start when suddenly a girl walked in. The first thing I noticed was that she wasn't wearing a jacket.
Very Stubborn
, I thought. She had the long jet black hair of an Asian lady, but not the facial look. She had warm brown eyes, ox-eyed, like the goddess Juno. Her glowing velvet skin glisten in the light as if there were tiny diamonds lased under her skin. What an odd combination for an American girl. At that instance, I began wondering if a goddess was allowed to school in Sloutenville. Wasn’t she meant to be in mount Olympus with her fellow gods?

“Good morning, Miss. Could you take a seat?” Dr. Taylor said.

He keyed in the word
Mechanic
d
106
on his laptop and it projected onto the screen beside the board. A few students in the room giggled at his reaction. I guess her beauty besieged the teacher as well.

I felt drawn to her, my eyes followed her until she finally sat down – beside me. She wore a short red skirt and a yellow top which told everyone she was
hot
, in two perspectives. The minute she sat down, I felt a huge force of energy building up inside me as my pulse raced and then my body temperature started reducing. However, I was forced to ignore such signs because I believed they were symptoms of lust at first sight.

She crossed her legs and looked straight at the screen, but I couldn't do the same. My reason for entering the classroom suddenly eluded me. H
HHHH
er presence now meant I wouldn’t be able to concentrate. I could hardly raise my head to glance at the screen. It was like I'd seen my dream girl. 

I wasn't used to the various signs girls made, either to encourage or discourage a male. Hence, I spent two hours sitting beside her without introducing myself, I guess due to the fear of the unknown. Would she snub me? Would she smile back at me? I had no clue. Though I noticed how restless she became after a few minutes. Something was bothering her, she couldn’t sit still. I stayed behind after the lecture to reflect on the goddess who sat beside me. Just then, a girl came over and sat on the same chair the goddess was siting during the lecture. Her hair was blonde and her eyes were like shining sapphires.

“Hey, I’m Julie Hitchens, Stacey’s friend,” she said.

“Oh hey, I’m Stephen.”

I tried my very best to look interested in whatever she was saying, I was picturing the other girl in my head. How could I forget her warm smile and vanilla scent in such short time?
It’s
impossible.

“I guess it is lunch time. Let’s go to the canteen. I reckon Stacey will be waiting for us. Her lecture ended a few minutes before ours,” she said with a keen smile. How did she know?

I reluctantly agreed and accompanied her to the cafeteria. I had no other option, since I was still going to meet Stacey. Strangely, I noticed how my temperature had increased the minute the goddess left the class. It was definitely a hormone thing.

Getting to the cafeteria, the queue was smaller than I’d expected, but then I checked the time on my wrist; we arrived some minutes after lunch. While waiting in the queue, I read the entire food menu. As I read in silence, the image of the girl who sat beside me during lecture kept popping up in my head.
Please stop
, my subconscious begged.

At last, I was next in line. I bought fries and beans and I had a thing for water so I got two bottles. As I strolled to meet Stacey, my eyes roamed the entire room. Unlike my former school, people didn’t leave their trays on the table, because there were stands where they could drop them. I smiled, liking the change.

I apologized for my timing the moment I reached the table, sliding my tray on the table, I began eating. Julie's eyes were wide open as she saw me swallow down the two bottles of water in a less than five minutes. She kept looking at me as though she was expecting something from me. It felt weird. First off, I wasn't the kind of person who talked too much; I was cool, calm and collected, as my few friends would say. I never really had much feeling toward girls – not that I preferred boys. The fact was I'd never fallen for a girl. I had met girls that liked me, but I never knew what I had to offer them; maybe money, but it seemed more than that. They admired my physique and also credited my dress sense. I was the kind of guy who wore what I felt looked good on me. Hence, I rarely wore jeans and sneakers.

I looked into my cousin’s eyes as she rambled about her day, while her friend played with her nails and stared at me. I still couldn’t get
the
girl off my mind; it was frustrating, maybe it was bec
bec
ause I could see her sitting down some tables away with a guy I presumed was her boyfriend.

"How was your first lecture?" asked Stacey.

I grinned.

"It was really engaging. I loved the method of learning. How was yours?"

"Nothing special," she said, grimacing.

During our discussion, I noticed the goddess and boyfriend playing with each other while eating. Stacey noticed my glare and turned back to see who or what was demanding my attention. She turned and looked at me, raising her eyebrows and smiling.

“Do you like her?"

The word
no
was difficult to find from my enormous vocabulary.

“No. No,” I said.

“Okay, if you say so. Lisa’s a gorgeous girl, you know. Too bad she’s already taken.”

“Cool," I replied, clenching my fists under the table.
So not cool.

After those last words, silence rained for a while on our table until Julie interrupted.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” she asked, moving straight to the point. .

I shook my head.

“And why is that?” she persisted.

Talking to Julie was like being interviewed by the dragons in Dragons’ Den. Nerve wrecking and time consuming.

“I’m not interested in having one at the moment,” I answered

“Really?” she asked.

“Yeah, please can we change the subject?” I requested.

"Okay," Julie replied in a low voice.

After talking for a while, Stacey and her friend left me at the cafeteria. Stacey said she would wait for me in the parking lot when she was done with her lectures. One thing I'd noticed during our discussion in the cafeteria was the difference in accents between Julie and Stacey, and how Julie kept staring at me until they left. It was a bit strange, though in a good way.

As I stood up to leave the cafeteria, a guy surrounded by three girls walked up to me. “Yo! Wad up? I’m Derrick, and I’m the captain of the college’s basketball team.”

Who cares?
I thought as I stared at him, but it was obvious the girls cared because they were all over him.

“That’s cool. I’m Stephen,” I replied.

He placed his hands in his pockets. “I believe you play basketball?” he said, assessing me from my head to my toes. “You’ve got to be a good forward or point.”

I nodded, hoping he'd drop the subject but he continued.

“Come over to the court when you're free. Let’s see what you got.”

“I'll think about it,” I said

“Yeah, that's all right, bro. See you around.”

He strolled away, after offering a nice proposal, resting his arms around the girls' shoulders. I was honored he'd walked up to me, but I didn’t want to be involved in any sports activities in school; at least not yet.

Immediately after lunch, I had an
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with Professor Louisa Mendez. I left the cafeteria in a rush so I could get a seat next to Lisa. Reaching the classroom door, I discovered my effort was in vain. She wasn’t in the class. I grimaced as I entered the class, and halfheartedly focused on the lecture.

Throughout the ride home, Stacey was as quiet as the cool breeze that twirled through the opened windows. As we arrived home, she shuffled to her room, yawning until she was out of sight. I wasn't able to go to the bank or pay a visit to the clinic that day because the day ran faster than a cheater. I'd spoken to Susan about the importance of the bank and clinic, and she advised me to go during the week.

As I entered my room, I rushed to the shower hoping to wash away the day's stress. However, there was no cure in removing the memory of Lisa from my head.
How can a girl make me feel this way? Is this love at first sight?
I thought.

“No,” I said aloud. “It can’t be.”

I had never felt that way toward a girl, especially one I hadn’t even spoken to. At that moment, I had begun to feel things.
What a way to begin a new life?
I thought.

Afterwards, I went downstairs planning to cook something for Stacey and I. Getting there; I was so shocked to see the dining table already prepared for dinner. There were bowls of rice, chicken, vegetable and fruit salad, baked beans and noodles. A bottle of wine was placed at the center of the table. Stacey was at one end of the table, giving me the cheekiest smile I’d ever seen. I joined her to eat the scrumptious looking meal. I felt loved.

Chapter Three

Just A Touch

On a windy morning, I glanced in front of the mirror for long minutes. The shining black color of my hair was fading; my legs and hands were slowly changing to icicles, and this was because of the cold weather even with the heating turned on. I'd always wondered what made the weather so cold. I knew about
the clouds and all but I wanted to find out what the sun was doing while we
were shivering. Ironically, I wasn't bothered to know why
my temperature never increased above 80ºF. I kicked about the cold while in
definition I was cold itself.

I rushed into the bathroom for a hot
shower and got ready for college.
That morning,
I cooked breakfast as an apology to Stacey for waking up late. Strangely, she
was cool about everything. It was times like that I wished I could read her
mind.

“Are you busy this weekend?” she asked.

“Why do you ask?” I replied as my gloved hands tidied up the kitchen.

“Nothing much, I was just asking.”

“I guess I’ll be home all through the weekend.”

“Oh cool. Julie wants to come over to say hi,” she said.

I turned to look at her stretched cheeks, but had nothing to say concerning her friend. Julie didn’t look as though she could hurt a fly. So what’s the worst that could happen? I removed the gloves, walked over to Stacey and pecked her forehead.

“Anything for you, Miss Ford." Looking at my wrist watch, I added, "All right, it’s time
to go. Meet me in the car.”

Due to my unwillingness to go fast, we arrived at college late. I wore my usual blue and white attire and for the first time, I wrapped my hair with a hair-wrap. Yeah, I know what you'd be thinking:
black guy with long hair,
but that's just me: I’m unique.