Chapter 5: Starting Campus Life

Shane woke up bright and early the following morning. He knew that he shouldn't dare oversleep, since orientation was so important. He took his cellphone and called his parents, just to set their minds at ease. He also made sure to give Andrew a call to make sure that he settled in nicely at his new university. Unlike Shane, Andrew's parents rented an apartment for him, so he didn't have the luxury of sharing his room with a mate.

Andrew told Shane about everything that he was missing, since according to him, Cornell was a far beter choice than Sommerset. Shane just laughed it off and told Andrew that his mind was made up. No way was he going to let go off Maddie so easily. When he hung up, Shane remembered that he still had a mission which he should never forget. If he couldn't make 60 000 dollars in the next six months, his parents' livelihood might be on the line.

Shane scanned the room and to his surprise, it looked like his dorm mate still hadn't arrived. He was kind of curious to see what kind of person he would have to share the dorm with for the next year. Shane only prayed that he wasn't a stuck up guy, because that was the type of person he despised the most.

After putting on the best casual wear he could find, Shane made his way to campus. His dormitory was only a few hundred meters away from the campus, so he didn't see it fit to drive his car. After all, the car doesn't run on water.

"What do I have to gain by lying? I'm telling you, she is a goddess and nobody even comes close to her beauty," one boy said as he tried to convince his friend about what he saw earlier. The other friend still didn't believe him, since he didn't see with his own eyes.

Right at that moment, a Porsche 911 pulled up next to the two boys who were arguing. Shane watched the scene unfold in front of him from about thirty meters. He kept quiet, since the conversation intrigued him a bit. Were these two boys serious? Were they really arguing about the existence of a girl on orientation day?

The door of the Porsche suddenly opened. Before a face appeared, Shane was fortunate enough to see a long beautiful leg exit the door. The two boys kept quiet and the one who was trying to convince his friend of the so-called 'goddess' suddenly pulled him by the collar of his shirt and pointed at the lady. She was tall, with flawless skin which was slightly tanned. She had a yellow flowery dress on that almost made her appear regal.

"I dare you to say that she isn't perfect! Do you still think I was lying?" the one boy asked his friend. He felt vindicated now that she appeared. His friend was too stunned to even say something. Shane watched the scene unfold in front of him. Of course she was beautiful, but in his eyes, she still wasn't even close to Maddie.

Unbeknownst to him, he softly uttered those exact words. One of the two boys heard him, and made their way over to him.

"I beg your pardon. Can you repeat what you just said now?" the boy dared him. Shane realised that he must have spoken out loud when he mentioned that the girl paled in beauty when she was compared to Maddie. Naturally, he didn't want to draw any attention to him, so he had to think of a way to clear his name before the situation turned into something that would bring a lot of attention to him.

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything," Shane responded. He just hoped the boy would give it up and leave him alone. Orientation was about to begin and he couldn't waste his time arguing with boys about their fantasies.

"No, no, no. That isn't what I heard, Sir. Did you just say that there was someone who was more beautiful than her? You must be mistaken. I guess it makes sense since you are a freshman," the boy said as he pointed to Shane's name tag on his shirt. All freshman were supposed to wear one, so that it would be easy to find them if they ever got lost.

"However, don't you ever disrespect that beauty over there. She is probably the only one on campus who could stand on equal footing with our resident queen named Alicia Windsor," the boy said. Shane knew that no matter how he was going to explain himself, the boy wouldn't let him go. He had to get away as quickly as possible.

"Is that Alicia over there?" Shane asked as he pointed in the opposite direction. His voice was loud so both boys heard him. They looked over in the direction that Shane pointed, but there was no one. Angrily, they turned around to give him a piece of their mind, but to their surprise, Shane was long gone. Not even his shadow remained behind.

'What the hell was wrong with that guy? How can someone be so obsessed with a female?' Shane thought to himself, not seeing the irony in his thoughts. It was exactly the same as him who put Maddie on such a pedestal. He would never allow anyone to badmouth her in his presence.

"Thank you, Dad. I just received the money. I promise to take care of myself," a voice said a few steps over. Shane was on his way to the assmebly point, by following all of the markers which was set up across campus. He was passing by a tree, where a shy boy was talking to his father on the phone. Shane didn't want a repeat of what happened earlier and just rushed over to where they were supposed to assemble.

A few seniors, who had on their orientation uniform called all the snew first-years together and asked them to listen carefully. The dean of the university appeared and greeted all the students while welcoming them. Shane listened attentively to his speech which went on for about 15 minutes. Thereafter, they were led around by two seniors that showed the students the locations of the different faculties.

Since Shane was in the science faculty, he made sure to pay close attention as to where he would attend his classes. He was studying engineering physics, but he majored in computer science. So he had to know where the auditorium was where he was supposed to come do his practical lessons.

The tour concluded after about two hours. Shane was hopeful that he could run into Maddie on campus, and he made sure to scan the faces of every freshman he saw, but Maddie's face wasn't anywhere to be seen. He felt a little bit disappointed, but he knew there were still many more days for him to come. It was not as if she was going anywhere.

Shane walked over to the cafeteria. He knew where it was since one of the seniors showed him during the orientation.

Ertonbridge was by no means small, and it's mall was always packed, but when he arrived at the cafeteria, it was the first time Shane saw so many students compacted in such a dense place. There were practically no walking room, unless you wanted to run into someone and cause a commotion.

Shane was rather famished, so he knew he had no other choice than to get something to eat. He didn't want to go the distance back home again, since he still had to go buy his textbooks when he left there.

After a lot of pushing and pulling, Shane finally made it to the front of the line. He paid for his meal and got himself a standard order of burger and fries.

Since the cafeteria was so full, it was difficult to find a place to sit down. Out of the corner of his eye, Shane spotted a beautiful girl sitting by her lonesome. Since it was the only table with space, he didn’t see any reason not to sit there.

When the girl saw him approaching, she thought that maybe he was just passing by. But when she saw he sat down, her expression quickly changed. Before she could voice her complaint, Shane interrupted her.

“I’m sorry miss. If I’m making a nuisance of myself please say so, but as you can see, I have no place to sit down to enjoy my meal. Please give me permission to sit down,” Shane asked. He used his middle and index finger to adjust his glasses since he was looking down on her.

For the girl, it was quite a surprise. After all, for the whole of the previous year, no boy even dared to approach her in the cafeteria if they didn’t have any status. After all, she was Alicia Windsor, and Shane clearly didn’t know who she was.

Before she could throw a fit, she calmed herself down and told herself that today wasn’t the day.

She was aware that there were a lot of freshmen who weren’t familiar with the tradition of the university, so she decided to give Shane a pass.

“I was just about to leave, so you may have the table to yourself,” Alicia whispered through her teeth as she tried to hide her irritation. She decided to give Shane a piece of her mind after all.

“Just for the record, this table is reserved for me, and me only. Just because I feel a little bit charitable today, doesn’t mean you can take advantage of my kindness. This was the first and the last time that I will grant you an audience.”

Shane was surprised at her bluntness. He thought that since she was kind of beautiful, she would ignore him as all beautiful girls do. However, she responded. It didn’t seem like she was rude, rather just firm. Shane respected her for that.

He apologised once again and watched as Alicia disappeared from the cafeteria. Without him knowing, three pairs of eyes were glaring daggers at his back. He would only come to realise later that he couldn’t just walk up to anybody and talk to them as equals.

While he was eating, Shane got the surprise of a lifetime. He felt a hand hit the back of his head, and the force caused the food on his spoon and the glasses on his face to fall quite a distance away.

'Who was the idiot who wanted to lose their teeth on the first day?' Shane wondered angrily. Luckily he calmed himself down and realised that it would not benefit him to cause a scene. Especially when he did not want to draw any attention to himself. He wanted to enjoy the pleasures of continuing to live as an ordinary average student.

Shane slowly turned around and looked into the eyes of three men who had angry expressions on their faces. He also noticed that the slap he received at the back of his head caused most of the students to pay more attention to them. Shane shook his head. He knew that if he got beaten, he would be seen as a loser on campus. Also, if he beat them up, he would be seen as a bully for attacking and incapacitating a group of three boys. No matter how he looked at it, it was a lose-lose situation for him.

"I'm sorry if I offended you in any way, but could you not do that again," Shane said as he looked at the boy who slapped him. His glasses was still a way of, so he squinted his eyes a bit. It was not as if he was bad-sighted or anything. Shane suffered from astigmatism which causes his vision to be blurry sometimes. This condition causes two different images of light from a single light source, neither of which is in focus on the retina. That is why Shane sometimes find it difficult to focus on one thing, which also might be the reason as to why Andrew would usually defeat him, when Shane was sure he would win.

After he said that, Shane walked over and picked up his glasses. The three boys were fuming, because they thought Shane was disrespectful. Oh, how they wanted to punish him for that...