Still, at least Kristen got to get out and meet new people. Maybe she would even meet The One! Who could tell! Kristen had never been on a date in her life and the thought of standing alone and suddenly meeting eyes with a tall, handsome stranger across the room thrilled her. Then he walks over, tall and fine, introduces himself, and they spend the entire night talking and laughing. Then he asks to see her again. And then after some time of midnight call-ups, romantic dinners, and movie cuddle nights, he eventually proposes on bended knee, declaring his eternal love, and they get married in the mountains under the colorful sunset with that pine tree smell and fresh mountain air!
Kristen turned her attention to her schedule. "Economics 101- Pouperston- 10:00" was first on the list. "Pooperstown?" she questioned to herself.
"Actually, it's Pouperston," a voice spoke up behind her.
Kristen started and turned. A short, round boy with jet black hair stood behind her, grinning, holding a small orange backpack in his hands.
"Don't worry, everyone does it. Just don't ever say it to his face," the kid said, slipping the backpack over his shoulders.
"Oh, thanks for the warning," Kristen said.
"Yeah. He'll get soooo mad!" he told her, "One time he actually threw his toupee at this guy when he said it."
"He wears a toupee?" Kristen asked.
The kid nodded. Then he grinned once more, "I'm Peter, by the way, but everyone calls me Petey."
"Oh, okay. I'm Kristen," Kristen replied, sticking out her hand.
"Hi, Kristen! One thing you need to know about me is that I‘m a hugger," Petey said, tilting his head and looking at her with bright eyes.
"Oh, alright," Kristen said, lowering her hand and spreading out her arms, "Have at it!"
Petey happily wrapped his arms around her middle and squeezed. Kristen gave a small smile. He barely came up to her chin. He was like a little, chubby kid who just loved everybody. She could tell.
He let her go. "It was great to meet you, Kristen!"
"You too. Um, I'll see you around, I guess," Kristen said, she wasn't really sure if she would or not, but it seemed like a good thing to say, "And thanks again for the warning about 'Pooperstown'."
He giggled. "Aw, no no problem," he replied, then he turned to leave, "Bye!"
He practically skipped away. Kristen smiled after him. Well that was a good first encounter, she supposed. He was so happy and nice. She hoped she would meet more like Petey. She turned to enter the building where her first class was located.
It was the most enormous building she thought she had ever seen. How was she supposed to find just one class inside such a massive structure? She should have asked Petey for directions. Nevertheless, she marched inside optimistically. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe it would be one of the first doors when she walked in.
So much for hoping for an easy find. Doors upon doors upon doors! And students were everywhere rushing every which way. Not to mention several staircases going in every direction. Kristen looked at her watch. She still had fifteen minutes. There was still time to sort all this out. She had time to find one classroom... Right?
She bravely marched forward into the hullaballoo of rushing students. She tried looking at some of the doors, looking for the room numbers, but it was hard to get a good view of them. She did manage to spot a room 113. No good. She was looking for a 404. She wasn't even close!
Where was she supposed to go? She didn't even know which direction to take. She would probably end up on the other side of campus and not even realize it. Was she even in the right building?
Students were bumping into her left and right, knocking her about, and not even realizing it (or maybe they were and just continued to rush past. Rude!). Kristen was not a particularly large person and was struggling to keep her balance with all the pushing and shoving.
Suddenly, something very large and heavy crashed into her. She toppled backwards, arms flailing and sending her schedule and binder flying out of her hands. She landed squarely on her behind, feet sprawled out in front of her.
"Ow!" she groaned, reaching back for her now very tender tailbone.
Now pushing and shoving was one thing, but full on knocking someone off their feet was another! She was ready to give whoever had done this a piece of her mind. She glared up at them. "Excuse you!" she cried out.
She suddenly became speechless as her eyes met with to most sunning set of green eyes she had ever seen in her entire life. The owner, a tall guy wearing a gray jacket and dark blue backpack, was staring down at her with concern. "I am so sorry!" he said, "Are you hurt?"
As if his eyes weren't enough. His face. His face was gorgeous! His high cheekbones, low-set eyebrows, perfectly sculpted lips, a nose that was perfectly proportioned with the rest of his face... she could go on! But at the moment, she had to reply to him.
"I, uh... no, no," she stammered slightly, a bit flustered, "I'm fine, I'm okay."
He bent down and began to pick up her binder and schedule for her. "Are you sure? That looked like a pretty hard fall."
"Yeah, yeah! I just wasn't looking where I was going because I was trying to find my class and then, you know," she said, "But it's fine. I'm great."
He handed her things to her. "I can help you find your class if you'd like," he said, smiling. Wow, that was one a dashing smile. So many pearly whiles there.
Kristen returned the smile. "Sure," she said coyly.
They began to walk through the crowd of students.
"Is it always this busy?" Kristen wondered.
"Well this is the Castle Building. It's the main center. Usually in the morning, especially at the beginning of the year when everyone's trying to find their classes, it gets pretty crazy," he explained. He paused, "So the way it works here, and in practically every building for that matter, is that the first number of the the room number is the floor number. Like a hotel. So if your room number is...?"
"404," Kristen replied.
"404. Then your class is on the fourth floor."
Kristen nodded. That would make it much easier now. Hopefully she wouldn't have to go through so much trouble trying to find her other classes.
"Oh. By the way, my name's David Leskov," her escort suddenly spoke up.
Kristen nodded, drinking in everything about him. The name just suited him perfectly. But then it dawned on her that he was expecting her to introduce herself as well. He had said his last name. Did that mean she had to also? She guessed so. "Um, I'm Kristen Ford."
He smiled at her. But then, it slowly faded and he peered closely at her. "Wait, Ford?" he asked.
"Yeah," Kristen said, confused, "Why?"
"Are you, by any chance, related to Annalise Ford?" he wondered.
Okay, she had not expected that. "Yeah, actually," Kristen replied, "She's my sister."
"Oh, okay," he said nodding, "I thought the name sounded familiar."
Kristen raised her eyebrows. "Wow, I didn't think anyone knew my sister," she said, "She's such a recluse."
David smiled. "Yeah, actually lots of people know her. She used to come around here a lot, but then suddenly for some reason she just disappeared."
"So did you like... talk to her?"
"Not really," he replied, "I just remembered her because of her head of rainbow. I had never seen anything like it."
"Oh I know! All those colors, it’s like it changes every time she moves her head, right? She actually has blonde hair. But I don't know where she gets it. Everyone in my family has dark hair," Kristen said.
"Yours isn't very dark," he remarked.
Kristen eyed one of the ponytails hanging at the side of her head. "Well red is definitely no platinum blonde."
David smiled again. "You know, I've always liked a redhead."
Kristen felt herself blush slightly. "Well your hair's kind of red, isn't it?"
David shrugged. "I guess," he replied, "But yours is a better red by far."
"But it's not totally red," she said, blushing again, "I mean, it's like a brownish red. And then there’s this blonde streak?"
David suddenly looked around to her other side. "I didn't even notice that," he remarked, "Wow. How did that happen?"
"I was born with it. Something wrong in the follicles," Kristen replied, "Although I dreamt that one night when I was little, a troll crept into my room and blessed me with a special gift that was only visible through my blonde streak. And then he kissed me..."
Ugh. She did not just say that she dreams about trolls, especially kissing trolls to a stunningly gorgeous guy. But he just chuckled. "Here's your class," he said.
Kristen finally looked away from him and to the door he was pointing at. 404, yep that was it. How did they get there so fast?
"I guess this is where I leave you," David said.
"Yeah," Kristen sighed.
"But I'll see you later," David said.
He would? Would they actually see each other again? "Yeah?" Kristen asked hopefully.
"Yeah," David replied, smiling, "Have fun in class."
No comments:
Post a Comment