In Halls

Sous Chef

After meeting Christopher I retreated to my room, and spent the afternoon procrastinating my unpacking by reading the piles of student leaflets from my welcome pack. There were adverts for every single Freshers event in what was frankly a phenomenal waste of paper, given that I'd seen most of them online too. I had induction and registration at the Faculty of Biological Sciences, and our Halls had a welcome session, but other than that I was free to indulge in the rolling programme of Freshers Fairs throughout the week, covering every kind of student society, not to mention the nights out.

At around 4pm, Christopher knocked on my door to tell me that two more people had arrived, Josh and Elizabeth, and they were all meeting at 8pm in the kitchen for pre-drinks before the Union's Freshers Opening Night party.

"Thought you might like to come along," he said with a friendly smile. I was relieved to have been invited, and doubly relieved to have a bit more time to psych myself up before meeting Josh and Elizabeth.

"Thanks," I said, "I'll be there."

When I shut the door, I realised that my bras were still on the floor in full view. Kicking myself, I dragged myself into some kind of sorting mode. Stashing clothes and underwear into the tiny wardrobe and the drawers under my bed, I puzzled over what to wear for a night out that promised to be both vital for my social position in the flat, and filled with more cringes than an American teen drama show. I'd packed all my best dresses, but none of them looked up to much, and I briefly considered using some of the new student loan that had just been transferred into my bank account to buy an outfit. I dismissed the idea. For a start this was a new town for me and I had no idea where the shops were. Plus, my brother had told me I'd need a lot of that money for alcohol. I wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of drinking away money designed to support my education, but people always said it was part of the experience, and not a part I wanted to just miss.

With the clothes away, the next thing to unpack was my books. There were two shelves over the desk, adjacent to the window, and filling them with books made a remarkable difference to the homeliness of the room. It didn't make it feel like mine, but it made it feel like somewhere I could stay for a while.

At half five, I began wandering back and forth from the kitchen, a little hungry and uncertain on how much I should rely on Ed's dinner offer. It didn't seem right, really, for him to cook for me when the whole flat had only just met. Increasingly, I felt like it would just seem weird. Plus, I had completely failed to mention that I'd been a vegetarian for about the last decade. Cooking for myself most of the time at home, it wasn't something I frequently had to think about anymore. I met Elizabeth on my second trip to the kitchen, carrying a handful of utensils to give myself a sense of purpose.

"Hey, you must be Elizabeth, right?" I asked. "I'm Ellen, I'm in room 1."

Elizabeth was a slight, skinny girl with plenty of dark, curly hair. She was unpacking a few large shopping bags.

"Hey, cool, nice to meet you. I haven't met many people yet, just Christopher and Tara. I arrived pretty late."

She had a shy, sweet smile. Perhaps things weren't going to be too bad.

"There's this guy Ed, and then Josh who I haven't met yet I think. That's all of us," I told her. "What are you studying?"

"Theatre and Performance... hey, are you coming out tonight?"

"I guess so, are you?"

"Yeah, one hundred percent," she said, very seriously. "I mean it's Freshers Opening Night, we can't miss it! What are you going to wear?"

I laughed.

"I have no idea. You?"

"Oh my God, same! It's like, do we dress up or dress down or what is it even like here?"