Sairah saw the college compound as a world of its own. This place was like the town that she came from but as a school with intricate designs and long confusing hallways.
"Stick by me alright?" The student assigned to help her navigate had pale skin and brown hair. She was in most of Sairah's classes and liked helping people. That was why she signed up for this role.
Sairah did as she said. If she wandered off she was bound to get lost.
Marcy and Leigh-Anne had not moved to Oxford yet so Sairah was staying with her grandparents. Packing her stuff and saying goodbye to everyone had felt like a dream since she had practically just moved in. Jade had gotten her a special cake and had cried on her before she went into the car. Sairah almost called the whole thing off when those silent tears left her partner's eyes. Was this really what she wanted? If I don't do it now I'm gonna have to do it later. The best course of action was to get this out of the way as soon as possible.
"We've still got a long way to go but we won't be late. We started early." The girl's name was Susan. She was getting kind of breathless with all the walking but was pleasant anyway.
"The class is at nine so we got like thirty minutes." Sairah held some text books in hand since they hurt to hold in her bag. "Why are these so big and bulky anyway?"
"That's uni for ya. Huge textbooks with loads of info." Said Susan. "I'm rather excited to get started."
"Yeah me too. So I can be done with it." Sairah felt sick to her stomach. Everything around her was too much and nothing all at once. When I moved out of that shit neighbourhood to that rich ass town it wasn't this draining but for some reason I'm getting winded now. How annoying right?
"What? You're not buzzing to discover more about your major?" Susan seemed shocked.
"I mean . . . I don't know. It's just a thing I'm doing 'cause it'll help my business if I do. And my grandparents like that I'm doing this so yeah." Sairah shrugged.
"Hmm . . . usually the number one person for A-levels in the country is extremely invested in their school work. How did you top if you didn't care much about what you studied?" Susan knew this girl. She had come up in dorm conversations quite a few times since she moved here. Some people were impressed by her and excited to witness her brilliance up close while others could not wait to knock her down through exam rankings and test scores. Susan herself had just been surprised to know that she was autistic on top of being dyslexic. The people she told had been surprised too. Sairah Princewel did not strike anyone as being on the spectrum. I suppose I can sort of see it but only now that I'm up close. Was it meant to be a secret? Why hadn't anyone known?
"I cared enough to dedicate hours to reading pages and pages of tiny words in a text book." Sairah hated studying. "I had the audiobooks but sometimes I'd just read 'cause I get distracted when I gotta listen to some lady."
"Do you get easily distracted often?" Susan was very intrigued by her.
"Kinda. I dunno." Sairah held her books under her arm.
"Hmm . . . interesting." Susan looked forward. "What's your special interest?"
"What do you mean? What do I like?"
"People on the spectrum usually have a special interest. Have you got one? It's basically something you can get invested in and talk about for hours."
Sairah had heard of that. "Uhh . . . Don't think I have one. I don't talk for hours about anything. I like food."
Susan giggled. "How come you're not chubby then?"
"People are around to make sure I don't overdo it. I actually have a problem. That's what they say anyway. Like an overeating issue."
