"Alice, Alice! Get up! You'll get late. Hans is already here to pick us up. We've our class in next 15 minutes. Get up!" I heard Susan's urgent voice. I look at the time. "Oh no! I am going to be so late! Why didn't you wake me up early? I shouted.
"We have been trying for an hour. But you didn't even respond once." Serene said.
I got out of the bed. There was no time to take a shower and I wasn't even keen on it so I just brushed my teeth and splashed some water on my face. I managed myself into a pair of blue denims and a grey sweatshirt, collected all my hairs into a messy bun and I was ready to go.
"No shower?" Zia asked.
"Its nothing new!" Serene laughed when I nodded a yes to Zia's question.
We heard Hans' honking. So, before letting any of my neighbours get irritated, I locked my door and we all rushed down.
"You look a whole lot of mess, Allie! But I am glad you made it today." Hans hugged me as I got into the car to sit next to him while the other three in the backseat.
"I'm messy and I like it!" I winked.
"Well, even I like messy." and he roared his Range Rover's engine to life. We drove from the busy streets of Upper Manhattan and reached in 10 minutes to Washington Square Campus, in the heart of Greenwich village. Normally, it takes 28-30 minutes from the FDR Drive but as we had Hans as our driver he always managed to get us there in maximum 15 minutes.
Our professor of Mathematics, Mr. Nicholas Rodgers, who was in his late twenties, had just started with Laplace transformation. We weren't that late so he allowed us in. He looked at me with sympathetic eyes and asked, "I'm sorry to hear about your parents. You okay?"
"Yes, Mr. Rodgers." I said faking a smile because I wasn't okay. How can someone be okay after their parents death. That too unannounced.
"Welcome back." He said and motioned with his hands to tell me to take a seat. Everyone behind him repeated, " Welcome back, Alice!" I smiled back at everyone and went to sit with my group at the end. I laughed inside. I was just away for a week or so and they're welcoming me. Is it out of pity or sympathy? Well, I don't need any!
My mind wasn't in class at all and Mr. Rodgers understood that when he asked me questions twice and I couldn't answer. I didn't even know what the questions were. But he didn't say anything and continued teaching. I was now used to sit quietly during the classes. I didn't participate in any of my group's discussion while in the class.
As the class got over, we were joined by few of Hans' friends. Everyone again started with 'sorry about your parents' and stuff. I never get why people say sorry for such things. It's not that they were responsible for it. I was sick of getting sympathies now. I didn't want any.
Their sympathies can never fill my loss.
As our Stats class got over, I thought of texting Neil. He said it was his frst day of internship.
'So, he was here for an internship,' I thought. I recalled the last night on terrace. Today, he will have to answer my questions for the answers I gave him yesterday.
I ended up calling him instead of sending a text.
"So, how is your first day going at work?" I interrogated.
"Everything is new and yet to be learned. You say, how's your college going?"
"Fine. So are we meeting in the evening ?" I came staright to the point.
