Flatmates

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

She couldn’t be late, she could not be late…

Bell was half walking, half sprinting, towards the lecture building. Seeing as her accommodation block was on campus, she had allowed herself five minutes to walk there. But after waking up late, it was definitely longer than five minutes. She looked at her watch – she had precisely one minute. She turned round the corner, and she sighed in relief at the lecture building now being in sight. She walked to the end of the pavement leading to the building, went up the stairs, and thankfully saw that the door to her lecture hall was still open. She walked in, just as the chats taking place among students were stopped by the lecturer at the podium addressing them. Bell took the first free place that she saw at the end of a row, next to a guy with black hair.

“Just made it,” he whispered with a smile as she sat down. Bell smiled, before turning back to her bag and getting her books out as the lecturer began to speak about different forms of literature. After getting her books onto her lap, she finally began to listen properly, taking notes whilst the lecturer spoke. The hour went quicker than she had expected, and before long she was putting her books back in her bag and starting to stand up. She now only had five minutes to get to her seminar.

“Hey, it’s Annabelle, right?” She turned to her left, and saw it was the guy whom she’d sat next to in the lecture.

“Er…well, Bell, but yeah,” she replied, trying to place him in her memory. Over the past week she’d met so many people for only seconds and although she tried to remember names if had been an impossible task.

“I’m Nathan. We were partners in that library thing we had to do,” he said, and his words clicked into place in Bell’s memory. They had to find a list of books they’d been given in the library after being given a tour of where all the computers and stuff like that were. They’d only managed to find three out of ten, but she remembered laughing quite a lot with him.

“Oh yeah,” she replied with a smile. She looked at her watch – now three minutes. And the seminar building was a good walk from here.

Nathan, noticing her look, asked “Do you have a seminar with Collins next?” She nodded, and he smiled. “Me too. We’d better go.”

“Ok,” Bell replied, and together they made their way out of the building. They didn’t say much as they sped walked to the seminar building, and when they arrived they were the first ones there anyway.

“At least we’re not late. I so thought I was going to be for the lecture,” Bell said.

“I noticed,” Nathan replied. There was a pause whilst they got their books out, then he asked “Which accommodation do you live in again?”

“Apple House. You?” Bell asked.

“Pear House,” he answered, and Bell remembered walking past it on her way to the lecture building.

“Getting on with your flatmates?” Nathan questioned.

“Yeah, they’re great. Some of them are a little crazy, but the rest are ok. How about you?” Bell replied, wondering which category she would fit into.

“I’ve only spoken to two of them. The rest of them never seem to leave their rooms. So the three of us go out with others from the flat next to us, and they’re alright. It just always seems so quiet,” Nathan replied. Just as he finished speaking, other people began to arrive, followed by their seminar tutor, and soon after the seminar began. Similarly to the lecture, Bell found it went quite quickly, and found it interesting. She was even more surprised with herself when she commenting on one of the poems they were talking about – especially as at sixth form she had remained silent in most of her classes. After the two hour seminar she was feeling quite happy, and she began to pack away her stuff.