Normal People (Season 2)

September 2016

A/N: This takes place 6 months into Connell's course in New York

Connell is sleeping in his tiny bed in his tiny apartment. His alarm on his phone then goes off waking him up instantly. He then gets out of his bed even though he doesn't want to. He then opens his curtains to reveal "The City that never sleeps" New York

He then fixes himself some breakfast and decides to put on some music whilst he is making his breakfast. He goes over to his phone, open Spotify, and shuffles his main playlist. "New York groove" by Hello. 

A/N: PLAY SONG

Connell appears to be amused by the song that was chosen to be played. He finishes his breakfast, a simple Irish bacon butte. He takes his plate and sits down at his table. Whilst he is eating his bacon butte, he is scrolling his Instagram account on his phone. He stops scrolling when he comes across a particular photo. He sees Marianne with her new boyfriend, Daniel. He reads the caption of the photo which reads "Enjoying the summer holidays with my man". Connell puts down his phone and is visibly stressed from thinking about Marianne.

As Connell finishes his breakfast, he grabs the plate and brings it over to the sink. As he puts the plate into the sink he looks at his watch and sees the time is 08:27.

"Fuck, I will be late," Connell said, in a worrying tone.

He then grabs his phone, his coat, and his bag as fast as he can. He finally grabs his keys and rushes out the door. We then see him run down the street, looking for a taxi. He raises his hand at the taxi coming towards him

"TAXI!" Connell yells at the incoming taxi

The taxi slows down, then stops right next to him. Connell then steps in

"Brooklyn College, thanks," Connell says to the taxi driver

The taxi driver then starts to drive to Brooklyn College. Looking outside his taxi, Connell sees the streets of Brooklyn and thinks how that there is not a lot of differences between here and some of the streets in Dublin

The drive lasts only about 10 minutes. Once the taxi arrives at Brooklyn college, Connell gets out and pays the driver. 

He then walks onto the courtyard of the college and gets on his way to his first class. The courtyard is full of international students from all over the world.

Connell walks into his massive room that's full of students from all over the world. He walks up a few steps and walks over to where he would normally sit. The lecture begins to talk about how writing can come from many different forms and many different ideas. Connell appears to be very interested and drawn into what the lecture is saying. 

"Many writers in the past have used metaphors in their stories from their real-life experiences. For Example, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, as I am sure all of you are aware of who he is and what he wrote, if you look closely at what he meant in his books, you can see he used his experience from fighting in World War I to create what is considered today, the best trilogy in literature history. You see, Evil in Middle Earth, so the likes of Sauron, Saruman, the Orcs, The Ura-Ki, etc. They want to destroy the earth and nature and that's what Tolkien viewed whilst he was fighting in the trenches. So I suppose one thing I would like you all to take away from this class, is to know that a lot of the great writers of all time, used experiences in their life and just transferred it over to the page." The lecture says to the class

The lecture goes on for a few more minutes about how important it is to think about your life and experiences from yourself, are when it comes to writing.

He finishes up the class and tells everyone they can leave. We see Connell take his time in getting up out of his seat, walk down the steps, and walk out the door.

Connell is about walk off the courtyard ground of the college and goes back to his apartment but before he leaves the college grounds he hears someone calling his name.

"Hey, Connell!" Someone says

Connell then turns around and sees Michelle walking towards him. A beautiful 21-year-old blonde American girl.

"Oh hey Michelle, how have you been?" Connell asks her

"Not too bad just been busy with all of the work and study, you know," Michelle responds to Connell's question.

"Yeah I know exactly what you mean," Connell says

There are a few moments of silence between the two until...

"So, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to catch up with some coffee or something?" Michelle asks Connell

"I would love to Michelle, but I have to go back to my apartment and get started on the assignment the lecturer gave us this week," Connell says with nervousness in his voice

"Oh yeah, no problem, go ahead. Maybe next time?" Michelle asks

"Definitely!" Connell says with a bit of confidence

Connell then walks off the campus grounds in relief. He knows the reason why he can't go out with Michelle. He still thinks about Marianne every day, even though she has moved on from him.

Connell then decides to take a taxi into Manhattan. His taxi stops right around Central Park. He decides to take a quick stroll through the park. He then stops dead in his tracks when he sees on the ground, a circle inserted into the ground saying "IMAGINE". He then knows exactly who this is referring to, he then looks up and sees the Dakota Apartments across the street.

Connell then walks along the footpath and stops when he comes to a certain point and just stands there. He continues to stay in that same position for a few seconds until taking out his phone, puts in his earphones, opens Spotify, finds a John Lennon playlist, and hits shuffle. He then continues to walk down the footpath.