"Okay sweetie. Your father and I will send over the signatures required. That's the one form right?"
"Yes, that's all there is to sign, thanks."
"How long will it take for you to get it?"
"It won't take long from Belarus. It's airmail. Probably no more than a week."
Nola felt really tired speaking to her parents. It demanded a lot of energy from her to speak to someone she had not spoken to in a long time.
She sat down beside behind Allie who was lying on the ground reading a children's novel. She grabbed Allie from behind and lifted him and hugged him. He giggled.
"Let's play something together?"
"A card game!" They took out a pack of cards.
"Let's call Lauren to join." Allie had made the weirdest face when he talked to Lauren. He was still a kid and the sight of a massive land lubber of a person amazed and frightened him. "People can get that big? As big as cows?" he had asked Nola.
"She's busy in her room working" Nola had imagined her with the bottles of soda in her room. She didn't have to imagine it any more when she passed by her room just as Lauren's large body left her room. It was exactly as she imagined. She kept two litres of diet supermarket brand coke under her desk. When Nola wanted to take a selfie with her, she would stand at the farthest end of the room with half her body behind some furniture. At least she's self-conscious of her size, Nola thought. She didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing.
"I miss the games and toys we had in our home," Allie said. Nola saw a tinge of sadness and home sickness in him. It was the first time Allie mentioned missing his home.
"We'll grab some for next time. We'll bring the whole basket of legos over. Our old house is always going to be there," Nola replied with sympathy and without a trace of home sickness to act strong.
Nola moved from Belarus to Ireland when she was only eight and had long overcome home and country sickness. She has long the developed coping mechanisms. You should look forward not back. For Allie, school was next.
"You're going to school next week." Nola said in voice lower than normal. She wasn't sure how much Allie looked forward to school.
"Oh," he replied absent-mindedly.
"Don't worry, I can see you making loads of great new friends." Nola reassured him.
"Thanks," he replied with an angelic smile without his usual mischievousness. Nola returned the smile.
Nola would be starting university a week after Allie. She had all her details registered with the college and she had received her college ID card. She had already joined the gym they had in the university. Gyms were great places to make new friends.
The gym on the college campus was state of the art. It contained an Olympic sized swimming pool, sauna, jacuzzi, multiple sports hall and an impressive collection of all the equipment you need to lose weight or build muscles. Members also have the choice to attend free lessons in aerobic, yoga, dancing, twerking and whatever was hip these days. What it didn't have was a boxing ring which disappointed Nola but it wasn't completely necessary. There was a boxing gym and a library beside it within a five minute walk to their new home. All the prerequisites were in place. All I need now is my social circle. This posed no trouble to her as her self-proclaimed number one talent was making friends. She had so much confidence in her ability that her confidence might be the root of her powers.
She went out in the afternoon bringing Allie with her for some fresh air. Nola wanted to show him the university, the reason they moved here. They went around the campus, checking the various departments. The nursing building was the most fanciful one and had the comfiest lecture halls. They were almost like lounges. The commerce building had an old looking Roman architecture building connected to a modern glassy building. Fairly high class looking. I wouldn't have mind studying accounting here instead.
The next one they saw was an absolute monstrosity of a building. It loomed over the landscape as a gigantic rectangular slab of concrete that had triangular shapes jutting out randomly. It was brutalism architectural. The style that was all the rage in her parents' time of the USSR. The intended effect the artist was clearly expressing to Nola was to personify despair and unimaginative pain just like the reign under Stalin. Yes, it was the engineering building titled Alice Berry; the title plaque was all typesetted in lowercase for whatever reason as well. Clearly neither the architects nor the typesetter knew of simple grammar or design. I'm sure all the male students that you find in engineering would be delighted that the building was named after Alice where the average ratio of male to female in engineering was 40:1. It reeked of desperation to attract members of the opposite sex to this creativity sterile discipline. She felt nauseous just looking at the colourless concrete slab, a place where souls go to wither.
...
Nola cycled hurriedly to college. She was already late on her first day and it wasn't even a 9am lecture. She parked hastily in front of the commerce building. Another student was locking his road racer to the railing beside her.
They caught each other's glances.
He nodded his head at her in salutations. He wore a sailor's captain cap so it looked like he was cosplaying and that aroused her interest. Nola thought his hat was mix of cool and cute and suited him. He had a nice Mediterranean, light tan complexion. Maybe he's Portuguese or Spanish? Finally I'm somewhere where I can meet and befriend people my own age.
Nola caught herself smiling and staring at the handsome person. Just when she was about to say hi, the young man turned his back to her and dashed in a full-on sprint towards the entrance of the building. Nola felt something but she wasn't sure what. She stood there lost. Maybe I'll try again later if he's in my class. This usually doesn't happen, she reassured herself, not being the one who took the initiative.
She slithered into the lecture room and grabbed a seat in the front. She saw the sailor boy from moments ago sitting at the very back. She wasn't wearing her glasses today and she was in too much of a rush to put on her contacts which she normally wore. The front was really the only place she could see. She was also going to treat college with a bit of seriousness and only the ones with intent sat at the very front.
The lecturer was a short woman and obviously a Texan. This was given away by her heavy yee-haw accent. The cowboy hat, jacket and boots that she donned in class also gave away her cultural identity unless she was also cosplaying.
"Alright, so those of you that arrived late to class," her eyes glanced at Nola who wasn't one to be affected by blame and imitation, "I need everyone to bring in a passport sized photo to me, stickered onto a page with a short bio of yourself."
Nola found it a bit strange that she wanted to collect an album of her students but perhaps it was just the American way. Sort of like the NSA.
"I will also be dividing you into groups soon for the marketing project. I'll be grouping you all in fours with other students from you own disciplines. The master students in marketing, the digital media groups, the HDips, the PhDs and so on."
When the lectures were over for the day, Nola went home to make some lunch for herself and Allie. She also prepped up the dinner for tonight for Lauren and Allie. She saw Lauren and Allie playing a videogame with each other on the big TV. Nola was kind of glad of the fact that were good friends but she was also worried that he might get suckered into the gamer life and end up with a body mass like Lauren. She didn't want him to become a gamer. Diabetes worried her as well. She told Lauren that she was going to be out for the night and she gladly agreed to watch over Allie as she did whenever Nola went out.
She took out her smartphone and checked the new messages from the marketing student's group chat. They were all pre-drinking out in town before heading to the bar on the college campus. It was going to be a long, wild night.
She went back to her classroom hub in the commerce building to meet up with a few she got to know during the morning. There were three in the room when she got there. Rachael, who was a girl she acquainted herself with during the orientation class, a blonde silent girl that was queerly quiet and Asim, a happy go lucky Indian man. There were many Indians amongst the international students of the MSc marketing group.
"Ah, she's arrived," Asim said. Asim was short and stubby and carried a manner as if he owned the place.
"I'm the last one?"
"Did we text anybody else?” Rachael asked the group.
"We ain't waiting anymore!" Asim said excitedly. "Let's go! The lads are drinking already." Asim spoke in a high pitch husky voice with urgency and in a thick Indian accent.
They headed out towards the college bar. Nola chatted with Asim as they walked upfront. He was easy to talk to and she enjoyed his company but his mouth would not shut up. She became weary with him after a while. Paying heed to the tantamount silence that echoed from Nicole, Nola dropped back to join the other two girls.
She introduced herself to Nicole who she had not had the chance to talk to yet. Nola was drawn in to her silence. She appeared to be the awkward kind.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
"What did you study for your undergrad?” she asked.
"Mechtronic Engineering." she said. That explained things, Nola thought.
"Here?” Rachael chimed in.
"Yeah.". Nicole's voice was quiet and quavered a bit. She told them she had a work placement in her specialisation but she shook her head at that memory. She hesitantly told them that she has worked as a receptionist in a small tourist office since graduation.
Nola checked her out as a man would. Nicole had long hair bleached blonde and a cleft chin. She was overwhelmingly feminine and spoke in a really soft voice that she had to strain herself to hear what was being said. Nola admitted even as a female that Nicole was pretty. She found herself naturally attracted to her delicate femininity which she lacked in parts. Nola just before, was loud, joking and playful with Asim. Now she threaded carefully along the reserved nature of Nicole. Her femininity was delicately fragile and drew up masculine instincts from Nola to protect her.
Just when Nicole was starting to form longer sentences, Asim forced his way back to join the conversation. To Nola's surprise, Nicole completely ignored Asim and so he quietly slid beside Rachael.
The more Nicole talked, the more confident her voice grew. She took on a haughty tone when she recounted her years in engineering as if telling a heroic tale. Nola did not doubt her at all for how much it took her to survive four years in the metallic hell she spoke about. There was an egotism that no doubt you needed in order to survive that cold world where men are stubborn enough to occupy.
They arrived at the plaza where the student bar was. The bar was called Hunger. "It should be called thirst more like it," Nola joked to them.
They found others from their course at the back patio of the bar. There were a few picnic tables that were hoarded by the marketing students. The two class reps were there at the centre with a few others, all merrily drinking. Nola called out to them and they returned their greetings in a fraternity triumph raising their pints.
"Party's just getting started," a skinhead looking man called out, "get yourself a pint. We got more here then." He pointed to the pitchers of obviously cheap alcohol on the outdoor wooden table.
Nola asked Rachael to come along with her and said she'll pay for the first round for her group of four.
"We didn't ask them." Rachael was a short and slightly chubby girl. Her face was excessively round that not even her long, reddish brunette hair that stuck to the side of her face could hide. It was like a big, soft pudgy ball that sat on her shoulders. She wore a stylish black leather jacket like Nola.
"Ah, it doesn't matter. All beers taste similar."
Nola tapped her card and paid for four Heinekens. Can't go wrong with the general choice. She passed the beers to her little group. A burly tall man with black straggling hair and a scruffy beard stood out from the rest. Nola remembered him as one of the class reps. He had a real leader quality in him. He wore a bright red sweater that strangely made Nola think of our lord and saviour, Jesus from daVinci's Last Supper. She sat beside him.
"Hey, I'm John. It's Jonathan really but everybody ignores the -nathon and calls me John."
"Nola, nice to meet you." She shook hands with the class rep.
"We were talking about the recent surge in all those Disney and Marvel movies," John explained the table talk.
"Ah, I've seen nearly all of them."
"Have you seen the latest one?"
"Not yet."
"That last climatic battle was ohh, it was amazingly done. The cinematography was faithful to the comics. Bravo to the director. You can tell when they actually show respect to the source material."
"Relax John, it's a movie made for eight year olds," said a man in horned rimmed spectacles across the table.
The horned rimmed glasses man's name Nola learnt was Cian and he interrupted John with banter after every serious remark of his.
"Objection, John," he said again after another one of John's speeches.
"Jalapeños are essential to pizza, surely everybody agrees here?" John asked, determined to find a common ground where they can all agree on.
"Agree," Nola said first, thinking back to the pizzas she used to order when her close friends Sarah and Ángelo came over.
"Nasty," Cian said. "What's your opinion, Asim?"
Asim looked at him blankly and said, "I'm Indian, of course I like Jalapeños."
"Hot and spicy's good but I prefer it away from the pizza," one of the other student said at the table.
"Out, you two," John spoke up. "Kindly leave this table now as your first order from your class rep."
"Suck it, man. Zoologically differences. Only the uncultured like spicy pizzas," Cian poked fun back at Jack.
"Vice versa, you got it the wrong way around," Jack retorted.
Ángelo always ordered pizzas with added Jalapeños, Nola thought back, much to the animosity from his wife against spicy food. Nola joked it's because he's Chilean. They would end up only getting it on one half which Nola and Ángelo took while Allie and Sarah took the non spicy half. Her new friends reminded her of the happy couple. She felt melancholic at the memory.
They chatted next about popular culture, local events and the ones who moved here talked about how nice the city was. Nola wanted to check up on the other tables but John dragged her with talk about the amazing cinematography of an animation film he had watched. They spoke of their undergrad courses. John studied philosophy and went on about Socrates, Plato, Hegel and other names that she had never heard before.
"I published a fantasy novel and for some reason it was on the bestseller chart in Italy." Nola would normally have been impressed by that fact but after so many topics that John had in-depth knowledge of, it felt natural. He was quite a scholar and a thinker. He was also handsome in a scruffy way.
She got up and walked to the edge of the patio after listening to the class rep's inexhaustive wisdom. She was not sober enough to pay attention to John's knowledge of the four corners of the universe. She looked out through the fence at the canal whilst sipping her beer. There were yachts parked further down. She looked around, searching, but didn't find what she was looking for. She wondered where the sailor boy was from the morning. Everybody was here. Maybe he didn't join the messaging group.
She went back to where Asim was. Nola was naturally good at making friends and soon she built up what she considered her beta orbiters. They were mostly the international students she had befriended. The international students were also all in the MSc so it was easy to form a tighter group with them. She created the Masters messaging group and got them all to join. She remembered that the sailor boy had attended a class for the master's only. He was one of them. She made a mental note that she'd ask him the next time she sees him.
Nola got dragged around into conversations. One particular was with a short man with a scruffy patchy beard with eye bags that rivalled Nola's own. He looked like a homeless person who was now clean. He was funny but Nola could smell the silent reek of desperation in his demeanour. He could do without her so she didn't particularly feel the need to befriend him. He wasn't her type. She liked to prey instead on the easy going loners. As she knew, they made for the best kind of friends, like Eleanor, even Allie in a way.
She knew of a singing competition taking place in the student building beside the college bar. She asked around and soon got a group together and went to listen to horrible amateur singing.
College was like a fresh breath of air after the life of wage slavery. There were many events at the beginning of the semester. Societies, clubs to join, get-togethers and all the drinking that follows with the new friends you meet.
...
For the first week, there was so much partying that her liver was getting destroyed. It was absolutely essential to build up networks early to be ahead in the game. For the next few days, she woke up every morning on the sofa after another heavy drinking session.
She woke up on the couch from another night of hardcore drinking. Confused, she called out to Allie. He's probably at school now, she thought. She had trained independence into him to be able to live without reliance.
She looked at the clock and the remaining life drained out of her. She had a new class at 11am. It was 11am currently. The class was Film Culture and it was one of the elective courses. When she first saw the list of courses, she was surprised that there was a module that sparked her interest. She was looking forward to this one and she was going to be late yet again.
She cycled like hell on wheels and made it in fifteen minutes to the Film and Art Department. It was a separate building located near the south pedestrian entrance. It took her some time to find it since she never explored the outskirts of the campus.
Nola was excited for this module. Watching films for class and getting paid for it.
She headed up the staircase and into a large auditorium room.
She crept into a seat at the back. She saw the sailor boy without his sailor cap in front of her. She has been intrigued with him since the very first day. He had been like a ghost who went in and out of lectures and she never could catch him casually. He never even showed up in their personal classroom hub. She had met everybody else but him. Today was the chance.
There was around twenty people in the auditorium. She spotted Jonathan the class rep and a few others.
The professor was a young lady that looked around her mid-twenties. A Doctor of Philosophy at such a young age.
The students were a mix of different departments. Most of the students in the class were women. Most people who go into arts were women.
The lecture slides went through topics such as: Credulity Effect, iconicity, hypertextuality, processional movement and many extremely theoretical terms that lost Nola in the world of the abstractness. She watched a lot of movies and she thought she would breeze through class where all everybody does was talk about films they liked. Apparently not. Then they watched a music video. It was a rap video.
"Thoughts?” the lecturer questioned the moral essence of the highly regarded work of art by a musician known as Big'Dongguz. "Anybody?"
Jonathan raised his hand. "If I may?" his head made a slight movement looking left and right even though there was nobody at his right side as he was sitting on the right side at the very top of the large round table of the auditorium.
"Sure. Go ahead."
"Before I begin, brilliant video. Brilliant, though I am not knowledgeable in rap but I could tell that there was an artistic integrity in every frame,” the class rep of marketing spoke matter-of-factly. "It was obvious that it was playing by the repressive rules of classical Hollywood," John spoke in his powerful contralto voice in full appraisal of the music video. It was not obvious to Nola. She glanced around to see if anybody else felt the same as her. They sat all like cardboard cut-outs.
"Yes, yes, that's a very good analysis. Jonathan is it?"
"It's Jonathan or John if you prefer. I don't mind," he spoke humbly and with much humility.
"Speaking of the repressiveness, I think we can break it down into the gender-representational rules of classical Hollywood cinema." The young lecturer launched into a lengthy talk about gender representations. Soon it divulged into what Nola thought was a very feminist outlook on the three minute rap video. The conversational exchanges talked on and on about gender. They watched another explicit music video. All talks rounded back into hyper-sexualisation and gender inequality.
So this was an infamous arts course, she thought. Nola now knew why the others chose the more technical modules like internet programming and such and not this bastardised film culture class. She did not expect the little young professor to be so vehemently woke. She saw John letting out sigh after sigh with furrowed eyebrows.
A long haired, unattractive, shy woman spoke up after another of the lecturer's lengthy diatribe. Nola didn't hear what he said because the ugly woman had a man's voice. She was in shock, she realised that it was a transgender male. The man had long, blonde hair with split ends and she heard him speak with a forced delicacy in his voice. She was pretty sure it was a he. The clothes he wore were women's clothes. There's no doubt about it. This class attracted weirdoes.
There was a break after the first hour. Nola watched sailor boy and was just about to make second contact with him but sailor boy had gotten up and left the room swiftly. He didn't return for the second half of the lecture. Nola also had thoughts on dropping this film culture class. This course was a bit too sexist for her.
For the next few weeks, she started to pay a large amount of attention to the sailor boy. He would come into class sometimes even later than Nola. Whenever she got up to talk to him to join their MSc messaging group, he would have slipped away like a ghost. She was sure he was deliberately avoiding her. He peaked her interest. It annoyed her so much.