Student's Day Out
ONE: MONDAY AFTERNOON
The train pulled into the station. Ese looked irritated at her watch. She
was 15 minutes late. Five was fashionable, but that train should have
dropped her off 10 minutes early. And still they insisted the trains were
riding on time. Yeah right. On all days except the one you needed to be on
time.
And indeed, her mobile phone rang. That would be Neeku, her best friend who
she had told she would absolutely be in Leuven at 12.30.
"Hi!" Ese said when she took the call.
"Hi! Have I missed you or something?"
"No, my train was late... I'll be there in a minute."
"Ok, I'm waiting in front of the station."
Ese raced through the station with a speed that was almost treacherous
considering the shoes she was wearing (no, not her tevas, her walking
shoes) and the wet underground of the station's walkthrough. Rain always
managed to get down there, even with the stairs being covered.
Slipping Ese took the escalator to Track 1 and then rounded the corner.
She waved when she saw Neeku only a couple of metres away, leaning
casually against the rail of the stairs.
Neeku saw Ese, waved back and then started walking toward her. They hadn't
seen each other in weeks and had only communicated through e-mail, which
was a limited conversation at best. It took away all of the moment's spontaneity, but it had brought her 4 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Ese had put on paper for her. Ese's remarks on the episodes and the way
people acted in them were classic. Well maybe they were classic for
someone studying Psychology. But Neeku was studying Psychology as well so
the humour and little analyses made her laugh.
"Sorry, my train was late." Ese started the conversation.
"I just wasted half a day." Neeku said at about the same time.
"Yours seems worse." Ese laughed, "I only missed half an
hour."
"Well I set my alarm clock real early so I could look up some texts
for my thesis."
"Ahh yes, the never-start-on-it-yourself project." Ese remarked.
"Indeed, too bad you have to." Neeku said and then added a bit
sadistic, "Do you know you won't be able to choose which statistic
program you're going to follow next year? They've mixed the two and from
next year on everyone has to take everything."
"No! Why didn't I pass last year!!! I so wanted to do a statistics
course this year." Ese sighed. She really had wanted to take a
statistic course to be rid of it the next years. But she had had one point
short of carrying it over to the next year without having to retake it. Bad
luck.
"Anyway, did you know the library is closed this week? So I've been
doing nothing all morning."
"I think they list those closed dates in our journals. But I'm not
sure."
"Well at least I won't have to come back Thursday like I had planned."
"That's something."
"You know, when a student wants to start working ahead they won't let
her."
"Yes and then they complain when you bring it in on the last day
you're allowed too."
"Always like that."
"Let's just go shopping and then I'll tell you how Buffy ended last
week."
Ese headed toward the main shopping street, which just happened to lead
right to the station and Neeku followed her, listening to the ramblings of
her friend with interest. They passed the first few stores... clothes
didn't much interest Ese and Neeku hadn't said anything about wanting to
enter and then Ese stayed as far away as possible from clothing stores. If
anything could be dubbed Hell on Earth...
But soon they passed Fnac, a mega-store with video-games, dvd's, cd's and
especially books... lot's of books. Neeku and Ese walked in, interrupting
the Buffy talk for a moment.
"Need anything specific?" Neeku asked.
"Seena wants the single from 'My Immortal', the radio version is
prettier than the album version."
"Oh yes, with the guitar solo!" Neeku interrupted.
"Very." Ese said, "How do you like the clip?"
"Daring, the black and white, but it looks so good. I like their
clips, they're always simple and powerful."
"I'm not too sure about the first clip, but that one's better than
the new one from Britney Spears. Toxic it's called I believe."
"I know. Is there any hair colour she didn't have in that clip?"
"It's an insult toward flight attendants!" Ese added.
"I haven't seen the start..."
"Well you've seen the outfit."
"True... and that white-glittery thing. What's that? a net?"
"Something like that... I haven't seen her trying to be this sexy
since 'I love rock and roll'... she totally slaughtered that
song. As if Five didn't already mess with it enough."
"I'll never be able to look at a new Harley again with the same
respect." Neeku sighed, "Why oh why?"
"I never really watched the clip entirely, I tried... but well it's
such a raped version of the song."
They searched a bit for some new fantasy books but didn't found many. They
passed the series on the cave-people by Auel. "They're really good. I
can lend them to you if you want." Neeku said.
"No thanks... I like fantasy, but cave-people aren't really my thing.
Not enough well-thought kills."
Neeku smiled. "Maybe Seena..."
"I'll ask, but she's still behind. I think she has about 20 books she
still has to read."
They passed under a giant poster of Pink's latest cd. Ese looked at it and
started about music again.
"At least Pink doesn't look like she wants to be a hooker when she
wears those dresses... not that I like her music that much."
"Have you seen that latest song from Christina Aguilera?"
"Too soft and sugary. I liked her songs like stronger more."
"This one isn't that bad either. She's a tad better than Britney."
"I don't know... 'Dirty'? What was that clip about?"
"The lyrics were ok, the clip was a bit too much, yeah. It seems that
that lately is the way to go. First you are a nice virgin teenage
cheerleader with blond hair and then you change overnight to lesbian femme
fatal."
Ese laughed. The remark was so right it was funny. "Almost as much a
change as Micheal Jackson."
"At least he gets noticed." Neeku remarked innocently.
The two of them left Fnac and entered the coffee-house Jacquemotte.
"I want to show you some of my new drawings. The flower dragons more
precisely."
"You've got them with you?" Neeku asked, "I can't wait to
see them."
"Do I ever leave home without them? Oh and I've finished the Dragon
Tears dragons as well. I have those with me as well."
"Great!" Neeku answered, going through the pages of drawed
dragons.
"Someone told me I was getting better yesterday." Ese remarked
casually.
Neeku flipped to the next page which displayed a mushroom female flower
dragon.
"Wow... I can imagine if they saw this one." Neeku said,
"Yesterday when I showed my mother the image of the amaryllis she
asked why you hadn't chosen something more in drawing as a career
choice."
"Well I can't draw many other things... beside I only started in
college."
"I told her that too. So when will I be seeing these?"
"I still need some time to get myself organised. Why do the holidays
always go by so fast? I feel like I've done nothing serious yet."
"You still have a week."
Ese finished her cold milk as she watched Neeku sip the last of her warm
cocoa.
"Let's get going again. I promised my mother I'd get this free dvd
from the paper."
"Whereto?" Neeku asked as she got up from the table. She looked
out the window and sighed. Though it was warm for the time of year
outside, it looked like raining. The skies were overcast and it seemed
almost night.
"The Standard." Ese said, "Nice and far away."
"Well we can stop at my room to pick up Seena's book when we're
headed there."
"Fine with me."
"Oh and stop at the PSI... I want to see if their are any
announcements about the next semester."
"We'll have a lot more lessons together." Ese said, "That
will make them a bit more enjoyable."
"Do you know the hours for animal-psychology have changed..."
Neeku said as they headed toward the tall cubed grey building of the
Psychological Institute.
They had gone round the corner when a tall figure, face hidden behind a
large black coat hurried to the corner. The man slowed down just a bit
when he turned the corner. He saw the two young women walking in front of
him.
"They seem good possibilities." he said to no-one in particular
and went on.
Neeku, Seena and Ese are Candidates at Isla
Weyr.
All Firelizards adopted at the FGPC at Isla
Lantessama
Isle
Font used is called 'Da
Bomb'
Background was found here