Sending Yesterday

II - Before (1)

August 2015. Forty-Six Months Before He Left

It was the first day of college. I hurriedly packed my bag and stormed out of my dormitory room. I once again glanced at my schedule and groaned as I saw the dreadful schedule for freshmen that day.

It was a whole day of orientations. Freshmen general orientation, college orientation, department orientation, and finally the block encounter. The last one I suppose was not the typical orientation I was thinking, it was merely a "meet-and-greet" your blockmates and coursemates event.

Classes doesn't start until the next day. And all I have that day was a schedule full of talking and boring stuffs. Bless my soul, I prayed to keep myself awake from those hours of sitting and staring into air.

With a hope of ending the day well, I proceeded with my day.

"What does a bloc leader do?" My sleeping soul was awakened by the person beside. It was the last orientation of the day and I had merely survived.

"Sorry, I was not listening. What's up now?" I honestly told her. I was embarrassed with the fact that she caught me in that state.

She gave out a small laugh and gave me a smile. "That's okay. This day is sort of boring too," she said.

I replied with a shy smile. Glad we had the same sentiments.

"Anyways, our registration adviser just mentioned about selecting a bloc leader. We barely even know one another, and who knows what one does," she continued.

No one seemed to like the idea of voting for a bloc leader for the same reason that the girl beside me mentioned. Our registration adviser insisted though that we must have one asap because she needed to submit the name to the council.

And she came up with a very terrible idea.

A draw lots.

Ms. Claudette, the registration adviser, made us wrote our names and inserted it in a box. Both I and the girl beside me was silently praying that our names would not be drawn. The probability would be small, but still there was a chance, and we would not want that chance.

The unlucky name, who'll suffer as a bloc leader for four years, was drawn. And thank all good heavens it wasn't me. It was not the girl beside me as well. It was a shy-looking girl from behind named Anya.

"I'm Nica, by the way," the girl beside me introduced.

"Dianna," I replied.

It was the day Nica and I became friends. Seatmates really are the first prospect for friends. And I was glad I found a normal one. She dressed well, and a little too confident to show some skin too. But her style suits her. It wasn't too much, and she just appears normal to me.

College introduces you to more diverse people. Different to what you were used to meeting in high school, different appearances and personalities from you. And I had always prayed to be friends with good people, looks like it's going to be answered.

The next day was the real start of classes. The first class was a minor subject, but it was History. And God knows how much I suck at History subject. I've got no choice though since it was part of the curriculum even when my major is Math.

Nica was sitting beside me as we wait for the professor.

"Aren't they too close and too loud for the first day?" I whispered beside Nica, referring to the group of classmates behind us talking too loudly.

"I heard they all took a college preparatory class the summer before school starts. Explains why they're sort of close," she explained.

College preparatory class? I didn't know such thing existed. All I did the whole summer was read books and binge watch movies. A typical teenager.

I accepted her explanation and went on to wait for the professor. I glanced over to that group of friends and found a descent looking guy at the end of the row.

Nice cut, white shirt, and fitted jeans. Just pretty normal-looking actually.

He was sitting near the window. He seemed to be part of the group, but he was not interacting much with them.

It was a question to myself why I had been continuously glancing over his direction. Maybe I was just fond of boys in white shirts. They look clean and pleasing to me.

I had found out during that class that he was actually pretty smart too, the guy in white shirt I mean. But a subject to being a teacher's pet as I see it soon.

"Any organizations you're interested in?" Nica asked while we were on lunch.

I hadn't thought much of organizations though, but I want to try out for the musician's org. I have that thing for music.

"The Notes I guess," I told her, referring to the name of the said organization.

"Cool, what do you play?" We were taken aback. It was not Nica who asked that but a random stranger.

He sat with us with his tray between his hands.

I gave him no answer. He was feeling too close, and I am not very interactive with those kind of persons.

"He's Jay, an Applied Mathematics student too. Guess you didn't notice him in class," Nica explained pertaining to the guy beside her.

Acknowledging the fact that he's a classmate, I gave him my answer, "Guitar and Bass."

"Nice. Audition opens next month, should we make a banner for you?" the guy named Jay jokingly suggested.

I would definitely give the guy a perfect 10 for social ability. Wasn't he acting too friendly, we have just known each other for like a minute or two.

"Brace yourselves then," I said as replied to his joke. It was just a joke too, but they took it too seriously with their reactions.

The three of us walked to the student lounge of the school dormitory right after lunch. Anya, the unlucky chosen one, called for a meeting. It would be mostly about the upcoming events.

"So, hi. We need to choose a representative for the school pageant during freshmen night. That would be two months from now," Anya started. She was definitely the shy type and she kept on adjusting her glasses as she speaks.

Poor girl, the unlucky card had written her name in it.

The male representative was easily chosen. It was Jay, with his social skills and confidence, everyone believed he could do well. Plus, he volunteered too. Another perfect 10 for confidence.

Two male students entered the lounge and apologized for being late.

"Sorry, we got lost," the guy named Geko explained.

One of them was the white-shirt guy I noticed in History class.

I glanced at him and examined his features. He settled himself peacefully at a sofa opposite to ours. If he wasn't late, I bet our classmates would think too that he would be a good candidate. He was quite good looking, tall, and toned. Plus, as I have mentioned earlier, he was pretty smart too.

Everyone must have refrained from bringing the idea up as Jay was already chosen. Funny because I didn't want to offend that new friend of mine too.

Choosing the female candidate was a little hard in contrast to what happened with choosing the male candidate. No one wanted to participate, and every name raised would decline.

We were down to our last two hopes. Nica and a girl named Gil.

"I have no experience with pageants," Gil tried to convince us.

"Me too, so I can't," Nica interrupted.

She turned to Gil and gave out a pretty huge smile. "You look very pretty. I'll help you so please say yes..."

"Don't worry, I'll help you with your clothes and walk," Nica offered.

"I'll help you with everything," Gil rebutted.

Everyone was stunned and fell silence with the exchange of lines.

I silently smiled and whispered in my thought, College is really amusing. Looks like I'm going to love it.

The debate ended and the meeting was concluded. Nica gave a victorious smile for not being chosen.

I saw Anya let out of a deep breath. Poor girl. She clearly doesn't want the position.

My attention was again caught by the guy in white shirt. He was still sitting on the same spot and was laughing beside Geko.

I excused myself to both Jay and Nica as I needed to go to the library to borrow a book before our next class.

I was busily searching for the book I was looking for when a man suddenly stood beside me. I almost screamed in surprise and covered my mouth to refrain from doing so.

"Why do you keep staring?" he curiously asked.

"Huh?" I guiltily replied. I avoided his gaze and diverted my attention elsewhere, just not at those deep-looking eyes. It was drowning. 

Just when I finally found what I was searching for, he stopped my hands from reaching the book, sending weird shivers to my spine.

"The name's Lei. Take a picture next time, it lasts longer," the white shirt guy jokingly said. He smirked but he was not giving off a bossy, conceited, and full of himself attitude.

"See you in class." He smiled and grab a book from above.

That scene would be something typical in romantic movies, where he would leave you with an unexplainable feeling and an irregular heartbeat.

I didn't feel that though.

He was just somewhat interesting.

But who knew...

Years later he would leave the exact same feelings I said I haven't felt with him before.