The Cold Genius And His Clumsy Girl.

New Friends.

Adrenaline rushes through Anna's veins when she thinks about starting another great day, as today is the second day of orientation. Leaving early in the morning, she arrives at college at seven o'clock in the morning. Her mum will not drive her to college anymore starting today, since she wants to be on her own. Lucky for her, her mum doesn't have any objection. She's eighteen and her mum thinks it is time for her to learn to be independent. Which she herself fully agrees to the idea.

Sitting at the bus stop in front of the main gate, Anna stares at her phone screen. Reading the text from Sara, who is still in her Grab car, on the way to college. They had made a plan earlier. When Sara arrives, probably in a few minutes later, they will walk in together. While waiting for Sara, she recalled yesterday's event, and cannot help but cherish the time she was introduced to Josh, the genius senior. Hopefully, she will be able to meet him again today so that she can ask him for some study tips. An average science scorer like her, really needs help from a better student. As Josh's image appeared in her mind, her eyes scanned her surroundings, looking at some of the newly arrived students, hoping one of them would be Josh.

After coming home yesterday, when she told her mum everything about her first day in college, she even reported every single detail, including her lucky encounter with Josh. How excited she was until her mum could clearly see she was enjoying her new college life. And she did tell her mum she liked it there. As her mum told her, she could admire Josh's excellent result but be careful not to show too much interest in him, a top student who might be famous among girls too, to avoid any unnecessary drama. Her mum also encouraged her to quickly put some effort into making friends with her new classmates.

Making friends, however, wasn't Anna's specialty and she wasn't sure whether she could make it done in a short time according to her shy and introverted personality. When she was in high school, it was her best friend, Veronica, who is now in the government Pre-University Programme, who led her to get to know everyone in the class and she just followed her. But with just Sara, who has the same personality as her there, it may take some time for them both to get used to the new environment.

"What are you thinking?"

Sara's voice startled Anna as she looked at her friend who was now standing in front of her in her full black casual outfit. Not sure when she arrived, Sara seemed to be a bit in favor of the black color as she also wore black yesterday. Anna, however, chooses a white polka dotted button-up blouse and black pants. And it was her mum who recommended her outfit for the day, which she gladly agreed to. Sounds like a mummy's girl, right? Well, what can she say?

"Nothing! Let's go in!" Anna said, pushing away every single thought of Josh in her mind while getting up from her seat. Carrying a bagpack on her shoulder, she started making her move towards the front gate together with Sara, heading to the main hall for their second day of orientation, along with other new students.

The briefing for the day started with the assessment of co-curricular activities participation and how they can help students with their scores. They were given a form to fill in later after making out their choices for society, sports and uniform club. They got into their classroom on the third floor of the second building once the briefing ended in an hour.

"Today, I have an announcement. Anyone who wishes to change courses or college will have to submit their application on Friday afternoon the latest. But the result will only be out at the end of the month, which is two weeks later. Carefully make your choices and make sure you are aware of the consequences and the challenge waiting for you if you wish to stay in this class. I remind you again, the syllabus is very tough. If you have another choice, please consider it. You may not regret your decision later."

Sadly, Miss Hemelia, the kindly, hard-to-please English teacher, seems to be their homeroom teacher. After providing some important information, she reminded them of the same things again and again. Everyone responded with a sigh.

"I'm going to change courses and college. I'll do Accounting." Sara informed Anna about her plan. She had already discussed it with her parents last night and they had already agreed to her decision.

Anna frownes. "Are you sure? I'll be alone here if you leave." Sara is her only friend there, but now she's going to leave. How is she going to survive? Oh, no!

"Let's go with me!" Sara said. "Science Stream is too hard. And I don't really like Biology." She continued.

"No! We don't have a basic in Accounting. It's not easy to start from scratch. I'll stay here until the third semester." Anna refused to go with Sara. If Sara really wanted to go, she could never stop her but, she would like to stay no matter what happened. And her decision is final. Even her mum cannot stop her at this point.

The English lesson ends just before recess time. If yesterday they almost gave up on buying food, today Anna and Sara manage to buy some sausage buns at the cafeteria to feed their empty stomachs. From afar, Anna can see her one and only boy classmate, Carter Hayes, queuing up for food before he then sat at the same table as yesterday. Facing each other, Anna couldn't help but observe his lonesome state as he ate alone, his face was expressionless, as he completely ignored the noise in his surroundings. Like a deserted cold ice mountain in a summer crowd, he remains unaffected.

Does he even have a heart? If so, his heart is undoubtedly made from a cold stone.

Back to the classroom twenty minutes later, they had a class meeting to appoint the classroom monitor and other positions as per instructed by Miss Hemelia earlier. Although she wasn't going to monitor them, the list of names with appointed positions had to be on her desk by noon.

"I volunteered to be the class monitor! I was a classroom monitor and a head prefect before. Please, raise your hand if you agree!" A girl, Sadie, announced to the whole class. Everyone agrees with the idea as they all raised their hands with no objection at all.

As soon as they successfully appointed Sadie as the class monitor, Anna raised her hand. "I want to be the assistant monitor!"

Her unusual reaction somehow shocked Sara as she said to Anna, "Are you sure? You'd never want to get involved in something like this before. Why a sudden change?" Her face frowns.

"Teacher said earlier that we can get extra marks if we hold a position in class, club or anything. So I've made up my mind. I want to hold as many positions as I can." Anna replied with full courage.

Indeed, Sara is right, when she was in high school, she never wanted to hold any position and rarely participated in school events unless it's mandatory. Unlike Sara who was a head prefect just like Sadie. However, she is determined to break her shell and get out of her comfort zone. And lucky Anna, she also got the classroom monitor position easily without any objections. The voting for the classroom positions went well as the girls gave their full commitment, unlike the only boy, Carter. Sitting quietly in his place, he rejected all the positions offered. A girl, named Leah, was appointed as the class secretary and Sara, as the class treasurer. The rest of the positions also went to girls. One good thing about the voting is that Anna gets to interact more with her new classmates, well, of course, except for Carter, who was extremely quiet. There's Delilah, Sabrina and Joy, another introvert girl in glasses.

"I'm thinking about joining you in curricular activities since I don't have any friends here. Have you filled in the curricular form?" Joy asks. They gather at Anna's place once the voting is over.

"I've not done yet. Still making up my mind, what about you, Sara?" Anna replied while staring blankly at the form in her hands before turning to Sara.

"I've chosen St John Ambulance for the uniform club. I'm not sure yet about the rest." Sara said, also holding her form.

Anna turned to Joy and said, "I think St John Ambulance is good. Let's join the club."

Joy nodded and they both quickly wrote down their choices in the form given.

"I'll do indoor sports. They seem a bit easy to me. You?" Joy asked Anna again.

"I'll join bowling. Sara?" Anna answered.

"Mee too." Sara replied in short.

The three of them then decided to join the same society and finished the discussion. However, the final result might differ and they might not get what they had chosen. They knew it from the beginning as the teacher had already informed them. No matter how the result came out, Anna was somehow happy she got to know Joy. She seemed like a nice and lovely girl, so she was looking forward to getting to know her better.

"Anna, can you go with me to the teacher's room? We need to hand her the list of appointed names." Sadie, the classroom monitor, appeared in front of Anna once Joy moved back to her seat.

"Okay." Anna replied and quickly got up from her seat.

They both walked together to the teacher's room on the second floor of the first building through the adjoining corridor. They leave the paper on Miss Hemelia's table since she's nowhere to be seen and decide to inform the teacher by sending a text. On the way back to the classroom, they have to pass by the Chemistry lab.

"Anna!"

Not sure whether someone was calling her name or she was just being delusional, Anna turned around and looked at the faces of the students in the lab. They were undoubtedly her seniors, as Anna could clearly see Josh and his friends were sitting in the front, listening to Sir Theo's lecture. And they were smiling at her. Ignoring her seniors, Anna continues walking.

The rest of the day went well. Anna was somehow happy she had made some new friends with her classmates. They handed out the circular form at the end of the day. School ended at three thirty. Sara got out early again today. Joy, Anna's new friend, will also go back home by Grab car, so they both plan to walk to the front gate together. Gathering her things, she took her bag and turned around, only to see Carter was looking at her. Their eyes meet but at the same time, her mineral water bottle suddenly falls onto the floor while Carter is still eyeing her.

Why did her drink need to fall onto the floor whenever Carter is around? Is this considered bad luck or what?