Even though people said this school was tough, the entrance ceremony was the same as any other school. Some important people offered words of thanks & the ceremony concluded without any incident.
Then, it was noon.
After we received some general info about the campus, the crowd dispersed.
Most of the students headed towards the dorms. The remaining students quickly formed into groups & headed towards the shopping area.
And I was left alone outside the gymnasium. Not even a single person asked me to accompany them.
After watching everyone's back disappearing, I decided to swing by the convenience store on my way back to the dormitory.
Entering the convenience store, I ran into Amanda once again.
Looking at her irritated face, I raised my hand and went towards her.
"So did you need to buy something?" I asked.
"Yes & why do you think I will be here if I don't need anything?" She replied with slight irritation in her voice.
'Why this girl is so hostile?' I thought.
There was no shortage of things you needed when starting life in a dorm, especially if you were a girl. Amanda took various items like shampoo off the shelves & threw them into the basket she was carrying. I thought she would choose higher quality items but she only took the cheapest ones.
"I thought girls usually care much about what kind of shampoo they bought or what brand of soap they use."
"Well, that depends on the person, doesn't it?" she replied.
She shot me a glare that seemed to say, 'Could you please not inspect other people's items without their permission?'
Noticing the obvious change in the atmosphere I tried to change the subject.
"So Amanda did you introduce yourself to someone? There were quite a lot of people looking at you during the class. You could have gotten to know several other students, & it would have been a chance to make friends." I asked.
"There are several reasons why I didn't introduce myself. First, my introduction might have caused some conflicts, depending on how things went. Thus doing nothing avoided trouble. Am I Wrong?"
"But, there was a high probability that you could have hit it off with everyone after introducing yourself," I said
"How did you arrive at that conclusion? Actually, if I argue this with you now, we will just end up in an endless debate. Let's just say that the probability of making friends was high like you said. So, how many people did you get to know?"
"Well…."
She gazed at me.
This was a valid argument. The fact that I hadn't introduced myself to anyone or hadn't even exchanged any sort of contact information, worked in Amanda's favor. It proved that there was no guarantee that introductions led to friendship. I instinctively averted my eyes.
"In other words, you have no hard evidence to support your claim that self-introduction leads to making friends?" she asked. "Besides, I never intended to make friends in the first place, so why should I even care about introducing myself?
Have I convinced you? Or not"
That reminded me of the disastrous first time I had tried to introduce myself to her. Come to think of it, it might have been some sort of miracle that, I managed to get her name.
People tended to have hidden depths, no doubt about it. Amanda might have been a more solitary, more aloof person than I had imagined.
After that brief discussion, we roamed around the convenience store without looking at each other. Even though she was somewhat uptight, being with her didn't feel uncomfortable.
After some time looking around, I found an interesting thing.
The noodle cups. And they had so many kinds. Beef, chicken, shrimp, mushroom chicken, laksa, chili crab & so many flavors. This was literally God's gift for me.
These were definitely the reason I'd come to the convenience store.
Noticing my figure standing still, drooling over some cup noodles, Amanda asked, "So, do boys really like this kind of stuff? I can't imagine that it is healthy."
With an excited tone, I said, "I can't say anything about any boys but these are my absolute favorite, they are cheap and come in 100 different flavors, you can't get bored with the taste. Like there is even the limited edition cup available here. You must try that one. I can buy that for you if you want."
"Why are you obsessed with cup noodles, you are the first person I have ever met, who is obsessed over such things & anyway those are not good for your health, you should stop eating them too often."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say," I said plainly.
I picked up a noodle cup and examined the price tag. It said $2.74, but I could not tell whether it was expensive or not. Even though the school referred to its credit system as points, the prices were all listed in dollars.
The store's prices seemed reasonable. One point was really equal to one dollar. Given that the average freshman's allowance was around 100 dollars, the amount of money we had received seemed outrageous.
Amanda, again noticing my odd behavior, gave me a quizzical look. I grabbed a noodle cup to avoid any suspicion.
"This is enormous. It's a G cup, huh?"
Apparently, that stood for "Giga Cup", btw never heard of that one, they would have added this in the latest edition. Just looking at it made me feel full.
On an unrelated/unnecessary note, Amanda's breasts were neither small nor huge. They exquisitely straddled the line between the two. The perfect size, which can perfectly fit in my hands.
'Wait…what the hell am I even thinking?'.
"Philip. Were you thinking about something stupid just now?" she asked.
"What. No?"
"I felt like you were acting strangely."
She could sense my inappropriate thoughts just by looking at me. She was sharp.
"I was just wondering about this. Should I buy this or not?"
"Do you really think you should buy that? This school offers far healthier options. Don't you think it's better to avoid junk?"
Amanda was right in every logical sense. I had no reason to eat junk. However, since I had an irresistible urge, I took one pack of regular-sized instant noodles & tossed it into my cart.
Amanda moved away from the food section & began hunting daily essentials. I planned to use witty jokes to score more points with her next, like how they show in movies.
Was it a good idea? No, not at all. But who didn't want to impress a beauty like her?
"If you are looking for something a cut above the rest, how about this razor with five blades? I bet it would do the job."
"Why in the world would I want to shave with that?"
I grinned smugly and pretended to shave my imaginary beard, but she didn't laugh. Far from it. Instead, she looked at me like I was nothing but dirt.
"Look at me," she said raising her voice a bit above normal. "I don't have anything to shave. Not on my chin, not under my armpits & not down there."
"I just wanted to use a joke to lighten up the mood," I mumbled hesitantly, my spirit crushed. It looked like my jokes failed terribly with women.
"I have to say, I am a little envious of your ability to babble inanely to someone you have only just met."
"Well, I feel like you have been saying stupid crap, too & you only just met me."
"Is that so? I have merely stated facts. Unlike you."
She calmly tossed my words back at me, shutting me up. My plan to impress her totally backfired. It was a disaster, I had never failed at planning & executing but with women it just didn't work.
To be fair, I had said some random nonsense. The smooth, eloquent Amanda, on the other hand, was always well-spoken, no matter how you sliced it.
Amanda chose the cheapest face wash. I would have thought girls cared more about that kind of thing too.
"Don't you think that this one is better?" I took an expensive cream off the shelf & showed it to her.
"Unnecessary." She bluntly refused it.
"Well, but----"
"I already said it was unnecessary, didn't I" she snapped.
"Yes…"
I gently returned the face wash as she glared at me. I thought I could carry a conversation without making her angry, but I had failed miserably.
"You don't seem adept at socializing. You are really terrible at conversation."
"Well, if it's coming from you, then it's definitely true," I grumbled.
"That's right. I consider myself, at the very least, to have a good eye for people. Normally, I wouldn't want to hear you talk any more, but I will put in a painful level of effort to listen to you."
I had said that I wanted to be her friend, but apparently, she didn't feel the same. With that, our unfruitful conversation abruptly stopped.
It was a little strange, but I became aware of something crucial: Amanda really was cute.