CHAPTER TEN:
I'm grateful and happy, it's a new day, another opportunity, I'm finally starting classes at Montesquieu college, so that's going to be a good distraction away all the drama that I've been dealing with. Montesquieu College (established in 1782) was located in the heart of shear falls, a little ways past the library, out battered, ancient yellow minivan pulled up the driveway and we got parking space easily enough, given that the parking lot was almost empty. My dad led the way through the maze of brownish red buildings that looked almost the same, the campus was fairly large, definitely large enough to get lost in, we walked in silence for a few minutes, until we stopped in front of the dean's office, he rasped a knock on the door and a heavy voice echoed "come in", my dad pushed the door open to reveal a fat pudgy man with glasses and freckles busy clacking away in front of a computer screen. He appeared to be about the same age as my dad, "well, look what the cat dragged in, if it isn't Simon Anderson himself", the dean got up and gave my father a hug, "how are you Harry?" asked my father in a calm voice, "well I'm still working on my weight, thanks for asking and I'm guessing this must be the young protégé, miss Lunar Anderson", he said stretching out a chubby hand. my dad gazed at me firmly, "Lunar meet professor Harry Nilsson, a genius and an outstanding personality in the computer programming society and also a good friend of mine" said my father, "oh come on, Simon stop all that", he turned his attention back to me "it's been so long since I saw you, last time we met you were just a toddler and now you're already in university".
A knock rasped on the door, "come in, oh Leah, this is Dr. Anderson, a really good friend of mine and this is his daughter Lunar, she will be in your nanotechnology class, if it's not too much trouble, I hope you can help her find her way around campus", "it's no problem sir", she replied in a quirky tone, seeing her, I liked her, even though it was my very first time of meeting her, I could see her beautiful blue eyes beneath her glasses, her long black hair flowed all the way down to her back and it was held together by a rubber band, her pointed nose and rose red lips only complimented her seemingly perfect features, she was roughly five foot one and her voice sounded almost musical, she made me feel very self-conscious, "come on, this way" she said leading me out the door, "so Lunar what made you guys choose to move to shear falls?" I thought about it for a while and I couldn't really think of a logical explanation, "Well I guess it was just my parent's decision, so I guess we just upped and moved five states across the country", she chuckled softly, "well since that's the case, you don't have anything to worry about, I'm going to show you all around shear falls, trust me, this place can be pretty amazing once you know your way around", I could see the optimism in her eyes and hear it in her voice, it felt good to be around someone so light and free.
She tucked her arm under my own and dragged me through the hallway to my first class, giggling and laughing the whole time like we had known each other for years; I could feel her genuine warmth and affection through her through her unsettling cold and pale skin.
The campus cafeteria was a whole different matter; normally you'd expect a campus of that size to have at least five thousand students but there were barely three thousand students in total and not even up to three hundred in the cafeteria at the moment, which was just the way I liked it, actually it was quite a big change of pace from how things were back in strucker town but It wasn't anything new, "hey Lunar!" called a voice from among the masses, "Lunar over here", I turned around only to see Vincent waving me over to an almost full table, Leah jabbed me in my side, "you didn't tell you already know Vincent Gregory", "well, you didn't ask" I replied in a whisper as we approached the table, "wait, don't tell me you two are already dating", I stopped in my tracks, feeling flustered and confused. "no we are just friends, just friends, okay", I said firmly, looking her directly in the eye, somehow, her eyes were captivating, somewhat luring, i felt captured just staring at her eyes, upon a closer look, they seemed to change from the nice deep blue to a color I couldn't quite place, "Lunar, Lunar!" her voice jolted me back to my senses, I felt even more confused, "what's wrong with you? Are you okay?" she asked supporting me, "Here sit down", she said ushering me to the seat beside Vincent, I tried to resist but found that she was not the feeble girl I thought she was, her grip on my arms were strong and firm, my last ditch effort at resistance was met by Vincent's calming touch, "hey, I didn't know you'd enrolled here, I would have loved to show you around campus", he gave a thumbs up to Leah and they did a power bump, "hey are you free tomorrow, hmm six PM?" he asked, for a second I was lost somewhere between awe and disbelief, thinking about his question, I sunk deeper into my seat, "wait are you talking to me?", everyone else at the table, including him, seemed more stunned by my question than by his immediate and direct attempt to ask me out, he seemed flustered, 'serves you right, you probably thought you can get just about any girl you want with that gorgeous smile of yours, well guess what, that smile, those cute baby like eyes and those arms, they aren't going to work on this girl, none of it is going to work', I thought to myself.
"Well I was wondering if you are free tomorrow, I want to take you out, you know show you around town", shouts of "whoa!!!, wow!! Hoooo!!" echoed from the table, "so are you?" asked Leah, "well yeah, sure thing, tomorrow six pm", "real smooth Vincent, hitting on the new girl in town already", I felt somewhat flustered and shy and all at the same time confused. "I need some air" I said getting up as quickly as I could, the edge of the table caught my arm with a clean cut, "ouch! "I exclaimed, "Are you okay asked Leah and Vincent who'd rushed to my side, "yeah, I'm fine it's just a graze", "not it's not" said Leah, grabbing my arm to inspect my injury, she seemed fine until a drop of blood broke to the surface, I could see her eyes, they seemed lost, and I saw her gulp at the sight of my blood, our eyes met and she let go off my hand, looking terrified, "I'm sorry, I have to go", she said grabbing her bag and hurrying off, "Hey, Leah, What is it? I asked chasing after her, with Vincent in close pursuit. "Hey Leah, stop, what is it? I asked bending around the curve, I expected to see Leah there but all we saw there was a bloody bird and Leah, Leah was gone.