2
I woke up too late, Chino was jumping on top of me when I woke up from my sleep. The pain in my knees returned when I rushed to the bathroom, today I will finish my business in the dormitory before sunset. Because I was going to work hard so I decided to wear super short ripped jeans with a loose Dsquared t-shirt with a baseball cap that read DIA's CREW and a Vuitton monogrammed backpack.
Didn't bring a car but took a taxi because my feet still hurt. This time I brought some chocolate and milk to eat there, just in case I'm lazy to go out looking for food. Different from yesterday, this campus is really crowded, maybe because yesterday I came at night, on average they did the same thing as me: massive demolition.
As I was about to enter the room, someone tapped my right shoulder. "Hi! Are you tidying up your things too?" she said happily. " I'm Arielle Brigitta, we're neighbors if you don't know." explained to me.
I was warmly welcomed by introducing myself "Nessa Aubrey! What department are you from?"
"Everyone on this floor is majoring in Fashion, don't you know?" Arielle explained.
I paused before replying, "I really don't know." I answered while scratching the back of my head which didn't itch.
Arielle did something like a scanner to me, she looked at me from head to toe, especially on the head with the main target being my face, "I see from your face, that you are definitely not Parisian. Let me guess, like Asia but not." Arielle's eyes try to guess my nationality.
"I'm Asian, South-East Asian, specific," I explained. This is my first time abroad, so no one has ever tried to guess which country my face is from, usually what I hear is always "Java for sure,".
Eyes widened in surprise after getting an answer from me, "Really? So, Singapore? Or Thailand? I almost never see Asians." she said.
"Indonesia, just searches on Google," I replied to Arielle, it's unlikely that Parisians will know where Indonesia is.
"Okay, I'll look for it later. Need some help? Looks like you have a big job here." she looked around my room. "You're late, people have been here since early morning." She said as she walked into my room.
"I arrived yesterday morning and arrived here in the afternoon, so I finished a few things and returned to the hotel at midnight," I explained to the girl who was walking into my clothing room.
"Waaah... You go the extra mile for this, I guarantee. You brought all of this from Indonesia?" she said the first second she was in my special wardrobe room.
"Hell yes, arrived a day earlier than me..." I answered briefly and then started to take things out of the box.
Arielle helped me tidy up some equipment to start college, she arranged my desk very neatly which positioned her back to the bookshelf and facing the large window next to the bed while I arranged the dressing table which was in front of the bed attached to the most corner wall parallel to the shared tv Chino's playground.
I set up the fences for Chino's playground right next to the entrance. Under the tv, I put a small glass table with a small fluffy rug in front of it plus a unicorn-shaped sofa facing the tv. I opened the box which contained the most valuable collection of Korean musicians' albums in my life, some of which were complete albums of a boy group called SHINee, and other boy groups as well, there was a compilation CD of music by Chopin, Beethoven, Yiruma, Congfei Wei, and Mozart.
This work requires a lot of energy for both of us. "I think you should move your bed next to the window and put the fridge in there. That will help you feel comfortable here." Arielle suggested.
I think that's right, that little fridge would be very petrified. "Oh! I forgot to tell you, you can pay someone to clean this room. Take your dirty clothes and take out the trash. If you want to pay more to take care of your pet, I think he will."
"Thank God. That's what I need." I was ecstatic to hear the good news. "What about food? There's no kitchen here." I asked when I realized it.
"The cafeteria is open 24 hours, you can eat there. All the facilities can be used anytime, the library and the lab too."
"God, I am in heaven," I said to Arielle.
"With such an expensive fee, I think it's comparable. I will invite you to the class chat group." Arielle explained as she took out her cell phone.
"Okay! But Arielle, is tuition very expensive? I got a scholarship for two semesters." I said hesitantly. I suddenly became curious about how much money I would have to spend if I didn't get the scholarship.
"Oh, God! So you are a scholarship student," Arielle screamed. "You know, this campus only gives scholarships to one person. The test was really difficult, I also took the test. Everyone wondered, roughly who got it and that person is now in front of me." Arielle suddenly became fiery.
She picked up her phone and pointed it at me. "Smile! I have to put your face in the group!" without any pause for me to think, the flash of the small box object flashed.
"Hey! I'm not ready yet!" I shouted irritated. I couldn't help but laugh after that because Arielle's hysterical behavior was so ridiculous.
We finished all the chocolate and milk that I brought and then Arielle went home first because her parents had picked her up and I stayed a little longer here to tidy up some things.
Just before sunset, I closed the bedroom door and walked around the campus area. In stark contrast to the old Parisian-style dormitory in the forties, the campus has a more modern building design. The dormitory is behind the campus building, so it's very close.
I passed the cafeteria that Arielle was talking about earlier, the cafeteria which was quite large I saw several groups of children in the cafeteria, some were eating together, some were doing their homework, and some were just sitting around talking and making a little mess. I walked over to a booth to buy a few sticks of gum and soda and continued walking.
Across several rooms such as labs, classrooms, small gardens with chairs and fountains, libraries, and many more rooms that I don't know their function.
I stopped at a large door that said 'Westcast Basketball' and immediately concluded that this must be a basketball court, I grabbed the doorknob and pushed it open, it's not locked, Arielle said right, the facilities are free to use.
The room is very dark, I turn on the flashlight on my cellphone and point it at the wall looking for the switch to turn on the light which I found right next to the entrance but its position is quite high.
I had to jump a little a few times to reach for it until the spotlights came on, even though only the center of the field had the lights on, but I knew this room was big enough. I closed the door and walked over to the audience, put a soda and a stick of gum there, and turned on the song.
Sam Smith's melodious voice filled this room, the song called Lay Me Down was my choice, I almost finished the choreography. I really like dancing, sometimes when I have free time I try to make my own choreography. Doing some warm-up before starting to dance, this is probably the first time I've ever danced anywhere other than my practice room, without big mirrors and camcorders recording.
I curled my hair and started to move my body to the rhythm of the song, I prefer to dance to a slow rhythm like this rather than a fast rhythm because it will drain a lot of my energy and that shouldn't happen. I just kept dancing until the song finally ended, a few drops of sweat I felt running down my body. I lay on the floor from exhaustion, closed my eyes, and tried to catch my breath.
Footsteps sounded from the audience, I immediately opened my eyes and found someone wearing a sports uniform standing there, my vision was still not clear due to the effects of fatigue. Trying to clear my vision with a few blinks, finally succeeded. With a black basketball shirt with westcast written on it, the guy walked down the stairs smiling at me. "How much do I have to pay for the show?" he said.
I immediately stood up, took my things without heeding his words, and walked out of here.
"How about your knee? Have it been well?" he shouted which managed to stop my steps because of his words just now. My knee? I looked back and found him running towards me, a man with blond hair in a ponytail. I just stared at him silently. "Jeffyin! Do you still remember?" he smiled kindly.
"Yep, still remember," I replied to him after realizing who he was.
"So you're a dance major? But why did we meet on the 2nd floor?"
"Because I'm majoring in Fashion, not majoring in dance," I explained. He nodded trying to conclude.
"Oh, I see." head still nodding "You just made all the moves?"
"I don't think I need to answer that questions," I was still silent in my place, to be honest, there was something in this man that was holding me back from leaving.
"Traynor!" the door slamming loudly. Several people entered, their footsteps sounding very heavy. "I think you should hide, she goes through a cafeteria for you, she said you two should have met an hour ago, but you didn't come." said one of them.
It seemed they didn't notice my presence in this room, maybe because it was covered by the tall man in front of me. If my current height is 164 this man's height might be around 190 something. The blonde turned around and I could finally see the person who had entered earlier, there were three men dressed the same as this man. They looked confused at me. The man they called his name just waved and smiled faintly.
"Wow!" said one of them when he was standing in a row beside his friend, the blonde man. "Are we bothering you?" they smiled kindly at me. I slid my bra straps that were clearly visible into my shirt and lowered my pants a little.
"Yes, you are so annoying!" said the blonde while still looking at me. "And you," he pointed at me. "You disturbed my sleep, but I forgive you for the beautiful performance" the three friends looked at each other when they heard the blonde's last sentence.
"Hey! Sorry for disturbing your sleep but it's not my fault entirely, I'm just using a room that looks empty. How would I know if there is a tall, annoying blond man sleeping here." I said in an annoyed tone.
His friends just laughed at my words. "All women admire you, but they become fierce when dealing with you Traynor." their laughter broke.
"Jeffyin!" I heard a woman's voice screaming from a distance along with an incoming call on my cellphone. The laughter of the three people stopped for a moment. I was quite shocked to see the name of the caller.
I rushed past the line of tall men then picked up the phone, and walked towards the exit.
"Hey! What about your name?" shouted someone behind me in a familiar voice, the blonde.
"Rain." I replied as I walked out of the room.
***
"Ngobrol sama siapa Nes?" asked the man on the other end of the phone who was none other than Jullian.
"Orang, ga jelas." I answered briefly.
"Yakalih ngobrol sama orang ga jelas, emang lagi dimana?" he laughed.
"Kampus, tadi abis ngerapihin kamar asrama. Kenapa telfon?" I ask.
"Disana tinggal di asrama? Engga, cuma telfon aja." he explained.
"Iya, oh." I really don't know what to talk to him about.
"Kayanya ganggu ya?" he asked me doubtfully.
"Engga kok."
"Lain kali ditelfon lagi deh," he said. "Dah." connection is lost.
I feel this is not right, the call from him shouldn't end like that, it shouldn't. I pressed the call button and waited for the call to ring. "Kenapa dimatiin, kan dibilang ga ganggu."
"Atuh jawabnya niat ga niat gitu, kali aja emang lagi gamau diganggu." said the man in a contrived tone.
I laugh, "Jadi, gimana Paris? Sama persis sama yang di film Eiffel I'm in love?" asked Julian.
"Mungkin, yang jelas menara Eiffel masih di tempat yang sama, Arc de Triomphe juga, kalo suasana romantisnya ga jelas, yang bisa dipastiin disini dingin, banget, bentar lagi kuliah dimulai jadi belum sempet keliling, atau mungkin gak akan sempet' I explained at length.
He only emitted notes that could be interpreted as 'ohh, begitu'.
While walking out of campus I bumped into a tall girl with bright red wavy hair, she was wearing tight trousers and a shiny blue velvet tank top. Her face is very Parisian. She's about 6 to 7 centimeters above me probably because she's wearing stilettos. "Wait!" I turned and saw her facing me. "Is that Dior 104?" she asked.
I wasn't too surprised when she mentioned manicures on my fingers. "Udahan dulu ya, nanti telfon lagi." I whispered to Jullian then turned off the phone. "Yep" I answered briefly to the girl.
She smiled and said, "It suits you so well!" I smiled at her words. "Asia?" she said again.
"Indonesia, just google it." I replied cheerfully "I'm Aubrey, majoring in Fashion!" I introduced myself, imitating what Arielle did.
"Elainne, majoring in dance. My dorm is downstairs yours, what's your room number?" she shouted as she stepped back.
"204!"
"I'll be there to stop by! Welcome to Paris anyway," she said and walked away.
Wow! Are all Parisian girls friendly like her? Like Arielle? I didn't even know she was wearing the same earrings as me! I left the campus area and looked for a taxi to go home.