It’s the first day of classes and Hazel was already up at six o’clock. She slowly walked toward the window and opened it, feeling the gentle breeze against her face. She looked outside and saw that there are already people walking on the sidewalk- mostly employees and high school students. She then decided to also prepare so she can try to avoid human traffic. As she was about to head outside, she took out her schedule once again, making sure that she did not miss anything even though she had already memorized it. She’s just making sure. Perhaps she’s just nervous.

Less than a kilometer away from Hazel, Ash still wants to sleep but Shiro is excited to take a morning walk. This energetic dog keeps on licking Ash’s face even though Ash is already hiding his face through a pillow. Shiro would then bark and whine to wake his master. After 15 minutes of whining, Shiro gets what he wanted. Ash groggily got up and put on a jacket and a pair of sneakers. Shiro happily readied by waiting at the door with his leash on his mouth. Ash sighed. His first class starts at 11 am. He looked at the clock. It’s 6:30. He sighed again.

***

Hazel absorbed the mood for the morning rush from people on the sidewalk that’s why she got managed to walk to her new school in less than 5 minutes. She was panting not because she lacks exercise but because of the adrenaline rush. She stopped at the gate of the school and took a long good look before entering. This is the first time that she sees the university. She was amazed by the pristine look of it. It’s like you’re not already in Japan once you take a step inside. She can see the antique white buildings and the architectural structure is clearly European. ‘No wonder the name’s Preston,’ she said under her breath. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She’s 15 and yet she’s now in a university. The pressure’s setting in. She opened her eyes and about to take a step when someone bumped her.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Are you okay yojo (little girl)?”

“It’s okay. I’m sorry as well. I was blocking your way.”

“No, it’s my fault. By the way, are you lost? The high school building is on the other block.”

“I’m a college student.” Hazel was looking at her shoes but then remembered she should practice being confident. She looked up and she was stunned by what she saw. He’s handsome. His face is pleasing to the eyes. He doesn’t look like he’s pure Japanese. He has blue, almond eyes and gorgeous lips. He’s tanned and there’s stubble on his chin.

Hazel realized that she has been staring when the guy spoke, “Welcome to Preston yojo.” He smiled and walked towards the gate. Hazel saw that the guard bowed at the guy. Maybe he’s a young professor at the university. She’s now curious.

She snapped out of reality and brought out her enrolment form from her bag. She headed to the gate and greeted the guard. The guard in return welcomed her to the university and gave her a pamphlet and university map. Hazel thanked the guard and she went to the university garden to take a sit and to study the pamphlet and map given. She has less than an hour to do it before her first class.

***

Akira went early to the university since he wanted to oversee the preparation of welcoming Ash to the fraternity. Their office is located on the fifth floor at the end of the west wing. He is beyond excited and even decided to walk to school so he can lessen his overflowing energy for the day.

Neophytes were fixing their office and Akira was leaning beside the window when she saw someone walking at the university grounds. It’s her again. He was following her with his eyes. She’s holding the university map and she looks really happy at the same time. Akira could tell.

One of the neophytes approached him and was about to ask something when he saw him looking at the girl.

“You know her Taisho (general/admiral)?” He was also looking at Hazel.

“Just a yojo,” he secretly smiled. He faced the neophyte and said with a straight face, “By the way, drop and give me 100 push-ups. You have no right to talk unless you have the permission.” The neophyte let out a whimper but started to do push-ups. Akira looked at the other neophytes. They avoided eye contact and just made themselves busy. If only he can just make jokes. He’s pretty sad. He cannot be himself around the new guys. He didn’t want to be in this position in the first place. He sighed and went back to looking outside. He saw the girl enter the East Wing.

“Huh, someone’s into politics.”

The University of Preston is known for producing top-notch Engineering and Law students that’s why a decade ago, they decided to dedicate the East Wing to Political Science and Law students and the West Wing to Engineering students. The two Wings are attached to the Admin Section that is perfectly framed when you’re looking at the main gate. There has been a divide between the courses mainly Law and Engineering versus the other courses. They established boundaries and it has been passed on to the next set of students. Crazy to think that such an elite school has this. It’s even crazier that the administration or even the board members don’t really care about this fact. As long as the university’s image is not being affected outside of the gates. It’s fine.

It’s 7:25 and Hazel’s waiting quietly for the class to start. She’s already inside the classroom and she chose to seat in the third row, rightmost side of the room. There are other students also but they’re scattered. It’s five minutes before the class time but Hazel estimated that there’s only around 20 of them. The room can accommodate at least a hundred.

One minute before 7:30 and three students rushed to the room. They were walking fast and the two mindlessly took a seat. The other one saw Hazel alone in the corner and decided to join her. Since there were a lot of vacant seats, he strategically sat three seats away from her. He kept on glancing at Hazel so that he could be noticed, but to no avail. ‘She’s familiar,’ he thought. He was about to strike a conversation when their professor arrived. He started to write something on the board:

Politics 1

“Now,” the professor faced the class,” who could define politics for me?” His English enunciation is great. Hazel was a bit surprised for the professor is using English to teach. She is fluent in English when it comes to writing and reading but she didn’t practice regularly since she doesn’t have someone to practice it with. This is the first time that Hazel challenged at something and she got excited.