Chapter 01 Another Day At Uni

          “Good morning, Ms. Dheros!” Mrs. Williams greeted, sarcasm lacing her voice as soon as Emma closed the door. All eyes were on Emma, and her rose-colored cheeks immediately betrayed her. For the third time that week, she was the center of attention on her first morning class.

“Late again, are we?” said the professor. “Do see me after class.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Emma replied then went to her seat, which was at the back of the class, ignoring the looks that her classmates gave her. The professor continued her lecture of standards and other boring topics that had her almost snoozing.

When class was over, Emma waited for everyone to leave before walking over to the professor’s desk, who was erasing the writings on the board, all of which already on Emma’s memory.

“Have a seat, Ms. Dheros,” she said firmly. She turned and sat comfortably in her chair. Her gray hair was tied in a bun, the strands pulled back so tight the stretch on the skin was very apparent. “Now, this is the third time you’ve disrupted my lectures this semester. I expect you have a good reason for it?”

What was she supposed to say – the truth? She’d been up all night reviewing for the preliminary exams that were a month away, then the early mornings went to putting her baby to sleep. The alarm set at three was snoozed and she forgot to reset so she overslept. The old–school professor wouldn’t understand. Thus, she made up a decent excuse of sorts.

Emma’s lips pulled down into a frown and she dropped her hazel gaze to the floor. “I’m really sorry, Mrs. Williams. I got stuck in traffic again, but I swear I’ll be on time tomorrow,” she said softly.

“Hmp.” Mrs. Willaims looked at her in contempt. “You are an adult, Ms. Dheros. Surely, I don’t have to remind you of your responsibilities as a student. Disrupt me again tomorrow and you will be sent to student guidance.”

“I won’t, Ma’am.”

“Hmp. Now off you go,” said the professor. She adjusted her glasses on her small nose and turned her icy blue eyes back down to the pile of collected homework.

Emma stood and left the room, a relieved sigh leaving her lips. God, that was embarrassing. She was twenty-one and not a teenager!

She could sense the students that were looking at her weirdly, but she ignored them. It’d been a daily occurrence in her life for random people to stare at her like she was some sort of freak and she’d gotten used to it. A heavy woman like her, with her height of 5’8”, easily made her stand out of a crowd.

Emma joined the densely populated hallway, squeezing through narrow gaps all the way down the stairs until two floors down, she was out the building. Following the sea of students, she crossed the street and entered the twelve-floor story K Building, which was directly opposite hers, the G Building. The first floor was the cafeteria, which in her opinion, needed more ventilation. The smell of dishes cooking in the kitchens behind the stalls permeated the atmosphere thickly that it seeped into her clothes and hair.

She frowned. It was only nine in the morning, and she was already getting pissed off. There was a long cue by the elevator, so she decided to take the stairs. Unlike her building, the N-Building had wider stairs and hallways. She went up three floors, ignoring the weird glances thrown her way and the plethora of scents that assaulted her sensitive nose.

The colognes and perfumes were the worse! Each of them stank and it didn’t help that she could smell a person’s body odor and a female’s menses. Over the years, she’d learned how to redirect her consciousness to more pleasant scents, but the split-second notice of those things still grated on her nerves. She could smell everything at close proximity, from the closed lidded trash bins to the flowers growing by the windows.

Emma made her way from one end of the hallway to the other, then slipped into the Dental Clinic. She let out a sigh as she closed the glass door. If there was one place in the entire city where her heightened sense of smell was put to rest, it was that very office. It had two divides, one of which Mr. Lemor’s office, and the other for his clients. The desk by the door was unattended – either his secretary was on a break or she took a day off.

“Ah, Ms. Dheros! Good morning,” greeted the dentist. His blonde hair was combed to one side and his clear blue eyes gave off warmth. Smiling from ear to ear like she was a dear friend, he towered over her as he clasped his veiny hands.

She smiled. “Good morning, Mr. Lemor. I’m here for my dental results.”

“Ah yes, dental records. Now where did I –“ The dentist flicked though the envelopes in his sectary’s desk, mumbling labels and names to himself. “So have you applied to a firm yet?” he asked, making small talk.

“I have a few in mind, Sir,” she said politely.

“That’s good. That’s good,” replied Mr. Lemor, obviously not paying attention to her. He finished though the pile then went to his office, where he continued to mumble things under his breath that Emma could make out. It was like a superpower, but they did say a woman’s body undergoes changes during pregnancy. Just three months ago, she did give birth to her very cute Gladdy.

“Found it,” said the dentist, chuckling. “Don’t you worry, young miss. It was just in my office. Here.”

He handed her the brown envelope which had her dental results. “My apologies it took this long. Ms. Simeons and I had to take a leave last week ‘cause we caught a cold.”

Emma took it from his hands and smiled. “Don’t apologize for it, Sir. I’m glad you’re doing better. Thank you for your patience with me,” she said awkwardly, remembering how nervous she was when the patient before her screamed from behind the curtains.

To save her from the sudden drop in the atmosphere, a student came in.

“I’ll be taking my leave now, Sir. Thanks again.”

“Anytime, Ms. Dheros,” he said before turning his attention to the new client.

Emma returned to the G Building, suffering the same struggles. As always, there was a queue by the elevator, so she was left with no other choice but to take the damn stairs. When she reached the third floor, she was already panting for breath. She collected herself, brought out the other documents from her bag, then knocked on the open door of the dean’s office.

The secretary of their department, Sir Rick, was a bald man in his late thirties. He looked sideways from his computer and greeted Emma with a practiced smile.

“Good morning, Sir,” she said as she entered and sat on the couch parallel to the door and in front of his regular office table which was a mess of piled up folders and empty coffee mugs.

“Good morning,” he replied then resumed whatever work she interrupted.

Facing the door were file cabinets up against the wall and a small wooden table for the student assistant on duty, who happened to be Ms. Stuck-up. Emma could swear the girl never smiled and when one talked to her, she had this condescendingly bored tone in her voice.

After the secretary’s station was the Dean’s Office, the glass window of the door blocked by curtains to prevent anyone from taking a peek inside. The door was never left open that one time she thought the dean was always out. Emma sometimes caught a glimpse of the interior, but the curtains behind the desk were drawn too and the lights were off, so the entire office was dark still.

The entire room was divided into two, the half of it for some of the staff, which was to her right. Walls in between for division and privacy, and a doorframe in the center for passage.

Sir Rick typed something, and she waited for him to speak first. “What can I do for you today?”

“I’m here to hand over the paperwork for the internship, Sir,” she replied. “I finally got the dental results today.”

“Took them long enough,” he commented.

Students weren’t allowed to get a medical clearance from outside the university – it had to be done by the university’s medical and dental department. At least the dental fee came of use at last. It was another way for them to rip students off, of course. After all, even a private educational institution was still a business.

“Mr. Lemor said he and his secretary caught a cold,” she said absent-mindedly.

He stopped typing then and stretched a hand. Emma handed him the folder which contained all the documents required for the internship. He went through them, ensuring everything was in order, then added it to a certain pile to his right.

“Ma’am Dean is in a meeting at the moment,” he said then peeked at his computer. “It’s two p.m. and they’ll probably finish in five, so I suggest you come back tomorrow. She’ll have them signed by then.”

“Thank you, Sir,” she said, nodding her head slightly.

“Ask Sheila for it, and do you mind informing your classmates to drop by and claim their files?” he asked.

She made a mental note to send a message in the group chat later. “No prob, Sir,” she replied.

“Alright. Thank you,” he said.

She got up and nodded to Sheila the Friendly Student Assistant. Would it kill her to smile?

Emma was almost out the door when Sir Rick asked her, “By the way, do you already have a firm for the internship?”

“Not yet, Sir,” she replied. “I’m looking into the list our adviser provided; I have a few in mind.”

“I see. Most of your classmates are going to De Vega. They’re highly recommended for internship and it’s not because they own the school. If you do well, they might offer a position for you after you graduate – we have alumni working there now, and it’ll be a good start for your career.”

Forget department secretary, he was like everyone’s father. Always looking out for them and entertaining their queries and concerns with a bubbly attitude – the man deserved a raise … and a bonus.

“It’s what they’re aiming for, I guess,” she said with a thoughtful expression. “I’ll think about it. Thank you, Sir,” she added, walking out and shaking her head to clear her mind of the image of the fluorescent light shimmering off his head. It was a huge distraction when she was talking to him, Emma wondered if he was aware of the thing.

On one end of the hallway, Emma sat on one of the benches provided for students. Taking her phone out of her bag, she sent a message to the group chat of the class. Then she opened the file that contained a list of every firm that was open for internship and scrolled through it. Banks, insurance companies, government agencies, audit firms – there were a lot of good candidates that would help her grow but the schedule would be tight. She couldn’t stay overnight because she had to get back to Gladdy, so if she was to finish the required two hundred hours before the final examinations, the small firms might be a good idea.

A certain name caught her attention. It was a small accounting firm and was within walking distance from the university, about thirty minutes away which was good because she’d have a thirty- minute leeway before a scheduled class. Having decided on it, Emma looked for other options across all categories just in case she wasn’t accepted and highlighted all in red.

When she checked the time, she had thirty minutes before her next class. It was in another department, three floors up. Emma glanced at the elevators only to be disappointed, again. Sighing, she put her phone back in her bag and slung it over a shoulder. Hello stairs.

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