She combed her hair one last time, smiled at herself in the mirror and closed her eyes in the sunlight, ah the smell of a summer morning.
As she put on her boots and walked out the door she was thinking about how wonderful life was when you allowed yourself to have hopes and dreams. Or at least how wonderful it could seem, when your blood sugar is high and the sun is shining.
She headed down the street with a newfound confidence; it was one of those rare occasions in her life when she actually felt pretty and desirable.
Unfortunately this illusion was shattered as soon as she entered the school building. At best, she was ignored when meeting or walking past someone. But usually she was met by frowns, judging looks and disgusted faces. She thought to herself that if there was any justice at all in life, she would be successful later in life, that one day, someone would see that she is so much bigger on the inside and appreciate that.
The school was a really old church like building, made entirely out of stone. Due to the very high ceiling, echoes of hallway conversations, laughter and papers turning was a constant soundtrack to everyday life at the university. Miranda thought it was sort of comforting, in a way.
When she finally made it to the lecture hall she felt a bit more at ease, as in there no one could assault her without risking the professor noticing them. She was one of the very first students to arrive to the lecture, which in itself was not unusual because she simply felt safer that way, but this very particular class was something she had been looking forward to since the day she signed up for it.
The academic world was one she had always wanted to be a part of. And being an outsider was nothing new to Miranda, so it didn't really matter. It had always been a part of her life as well. It still hurt a bit of course, because subconsciously she had been hoping to finally find a place where she could feel completely accepted. She tried to remind herself that one could never have it all, and that what mattered in the end would be that she was actually pursuing her dream.
She was stolen from her thoughts and brought back into the hall by the new professor closing the laptop that had been covering his head since Miranda walked in with a snapping motion.
He looked upon the almost embarrassingly low amount of students with a slightly eccentric look on his face. The man was not what Miranda had expected at all. She had not been fully aware of the fact that she had actually had any expectations of her new teacher at all apart from him or her having a lot of knowledge about English literature.
She had perhaps expected him to be much older, because all the professors she had been taught by before had all been at well into their fifties. This man had the look of being tops 40 years old, but was probably much younger than that. He was a slender, tall man with glasses and a brown pinstripe suit. His hair was chocolate-brown and all over the place, with a sort of gravity defying look to it.
She suddenly realized that he was also staring at her. And that her mouth was gasping. She snapped it closed and started fiddling with her books. There goes all prospects of making a good impression on my new teacher, she thought.
"Alright people! I'm Dr. John Smith! Now let's get started! Looks like it's only going to be the five of us. Just as well! Less confusing that way ! Anyways, don't be shy to ask questions, I'm not as dangerous as I look!" the new professor claimed with a grin.
The class was dead silent. You could have heard a needle falling to the floor. The grin on his face faded into a frown.
"Okay, let's get right into Shakespeare, one of the greatest minds that ever was on this planet."
But the small class was not going to learn anything about Shakespeare that day, because before the professor could start his lecture, there was a loud bang and the entire building started shaking and a large crack started to develop in the floor.