Clarke's head was filled to the brim with new information. Induction seminars, new timetables, reading lists and lecture rooms mostly. She had been told this year would be stressful, but she didn't expect it to be this intense straight from the get go. As a third year Fine Art and History of Art double honours student at Arkadia University, Clarke was getting ready for the hardest year of her academic life yet. Walking out of the campus gates Clarke forced her way through the throngs of new first years to the crowded bike stores, slipping on her helmet she began the short bike ride to her favourite coffee shop slash bike repair store slash bar; The Dropship.
"Hey Octavia," Clarke said as she walked into The Dropship, parking her bike at the entrance.
"Hiya Clarke," Octavia smiled brightly at Clarke, "the usual I presume?"
"Yes please, no uni today then?" Clarke walked over the to the bar, chatting with Octavia as she made her a coffee.
"Nope, my first class is tomorrow, perks of being a psychology student is hardly any contact hours this year." Octavia handed Clarke her coffee and chucked a biscuit onto her plate. "On the house, I know you're stressed already!"
"Tell me about it." Clarke laughed, "I'll see you in a bit ok O?" Octavia waved and got back to work as Clarke found a seat and pulled out her book The Iliad. Homer was her guilty pleasure, she loved the romance mixed together with the death and violence, and the insignificance of the mortal world, as seen by the mythical Greek Gods. Her copies of both The Iliad and The Odyssey were so old and battered, she kept telling herself that the sellotape that held much of the binding together was temporary and that she would definitely buy new copies soon, but she couldn't bare to part from these editions just yet.
It was at least an hour before Clarke looked up from her book, having immersed herself fully in the Ancient Greek world. In fact, she was so far away from real life that she almost jumped out of her skin when a balled up piece of paper hit her in the forehead.
"Jasper." She sighed as she closed her book and looked up at the grinning face above her.
"I knew we'd find you here! Did you have a good summer?" Jasper asked, enveloping Clarke in a tight hug.
"Hi, Jasper! Hi, Monty!" Clarke grinned despite herself, maybe the stress of her degree could still be held off for a little bit longer. She moved away from Jasper to hug his best friend and roommate Monty.
"Don't mind Jasper Clarke, he's over excited already and we've only been back in the city for a couple of days." Monty rolled his eyes and shook his head at Jasper, who was still grinning madly as well as bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet.
"I'm going to go see Octavia, drink Clarke? Monty?" They both nodded and Jasper bounded towards the bar.
"So how was your first day, Clarke?" Monty asked as they both sat down.
"Stressful, yours?" Clarke knew that if anyone would understand how high her stress levels were it would be Monty, he was a biochemistry student.
"Same, I already have a shit tonne of work today. Plus the speech about how important our Dissertations are." Monty put on a whiny voice, imitation his head of department, 'start working hard from day one, don't have a social life until June, etcetera etcetera."
"Ah yes, I got that same speech." Clarke laughed, well at least she wasn't the only one who wouldn't be partying much all year.
"Drinks! Ice tea for you Monty and a black coffee for Clarke, to match her soul." Clarke rolled her eyes at Jaspers' comment as he set the tray down on the table in between Clarke and Monty. "Oh and Octavia gets off in five so I told her to come and join us."
"Wow is it that time already?" Clarke looked at her watch and saw it was five to seven, she'd arrived at five o'clock. Oops, she'd already lost an evening's work, what a good start to this year she thought.
"Stop worrying about school Clarke it's only the first day!" Jasper said, reading her mind.
"Ok ok fine," Clarke smiled, yes she should loosen up it is only the first day after all. "Oh you should all come over to my new flat, and meet my roommate Raven, she's just transferred to the city to study engineering, she's cool!"
"Yeh! First house party of the year wooh!" Jasper lifted his arms up in celebration. "Monty and I will bring the drinks..and other stuff, right Mon?" Monty was known for his homemade alcohol and it was a widespread secret that not all the weeds in the boys' garden were there when they moved in.
"Always happy to help people have a good time." Monty grinned, taking a sip of his ice tea.
'Cool, how does Friday night sound then?" Clarke asked, making a mental note to mention this to Raven.
"What are we doing Friday night?" A voice said from behind Clarkes' chair.
"Octavia! Housewarming at Clarkes', we all need to meet her new roommate plus her new place is bound to be huge." Jasper budged over on his chair to allow Octavia to squeeze onto one side.
"Cool, I'm not working Saturday as well so I can get trashed with no consequences." Octavia looked over to the bar, where someone that Clarke didn't recognise was working. "Also can I bring Lincoln? He's just started working here and he's new to the city as well so it would be great for him to meet people."
"Of course, the more the merrier!" Clarke felt excitement bubble up in her chest, she'd forgotten how much her friends meant to her after being away all summer.
By the time Clarke left The Dropship it was dark and Clarke was glad her ride home was easy because she was not a fan of cycling long distances in the dark. As she cycled home she grinned to herself, with all her friends around her this year she couldn't see how she couldn't work hard and enjoy her final year of university at the same time.
Raven was already asleep by the time Clarke came in so she didn't mention the upcoming party, but so far Raven had seemed cool and her boyfriend was coming into town for the weekend anyway so Clarke had a good feeling that Raven would be more than up for meeting some new people on Friday night. Yes, she thought, settling into bed, nothing was going to mess up this year for her.