"So. Parents! Take the next left and keep walking until you see the sign for the exit. You can have your offspring back at four. The rest of you, follow me."

The tall bond guy was attractive, and Stig had a feeling he would be pissing him off big style by the end of the visit. Stig had an inbuilt barometer for trouble. The blond guy was too smarmy for his own good and being Derek's son had left Stig with a genetic hatred of people who tried to wear arrogance well, and failed. He watched Smarmy "accidentally" brush his hand against the backside of one of the girls in his group and his fingers twitched.

"Don't even think about it, sunshine." Derek whispered in his ear. "Or you can walk back to London. He'll get his. One of the girls will have a hockey player for a boyfriend or something."

"Nice try Dad. But whilst I know you like to play the responsible father, I know for a fact that you got into fights over girls when you were younger."

Derek grinned. "Yeah. But only over one girl - your mother. So. If you're going to clock someone over a female, make sure she's worth it. Otherwise, you get a rep of being a hothead."

Stig grinned. "I thought you were always telling me, I already am one."

"Yeah well…I exaggerate sometimes. I'm proud of you for getting here, you know. Don't screw up."

"You mean, don't get thrown out before we've even started?"

"Exactly. We'll see you and Lucy by the car at four okay? Oh and Stig…look out for her. You prank her and I'll prank you. And I'm better at it than you."

Stig hurried down the corridor after the group, noting with surprise that Lucy had hung back to wait for him. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Sorry. Familiar face and all that. I don't like meeting new people."

"Well there goes my 'pretend like you don't know me' idea."

She stuck her tongue out at him and he grinned.

But he walked beside her, and once on the way, he even held the door.

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Blondie was at it again. This time, he had split the large group into three smaller groups, allocating two of the groups to a couple of girls who were evidently also part of the welcome wagon. The third group he took himself and Stig noted without surprise that there seemed to be a larger proportion of the attractive females assigned to Blondie's group than the other two. Also unsurprisingly, Stig wasn't in his group. Lucy, however, was.

"I guess I'll see you later." She said, and he could have laughed at the sound of reluctance at being separated from him in her voice. It was so uncharacteristic of their relationship.

Because of course, they didn't have one.

He surprised himself by nodding and asking if she had her phone with her. Her lips turned up slightly but she didn't look at him as she patted her bag.

"Later then." He said, wondering what the hell had just happened.

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They toured the campus in their little groups, looking at dorm rooms, lecture halls, libraries, science labs, and bars. At one point, he saw his parents with Lucy's in the distance having a coffee at a pavement café. He like the fact that his parents had aged well, and for a brief second, he saw how they must have looked when they were students here. Derek, in a leather jacket, as always, smirking with his arm slung casually around Casey's shoulders while she looked at him like he was insane. Even across the campus, he could almost fool himself into thinking he had heard her shout, "Der-ek!"

Five minutes later, as they were leaving to move on to somewhere else, Stig glanced back at the café to the table where his parents were sitting. Cathy and James had gone somewhere and Derek and Casey were gazing at each other in that way. Stig rolled his eyes as his mother kissed his father with the sort of abandon that should be illegal for people of their age – but he was smiling as he followed the rest of the group.

The girl who was leading their group was helpful and friendly. She answered lots of questions and Stig found he was interested in her answers because this, in a few short weeks would be his life. It hadn't really sunk in until now.

He made mental notes to bring posters and his own bedding. The orange and brown décor of the blocks harked back to the 1970s (although it was a 2010 reproduction), and it was old and thoroughly depressing. But the little rooms with their strange mismatch of furniture were enticing because they represented freedom and the chance to carve a life for himself. He stood at the window in a dorm living room and looked out across the town. It was different to London and that made him nervous, but Stig knew how to deal with nerves, so he pushed them behind him.

As they made their way across the quad, he spotted Lucy with her group. She didn't wave, and whilst he was grateful for that, he wondered why part of him wanted her to. She seemed to be talking away to a couple of the girls in her group and she seemed pretty happy. Blondie spotted Lucy and Stig watched as he started to talk to her.

"Is that your girlfriend?" The leader of Stig's group asked, interrupting his thoughts. Stig shook his head. "Just a girl from school."

"Well if she's any kind of friend, you'll tell her to steer clear of him."

"Of who?" Stig asked.

"Austin."

"Oh…Blondie."

The girl laughed. "Blondie? Is that what you nicknamed him?"

Stig nodded, feeling foolish. But she grinned. "He's a letch. And yes, it is sour grapes. I did make the mistake of dating him. But it turns out he was dating three of us at the same time. And my best friend told me after I dumped him, that he'd tried it on with her too."

"That figures. Lucy has a habit of picking guys like that."

"So did I. He cured me. I'm not making that mistake again. But I'd say something to her if I were you."

"She'd never listen to me." Then he thought back to his warning about Matt. She'd listened to him then. He watched her smiling at Austin and frowned.

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The groups merged for lunch in the main cafeteria. Lucy was already there, laughing with the two girls and Austin, who appeared to be regaling them with a story about his father's yacht. Stig sighed. He wondered if his conscience would allow him to just walk away to the other side of the room and leave Lucy to her own fate. He checked. It said no. The problem was he could hear the words spewing from Austin's mouth, and it was such a ridiculous line he was pulling, but so completely the sort of thing that chicks went for. And yes he had listened to what his father had said about not getting involved. But his father had also told him to look after Lucy. It was a difficult problem, but, on reflection he was sure he had the solution.

Lucy was listening to Austin. He seemed nice, maybe a bit full of himself, but that was an age thing. She could tell he found her attractive, he was talking to Lucy and her two friends, but his eyes were always on Lucy. Actually, they were always on her chest, but surely that counted? He was talking about taking his father's yacht out over the summer and she could tell he was working his way up to an invitation; a nice idea, but not hugely practical seeing as she lived several hours away – she hadn't got around to telling him. There was something about him that reminded her of Matt. She sighed. Which probably meant dating him would be a big mistake. She started to sink back into the thoughts that had been bothering her for a while now…why on earth had Stig warned her about Matt? He was behaving a bit strangely towards her recently. Still the same old pranks, but the odd moment where they weren't arguing slipped in too. It was all hugely confusing.

A strange hand snaked its way around Lucy's waist and she glanced down at it surprised, and then up again in shock as a voice said, "Hey Babe! Did you miss me?" and Stig planted a kiss on her cheek.