No Looking Back
Kevin slowly wakes up when he can feel his head pounding from last night drinking. He wakes up to see he's in a bedroom with posters of football players around his room, a desk, a wardrobe and luggage bags around the room, still having his stuff inside. He carefully sits up, rubbing his head to try and nurse his headache, figuring out what happened last night. He stands up with a slight tumble, holding back the vomit that's threatening to come out and takes a deep breath, rubbing his eyes to get his vision back and walks out the room, trying to look normal. He walks down the stairs quietly to hear everyone having breakfast, sizzling in the kitchen and front door slam shut followed by the word "FUCK!" making Kevin jump. He sees Dr. Jupiter taking her coat off and thows it onto the floor before charging into the kitchen. Kevin peeks around and continues to go down the stairs and sneakly goes into the kitchen with less attention as possible.
"Hey Cousin! How's your head!?" Nat intentionally said loudly, bringing back his headache as Nat comes over and put his arm around his shoulder.
"God you missed a great dinner I made. I made an awesome lasagne with mince, and onions and so much cheese and Double cutie helped me with the measuring which made it became the best lasagne we've ever made. Of course it had to be late because a certain 'PAT' someone 'PAT' here" Nat pat Kevin's back very hard, making Kevin stumble "decided to have a lonesome drinking party at the bins and threw up all over Double Cutie." Kevin's eyes went wide from that, turn to Double D who's avoiding his eye contact, going red in the face as he's remembering what happened last night. Nat continues,
"And the poor thing ran up to me and told me what happened. I had to calm Double D down, and get your ass into bed." he guides Kevin to the table and push him down on the chair between Double D and Dr Jupiter who's waiting for breakfast that's been cooking. Out came May with a big smile on her face, holding two plates, one with sausages and bacon and the other with scrambled eggs and place them down in the middle of the table for anyone to eat.
"Annie taught me how to make breakfast and I think I outdid myself." May said with a big smile, Kevin reaches for the sausage when Nat slaps his hand,
"Nope Kev, you can't have something fatty, that will just make you sick. Spring time, could you just get dry toast and water for Kev here?" May blushes at the nickname and just nods her head and run to the kitchen. Kevin gave Nat an angry look,
"I'm not in prison! I can have a cook meal." Nat shakes his head while eating his breakfast,
"You still don't deserve it after that fiasco last night, poor old Annie had to clean up your sick, she's not going to do that this morning. At least with toast and water it will make you more sober and hydrated for your first day at Uni, you must be excited for that at least." May came to give toast and water for Kevin,
"I'm so excited! Though the letter says we should go to an introductory fair first." Double D perks up at May's comment, completely forgot about that and shoves his food down, not wanting to be late.
"Don't rush. You're not going to be late, that won't start till 11." she said as she puffs out a smoke from her cigarette, making Double D scrunch his face a little.
"HEY JUPITER! DON'T SMOKE IN MY BUILDING!"Annie shouts as Jupiter stubs her cigarette on an empty plate and gets up to walk out,
"I'm going to bed, work pissed me off." Jupiter gets up with a sigh and walk past Kevin, while nibbles his toast grumpily.
"I need to go to campus myself, so I can take you guys. Make sure you guys know where to go." Nat says as he carries on eating while Kevin can't help but be nervous about meeting other students in his football class and wonder if he's up to it.
Double D, Kevin, May are in the van with Nat as the driver as he explains what would happen.
"So because it's the first day, you will only get classes in the afternoon as in the morning there will be a welcoming speech from the Principle and the teachers from courses will be there to greet you, like introduce themselves, explain a bit about the course and give you a tour around the building in where you'll be working, it will also give you a chance to make new friends. Since you guys seem to be sick of each other already." he looks at Kevin through the rearview mirror which Kevin caught but decides to ignore it. Meanwhile, Double D and May are excited, particularly Double D.
"I caught up with the ciricular the science and medicine program has to offer. To learn about the human body is truly astonishing." Kevin just groan at the comment,
"Please, don't make me barf anymore dork." Nat interjects,
"Hey! Don't be rude! I think it's cute!" Double D's cheeks goes red, still not use to Nat's compliments,
"And what about you Spring-time? Are you excited?" May nods her head,
"I am yes, though a little worried. Are there any more news about the kidnapping?" Nat is unsure what to say while Double D and Kevin turns to May, a little bit interested.
"Well, the good news is there are no kidnappings, but the bad news is there are no news about the kidnapper themselves, meaning they are still out there, but don't worry ok, just enjoy uni life ok? Plus, Nat here will protect you." Nat drives slowly and stops at the main entrance where there's a sign that says "Welcome Freshman!" on the white banner.
"Here we are!" everyone jumps out to see a huge building in front of them with a clock tower on the top, amazed by the size of the main building.
"This time I AM going to take you guys out to dinner to celebrate and hear about your day. Make sure you get back at 7. See ya!" Nat says before he drives off, leaving the three cul-de-sac crew to go in themselves. Kevin puffs his chest out and swagger in, looking like the coolest man in the world, Double D watches him and decides to do the same. Taking a deep breath and walk in like he's confident follow by May. They walk into a massive hall, that's filled with so many students chatting amongst themselves and teachers standing on the sidelines, underneath their own banners to represent the subjects.
"Welcome! Are you guys together?" the girl said cheerfully, a brunette with her hair in a bun and large glasses. Kevin scoff,
"Unfortunately yes." he mumbled but Double D and May hears, giving him an offending look.
"What are your names?" Kevin goes first,
"Kevin Barr." the girl looks at a list of name,
"You major in sports, you shall be outside after the principle speech, you're looking for Coach Bennett." she said as she lets him pass which Kevin obliged without looking back at Double D and May.
"I get he doesn't like us but there's no need to be rude." May said looking peeved at him. Double D looks a little down as he's watching Kevin leaving,
"I was kind of hoping being in the same University would make us friends." May scoffs,
"Don't bet on it. An asshole will always be an asshole." then look at Double D sharply,
"And I still haven't forgiven you for what you said on the plane!" May said angrily as Double D can't help but step back.
"Name?" May steps forward,
"May Kanker." Double D tune out the conversation between May and the guide, remembering what he said to her on the plane,
"Well, to put it nicely May, we find your affections to be abhorent. We find you traumatizing and quite frankly disgusting and we feel nothing but intense fear everytime we see you and your sisters and the same goes for everyone else." playing it in his head over and over again and realise how harsh he sounded and doesn't blame May for not forgiving him,
"Hey, May.." he tries to reach out but the lady stands in front of him,
"Name?" Double D jumped at the sudden appearance and look around to see May continues to walk away from him,
"I would need your name." Double D forgot that the girl was there, seeing the strain from her smile due to her annoyance,
"Um, Eddward Vincent." the girl looks for his name on te list when he looks around to see a diverse of people, both students and teachers standing around happily talking amongst themselves, from different places and cultures which makes Double D realised that this is real, he's in a different place, meeting new people from all over the world which makes him excited but nervous at the same time.
"Ah, here we are. Eddward Vincent. Science and Medicine. Oh, you're with Professor Curie! He's amazing! I did Science and Medicine myself and I must say, never regretted it! It will be very hardworking but so rewarding. You're going to learn a lot from him." she said with a genuine smile this time as she gives him his papers which happily accepts.
"He's on the right hand side. Have fun!" Double D nods his head and smiled,
"Thank you. I will." he walks into the assembly, still taking in the surroundings as he walks into the crowd, seeing May and Kevin a few feet away from them, looking just as lost as he is. He looks what papers he has been given to see the maps of the campus, one of the university as a whole and the other of the science campus. He was thinking of going up to May to apologise to him but then he hears someone tapping the microphone from the stage, making everyone look up to see a handsome balding, black man wearing glasses, a twead jacket and a bright red bow tie. He speaks in a deep, booming voice,
"Welcome Future Stars, Doctors and Achievers to Columbia University!" everyone immediately cheered, clapped and guys at the back even pumped their fists going "Woo, woo, woo, woo!" Double D, Kevin and May wonder what the hype is but still clap anyway. Then everyone went quiet,
"I hope you can keep that excitemement through out the year." everyone laughs a little at his joke,
"It is always a pleasure to personally welcome all the fresh, young faces, to see excitement, joy and even dedication! You have all worked incredibly hard to get to this point but this is only the beginning of your journey. The minute you walked through those doors is when you begin your quests to become a better version of yourself, where you learn about yourself without you realising. Sure you have your course where you learn from your textbooks or tutors but that's only a third of your life here." Double D looks a little confused about that but for some reason can't help but watch this man in awe by his speech.
"If you look around you see so many people around you in the same boat as you but coming from many different places, from different cultures, states and countries and even people you already know who's here right now that you can learn from," Double D, Kevin and May can't help but look at each other,
"And it isn't just Columbia University I want to welcome you in, I want to welcome you into New York City! One of the best cities in America where you can learn and discover so much in this vast city. A city that's full of life, beauty and dreamlike wonder. So much to discover both in the city and within yourself, and I also can't wait to see the progression and change that happens within you the minute I give you your degrees in three years time, that will be a true privalige to me and hopefully to you. So I say again my students, Welcome to Columbia University, Welcome to New York and Welcome to your future!" All the students gave a massive applause for the headmasters speech when Kevin, May and Double D stood there in shock at his words with Double D politely clapping.
"Wow, what a speech." May muttered but Kevin scoffed,
"Like I will learn anything from you dorks. I am off to my people who are not losers, later." he said without looking either of them, May looks around to see the sign for Drama and Theatrical Studies and walks over there without giving Double D a glance.
"Hey May," she stops and turn to look at him with a slight glare.
"Listen, I'm sorry for what I said earlier. On the plane. I shouldn't have said it and out of all the Kankers, I'm glad it's you." May looks at him that feels like an eternity then narrows her eyes a little and continues to walk towards course stand. Double D sighed and can't help but think that is the worst apology he has ever given.