After 4 days and 7 chapters, the girls are finally attending class!
Beep! Beep Beep! Prim opened her eyes and reached out to her desk to turn off her alarm clock. Throughout the hallway, other girls were shutting their alarms off as they prepared for their 9 o'clock classes. A few students had eight o'clock classes and had stumbled down the hallway about an hour before.
"Morning." Rue mumbled from under her covers. "Oh dang!" She gasped sitting up. "I got a 9am class, huh!" Giggling, Prim pointed to Rue's schedule that Rue had taped above her bed on the wall.
"Yup." Prim said as Rue groaned and rolled her eyes. "Once Katniss overslept for school when I was still in middle school and we started half an hour later than the high school. I think half of Rolling Green heard her cussing."
"How did you wake her up?" Rue asked interestedly.
"I jumped on her bed and yelled, 'Gale and Peeta are at school already without you!'" Giggling, the girls got dressed and wore jeans and Panem University t-shirts.
"Jo says it's dorky, but I don't care." Rue said resolutely. "We made it here."
"Good morning - oh my gosh, you two are dorks!" Jo groaned as she opened the door and stared at her two newest residents in their Panem University gear toting brand new backpacks.
"We know, Jo! Have a good day at class!" Prim called as she and Rue left the hall. Entering the dining hall, they grinned as Lavinia suppressed a yawn as she scanned them in.
"I've been up since seven-thirty, so no griping about being up early." She muttered before winking at them.
"That's us tomorrow." Rue said before she and Prim stood in the short breakfast line to get eggs, hash browns, and sausage links. Two boys ahead of them eagerly gushed about their two plates of food each.
"Mom said that I need to eat fruit to keep up my vitamin intake." Prim said at the salad bar before choosing half an orange and a small bowl of canned sliced peaches.
"She would." Rue quipped as she grabbed a banana. After setting their plates down at a table, they experimented with the coffee bar that served various flavored coffee from spouts. Prim chose a cafe mocha and Rue chose hot chocolate.
The girls ate and watched the other dorm residents come in and eat. The students that had nine or ten o'clock classes were dressed and had their books and backpacks with them. Several other students came in dressed in pajamas and slippers. "We should leave early so we don't get lost." Rue said. "Thresh got lost his first day and embarrassed himself."
"Katniss had Gale to show her around once she got here. What class do you have again?"
"Intro to agriculture since I'm an ag management major." Rue explained. "What about you?"
"Animal Biology." Prim answered. "Animal Bio and Intro to Cell Biology are required for the other premed classes." Rue nodded.
"We have Physics for Bio students together." Prim grinned at Rue's observation.
"I know. Sit next to each other?" Rue nodded before checking the time on her phone.
"We'd better find our classes." Rue pointed out. They took their dishes to the dishroom window where a student wearing a Panem University Dining Services shirt rinsed off the dishes.
Prim and Rue parted ways midway across campus when Rue went to a building next to what looked like a vegetable garden. Prim made her way to a tall three story building that had the words Biological Sciences on the wall in silver lettering. She went in and followed the signs to Bio Lecture Hall 102.
As was her custom, she chose a seat toward the front. "Hi, I'm Professor Bloom." The professor said smiling. "Is this your first year at Panem University?" He asked Prim.
"Yeah." Prim replied. "I'm premed."
"Ah. One of the eager ones." The professor laughed. "Well, I think you will enjoy this class." Prim smiled and turned on her iPad to take notes. A girl with light brown medium length hair wearing a Panem University hoodie sat to Prim's right.
"Hi. I'm Tanya." The girl said.
"I'm Prim." Prim said shaking hands.
"Did you bring your books for your classes?" Tanya asked pointing to her large magenta backpack.
"For some." Prim replied. They faced forward as Professor Bloom began his powerpoint presentation.
"Good morning, class." Professor Bloom said. "Hopefully everyone got the emails on your Panem University email accounts that the syllabus is available on the class website. Therefore, I won't bore you with reading the whole thing." The class chuckled. "Now, I know many of you are pre-med or pre-vet or pre-something which includes pre-graduation. Therefore, I will make this class relevant to your career goals as I can." He caught Prim's eye as she grinned. "Unlike high school, you don't have nightly or weekly homework assignments." Quite a few student cheered. "However, you will have four quizzes and a final making up your final grade. Therefore, coming to class and reading the chapters is essential. You will hear this a lot your first few weeks in college. You will have some hands-on experience, but I will save that speech for Atala, our graduate Biology student who will be overseeing two of the four lab sections tomorrow." After a brief pause where some students had some questions about the class in general, Professor Bloom launched into a review of biology including classification systems and the theory of evolution. After saving her notes to her word processor on her iPad, Prim headed to her next class which was College English.
As with many English departments on college campuses, Panem University English Studies Department was housed in an older building that had traditional-style classrooms instead of lecture-hall type auditoriums. Prim thought the red brick building resembled her high school without the lockers lining the halls. Taking a seat in the front row again, Prim noticed some students who appeared to be upper-classmen in the room. "Well, well, well, good morning!" A woman with a blonde curls piled high on her head and wearing a bright turquoise blazer with a knee-length pencil skirt followed by bright blue heels chirped as she walked into the room. Her pink scarf over her cream colored blouse finished her look. "Oh, it's so exciting to have a new class!"
"Good morning." Several students answered as the instructor placed her laptop on the table in the front of the room.
"Well, as you have guessed, my name is Effie Trinket and I'm a brand new English professor here! Now, as it is now 10 am, I hope you all are energized for your day! I hope to make English Composition fun for you! My goal is for you to enjoy writing more than you did before we began and have a very very very good understanding of punctuation and grammar! Of course, you all know the basics as you are here at Panem University!" Effie giggled to herself before passing around a stack of papers which consisted of a syllabus and class schedule. After lecturing on the class structure, she went around the room to get to know her students. "Would anyone like to share about themselves?" Effie asked scanning the room eagerly. Most students exchanged glances wondering how much coffee they would have to consume before attending her classes. "Aw, no one?" Effie asked before sighing. Reading the class list, her eyes fell on a name. "Primrose Everdeen!" SHe called.
"Oh -" Prim stood up.
"You don't have to stand dear, unless you prefer." Effie said smiling at the Freshman student.
"Well," Prim said as she sat back down. "I'm a premed student and I'm from Seam West Virginia."
"Oh, how lovely!" Effie giggled. "Anyone want to go next?"
"Fine." A familiar voice spoke up from the back of the room. "I'm Katniss." Katniss paused as Effie gave her a look of surprise and checked the roster.
"Oh - Katniss Everdeen - I bet my buttons you're extremely happy to be in the same class as your little sister!"
"Yeah." Katniss said. "Tell Mom that she's studying hard." Everyone laughed as a dark blush crept across Prim's face. "I'm a Junior Biology Student." Going around the room, everyone shared what year they were in and what they were studying. Prim smiled inwardly as the class proceeded. She was having a good first morning at Panem University and she knew the afternoon would be even better.