Two days later...
Charlotte slowly opened and closed her eyes a few times before turning her alarm clock face toward her. She had woken up five minutes before her alarm would go off. So, far she was doing pretty good. Not that it was a once or twice in her lifetime.
She sat up and stretched out her arms and legs over the side of her bed. She reached toward the bedside table for her brush and unraveled the yellowish tangles. She looked across from her bed at her dorm mate, Allison, still in a peaceful sleep. Allison Hardy was a sweet girl, a perfect description for sidekick, with a short but thick mane of black hair and a set of green eyes. She was a little older than Charlotte and lived in southeast Lincolnshire. Despite Charlotte not being a native of England, Allison treated her like she lived here all her life.
Charlotte looked back on the day before. She was all packed. The only thing needing to be done was getting to Northampton University. Her mother had her head held up high as her father drove their daughter to her dormitory. Once they arrived and had everything settled, Charlotte and he gave each other a bittersweet farewell, most of the "bittersweet" being done by him. She hugged him and smiled while he drove off crying his eyes out.
Charlotte wandered over to her dresser with her clothes inside. She pulled out a full blue skirt that ended at her calves and a light blue blouse. The alarm went off with its sounding off, making Charlotte jump in surprise and Allison groan in complaint.
"And thank goodness I don't have to share this room with my brother. He snores like an old man." Allison mumbled sleepily. "What about your siblings?"
"No, I don't have any." Charlotte answered, pulling the skirt over her legs. "I used to."
"What happened?"
"I had a brother who was killed in the war."
"Aw, that's a pity. Lincolnshire was too far from London to have a lot of damage. We got close once with Grimsby being bombed. Other that, nothing."
Silence filled the air for about five minutes. Charlotte finished dressing with a pair of black flats and pulling her hair back with a large hairclip. Allison dragged herself to her second and third drawers to her dresser. She brought out a beige colored dress with the skirt being the same style as Charlotte's. It wasn't until after the fifth yawn, Allison was dressed. She smiled and said, "As you can see, I'm not exactly one for the mornings. Enough of that. Let's go for that porridge."
Charlotte and Allison met with the other girls in the dorm building toward the canteen, as the British put it. Courtesy of the notorious rationing, it was oats porridge and tea for breakfast. The porridge was a bit flavorless as well as the tea, but as some people learned, things could get worse. Even throughout the rainy weather and plain-as-dirt breakfast, girls laughed, talked, grumbled, gossiped, chattered, teased and even disgustingly showed off their lack of table manners. Charlotte sat in between Allison and a tall girl named Dorothy Sue. From what Charlotte saw, she very talkative and social. Across from the two blonde-headed girls sat a very quiet dainty teenager going by a name that matched her personality: Linda. Charlotte waved hello with a smile, which Linda responded with a gentle shake of her fingers. The shy blue-eyed young woman really didn't seem to be in the mood for a conversation, so Charlotte returned to choking down the tan-brown mush.
Jeffrey awoke to the droning of an alarm clock. Albeit it was very unfamiliar, not at all like the one back at home. Being disgruntled at the difference, he chose to accept it as he turned it off. He got up from his bed in the guest room and dressed himself for his first college term in a beige blouse under a brown sweater, dark brown slacks, and a pair of matching dress shoes.
After finishing, he met Harold in the hallway. Before Saturday, they haven't seen each other in years. His old friend, preparing to study the field of civil engineering, was dressed in a light blue blouse, a grey business vest, matching grey slacks, and black loafers. They stayed silent, not knowing what to say due to being separated for quite some time.
"Morning." Harold broke the ice.
"Good morning, Harold." Jeffrey smiled.
Harold's little brother and sisters ran down the stairs after them. Jeffrey, Harold, and the Weaver siblings met Mrs. Weaver in the dining room for breakfast. Jeffrey sat in the middle of the left side of the table next to Harold.
"Good day, Jeffrey." Emma greeted politely as she placed herself next to him.
"Ah, good morning, Emma." Jeffrey smiled at the bright-eyed girl. Whereas, Donna and Christopher surrounded him as if he were a million dollars.
"Are you going to show us a science exper'ment?" Donna asked. "Harold says you were awfully good at them."
"The vinegar and baking soda one!" Christopher exclaimed.
"Here it's called bicarbonate of soda." Emma corrected, hoping to give a good impression.
"Give the chap some time." Mrs. Weaver reasoned while she brought in cheese on toast. "He's going to college with Harold today."
"Maybe when I come home." Jeffrey told them.
"Yay!" The children cheered.
"You two gentlemen have no time to dawdle." Mrs. Weaver told Jeffrey and Harold strictly but gently. "Do try to be on your way as soon as possible. Not that you need to rush in eating." She swept a piece of toast with a fried egg onto each plate and smiled. "Just a nice treat for the first day." The two boys finished up with a cup of tea to wash their breakfast down. The three younger children stood outside the house as Jeffrey and Harold took off, jumping up and down waving good-bye.
Charlotte and Allison walked down the hall in a clutter of students towards their dance class. Both girls were excited yet nervous.
"How well do you know Professor Hemingway?" Charlotte asked Allison.
"I don't know." Allison shrugged. "He was a close neighbor of my cousin in Rutland. He used to scare me when I was little."
Charlotte smiled and chuckled. Allison smiled and waved at a few students she recognized and acquainted with throughout her life. With Charlotte at her side, she reunited and chatted with her friends as well as introduced the American immigrant. The reactions indeed varied, and Charlotte just smiled and said a few words with all-star Yankee greeting, "Hi."
A robust man in a business suit made his way through the herd of the adolescents and unlocked the class door. He had a balding head of auburn hair and a slightly bushy mustache to go with it. "It's the Professor." Allison whispered. "He hasn't changed much." As soon as he entered the class and took his stand, about two dozen young people ecstatically stampeded into the classroom.
Some students were fired up for the next lesson. Some students were exhausted from the exercises in preparing for the dancing. Jeffrey was quite pleased with the lessons and left Professor Hemingway impressed. Allison was quite fired up and enthusiastic about the whole dancing sensation. Charlotte walked out of the classroom with her hyper dorm mate, feeling overwhelmed.
"Tally-ho, dear." Allison greeted breathlessly. "How was it?"
"Everything was rather strange." Charlotte sighed with a blank expression on her face.
"How?"
"Backwards. It all was odd. Like dyslexia."
"Well, dear, you don't seem to be dyslexic."
"I'm not. I'll tell you later."
For the young Brit, the first day of school was pretty exhilarating. While waiting under the shelter of one of the buildings for his friend to come out of his classes, he laughed to himself. Amongst all the young men and women in there, there was a good variety, like all the countries of the world put together on the map of the planet Earth. You had the dead hoofers who would get their toes or your toes stepped on, the average students who were not good yet not bad, and the occasional prodigy that automatically became the teacher's pet.
"There you are!" Harold called out after walking past two buildings. "You ready?"
Jeffrey nodded his head. The two boys began their trek to the car.
"How'd class go?"
"Alright, I suppose. I believe I did well."
"For sure, Jeff. Look where you're coming from: a family of dance."
"Yes, but there are some even better than I am."
"What really?"
"It's all about coordination, Harold. Amelia might be a high-spirited girl with a thing for sports yet she finds it hard to hike up a hill."
"Nice example. Wanna pick out any dead hoofers?"
"Not now. I could definitely see the Americans in class. Let's see...a girl named Mary, who has an awful knack for bubble gum…Charlotte…Jack Kendall, not a bad-looking fellow, and...Jenny Brown."
"What is it with you and Americans?"
"Nothing."
After finding the car and Harold turning it on to go home, Jeffrey sat still, thinking about his experience with Americans. He remembered going to Texas to visit some distant relatives when he was six. Amelia was just a few weeks old, and Mildred was eight. He got engaged into a Halloween tradition called trick-or-treating by his two cousins. While going alone, he was confronted by three American boys, who took his candy away and stuffed him in a garbage can. It was more than just the Halloween incident. When Americans came in acquaintance with the Hawkinsons later on in life, they were rather brash and rude. He may have been considered an adult now but he would have to see about the new foreigners he had to share the dance classes with.
Sorry it took some time to get this chapter up. I want to be as accurate as I possibly can for this story, and you all know how hard that is. And yes, I get the same "dyslexia" Charlotte has.