- Gabriella -

"Hi, may I know where I can get my timetable?" I asked the lady behind the counter. I'm standing in the registration lounge and it's crowded with students processing their registration or acceptance into the school. I'm starting to feel a little queasy from the crowd.

I dislike crowds. They make me feel closed-in.

"You can get your timetable at the student kiosks over there, where you can change your lesson timings. Adding and dropping of electives can also be done using the machine. Or you can just process your schedule here. But it will be timetable fixed according to the school's study plan." The lady at the counter pointed towards a cluster of machines. Seeing that the crowd there is much lesser, I thanked her and hurried over in the direction of the kiosks.

***

"Gosh, er how do I do this... " I muttered under my breath as I tried and failed again to add my lesson slots into the schedule page. The "helpful" lady at the counter had told me where to get my schedule but not offered to teach me how to use the kiosk. I want to scream out in frustration.

Usually, such situations pose no problems for me. But the technology in this University seems to be more advanced and comes from a whole new level. This thing here exceeds my capabilities. It's a miracle that I had managed to key in my identification number and now I'm stuck.

"Enter course code" The black and white words on the screen remain glaring at me. What's a course code? I have no idea what's that.

A thought hit me and I gave another attempt at the machine. Hmm, maybe it's telling me to enter the timing of my lessons or the subject of my lesson. I gave both options a try and punched in the relevant details.

"Error. No such course exists."

An exasperated sound escaped my lips. Peeking behind my shoulders, I can see a line of students behind me. How long have I already stood here? Omg, you this dumb machine. I'm starting to feel my panic rising.

"Hey! I've been waiting for around 10 freaking minutes. Can you hurry the hell up? Not everyone here has as much time to spare." The words were laced with irritation and impatience. I turned to face the owner of that snarky voice. A girl... She's the typical pretty blonde with golden hair tied in a messy bun. Some of the soft curls which escaped framed her pretty face. Loose tank top tied around her waist to reveal mini shorts. She looks like one of those confident girls who aren't afraid to stand out.

Surprise clouded her brown eyes as she took in my features. All softness disappeared, rolling her eyes she said sharply: "Being pretty doesn't mean you should hog the kiosk." I mentally did a double-take.

I flashed her my brightest smile and scrambled my brains for something to say. "Well, I suppose I may have taken too long as to 'hogging' this. But hey, this isn't the only one here. You can always move on to the other ones there if you don't like it here." I gave her a little shrug.

Maybe I'm just pissed by the stupid machine. Either way, I'm not in the mood for this.

Her brows raised and she rolled her eyes. With a huff, she stalked off to one of the other machines. Ruined my chance at a friendship. Great. Maybe I should have apologized nicely and asked her for help instead.

Why did I do that? At this rate, I might as well just throw my head down the drain.

I stared back in defeat at the screen hoping someone could save me from this embarrassing moment. Everyone else in the line behind me has either moved on or left already. Leaving me alone to face the same words: "Enter your course code."

I think another 5 minutes ticked by and I felt like kicking the stupid thing.

Gosh, whoever is there: a kind soul, Lady Luck, God or just anyone. Please help this poor soul here who needs to just know what "course code" means.

"Ahem." Someone coughed. "Hey, uh... Are you having trouble with that? I think I've seen you standing there for awhile, like 5 minutes, staring at the screen." The voice spoke volumes about his gender and I mentally face-palmed myself. Right... here comes my saviour.

I glanced to my right. He was a guy around my age standing there, with a faint smile on his attractive face. Wait, no correction - cute guy. Jet-black tousled silky hair, dark brown eyes, skin slightly tanned under the sun but still fair enough. He gives me the impression of a cool friendly person.

Great. Of all people it has to be the attractive ones. Just my luck...

"Hi. Can you explain to me what's a course code? I think I managed to key in my identity number into the system. But I just can't get this part right and now I'm stuck here."

Stay cool. You're just a new face.

He didn't seem to notice my growing embarrassment and listened to what I said patiently. "Well, a course code is something that the University names the different courses we take to differentiate them. It's to prevent us from mixing them up and ending in the wrong classes. You see, students from different courses may take the same type of lessons like Calculus. But, usually the school arranges it such that those in the Sciences will take it together. Or like those in Arts. So the content may be the same but they are different."

"Oh...cool. So um where can I get my course code?" I asked him casually. Play it cool. You're getting the hang of it.

"That's easy. Just click on this here, which says "study plan" for your course. There, you see the list of codes? That's all the course codes you should take." He reached over me and tapped a section of the screen and scrolled down the list, showing me the different codes. "Right by the way do you know how to customize your lesson slots to your schedule?" He casually asked me. Oh crap. And it was going so well.

"No," I said shaking my head and trying hard not to die from embarrassment.

"Oh is this your first year?" He tilted his face slightly away from the screen, which only helped me see the attractive angular of the side of his face.

"Yea, it's my first day here. Haha." I laughed a little awkwardly. This is bad Gabriella. I better stop this.

Grinning, he leaned back and said, "Well, I'm a second-year here. My name is Res and I'm taking Science. What about you?"

"I'm Briel. I'm an Arts student." I said and smiled back. That's better.

"That sounds like a nickname?" He ended the sentence as a question.

"Yeah. Short for Gabriella." I shrugged. "You can call me that too."

"Gabriella huh." My name rolled off his tongue as if he was trying to get a feel of it. "Guess I will have to teach you how to do up your schedule." He chuckled.

Trying my best to hide the embarrassment crawling up my face, I responded "Thanks, you saved me here. Or else I would have done something really stupid to this machine." Ugh crap. That wasn't supposed to come out.

"Something stupid? Like kicking it? " He asked me slightly amused. Before I could respond to him, however, he grinned wickedly. "Actually let me tell you a secret. I kind of did that on my first day here." He whispered with a wink. A snort escaped my mouth before I could cover it. Great, just great.

He laughed one of those genuine shoulder shaking laughs and the embarrassment that's creeping up my face clambered to my hairline. "So um how do you use the machine to change your schedule?" I tried to steer the conversation back to where it truly belonged so he wouldn't notice my smarting cheeks.

Res decided to humour me by demonstrating how I could hover my finger over each of my classes and make the different lesson slots appear. He stepped aside to let me do up my schedule. I scooted closer to the machine so I could choose my lessons and arrange them in the virtual timetable displayed on the screen. Somehow, even though he's standing a foot away I'm still distracted by his curious gaze fixated on me.

I forced myself to ignore it and focused on the screen.

Choosing my classes wisely and making sure to space them out evenly. I managed to create my own mini timetable. The end decision was:

Mondays - Mythology in Art and History

Tuesdays - Basics to Art and Forensics

Wednesdays - Calculus

Thursdays - Mythology in Art and History (again)

Mythology in Art and History are the two core modules that have the heaviest content and thus, take up longer hours than the other lessons I have. So, I decided to split them up into two days. And for Calculus, it's one of my weaker subjects that I intend to spend more time and attention on. So it's just one lesson on Wednesday.

"Just press complete after you choose the lesson timings you want. This smart little thing will do the rest." Res said as he watched me. My hand flew to the screen and I pressed "complete" without hesitation.

"Generating timetable. Please wait a moment." The words flashed across the screen.

My heart pounded in anticipation.

A copy of my timetable pops up on the screen and the notification ringtone of my phone rang from my jeans pocket. Pulling it out, I unlocked it and found that my timetable is already updated onto my phone. "Oh this is pretty impressive," I exclaimed a little awed.

The tech here is impressive. I've never seen anything like that. Did they link my phone with the school system?

"Haha. That's me when it was my first time too. The tech system here links everything to your phone." Res said seeing that my eyes seemed to glow like I've found a new toy to explore. "Wait till you see the rest of the school. You're gonna like it." He confirmed my suspicions that there's even more to this.

I decided then that after exploring the campus grounds I'm going to get acquainted with the tech the University has to offer. Can't wait to get my hands on the tech here. It's going onto my growing to-do list.

"Your lessons are interesting. Mythology in Art, Basic Art, History, Calculus, and... oh is that Forensics?" Res read aloud, peering at my phone from behind. He is taller than me by almost a head and his breath tickled my hair. Suddenly, I'm hyper aware of the warmth emanating from him on my back. Did he move closer or was it just my imagination?

He's just trying to see what's on your screen, don't read too much. The logic in me chided, appearing its second time.

"Yeah. I've been interested in forensics since I was young. You know, like how those forensic officers are kinda cool? I admire them. To come to an anatically-sound deduction, it requires more than just advanced tech. Just from looking at the crime scene they could already deduce the cause of death. Like hey how do they do that?" I have no idea where half of this came from as I blabbered. My brains are pre-occupied with trying to squash my hyper senses.

Seriously Gabriella? I'm sure you can do better than that.

"Haha." His laughter rumbled against my back, sending shivers up my spine. "If I hadn't known better, I would have thought you were a Science student. You're cute." Res said to me, still grinning. "It's nice meeting you, Gabriella. Damn I really wanted to stay and get to know you better but my lessons are starting and I've gotta go. Hope to see you on campus yeah." Flashing me a dazzling smile, Res walked away in the direction of his class.

Are all Science guys like that? That was the first thought that popped into my head. He doesn't look like the geek type was my second thought. Maybe my impression of guys needs fixing. I always pictured guys studying Science to be always in their white lab coats researching.

Yup, it definitely needs some fixing.