Sunday went by like all other Sundays did – fast, slipping away like water does through fingers. Monday came and brought along the blues too. Although Andrea loved Uni and was living her dream, kinda, the Monday blues got to her too. She entered the doors of Uni with fifteen minutes to spare with her friends Ryan and Sarah. They made small talk as they shut their lockers and headed over to their classes. Andrea had literature in the first period which she shared with Ryan. They said their goodbyes to Sarah and headed inside class and took their seats.

Mr. Warren entered as soon as the bell rang, on the dot and true to character. He was known for being meticulous and disciplined. He was in his mid-fifties, tall and eccentric. He had an almost full head of pure white hair and a slight paunch. According to Ryan he was a wrestler back in his age. While no one could imagine him ‘at his age’ they didn’t doubt for a minute that this man could beat them at wrestling any day

He started the class which was basically a discussion on contemporary classics and how they compared with the olden classics. Andrea paid attention for as long as she could before zoning out and doodling in the corner of her notebook.

“Ryan!” Mr. Warren bellowed, which woke up Andrea from her reverie. She turned to look at her friend who’d shamelessly fallen asleep, with his mouth open and drooling. He lifted his head up sleepily.

“What?” he mumbled groggily.

“Ryan! Get up!” hissed Andrea. Ryan sat up straight, suddenly realizing that everybody was looking at him.

Mr. Warren approached his bench and rapped the ruler on his table. Ryan flinched.

“Would Mr. Cole care to tell us what I said last about the olden classics?”

“They- uh- were written in the 1800s and uh- “he stuttered.

Mr. Warren rapped the table again with his ruler.

“Clearly your knowledge on the olden classics is very limited. So, Mr. Cole”, he said placing his palms on the table and bending down a little to look him straight in the eye, “you will submit a 10 page essay on the olden classics and their authors.”

“But sir, I have footb-“

“I said tomorrow” he said silencing Ryan and conveying his point. As soon as his back was turned Ryan made a face at him. Andrea looked at him and smiled.

The rest of the class went on as usual and finally when the bell rang, Andrea picked up her books and was walking out with Ryan when Mr. Warren said

“Andrea can I talk to you?”

She stopped, her stomach churning. Mr. Warren asked no one to stay back unless they’d done something wrong or offended him.

“I’ll see you at lunch” Ryan whispered. Andrea just nodded and headed over to Mr. Warren who was looking at some papers.

“Yes, Mr. Warren?”

“Andrea” he said looking up, removing his glasses, folding them and placing them neatly atop the paper he had been looking at. Andrea clutched her books a little tighter.

” Would you be interested in taking up the assistant editorial post for the monthly magazine?”

Relief flooded Andrea’s face and her grip on her books loosened a little. Her first thought was that she hadn’t gotten into any trouble. Her second thought was incredulity about the post that Mr. Warren was offering her.

“Sure it’s a little extra work, but you’re one of the brighter students in my class and I’m sure you’ll be able to cope. Mind you it’s the first time I’m offering it to a first year student here but I heard you were interested and I thought why not.”

“Mr. Warren I don’t know what to say.”

“Sure you don’t have to say yes immediately but I want an answer by the end of today, you hear me? Meet me in study room 3 after your classes, with an answer, mind you.”

“Ye- yes Mr. Warren and thank you.”

“Now leave or you’ll be late for your next class.” With that Andrea turned to leave and go.

~

Soon enough it was lunch and Andrea couldn’t wait to share the good news with her friends.

“Oh my god! This is such a good opportunity for you! You must take it!” said Sarah excitedly

“That’s brilliant!” said Ryan clapping her on the back.

“But I’m not sure I’m gonna take it I mean with all the extra work from Uni I don’t think I could handle-“

“Listen to yourself! You’re getting this brilliant chance to experience a job that you want to take up someday and you’re turning it down!” said Sarah surprised that her friend hadn’t said yes immediately.

“Yeah! And what could beat working under Mr. Warren?” added Ryan “You better spruce up young lady! Or you’ll get nowhere in life. Nowhere! D’ya hear me?” He said doing a very good imitation of Mr. Warren.

Sarah and Andrea laughed. “You know he’s not all bad,” said Andrea feeling a moral responsibility to defend the man.

“Yeah, does the Pope shit in his own hat and punch it? “

“What?” said Sarah and Andrea looking at him, uncomprehendingly.

“What I meant is you’re just saying that because he offered you the job.” Ryan said rolling his eyes, “but on a serious note you’ve got to take it, all right?”

“Yeah, I swear you’re in for a good spankin if you turn down this offer.”

Andrea laughed good naturedly but she had the job to think about. Not the magazine one, the one that helped her pay her university fees and the one that her friends didn’t know about – the waitress job. Taking on this editorial thing put her on a tight schedule which she wasn’t sure she could handle.

“At least think about it” said Sarah reading her friends expression.

“Oh yes, I will” said Andrea.

~

The end of the day found Andrea in front of study room 3, nervous and still a little indecisive. She took a deep breath in and knocked twice.

“Come in” grunted a voice from inside. Andrea opened the door and entered the room.

“Ah, Andrea! So what did you decide?” asked Mr. Warren cutting to the chase.

“I- “started Andrea.

“Speak up young lady!” he bellowed.

“I’ve decided to accept” she said a little more forcefully. For the first time since she’d entered university, she saw Mr. Warren smile. It softened the lines on his face and almost made him look younger.

“Then welcome to the room where it all goes down!” At that moment Mr. Warner sounded more like a football coach than ever. “Here’s Quentin, he’ll show you around” he gestured behind her.

Andrea turned and was faced by a short, svelte boy with mousy brown hair and steel gray eyes hidden behind horn rimmed glasses. He looked like the typical awkward guy who moved jerkily and spoke with a stutter. But Andrea was surprised when he spoke to her because his pronunciation was perfect and he exuded confidence that was rarely seen in anybody.

“I’m Quentin and I’m the chief editor here” he said introducing himself. He looked like a guy who didn’t smile often.

“Andrea, nice to meet you” she said feeling a need to be formal.

“Yeah you can relax for now “he said “the first week you won’t be assigned anything and I’ll just show you how to handle your work. But you’re going to have to prove you’re good enough to be here, which means no breaking any rules and especially no drinking on campus which, by the way, is why the last one got not only fired but expelled.”

“Whoa! Hold your horses there Quen!” The owner of the voice slipped into Andrea’s view and put his arm around Quentin’s neck. For a moment she felt like her brain wasn’t processing things because, suddenly, she was seeing two of the same person.

“And this is my twin Quinn.” Quentin said rolling his eyes, “Quinn, meet Andrea.”

“My pleasure!” Quinn said releasing Quentin and leading Andrea by the arm “I’ll take over from here.” he said “Don’t take grumpy boy Quen, over there, too seriously. He just hates it when other people have fun,” he winked at her and lowered his voice,” I mean have fun do what you want! Drink, steal, who cares?”

“Quinn!” Mr. Warren said threateningly “Now don’t lead the new one astray, we don’t want a repetition here. Stop fooling around and get back to work!”

“Yes, let me do my job” said Quentin back at Andrea’s side.

“Oooh someone’s possessive!” said Quinn.

“Shut up and move along” said Quentin brushing him off and continuing the tour. “Here is your work pile” he said leading her towards a table with a lot of files on it. “So you’ll have to sort out all the writing and piece it together and our designer Quinn will do the rest. This is not all we’ll be doing here. It’s also our responsibility to look over the fest, the plays to be staged and any other major event. I’m counting on you.”

“Yes!” said Andrea “Although this is a little overwhelming..”

“Yeah it can be but you’ll get used to it. Now meet the other staff members” he said leading her towards the small group at the back of the class. They seemed to be laughing at something Quinn had just said.

“People!” Quentin said clapping his hands to get their attention “This is Andrea. Andrea you already know Quinn, the designer.” He grinned at her and she smiled back. “This is Cara she manages the …“

She was introduced to the rest of the team. There were not a lot of names, but she had a hard time keeping up with Quentin. She knew she’d have to get familiar with all of them soon.

“There is just one guy missing now. He heads the theatre and article department,” Quentin was saying.

Just then another figure entered the room. Quentin turned and for the first time since Andrea had been in there, smiled. “There he is! Andrea,” he said by the way of introduction. She turned smiling and all ready to meet this person, “I want you to meet Zayn. An enigmatic person, he has contributed a lot to this magazine…” Quentin droned on but all Andrea could hear was the blood pounding through her head and rushing into her cheeks.

All day long she’d tried and successfully not thought about her date gone wrong and bumping in to Zayn at the wrong place. She’d shoved it in the back of her mind willing herself not to think of it and for a few hours it had seemed like the event had been just a dream. But looking at his face again brought back every memory not to mention the embarrassment and despair.

Her smile dropped as approached them and their eyes met. His eyes showed recognition and his lips curved into a smile. Her eyes only showed shock sprinkled with embarrassment.

“Hi” he said extending his hand.

As she forced a smile and shook his hand, all she could think was 'well, this is going to be one hell of a ride.'

~

A/N

So an update after a super-long wait! Understatement? Yeah I think so too =P This was kind of a filler chapter. I promise that I’ll try and update more regularly. Don’t expect too much though.