Kathryn plopped down into her chair and leaned back groaning. The lecture hall was mostly empty, her usual spot in the right side middle open as usual. With the door having been on the far-left side it meant she could sit there without any interruption form new or late people.
She tossed down one of her notebooks, one that hadn’t been slashed by a crazy killer robot and set a pen down on the desk. Resting her elbows onto the desk she brushed her fingers through her hair slowly and sighed. She’d barely slept that night worried about getting attacked by one of those guys again. Seth didn’t want her coming to class today after what had happened, especially since he was off work today.
But she was almost done with her classes and her finals were in a couple of months. Sure getting into a subway brawl the other day wasn’t exactly a part of the plan but she had survived and thanks to her alien benefactor she was healing fast. Evil rival dark knights be damned she was going to get her degree.
“Kathryn? Holy crap Kathryn you’re okay!”
Kathryn raised her head, not realizing that she had been dozing off. Raising her head she watched as Owen scooted over toward her, his face a mixture of panic and shock. Finally stopping as he stood beside her he looked lost, as if unsure of what to do now that he was here but his unease broke away to just plain relief and a smile.
“Hey Owen. Glad to see you’re okay too,” she gave a halfhearted wave still tired.
“Okay? After what you did yesterday I’m just glad you’re alive! What happened to you?”
Luckily the idea of lying about where she disappeared to after a broken-down alien robot had arrived was something she was pretty adept at by now. “After I got thrown out of the train one of those guys from last year showed up. The blue one.”
“From the invasion?” he asked and his tone dropped slowly, his face falling. Kathryn looked at him because that meant he must have seen them first hand. “Yeah good thing they showed up right?”
“Yeah. Saved my ass. Told me to run so I did,” she shrugged her shoulders and looked at him.
“Well I’m glad they were able to save you at the very least. They don’t always end up saving the people they’re supposed to,” his words had a bite to them that made Kathryn flinch back a little.
“I’m sorry,” he said trying to cover it up and forcing a smile onto his face.
Kathryn waved her hand, “It’s okay. At least I’m alive and now I’m back here bright and early to listen to Christoff talk to us about the wonders of science and space.”
That brought a real smile back to his face and he nodded, “Yeah. I’m ready to learn alright.” Reaching over his back he pulled out a beat up note book that she’d seen him use a few times. “Mind if I sit?”
“Pull up a chair. It’s prime real estate over here. In the back is too far to hear and up close is just asking to be looked at while they talk and making eye contact with the guy makes my skin crawl a little.”
That made Owen laugh and she shared in it. “So did you hear that Genevie Fang is supposed to be here for the big premiere of daughter of the dragon?”
Kathryn chuckled, “I just watched that the other day.”
“You’re a fan?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” she replied and glanced toward the front of the room as their professor glanced their way. Apparently, they were too loud and having too much fun.
“I’ve never sat up front in any kind of lecture hall class. I never like being called on to talk or answer something in high school and I guess it’s just a habit now.”
“High school? How old are you again?”
That made him blush slightly but he said, “Nineteen.”
Kathryn groaned and looked at him and brushed her fingers through hair. Though that made her head ache come back and her groan turned into a laugh. “God I’m old. Or maybe I just waited too long to go to school.”
“What do you mean?”
Kathryn shook her head slowly sighing to herself, “I wanted to come to school long before now. But you know how it goes. No money no go. I’ve been saving and after last year I was finally able to register this year. And now here I am taking care of general education stuff while I work on becoming a nurse. Six to seven years late but hey I’m doing it.”
He stared at her with wide eyes and now it was her turn to blush and waved his gaze away. “Come on don’t look at me like that. I didn’t do anything cool or amazing.”
“What are you talking about? You literally got here on your own. That’s awesome. I know my little brothers and sisters would be climbing all over themselves to try and help me out. In a lot of ways they did. Especially through high school.”
“Lucky for you,” Kathryn said and some bitterness entered her voice. “I’m the black sheep of the family. The cautionary tale. ‘Don’t be like your big sister Kathryn’” She threw out a bad Korean accent thinking of her parents.
She looked over at Owen and could see his deep frown and waved her hand again, “Sorry. Frustrated again.”
“It’s okay. For what it’s worth I think you’re super awesome,” he said and there was only earnestness in his tone.
She shook her head but didn’t hide her smile. “Thanks Owen.”
He was going to say more but the lights in the classroom dimmed. Neither had realized as they were talking that the entirety of the lecture hall had managed to fill up and their professor had taken his place at the podium in front of them. “Glad to see so many of you here. Let us begin our newest lecture.”
“We can talk more after class,” Owen said and looked away sheepishly. “If you want that is.”
Smiling to herself Kathryn nodded, “Yeah sure.”
The Harlequin Library 